Text | Come to the department to point the spectrum
Edit | Come to the department to point the spectrum
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
Workers, souls, and workers are all people.
In the public's impression, part-time work is a job with no way out, but there is a master who broke this spell, dropped out of school at the age of 16 to work, and accompanied the boss for 24 years.
So what is the charm of this strange woman that can make Haidilao founder Daniel Zhang entrust the company to her after stepping down?
What strategy did she do after inheriting Haidilao, turning losses into profits?
Dropped out of school to work to pay off his brother's debts
It is hard to imagine that in Sichuan, an ordinary family, there will be a strong woman in the business world who will be worth tens of billions in the future.
Her parents were the most simple farmers, relying on their hard-working hands to maintain the family's food and clothing, and the two elder brothers tried to start a coal business in order to earn a little tuition for their sister Yang Lijuan.
It's a pity that the coal business not only failed to make up enough tuition for Yang Lijuan, but also fell into the quagmire of usury, and soon, the family suffered from the entanglement of creditors.
Every holiday, other people's homes are full of laughter, but in the Yang family, there is only the sound of debt collectors knocking on the door, Yang Lijuan looks at her parents worrying about this matter every day, and her heart is very uncomfortable.
In order to share the pressure on her family, when she was 16 years old, Yang Lijuan took the initiative to drop out of school and go out to work to pay off her debts.
A 16-year-old rural girl, who has no special skills, can only look for a job as a waitress with cheap labor, with a meager income of only 120 yuan per month, she only leaves herself 10 yuan for emergency food, and sends the rest home to pay off debts.
In this way, Yang Lijuan worked in that small restaurant for more than two years, although she lived a very tiring life, she never complained about fate, and it was in this ordinary small restaurant that an opportunity to change the trajectory of her life quietly came.
At this time, Daniel Zhang and his wife were preparing to open a hot pot restaurant, they often frequented this restaurant, as a conscientious waiter, Yang Lijuan's honest, kind, diligent and hard-working attitude quickly attracted Daniel Zhang's attention.
Not long after, Daniel Zhang took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Yang Lijuan for development - to join his hot pot restaurant work, with a monthly salary of 160 yuan.
For Yang Lijuan, the job was undoubtedly very tempting for her, but, as she later said, she "didn't want to be ungrateful" at the time.
After all, it was this small restaurant that helped her and allowed her to tide over the difficulties in her most difficult time, and out of a special human touch, Yang Lijuan repeatedly declined Daniel Zhang's kindness.
But fate likes to make such jokes, and about a year later, the small restaurant closed because the owner found another job, and Yang Lijuan had nowhere to go.
Just when she was confused, Daniel Zhang's olive branch reached out again, and this time she accepted it happily and officially joined Haidilao, a big family that later turned her life upside down.
When you meet a nobleman, you join Haidilao
When she came to Haidilao, Yang Lijuan found that the waiters here are not as simple as other places, Haidilao has its own set of strict management models, and the requirements for employees are also quite high.
The most prominent thing is the intensity and fast pace of the work, in order to ensure the quality of service, employees need to trot to serve food to customers, at first, Yang Lijuan found this kind of service quite difficult, and even doubted whether she could do the job.
But soon, she adapted to the rhythm of Haidilao, and in order to cultivate employees' multiple skills, Daniel Zhang not only required them to record work summaries every day, but also learned as a compulsory course.
Starting from the most basic computer operation, Daniel Zhang deployed the training program one by one, and at first, for Yang Lijuan, whose education level only stayed in junior high school, these were undoubtedly great challenges.
But she didn't give up, but cherished this hard-won learning opportunity very much, and after work, she bought a computer and enrolled in a computer training class.
In order to keep her brain agile, she also developed the habit of reading every day, and in this way, when other colleagues were resting after work, Yang Lijuan spent all her free time to improve herself.
Soon, Yang Lijuan stood out among many employees in Haidilao with her diligence and intelligence, and two years later, she was promoted to store manager and became a young backbone.
Then, Daniel Zhang was ready to open a new store in Xi'an, and Yang Lijuan was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.
When I first arrived in Xi'an, people didn't buy this kind of novelty, and the turnover has not been up, as the store manager, Yang Lijuan did not give up, but tried every means to develop customers.
Subsequently, she organized teams to distribute leaflets on the streets, and even risked fines to pull people at bus stops, and at one point, they were almost confiscated by the authorities, but it was Yang Lijuan's persistence and the understanding of the chengguan boss that saved their business.
Just as the store was gradually getting on the right track, an extremely tricky incident occurred, when a group of drunken troublemakers not only beat the waiter, but also threatened to smash the store to extort money.
At the critical moment, Yang Lijuan, who was only 21 years old, personally rushed to the forefront to stop those drunkards who were drunk and making trouble.
In this way, in an extremely unfavorable environment, relying on tenacious perseverance and unremitting efforts, Yang Lijuan finally reversed the situation of the Xi'an store and pushed it on the right track step by step.
In just a few years, she has gone from an unknown waiter to a new star manager of Haidilao, which is legendary.
"Project Woodpecker"
In 2012, Haidilao exams expanded nationwide, from a single store to a chain group, Daniel Zhang needed a veteran to control the operation of thousands of stores across the country, and Yang Lijuan became the best choice.
In 2018, when Haidilao was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Yang Lijuan officially assumed the position of deputy CEO.
In the face of the group's expanding territory, Yang Lijuan will never stand still, but continue to learn management concepts and thinking.
In the second year after its listing, Haidilao suffered a heavy blow, and due to the impact of the epidemic, the revenue of stores collectively declined, with losses of 4.5 billion yuan in successive years.
In the face of such a major crisis, many executives have chosen to wait and see or take expedient measures, only Yang Lijuan heroically proposed and implemented the "Woodpecker Plan" - resolutely closing all stores that do not meet the performance standards.
This plan is like cutting off an arm, because the closure of about 300 stores means a direct loss of at least 2.4 billion yuan, but it is this courage and courage that allows Yang Lijuan to steer steadily to the right course on the cusp of the storm.
With the outstanding achievements of the "Woodpecker Project" and the outstanding performance in operation and management for a long time, Yang Lijuan finally succeeded Daniel Zhang in 2022 and officially assumed the important responsibility of CEO of Haidilao Group.
After listing, as the company's old shareholder, Yang Lijuan's 3.67% stake is worth as much as 3 billion yuan, and this world-renowned wealth has not aroused any arrogance and show-off in her.
On the contrary, she still maintains a humble and pragmatic attitude that is never complacent, and it is this kind of calmness and freedom of indifference to fame and fortune that makes Yang Lijuan more noble and awe-inspiring.
Resources
From a monthly salary of 100 yuan to a net worth of 10 billion: "The Best Waiter" took office as CEO of Haidilao-The Beijing News2022.03.02
2024 Forbes China 100 Most Outstanding Business Women - Forbes China2024.03.27
Born as a waiter, now taking over the 100 billion catering empire!How good is Haidilao Yang Lijuan?—— CCTV2022.03.03
Haidilao personnel changes: Yang Lijuan, the person in charge of the "Woodpecker Project", became the CEO - CCTV2022.03.02