[Feng Qitang original | Do not compile or pass on, have a source and evidence, share the entrepreneurial legend of the business world, and interpret the management wisdom of the big guys. 】
Reference: Cao Dewang's "Heart is like Bodhi".
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Fuyao Glass is now the No. 1 supplier of the world's eight major car manufacturers (BMW, Bentley, Land Rover, Audi, etc.), and ranks first in the global automotive glass industry.
But in fact, the early internationalization process of Fuyao Glass also had many twists and turns.
In 1996, Fuyao Glass hoped to open up the global market through cooperation with foreign capital, so it co-founded a Sino-foreign joint venture with Saint-Gobain of France - Wanda Glass, which was controlled by the French side, with Cao Dewang as chairman and general manager, and French Marc as the chief financial officer.
In Fuyao Glass, Cao Dewang only received a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, but he did not expect to be the chairman of the joint venture company, and the French were also generous, and gave Cao Dewang an annual salary of 2 million yuan.
Mark, who serves as the chief financial officer, has an annual salary of about 1 million, and the car distribution is also arranged according to the standards of Fuyao Glass executives.
Cao Dewang happily thought that the French arrangement was quite magnificent, not only respecting the Chinese managers, but also letting the Chinese side in charge of the joint venture even though it was a Fortune 500 company.
But soon, Cao Dewang discovered that this was not the case.
01
A few cases of red wine have led to a series of investigations and difficulties
Mark, the French financial director of the joint venture, is in his 40s and has arrived with his wife and two children.
Cao Dewang saw that Mark's family had to live, work, and go to school in China, and as the chairman and general manager of the company, he thought according to Chinese conventions, and of course, he had to often express his concern.
It happened that Cao Dewang had helped a friend buy him a container of French red wine, and thought that French people like to drink it, so he moved a few boxes to the financial director from France, Mark, and enthusiastically told Mark, "After drinking, there will be still at home (and then give it to him)".
But what Cao Dewang didn't expect was that not long after the red wine was delivered, the French financial director who took the initiative to show favor began to investigate Cao Dewang and the joint venture company everywhere, and reported it to the French boss without verification.
Cao Dewang reflected, maybe this is the misunderstanding caused by the cultural differences between China and foreign countries, and the few cases of red wine he sent at random may make Mark think: Why did this Chinese send me so much red wine, did he want to buy me?
As a result, Cao Dewang and Mark expressed two points openly:
First, Cao Dewang told Mark that if he thinks that Cao Dewang has a problem, he can exercise the right to question, and I, Cao Dewang, also have the responsibility to explain clearly. However, as a major shareholder's resident staff, it is very inappropriate to report privately without clarifying the facts;
Second, Cao Dewang hopes that both Mark and the French side can understand that they are not short of money, and that the chairman and general manager of this joint venture company have nothing to do with each other in the first place, and that it is the French side's request that he can stay.
It's just a pity that Cao Dewang's honesty did not win Mark's understanding and cooperation, and even the situation got worse and worse.
Another senior executive from the French side would come to inspect once a month, no more than 24 hours each time, and after each visit, he shook hands with Cao Dewang, and then went to the factory to count the equipment, and then communicated with Mark in private, making him almost like a spy. But if Cao Dewang talks to him about the company's affairs, he can only get a perfunctory "hum", and he will not give any opinions in short.
02
Three years do not settle and do not approve any thing
If the misunderstanding with Mark caused by cross-culture is still accidental, then in the subsequent 3 years of communication with the French side of the joint venture, Cao Dewang felt that all this did not seem to be simple.
First, as a controlling party, Marc and another French executive have never resolved any controversial issues in the three years they have had.
For example, when Cao Dewang asked Saint-Gobain to transfer 49% of the equity of the Shanghai hemming factory to Fuyao Glass according to the strategic contract of the joint venture, Mark and another executive never gave a clear reply, in order to delay time.
In another example, the joint venture company Wanda imported a set of CAD coordinate measuring machines, but did not have the right software, and asked the headquarters Saint-Gobain to consider selling a set of software to Wanda, but Mark and another executive disagreed, and even suggested that Cao Dewang "can ship the glass to France for testing".
Second, in the past three years, Cao Dewang, as the chairman and general manager of Wanda Automotive Glass, reported to Saint-Gobain's headquarters that the cumulative number of reports was 50 centimeters high, but without exception, none of them were approved.
During this period, due to the restructuring of the U.S. project, Fuyao Glass's existing production capacity was not enough to support it, and a laminated glass factory needed to be launched immediately. But when the report was delivered to Saint-Gobain, there was still no news.
After all this, Cao Dewang despaired of this joint venture and marriage: "In the past three years, I have put down my self-esteem, and every project and matter request report has been carried out in French, English, and Chinese, but there is no follow-up. "
After hundreds of fruitless communications, Cao Dewang was furious and immediately decided:
First, Cao Dewang submitted his resignation, demanding immediate resignation from all positions of Wanda Glass;
Second, Cao Dewang decided to invest 200 million yuan as a sole proprietorship to create a green banyan glass company with a production capacity of 1 million sets of laminated glass.
Unexpectedly, Cao Dewang was angry, and finally, the French boss came uninvited.
03
French boss: Minority shareholders must listen to major shareholders
Cao Dewang originally thought that he could use the east wind of the joint venture with Saint-Gobain to help Fuyao's overseas strategy, but after three years, Cao Dewang realized that he might really be wishful thinking.
In fact, in the eyes of Saint-Gobain, Fuyao is just one of its more than 300 joint ventures around the world, and Saint-Gobain's global layout is to hold the market tightly in its own hands, once it fully helps Fuyao Glass to expand overseas markets, it will invisibly cultivate new competitors for its overseas factories around the world, and weaken its competitiveness in disguise.
Not only that, but the French side has also stumbled in Fuyao's overseas market expansion. For example, after Saint-Gobain's joint venture holding, it gradually raised the export pricing of Fuyao Glass's products, thereby restricting the development of Fuyao's global market.
Cao Dewang figured it out and resigned decisively, and the French boss finally couldn't sit still and came to Fuzhou to hold a meeting of the board of directors of Wanda Glass.
At the board meeting, Cao Dewang angrily displayed nearly 100 documents requesting instructions in the past three years, and asked on the spot: I have been the chairman of the board of directors for three years, but I still don't know who is in charge of this company in France.
In the face of Cao Dewang's anger, the French boss also calmed down, insisting that Cao Dewang was not a major shareholder, and that the minority shareholders must obey the decisions of the major shareholders in business affairs, and unless Cao Dewang buys back shares and becomes a major shareholder, the French side can do whatever it decides.
After some confrontation at the meeting, Cao Dewang understood that the French side had repented and just wanted to withdraw and sell the shares.
In this way, when the communication between the two parties was fruitless, Cao Dewang and Fuyao Glass Group decisively invested 30 million US dollars to repurchase the shares of Fuyao Glass held by Saint-Gobain, and Cao Dewang re-became the absolute controlling shareholder of Fuyao Glass.
With the exit of Saint-Gobain, the three-year joint venture between Fuyao Glass and Saint-Gobain has come to an end.
Years later, Cao Dewang recalled this failed corporate marriage and said: "Saint-Gobain is a huge bureaucracy, and now I understand.
Nowadays, although Fuyao Glass's own development is getting bigger and bigger, Cao Dewang has always insisted on the quick review and approval of the projects that have been reported, because Cao Dewang has an empathy: it is not easy for the people below to make a bowl of rice.
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