Approaching the Spring Festival, many home appliances and kitchen appliances companies have opened the "annual meeting" can not stop the review and commendation mode.
3 days ago, on January 28, Gree just ended the grand "2024 Global Dream Ceremony" at the Gree College at the Zhuhai headquarters.
In fact, many industry bigwigs like to reveal their hearts in year-round summaries or New Year's messages. Beneath the surface of some non-shocking words, we can often read that as the head of the company, we can think more calmly about the company's results and future prospects, which is the greatest value of their speech.
Golden sentences, what did they say?
Dong Mingzhu: Innovation is the vitality of an enterprise
About performance: At the annual meeting, Dong Mingzhu, chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances, made a speech on "Innovation is the vitality of the enterprise", she said that although the external situation is complex in 2023, Gree Electric Appliances has achieved the best results in history, thanks to the innovation of Gree Electric Appliances.
According to the 2023 annual performance forecast previously released by Gree Electric Appliances, it is expected to achieve a total operating income of 205 billion yuan to 210 billion yuan in 2023, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 27 billion yuan to 29.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%-19.6%. "In the next five years, we will strive to double our performance. Dong Mingzhu said that this is equivalent to creating a new Gree in the next five years.
Regarding corporate positioning: Dong Mingzhu emphasized that enterprises should have social responsibility, "I have heard a lot of companies say that they should find a way to go public, because they can circle money and cut leeks...... So we often see businesses with thunderstorms. She also emphasized that a good company is not supported by stock prices, but by the strength and innovation of the enterprise.
"We are the most responsible enterprise for shareholders, and Gree Electric does not care about the stock price, let alone survive by the stock price." Dong Mingzhu also said that the average dividend of the company in the past five years has exceeded 14 billion yuan per year, which is a responsible enterprise.
It is worth mentioning that Dong Mingzhu also announced the upgrade of the core connotation of the Gree Electric brand that night, and the brand slogan became "creating a better life for mankind".
Fang Hongbo: Hitting the water in the middle of the tide is neutral
On January 16, at the 2024 Midea Group Management Annual Conference with the theme of "Hitting the Water in the Middle", Fang Hongbo delivered a keynote speech on "Hitting the Water in the Tide and Neutral in the Wave" in front of 190,000 people around the world.
Fang Hongbo's speech mainly focused on four aspects, namely performance, strategy, efficiency and entrepreneurship.
Regarding performance, Fang Hongbo said, "In 2023, through the implementation of the business principle of 'stable profitability and driving growth', Midea will further optimize the '1+3+N' industrial layout and corporate governance mechanism, and its revenue and profit in the first three quarters will hit a record high. With ordinary actions, create extraordinary performance. ”
Regarding strategy, Fang Hongbo believes that in the new economic cycle, uncertainty is the norm, and Midea should respond to future uncertainty with strategic certainty. "The so-called certainty is the summary of the laws of time and space, common sense and method. ”
In his view, common sense includes cost efficiency advantages, technical advantages, structural upgrading, industrial upgrading, user first, employee care and so on. He believes that "the road is simple, adhere to common sense." The reason why a great company is great is that it takes common sense to the extreme."
Regarding efficiency, Fang Hongbo bluntly said, "Efficiency is the eternal theme of all enterprises since the industrial revolution, and it is also the biggest advantage of Midea and the most fundamental magic weapon for profitability." There is no second way for beauty to go. At the same time, Midea should also replace the local optimal trap with the overall optimization and upgrading of the whole value chain to achieve the operation efficiency of the whole value chain.
Regarding entrepreneurship, Fang Hongbo believes that this is the core of Midea's everlasting foundation. "We must look for people with entrepreneurial spirit in the interior of the United States, find sailors who dare to hit the tide of the water, hit the water in the middle, and never stop. "Ultimately cultivate the soil for entrepreneurship and innovation, and find the power of beauty to bloom for itself.
Zhou Yunjie: Create infinite possibilities with unbounded ecology
On January 27, Haier Group held the 2023 Work Summary and Commendation Conference. At the meeting, Haier Group's 2023 innovation achievements were announced: global revenue of 371.8 billion yuan, total global profit of 26.7 billion yuan, and both revenue and profit achieved a 6% growth.
Zhou Yunjie, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Haier Group, expressed his gratitude to every Haier employee for their hard work on behalf of the Board of Directors of Haier Group at the meeting, and delivered a report entitled "Unbounded Ecology, Infinite Possibilities".
Talking about change, "the market demand is changing, the industrial trend is changing, and the competition track is changing. The world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and there are countless predictions and choices under the complex variables, and the results of the choices determine the future. Zhou Yunjie pointed out that while gaining insight into the times and trends, we should pay more attention to the challenges and opportunities brought about by the changes of the times, and correctly understand the crises and opportunities.
Talking about the strategic layout, Zhou Yunjie pointed out that it will focus on two major tracks, and the smart residential competition will be in the industrial Internet. He said, "Clarify the development goal of building a world-class enterprise, maintain strategic focus, focus on the two major tracks, and become an industry leader in each track." ”
Talking about the new brand image, Zhou Yunjie said that with the continuous iteration of user needs and the continuous upgrading of Haier's development strategy, Haier's brand image and brand slogan are also continuing to be renewed. "After entering the ecological brand stage, the background of the times and user needs have undergone great changes, more boundaries have been broken, more value relationships have been established, more co-creation will occur, and the future of the world will be full of infinite excitement and possibilities, so we have determined a new brand slogan: create infinite possibilities with unbounded ecology. ”
Mao Zhongqun: Mind is culture, culture is business
On January 26, at the 38th Fotile Cup and 2023 Summary and Commendation Conference of Fotile Group, Mao Zhongqun, Chairman and President of Fotile Group, delivered a New Year's speech "Heart is Culture, Culture is Business", which pointed out the specific direction for Fotile Group's comprehensive promotion of "culture as business" in 2024 and made a deeper interpretation of the level of cultural cultivation.
Talking about performance, Mao Zhongqun revealed in his speech that in 2023, the group's annual sales revenue will reach 17.629 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.53%. He said that while the group's business operation has been steadily improved, it has also made outstanding achievements in scientific and technological innovation, reform and breakthrough, and cultural leadership.
Talking about the concept, "culture is the heart and way of doing business, and business is the presentation and result of culture." On many occasions, Mao Zhongqun has elaborated on his philosophy, this time reiterating that he believes that culture is the most fundamental and lasting competitiveness of an enterprise, and the two are inseparable from each other. This is also the Confucianism that Fang Tai has "realized" over the years.
In his speech, Mao Zhongqun also combined the model to specifically analyze the four basic elements of culture as business: motivation, mode, presentation and result. "Of the four elements, motivation is the key. It is our motivation that determines our approach and presentation, and thus the outcome. ”
Talking about corporate culture, Mao Zhongqun further said that most enterprises are now paying more and more attention to culture and want to build a good corporate culture, but few companies really pay attention to the spiritual growth of employees. This is worth reflecting on. "I think that I can build a good culture by relying only on the system and assessment traction. Then this kind of culture can only be a business-oriented, utilitarian, short-term corporate culture, rather than a humanistic oriented, life-oriented, long-term, and perfection-oriented corporate culture. ”
What did they talk about?
By briefly reviewing the public remarks of the above-mentioned representatives of the industry's most representative business leaders, we also noticed some high-frequency words, such as "innovation", "high-quality development", "altruism", "certainty", "change", "long-termism", etc. From these overlapping contexts and vocabulary, the development path of home appliance enterprises has been accurately summarized and gradually clarified.
By comparing the speeches of these industry leaders, it is not difficult for us to find that aside from the indispensable performance level of the summary, most of their speeches revolve around three major directions: the value of innovation, the significance of strategy, and the spirit of the enterprise (family).
First, look at the value of innovation. It is almost certain that no entrepreneur would deny the importance of innovation to the high-quality development of enterprises. In the speeches of the four people, innovation was also mentioned to a greater or lesser extent.
Fang Hongbo compares innovation to "soil", and Zhou Yunjie describes innovation as "co-creation". Innovation is not only one of the three strategic axes of Midea's enterprise, but also the guarantee of "new force" and "new content" that Haier's model innovation and scientific and technological innovation have always emphasized.
Dong Mingzhu and Mao Zhongqun further interpreted innovation as "altruism". Dong Mingzhu believes that enterprises should innovate with altruistic thinking, such as the mine air conditioner developed by Gree Electric Appliances, which has paid a lot of research and development funds and is not profitable, but allows miners to work with more dignity. Mao Zhongqun believes that "altruism" is the common background color of all the intentions of Fangtai people. To this end, the general intention of Fotile people is: to help customers feel at ease, to help employees grow, to help the society to achieve righteousness, and to help business sustainable.
Second, look at strategic significance. Every business mentions a vision for the future in its summary. Therefore, both Gree and Haier have proposed new brand images to concretize this vision.
However, in the author's view, the greatest strategic consistency in the speech is reflected in the fact that the leading enterprises pay special attention to cultivating the diversification of the competitive track and expanding into overseas markets. This is especially evident in home appliance companies.
For example, Gree, Dong Mingzhu wants to build a new Gree in 5 years, and relying only on air conditioning is obviously weak. Therefore, last year, Gree also set foot in the prefabricated food supply chain, and previously laid out in many fields such as new energy, car manufacturing, robots, CNC machine tools, and molds. It is understood that the Zhuhai base of Gree central air conditioning water machine green intelligent manufacturing has been put into operation a few days ago, and the company has also expanded its business such as clean appliances and household appliances.
Haier Smart Home is acquiring Carrier's commercial refrigeration business to deepen its global layout. Zhou Yunjie put forward the new goals of the two tracks, and proposed to "focus on the main business and achieve more weighty development", that is, "maintain strategic focus and focus on the two tracks of smart housing and industrial Internet".
Fang Hongbo, chairman and president of Midea Group, said at the company's annual meeting that the balanced development of To C and To B business should build the overseas market as the second home field. At the same time, it has also laid out intelligent buildings, industrial robots, new energy, as well as innovative businesses including Ander Zhilian, lighting, medical and other innovative businesses.
Even Fangtai, a kitchen appliance company, although the overall scale is still far from the above three, is also actively diversifying the track. In recent years, it has made a lot of gains in the new category of integrated cooking center, building the advantage of being the first mover and leader in the track, and this year it has put forward the concept of full-scene high-end kitchen appliances, and further incorporated refrigerators into the business segment in addition to the integrated track.
Finally, there is the spirit of enterprise (family). In the eyes of outsiders, these aspects involving corporate culture and concepts are somewhat pragmatic, but as Fang Tai explained, if you want to become a leading enterprise on the road of long-termism, the heart, that is, the forging of culture, is indispensable.
One of the cultural concepts of Midea is that Fang Hongbo talked about entrepreneurship in his year-end speech for two consecutive years, in his view, entrepreneurship is a special factor of production, which is different from land and capital. It is the impulse from the heart to do it, it is not to forget the original intention, in essence, it is to dare to self-deny, dare to innovate, and dare to respond to challenges.
Looking further, these companies embody this spirit as a kind of "ownership" spirit. It's just that there is a difference in the form of expression. For example, Haier Ecology wants to break the boundary, proposes that employees can become entrepreneurial partners, proposes to adhere to the tenet of "maximizing the value of people", and unswervingly implements the "one-in-one person, chain group contract", stimulates the creativity of each employee, and makes everyone have an entrepreneurial spirit.
At the end of last year, Gree spent about 3 billion yuan to use it for equity incentives or employee stock ownership plans, while Midea Group has been doing equity incentives. Fotile insists on using the total heart as the guide, giving full play to the organizational energy, and doing a good job in the mental cultivation of all employees.
On the whole, these leading brands in the industry can achieve non-stop operation and innovation through enterprise platform and institutionalized construction, as well as institutional mechanisms and governance. Enterprise spirit is just a kind of internalization.
Write at the end:
In the tide of the times, the best evaluation of enterprise leadership and growth is "the enterprise of the times" - only by stepping on the beat of the times, can we have full development determination and long-term development momentum, these enterprises, undoubtedly walking in the forefront of the times, by listening to the voice of the helm of the frontier, there will be repercussions.