A generation of "grand" masters at the last moment: Zong Qinghou left the world not only Wahaha

He left forever, but what he left to the world is not only Wahaha.

Text: "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Hu Nannan Zhang Wenjing

Edited by Mina

Header photo by Deng Pan

China's beverage grandmaster, the old man who carries the childhood memories of a generation, is gone.

Today, Wahaha released an obituary, saying, "Comrade Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of Wahaha Group, passed away at 10:30 on February 25, 2024 at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment. ”

As soon as the news came out, the world was shocked. Subsequently, many people remembered him on social media:

"A real entrepreneur, not a speculative businessman"

"China's Beverage Legends Go Well"

"Wahaha is my childhood and everyone's childhood"

"When I was a child, I was really happy to be able to drink Wahaha, and the old gentleman went all the way"

"The first generation of private entrepreneurs after the reform and opening up, the end of an era"

…..

This entrepreneur from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province has also been paid tribute by many entrepreneurs, who have been learning from his history of Chinese beverage entrepreneurship along the way, and his always truth-seeking and pragmatic attitude towards life.

According to the live broadcast of Elephant News, at present, there are citizens in front of the headquarters of Hangzhou Wahaha Group who send flowers to commemorate Zong Qinghou, and some people put Wahaha's classic products AD calcium milk and Shuang Crooked.

According to "Zhejiang Businessmen", in the last days, Zong Qinghou lay on the hospital bed while inhaling oxygen, while discussing things in the company with colleagues. The people who visited him asked him why he didn't arrange for someone else to do it for him, and Zong Qinghou said that the company was like his own child, and he couldn't rest assured. When Zong Qinghou was in the ward, he sometimes had a little fever, but he was conscious and in good condition. There was a printer and a lot of documents in the ward, and he was still working while he was in the hospital.

The 42-year-old self-made entrepreneur model worker who has won the title of China's richest man three times, once said of himself: "I can't stop." So, he fought until the last moment of his life.

Previously, on February 22, the news that Zong Qinghou was in the ICU for lung cancer was circulating on the Internet. And Zong Qinghou's lung problems have been around for a long time. As early as around 2015, Zong Qinghou had an operation, but he still insisted on working after the operation. The doctor told him that due to long-term smoking, his arteries were clogged and he had to undergo surgery. Subsequently, the doctor told Zong Qinghou to quit smoking. Zong Qinghou said that he would quit, put away his cigarettes, and quit quickly, without even using any substitutes for cigarettes. He hasn't touched a cigarette since. At that time, Zong Qinghou said, "I really feel uncomfortable (from smoking)." After cutting off the polyps in the lungs, sometimes I am wheezing when I walk. ”

Despite his poor health, he is in his 70s and is still busy in the management of the company. Because for him: "Wahaha is the proof of my existence in this world, Wahaha is all the dreams of my whole life, all the meanings, values, labels and symbols." ”

And in the heart of her daughter Zong Fuli, her father has always been her role model. In an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur" three years ago, Zong Fuli commented on her father, "He is a great entrepreneur". Earlier, in a TV interview, when Zong Fuli was asked: "What is Wahaha equal to after subtracting Zong Qing?" she bluntly said: "It is equal to zero." ”

Zong Qinghou has too many labels on his body, but he prefers to call himself a mortal.

He has the common characteristics of the first generation of entrepreneurs after the reform and opening up: simple, low-key, because he often wears black clothes and dozens of yuan of cloth shoes, and because of this, he is known as "the richest man in cloth shoes".

In the preface to his biography, he wrote: "I am an ordinary person, a mortal who has risen from the bottom. Fortunately, I was born in a big era, and even more fortunately, I was given the opportunity to build a company and become the 'richest man in China'."

Now he is gone forever, but it is not only Wahaha that has left the world.

Source: Screenshot of Wahaha's official WeChat

Entrepreneurship: A man who changed the beverage industry

Born in 1945, Zong Qinghou went to the countryside after graduating from junior high school and stayed in the countryside for 15 years. After the reform and opening up, he started from scratch, out of the original intention of "simply wanting to do something", Zong Qinghou founded Wahaha, which later had an annual sales of tens of billions of yuan of beverage giants.

In 1988, Wahaha launched its first product, "Wahaha Children's Nutrition Solution", which exceeded 100 million yuan once it was put on the market.

Zong Qinghou often said later that it was because he saw the potential needs of consumers: in the process of running the distribution department of school-run enterprises in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, he found that many children had yellow faces and thin muscles. Under the one-child policy implemented by the state at that time, the pampering of parents caused children to be picky eaters and malnourished. To this end, Zong Qinghou invited Zhu Shoumin, a professor of nutrition at Zhejiang Medical University, to cooperate in the development of Wahaha children's nutrient solution.

Since then, Wahaha has successively launched best-selling products such as Babao Porridge, Purified Water, AD Calcium Milk, Very Cola, and Nutrition Express.

At its peak in 2013, Wahaha set a record for revenue of 78.3 billion yuan, and Zong Qinghou also topped the Forbes 2013 Chinese Rich List with a net worth of $11.6 billion.

Zong Qinghou is extremely diligent, work is his biggest hobby, and he is also one of the few entrepreneurs who are still on the front line at an advanced age.

Three years ago, "Chinese Entrepreneur" interviewed Zong Qinghou, at that time, he would still appear at work early at 8 o'clock in the morning, and go to the headquarters of Wahaha Group at No. 160 Qingtai Street in Hangzhou every day on days when he was not on business.

For Wahaha employees, Zong Qinghou is like a big parent.

Source: Courtesy of Wahaha Group

In 1991, after the sale of the children's nutrition solution, Zong Qinghou decided to expand production, and at that time he merged an insolvent state-owned food factory in Hangzhou. At that time, the latter had more than 2,000 employees, and in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zong Qinghou promised that after the merger, the employees on both sides would be treated equally, and the income of all employees would increase. At the same time, Wahaha's benefits for core employees and outstanding employees were also born after that.

In a previous interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur", an employee of Wahaha once said, "For Wahaha people, Mr. Zong (Zong Qinghou) is like a patriarch." Every Chinese New Year, from middle-level cadres to ordinary employees, we have to get together for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and red envelopes, and the atmosphere is very good. ”

Management: A simple and generous person

For many years, Zong Qinghou's work habit is to start work at 7 o'clock in the morning every day, rest for an hour at noon, and not get off work until nightfall. Even, during the interview, his outfit remained plain: a light blue checked short-sleeved shirt, dark blue trousers, and a pair of black cloth shoes that have been "on camera" all year round.

Talk to Zong Qinghou, don't expect him to say anything big. Starting from riding a tricycle through the streets and alleys selling popsicles and stationery, Zong Qinghou pursued the simple truth, which he learned through decades of hard work.

In December 2016, some netizens posted that they met Zong Qinghou in the second-class carriage of the high-speed rail. He was amused by the children in the same carriage, and the children's grandmother asked the "grandfather" for the AD calcium milk produced by Wahaha. A person from Wahaha Group confirmed that Zong Qinghou was on a business trip to Yiwu from Hangzhou, and because there were not enough first-class tickets, he sat in second-class with the staff.

In 2017, some netizens photographed Zong Qing at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport waiting for the plane alone with his suitcase. "Usually when he travels by plane, he takes economy class, without an assistant, and his daily life is also economical. Wahaha people later said in an interview with the media that the rumor that "Zong Qinghou spent less than 50,000 yuan a year after quitting smoking" also said that it was "basically true".

But after Zong Qinghou became the richest man, the treatment of employees was not bad. Wahaha not only assigns rooms to regular employees, but also to some migrant workers who have worked in the company for a long time or in key positions. Yin Xiongfei, then general manager of Wahaha Precision Machinery Co., Ltd., mentioned that Wahaha's production base in Haining, Zhejiang Province, has nearly 200 employee apartments. "Wahaha's subdivision measures are also changing with national policies. At the beginning, after the Hangzhou municipal government launched affordable housing, Wahaha also helped employees apply for some indicators. In the back, Wahaha simply built its own staff dormitory."

To this day, Wahaha's house-sharing benefits for employees continue. According to Zong Qinghou, Wahaha has also built more than 1,000 talent apartments for employees in the core area of Hangzhou, and construction has started in early 2020.

"The culture of our group is 'cohesion of small family, development of everyone, service to the country', he (Zong Qinghou) always told us, your small family should be good, will be a good business. A Wahaha employee told China Entrepreneur.

For Wahaha's family culture, Kelly (Zong Fuli) also agrees. A staff member next to Zong Fuli said. She mentioned that some time ago, she had dinner with Kelly and two other Hongsheng management trainees, and during the banquet, she learned that the two fell in love after entering Hongsheng and knowing each other, Kelly smiled and said: "When you get married, I will be a witness." ”

Succession: A great father

"What kind of man do you think your father was?"

"He's a good entrepreneur. ”

"Can this 'good' be more specific?"

"It's just great. ”

In February 2021, in an office of Hangzhou Hongsheng Beverage Group, when "China Entrepreneur" chatted with Zong Fuli about topics related to her father, Zong Qinghou, the answer was extremely simple.

Zong Qinghou is the "Dinghai Shenpin" of Wahaha Group, personally managing the affairs of Wahaha. However, inheritance and succession have always been important topics for Wahaha. Zong Qinghou spent nearly 20 years training his daughter Zong Fuli to take over.

Photo: Deng Pan

In 2007, Zong became president of Hongsheng Beverage Group, which initially produced some of Wahaha's beverages. In 2018, Zong Fuli returned to Wahaha as the head of the brand public relations department of Wahaha Group. In mid-2020, she was appointed as the vice president of the sales company of Wahaha Group. Since December 2021, Zong Fuli has officially served as the vice chairman and general manager of Wahaha Group.

In an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur", he once commented on Zong Fuli's management effectiveness in Hongsheng, "Now her (Hongsheng) profit margin is higher than mine (Wahaha)."

Zong Qinghou talked about Zong Fuli in a talk show and also said that 1/3 of Wahaha's enterprises are managed by Zong Fuli, and Zong Fuli's performance in Wahaha Group can be scored 90 points.

The two generations have completely different experiences, educational backgrounds, and upbringing, and the differences are quite obvious. However, in the past 20 years of succession, the two have begun to converge in their understanding of the enterprise.

Zong Qinghou was born before the liberation, went to the countryside when he was young, and stayed in the countryside for 15 years. Since then, he has caught up with the wave of reform and opening up and started from scratch. Running a business in a humane society, Zong Qinghou has maintained a paternalistic management style for a long time. Zong Fuli received a Western-style education and advocated the power of the system.

Zong Qinghou pursued the "family culture".

"Family culture" has played an important role in the development of Wahaha. Xiao Zhuqing, chairman of Wuhan Jingkui Technology Co., Ltd., who joined Wahaha Group in 2000, revealed that in the "Dawa Dispute", Danone had done everything possible to poach Wahaha's people through headhunting companies, but "none of them were dug up".

"Zong Qinghou has a strong human touch. The personal interests of employees are deeply tied to the interests of Wahaha. Xiao Zhuqing once said that Wahaha has a subsidiary established by the provincial manager directly. In addition, in the day-to-day operation, under the patriarchal management style, "Wahaha's efficiency is particularly high, because the company's major matters are personally decided by Mr. Zong." ”

Despite the system, sometimes the process doesn't seem to be that strict. Yin Xiongfei once took the approval process as an example, "The company has a system, but some people will bypass the system and go directly to the boss (Zong Qinghou) for approval." ”

Zong Fuli pays more attention to institutionalization and systematization. Zong Fuli once admitted to "Chinese Entrepreneur" that Hongsheng's profit margin is higher than Wahaha. She revealed that Hongsheng has optimized order management and reduced freight costs through the use of digital systems and tools.

However, with the growth of the scale of the enterprise, Zong Qinghou upgraded the connotation of family culture. He said: "The 'family culture' alone will also create a 'big pot of rice'. It is necessary to have a 'family culture', but also to have strict management. In fact, it is a form of combining incentive mechanism with competition mechanism. ”

In addition, Zong Qinghou "suffered the loss of not understanding capital operation" in the "Dawa Dispute", and avoided capital for a long time, but in recent years, he has relented about Wahaha's listing.

He once questioned the problem of the e-commerce model, but in recent years, he has entered the e-commerce industry in a big way and has also spent a lot of money to build an e-commerce building. For Zong Fuli's series of "young plays" in Wahaha, Zong Qinghou also let go of support.

Although Zong Qinghou has publicly expressed his satisfaction with Zong Fuli many times, he still can't let go completely. "I also want to take a back seat, but retirement is not possible. In February 2021, Zong Qinghou said.

But he's already taking the burden off himself. Around 2019, Wahaha promoted three deputy general managers internally to help Zong Qinghou share part of the work. After reducing the burden on himself, Zong Qinghou focused on the sales business.

Zong Qinghou's main focus is on Wahaha's management system reform and process transformation. "I now ask every employee to take care of themselves, what to do, what to do, and what not to do. The country is governed by law, and the factory is governed according to the system, so that there is no problem for anyone to lead (the enterprise). Zong Qinghou revealed at that time.

He predicts that it may take three to five years for Wahaha to achieve this ideal state through reform, and "some of the previous habits are deeply ingrained in everyone's minds."

On the other hand, in addition to being in charge of Hongsheng independently, Zong Fuli has been in charge of the brand and sales business within Wahaha, which means that she is playing an increasingly important role in Wahaha.

Now, with the death of Zong Qinghou, "succession" has become a topic that Zong Fuli must face, and she will carry the mission given by her father and lead Wahaha forward.

Resources:

"Zong Qinghou and Zong Fuli Father and Daughter File: Wahaha "Inheritance"|Cover Story", China Entrepreneur Magazine

"Zong Qinghou Left, Leaving 6 Backs", Zhejiang Daily