Hunan Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship (5)丨Mao Binghua: Choose "Vertical Climbing"

Editor's preface: Hunan is not only the hometown of Hunan businessmen, but also a hot land for business and business. Since 2023, in order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on promoting the development and growth of the private economy, Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Mao Weiming, Governor of the Province, have successively held a symposium for private entrepreneurs and a symposium for representatives of Hunan businessmen returning to entrepreneurs. The Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government have introduced a set of policies to support the development of the private economy, creating a broader stage for Hunan businessmen to show their strength and making Hunan businessmen more popular in Hunan Province.

Red Net Moment News, together with the United Front Work Department of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the Provincial Women's Federation, launched the "Hunan Merchants" financial media feature, using four series of "Women's Biography", "Entrepreneurship Chronicle", "Park Chronicles" and "Alumni Collection" to vividly reproduce the entrepreneurial legend of Hunan businessmen, the images of the times when the government and enterprises are running in both directions, and the feelings of family and country in the bones of Hunan people.

Mao Binghua, chairman and president of Hunan Jinlong Technology Group Co., Ltd. (Poster design: Li Meiyan, Mao Yunong)

Red Net Moment News Reporter Xiao Yinuo Photography Chen Jie reports from Changsha

When I first met Mao Binghua, she had just finished a two-and-a-half-hour office conversation and was taking extremely fast steps for her next meeting.

While waiting for the elevator, the assistant kept reporting the new arrangement: "The day after tomorrow, you need to come to the stage to give a speech at the provincial meeting......

Mao Binghua nodded, "My hair has to be dyed again." ”

This capable female chairman and president is 48 years old this year, and it has been 17 years since she "took over" the company from her father. Since joining the market, I don't know when, a few gray hairs have become a white hair, and I have no choice but to dye it black over and over again, dyeing too many times, and there are allergic symptoms.

These are digressions, though.

Even in Mao Binghua's view, this is just a "sacrifice" in the process of climbing upward.

Just like the plaque hanging in the office of the chairman of Jinlong Group, it simply reads: Shede.

The "Shede" plaque hanging in the chairman's office.

Is there a guarantee of harvest from struggle?

Mao Binghua's entrepreneurial story starts from the generation of his parents.

In the 90s of the last century, Mao Jiongming learned that the former state-owned Changsha Malanshan Wire and Cable Factory was on the verge of bankruptcy, and made a bold decision: to acquire the factory.

At that time, the whole country was releasing a signal of "grasping the big and letting go of the small", and Mao Jiongming intuitively believed that there would be more favorable policies for the development of the private economy. Sure enough, after he came up with the purchase plan, he immediately got the support of the government, and finally bought out the state-owned enterprise at one time, and established Changsha Jinlong Cable Factory after the restructuring, opening the first "initiative" of private enterprises in Hunan Province to merge state-owned enterprises.

He unexpectedly reaped a bumper harvest when he tested the waters.

In the first year of restructuring, the company's output value exceeded 10 million yuan, and the profit reached 2.68 million yuan.

In 1997, the opening ceremony of Changsha Jinlong Cable Factory.

In 2002, the company won the honors of Hunan Famous Trademark and Hunan Product Quality Award. In 2006, the company established a wire and cable safety demonstration laboratory and won the honor of "national inspection-free" for product quality.

In 2006, Jinlong settled in Wangcheng Economic Development Zone, embarked on the road of expansion, opened up the copper sector business in addition to cables, and soon opened the market. In 2012, Golden Dragon Group ranked among the top 500 private enterprises in China and the top 500 manufacturing enterprises in China.

Self-made in the 90s of the last century is full of coincidences in the eyes of many people, but Mao Binghua knows that her father's success is by no means accidental.

"My dad doesn't admit defeat in anything. He grew up in the countryside and became the first person in the village to have a bicycle, the first to ride a motorcycle, and finally, the first to eat crabs. Mao Binghua recalled with a smile.

Behind the winners, there is a dedication to working day and night. Mao Binghua's impression of her father when she was a child was one word, busy, so busy that she was constantly on the phone, racing against time to buy and sell goods, and used it as three days a day;

The young Mao Binghua was also puzzled: "Will there be a harvest from struggle?"

"Dad can't say for sure. Mao Jiongming replied to her, "But if you don't struggle now, when will you have to wait?"

Gnawing "hard bones" in "hard entities"

Under the words and deeds of her father, Mao Binghua has also developed a character of striving for excellence in everything and being independent.

In the year of the college entrance examination, she was admitted to Jinan University with excellent grades, and after graduation, she and her younger brother went to Canada to study for a master's degree in business administration. At that time, it was the initial period of Changsha Jinlong Cable Factory.

Relying on the $20,000 "start-up capital" given by his father, he founded ViewSonic Computer in Canada. In just a few years, the company has grown from 4 people to more than 60 people, and has a number of chain brand management companies.

While starting a business abroad, Mao Binghua has been paying attention to the development of China's cable industry. During this period, there was a major fire in China, and she noticed from the news that in the domestic fire accidents, caused by wire and cable failures, the accident rate accounted for more than 30%.

She began to wonder if she should do something about it.

In 2007, Mao Binghua made the decision to return to China after careful consideration.

Mao Binghua is overseas.

That year, Jinlong was in the expansion phase, and his father hoped that his two children could help. Mao Binghua said frankly that watching her father work hard for his career is very hard, and as the eldest daughter, she should share it.

"I was born in the '70s, a time of transition between tradition and reform, so I have both. Mao Binghua felt that it was an unshirkable responsibility to give up her easy life and strive for the prosperity of the family. But once he took over the burden, it was impossible for him to "follow the rules".

It is rare for women to enter the "hard entity" industry such as wires and cables, and Mao Binghua also boldly gnawed on the "hard bones". She kept wondering, how can she integrate what she has learned and seen overseas into domestic enterprises?

Mao Binghua observed that the company has three or four people on one production line alone, but the efficiency is not high. "Isn't it a waste of time for people to just sit there and watch the machines go on and on?"

She decided to introduce foreign advanced business ideas and technologies into Jinlong. "We have carried out a lot of transformations, such as equipment upgrades, process innovation, and the creation of national green factories, etc., and this process is painful. In the end, she persevered and succeeded in increasing production efficiency while improving the safety and reliability of her products.

In 2017, after ten years of polishing, Mao Binghua took over all the company's affairs. In 2021, Mao Jiongming completely put down the burden and officially handed over the position of chairman of Jinlong Group to his daughter.

Mao Binghua is discussing with employees.

Keep climbing at a vertical angle

At the helm of a new generation of leaders, Golden Dragon Group ushered in a drastic reform.

"Technology and talent are the two-wheel drive of Golden Dragon. Mao Binghua worked hard for this.

Under her leadership, the company has been approved to set up academician expert workstations, Hunan Special Cable Engineering Technology Research Center, Enterprise Technology Center and other scientific research platforms, and acquired a number of leading production and testing equipment in the industry.

In order to promote scientific and technological research and development and product upgrading, we have focused on the introduction of a group of high-level scientific research talents with doctoral students, and cooperated with Huang Chongqi, the only academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in the cable industry, to establish an enterprise academician workstation. Today, Jinlong Group has a total of nearly 100 patents, and the latest two technologies have filled the domestic gap, and the key technologies and applications of cable anti-breakage core torsional resistance and fire prevention have reached the international advanced level. Mao Binghua introduced.

In order to improve the management ability of the enterprise, Mao Binghua introduced the "President Class" course for the company's middle and senior personnel, and let the talents "progress" through the examination, introduced the concept of "lean manufacturing" and the "excellent performance" model, established a modern enterprise management system, promoted the formulation of industry standards, lean production management, and efficient human resources were gradually implemented in the enterprise and produced practical results.

Mao Binghua and the staff.

Under her decision-making, Jinlong Group has established the corporate development strategy of "scientific and technological innovation, green development" and the corporate vision of "determined to become the leader of China's circular economy and a trustworthy cable manufacturer", and has formed a whole industry chain business integrating "renewable resources, intensive processing, high-tech products, and circular economy", and has achieved green and circular development.

The company ushered in the "golden age" of development, entered the top 500 private enterprises in China and the top 100 most competitive in the cable industry, and won the honors of national intellectual property advantage enterprise and national specialized and special new "little giant".

The employees see the chairman's efforts: she is often active in the zero o'clock work group, and starts to deal with affairs again the next morning; in addition to the general direction, she is also very strict about all kinds of small things, even the details of punctuation; there is always a queue at the door of her office; and white hair keeps growing on the top of her head......

Mao Binghua finally understood the answer to the original question.

Is there a reward for hard work?

"Entrepreneurship is like climbing a mountain, don't hesitate because of the uncertainty of the outcome, choose to take a detour up the mountain. She sighed with emotion, "There is a first give-and-take, the first thing to do is to be willing to do, and the first thing to do is to be willing to invest in the development of enterprises." ”

In a conversation with reporters, Mao Binghua said frankly that she likes the title of "creating the second generation", "to carry forward the 'country' laid down by the fathers and grow again and go to the next level, this is the real spiritual inheritance." ”

The reporter learned that the group's subsidiaries are currently actively preparing for the listing work, and it is believed that in the near future, the "gold" content of Jinlong will usher in a historic breakthrough.

What Mao Binghua hopes for is to lead the Golden Dragon Group to continue to run at a speed of 100 meters and continue to climb at an almost vertical angle. "Climb vertically, never stop!"