After Zong Qing, the richest man fought back

Editor's note:

The news that Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, was treated in the ICU has aroused widespread concern. According to the person in charge of Wahaha's public relations, Zong Qinghou's current situation is stable.

Zong Qinghou is nearly 80 this year, and media reports say that he was seriously ill with lung cancer before the Spring Festival and was admitted to the Shaw Hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and the situation has not been optimistic.

As a Zhejiang businessman, Zong Qinghou is a representative figure of the older generation of private economic entrepreneurs, and his experience is legendary. In recent years, he has made relatively few public appearances, and his daughter Zong Fuli has served as the vice chairman and general manager of Wahaha Group.

In 2015, "business figures" communicated with Zong Qinghou many times, and Mr. Chi Universe wrote the book "Zong Qinghou - The Principle of Gravitation". Through this book, the outside world was able to observe many aspects of the business tycoon up close.

The following article was first published in December 2015, although a few years have passed, the shopping mall has changed, and Zong Qinghou and Wahaha are also facing a new situation, but the description and evaluation of his road to the richest man are not outdated. Re-published today for the benefit of readers.

Author: Chi Universe

来源：商业人物（ID：biz-leaders）

"A lot of times people fail not because they are too little prepared, but because they find that there are too many difficulties and give up. In fact, sometimes, as long as we act, we will get better results than expected. —Zong Qinghou

01.

The 5-storey small white building at No. 160 Qingtai Street in Hangzhou is the headquarters of Wahaha Group. Visitors to the "biz-leaders" were invited into Zong Qinghou's office.

His office is small and slightly messy, with a set of desks and chairs that cannot be seen to be old, a simple bed, a few trolley suitcases, and a pile of cloth shoes, all in their respective places. The room smelled of smoke. If someone says that this is the office of "China's richest man", few people will believe it.

On October 10, 2015, Zong celebrated his 70th birthday. While it was worth celebrating, he wasn't having a good time. Wahaha is continuing to chase the dream of "100 billion empires" and is still on the road; China's traditional industries are still weak, and the prophets say that half of the traditional enterprises will die in the future, and "Internet +" is the protagonist.

"If the main business is weak, I won't be the richest man. Zong Qinghou once said. He quickly fulfilled his "promise". At this moment, Zong Qinghou is still a "Chinese business leader", but he has been away from "China's richest man" for a long time.

In 2010, he became the "richest man in China" in both the "Forbes list" and the "Hurun list". In the "Forbes list" selection, Zong Qinghou also became the "richest man in China" in 2012 and 2013. But because of the difference in statistical methods, on the "Hurun List", Zong Qinghou was surpassed by Wanda's Wang Jianlin in 2013.

Before Alibaba and Wanda Commercial went public one after another, Zong Qinghou lost his position as "China's richest man". On the 2015 Forbes China Rich List, Zong Qinghou has slipped from 6th last year to 11th, and his wealth has shrunk from 67.32 billion yuan to 46.36 billion yuan, tied with Guo Guangchang.

However, in 2015, the Hurun China Rich List still maintained the recognition of the "Zong Qinghou family", and he ranked third with a wealth of 135 billion yuan, maintaining the ranking in 2014, but the wealth increased by 10 billion yuan.

Wahaha's growth was sluggish, and 2014 was the "worst year". Zong Qinghou began to force Wahaha to change. Liu Yonghao, the former "richest man in China" and founder of New Hope, said that in order for traditional industries to get out of the predicament, they should engage in "four modernizations". "Youth", "internationalization" and "financialization" can all be done by Zong Qinghou. In order to improve efficiency and reduce costs, Zong Qinghou even began to get involved in the industrial robot industry. But only "Internetization", Zong Qinghou can never do it.

However, at this moment, there is no doubt that China is "Internet +", "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", "O2O" and "P2P". The focus of people's discussion is also Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, Robin Li and Jia Yueting. Sometimes people will also praise "Chinese unicorns", talk about Wang Xing and Zhang Tao, talk about Cheng Wei and Liu Qing, touch the butt of "closed loop", "platform" and "ecology", and market like Uber and Durex......

At this moment, the "biz-leaders" remembered the interview with Zong Qinghou that night.

02.

Our interview didn't go smoothly at first. Zong Qinghou is thin, depressed, and not a talkative person. He habitually closed himself off to his work. For many years, he had to work 16 hours a day, doing everything himself, and always firmly controlled Wahaha's power stick.

Zong Qinghou did not deny this rumor to the visitors of "biz-leaders". He said: "I have my advantages, Wahaha only has me as a 'head'. If there are too many 'heads', the enterprise will not be able to do it, and there will be too many fights. That kind of secretary and factory director each have one line, and the deputy factory director has his own line, and their respective teams are intrigued, is this kind of enterprise doing well?"

Zong Qinghou soon entered a state of conversation. Just ask him to light a cigarette, take a deep breath, and talk about his fifteen years on the farm, and he will describe to you with great interest the details of the pig he killed, how he blows, how he stabs, how he bleeds......

If you talk to him about Danone, he will also excitedly talk about the entanglement with Danone, the damage caused to each other, and the dividends brought by the "Dawa Dispute" - the year after the end of the "war" (2010), he became the "richest man in China" in both the "Forbes list" and the "Hurun list".

Today's Zong Qinghou has lost the position of "China's richest man", he is in an era of the Internet and mobile Internet, a world dominated by capital, as a representative of traditional industry, Wahaha Group, will naturally be affected and neglected.

In 2014, Wahaha Group achieved an operating income of 72.8 billion yuan, profits and taxes of 12.9 billion yuan, taxes of 5.9 billion yuan, and net profit of 7 billion yuan, continuing to lead China's beverage industry. That year, Zong Qinghou set a sales target of 102.3 billion yuan for Wahaha. He later said that the reason for not achieving the expected goals in 2014 was that the company was affected by counterfeit products and online rumors from Nutrition Express.

In 2015, Zong Qinghou will be 70 years old, will his 100 billion Wahaha Kingdom appear?

Numbers can sometimes be deceiving. In fact, if we refer to the static price-earnings ratio of 30 times that of listed companies in the A-share food and beverage industry, the market value of Wahaha Group in 2014 can be estimated to be 210 billion yuan, and if we estimate the price-earnings ratio of the soft drink sector of nearly 50 times, Zong Qinghou is still the "richest man in China".

But such numbers are meaningless. Meaningfully: Liu Qiangdong, an Internet upstart and founder of Jingdong Mall, said that the next outlet may not be in the Internet but in traditional industries, especially fast fashion brands and food brands. Wahaha has been deeply involved in these two fields for many years.

03.

As the "richest man in China" who is not far away, as a start-up entrepreneur worthy of admiration, Zong Qinghou is a symbol, a symbol, and a milestone. He is known as a marketing guru, a management guru and the entrepreneur closest to the market. In the city of Hangzhou, he is still a "true god".

At this moment, "Internet +" and "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" are about to turn old, but the haze of entrepreneurship is besieging the city. Many young entrepreneurs are lost in the "Internet +", while hoping that someone can shine a ray of light. At this moment, the "biz-leaders" want to talk about Zong Qinghou and how he differs from Jack Ma.

For the business community, there are two "gods" living in Hangzhou, one is the new-school Ma Yun, the "archbishop" of China's Internet, and the other is the old-school Zong Qinghou, the "living fossil" of China's traditional industries. According to the criteria in the government work report, Ma Yun is undoubtedly the "new engine" and Zong Qinghou is the "old engine".

There is not much overlap between them, because Zong Qinghou is full of complaints about Internet finance, often complaining that the Internet has hollowed out the real economy, and opportunism is destroying traditional industries; he has not learned to use the Internet until now, and all communication relies on telephone and fax. As for Ma Yun, Wahaha is obviously not his customer, and Zong Qinghou will not sell water online - that meager profit is not worth the freight.

At first, Zong Qinghou was far ahead of the wealth list, and tasted the taste of "the richest man in the world" many times; Ma Yun came to the top, and after Alibaba went public in the United States, he once replaced Zong Qinghou and Wang Jianlin to become the new "richest man in China".

Judging from age, education, habits, business and even lifestyle, they do belong to different generations and have diametrically opposite images, but the interesting thing is that in China's industrial and commercial circles, these two people belong to the "grassroots rise" and "Dick Silk counterattack".

They have all been criticized, one by The New York Times to warn investors to "not forget what happened to Alibaba," and the other for fighting a bad battle with Danone, which has divided China's media industry into a clear "friend or foe camp."

Crucially, both men were surrounded by spotlights, so that their images were burned and distorted. People listen to their words, believe in their promises, and think they have the power to solve everything, the omnipotent "Savior."

A frustrated man longed for Zong Qinghou's salvation, and when disappointed, he drew his knife and stabbed the old man. Zong Qinghou was greatly stimulated by this publicized criminal case, and he began to reflect on whether his various proposals and suggestions would lead to perverse conclusions and actions.

Although he was surpassed by Wang Jianlin and Ma Yun on the wealth list, Zong Qinghou is still firmly entrenched in the top of the list. On the rich list, such characters are rare.

Whenever people have doubts about the "Internet", their light bursts out. No matter how the future changes and how radiant the "Internet +" is, Zong Qinghou will still shine with dazzling light, and they are even expected to return to the peak of wealth.

04.

What are we talking about when we talk about Zong Qinghou?

Are we talking about his wealth, or are we talking about his ranking?

Are we talking about his daughter, or are we talking about his power that he won't let go?

What we have always been concerned about is:

Why Zong Qinghou?

What is Zong Qinghou?

Zong Qinghou why?

In a recent interview with a "biz-leaders" visitor, Zong Qinghou's complexion was much better. He is gradually solving the two things he worries about - Wahaha's successor choice and Zong Fuli's marriage.

Wahaha's successor will undoubtedly be Zong's only daughter Zong Fuli, who will eventually become a new generation of rich people, not just a "rich second generation", like Yang Huiyan (daughter of Yang Guoqiang, founder of Country Garden), Liu Chang (daughter of Liu Yonghao, founder of New Hope), and Lu Weiding (son of Lu Guanqiu, founder of Wanxiang Group).

Chinese entrepreneurs, as long as they are not "white gloves", as long as their children are not like Luo Yuhong of Taizhou Haixiang Pharmaceutical, everyone is willing to put the industry in the hands of their children - even if Luo Yuhong loses a listed company in 4 years, he is also the only choice for his father.

As for Zong Fuli's marriage, it has always been Zong Qinghou's heart disease for many years. However, emotional problems are not something that fathers and wealth can control, unless they are engaged in a "strategic marriage". In this regard, whether it is Zong Fuli or Zong Qinghou, they can only resign themselves to fate.

At this moment, the "biz-leaders" just want to talk quietly about Zong Qinghou, an ordinary "little old man" and the most ordinary entrepreneur, on this night.

What Zong Qinghou is engaged in is the most traditional part of the traditional industry. He did not engage in Internet finance, nor could he do it; he did not resell land or build so-called landmark buildings; he did not go public, and he did not inflate his wealth through the "price-earnings ratio". He just sold water, bottle by bottle of water and sold "China's richest man".

Zong Qinghou seems to be no different from everyone at the moment, an ordinary person, like Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of the board of directors of Legend Holdings, "ordinary people". The biggest difference between them and us is that they have the courage to take another step forward and take risks, and they are able to see through the fog and try to see the direction of the future.

It's true that they're too old to tell entrepreneurs the secret of "getting rich overnight", but they can provide a path for young entrepreneurs to see, experiment, and run, and turn themselves into signposts.

The media likes to pay attention to "getting rich overnight" and likes ups and downs, so Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dale will be the protagonists for a long time. In NBA parlance, they offer a "ceiling." This is not the case with China's first generation of entrepreneurs, who are able to provide the "lower limit", that is, the least height that can be achieved. They slowly raised the "lower limit", providing support for future possibilities.

This generation of entrepreneurs relies on instinctive impulses and the urgency to regain lost time. For example, after Zong Qing, when he started his business, he had both the pressure of life and his inner drive. The combination of the two forces, supplemented by his talent, courage and hard work, coupled with a little luck, became the "richest man in China".

We thought of Zong Qinghou at this moment. At this moment, we are beginning to talk about Zong Qinghou, who is no longer the "richest man in China".

Without Ma Huateng and Ma Yun, China's industrial and commercial circles would have lost their vitality; without Zong Qinghou, Chu Shijian, Liang Wengen, and Lu Guanqiu, it would have been reduced to ruins. The significance of the industrialists of the later generation of Zong Qing is that as long as they continue to work tenaciously, the land will not be compacted, and the seeds will bloom and flowers will bloom, and the vitality will reappear.

That's why the "biz-leaders" are talking about Zong Qinghou at this moment.

*Title image | Visual China