The script was officially switched, and Zong Fuli changed from a "princess" to a "big heroine".
"Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Hu Nannan
Edited by Mina
Header photo by Deng Pan
Zong Fuli in front of the camera has lost weight and is also a lot more capable.
After the death of her father Zong Qinghou, Zong Fuli had a public appearance, and she in the photo was not as lively as in the past, but more mature. This is also consistent with Zong Qinghou's evaluation of it a few years ago - "more mature".
Because of her low-key personality, she rarely appears in public, and she has a straightforward personality, and she has something to say, and the outside world gives Zong Fuli more of a label as "Princess Wahaha". Over the years, under the aura of her father, Zong Fuli has done a lot of exploration - the Hongsheng Beverage she is in charge of has an annual revenue of more than 10 billion yuan and a net profit of more than 1 billion yuan; In recent years, she has also led Wahaha to try to rejuvenate and launch more products that young people like, so that Wahaha can enter the field of vision of young people in first- and second-tier cities.
Now, the script has officially switched, and Zong Fuli has changed from a "princess" to a "big heroine".
After taking over, Zong Fuli has already taken action. With the current consumers' love and support for Wahaha, in order to allow more people to buy Wahaha's products, Zong Fuli began to vigorously lay offline terminal channels and revitalize Wahaha's sales team. "Chinese Entrepreneur" previously learned from Wahaha dealers that Wahaha is putting terminal freezers offline.
Source: Visual China
In 2019, when asked "what do you think your responsibility is to Wahaha", Zong Fuli replied, "It is my father's creation, and as his daughter, I should have the responsibility to protect it." ”
How to guard? "It is very difficult for a career to rely on 'keeping', and it needs to be constantly developed and created." Zong Fuli said in an interview at the beginning of this year.
With the support of her father, she has been studying business management for many years. From Wahaha's training, to personally taking charge of Hongsheng Beverage, and then returning to Wahaha, now, Zong Fuli also has enough ability and confidence to protect Wahaha.
Every step is like "starting a business"
Due to the influence of her father's education since she was a child, Zong Fuli said early on that she was also an "entrepreneur". She entered the state of an entrepreneur very early, and she said that every step of her life at Wahaha was like "starting a business".
But every step was what she chose to do. Whether it is to work in Wahaha after returning to China, or to establish Hongsheng Beverage, it is what Zong Fuli wants to do.
In 2004, Zong Fuli returned to China after completing her studies and entered Wahaha to work. She started from the front-line beverage production and manufacturing, and her first job was production management in the workshop of Wahaha Xiaoshan No. 2 Base. Since then, she has successively served as the deputy director of the Wahaha Base Management Committee, the general manager of Hangzhou Wahaha Children's Wear Co., Ltd., and the general manager of Kaqiana Daily Chemical Co., Ltd.
Wahaha company's automated production line. Source: Visual China
In 2007, Zong Fuli officially took the helm of Hongsheng Beverage Group. Starting from a small production line in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Acquiring land, purchasing equipment, and forming a team, Zong Fuli has developed Hongsheng Beverage Group into a professional beverage company with an annual income of 10 billion yuan and a whole industry chain, covering food ingredients, high-end equipment manufacturing, printing and packaging, beverage production and other fields.
In order to break the situation of purchasing molds from abroad at a high price at that time, in 2007, Zong Fuli established Songyuan Machinery, which is responsible for professional bottle making, cap making, mold manufacturing and related food and beverage equipment manufacturing. In 2009, through independent research and development, Songyuan Machinery realized the localization of beverage packaging molds such as PET bottles and caps.
Hongsheng Beverage is completely the company helmed by Zong Fuli, and it is also the "test field" for her entrepreneurship, and Zong Qinghou rarely asks about Hongsheng's situation. Under the management of Zong Fuli, Hongsheng Beverage Group has gradually developed into a comprehensive beverage group with 20 bases, more than 40 subsidiaries and more than 100 production lines across the country, and has been selected as one of the top 500 private enterprises in China and the top 500 private enterprises in manufacturing in China for many times.
The achievements of operating Hongsheng Beverage have also been affirmed by my father. In 2021, Zong Qinghou once commented on his daughter to "Chinese Entrepreneur", "She can, the profit of Hongsheng Beverage is higher than that of Wahaha, and it can reach 30%." ”
In 2018, Zong Fuli took the initiative to ask Ying to serve as the head of the Wahaha brand public relations department. At the critical moment when Wahaha urgently needs to transform, Zong Fuli took the initiative to stand up, wanting to make the Wahaha brand gradually "younger", so that more young people in the first and second lines can see the Wahaha brand.
To this end, she changed her spokesperson, established Wahaha's own e-commerce platform, carried out cross-border brand co-branding, and made many innovative attempts. Until 2021, Zong Fuli officially took over as vice chairman and general manager of Wahaha Group and took over the sales work.
In this entrepreneurial inheritance model, Zong Fuli has completed the learning and accumulation of all aspects from production and manufacturing, to brand marketing, to sales.
Open the "Big Heroine" script
Now, Wahaha has ushered in the era of Zong Fuli.
A few years ago, some media asked Zong Fuli: "Dad is an entrepreneur, and you are also a young entrepreneur now, what you do, if you get your father's approval, will it be important to you?" ”
Zong Fuli's answer was: "Not now, it may have been important before." Because I'm confident enough now to know what I'm going to do. I think I should have my own path and trajectory in life, or I have to try it myself to find out. ”
As a 20-year veteran of the beverage industry, she has gradually found her own path, whether in business management or being a good entrepreneur.
In terms of enterprise management, she advocates the system, and most of the colleagues in Hongsheng Beverage Company are young people, and the internal management is more flat. Zong Fuli is also easy to absorb everyone's opinions and "give full play to everyone's enthusiasm". Zong Fuli likes to call employees "little friends" and "little friends".
Now, she is bringing these management concepts to Wahaha.
According to public reports, at the end of January this year, Wahaha held a staff congress to spread the news that in order to improve the efficiency of the enterprise, Wahaha will adjust and optimize the management system and organizational structure.
While injecting more new content into Wahaha, Zong Fuli is also clear about the boundaries of innovation. She once talked about the inheritance she understands, "For the new generation of entrepreneurs, keeping integrity is to inherit the tenacity of the older generation of Chinese entrepreneurs, and to maintain the original intention and courage; Innovation is driven by change, embracing transformation, daring to be the first, and standing at the forefront of the trend. ”
In addition to work, Zong Fuli has also held many social positions. She is the president of the Zhejiang New Generation Entrepreneurs Federation, and in an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneurs" in 2021, she said that she would spend 20%~30% of her energy on this. Although Zong Fuli doesn't have many hobbies and doesn't like to socialize, she still often eats and chats with some second-generation entrepreneurs in the federation, and uses this way to gather young entrepreneurs and give full play to the strength of young entrepreneurs.
On March 6, in a speech at the annual meeting of the China Beverage Industry Association, Zong Fuli said that she was not only a "veteran" who had been in the industry for 20 years, but also a "new general" who took over the "baton" of business management.
And the future of Wahaha depends on the "big heroine" Zong Fuli to create.
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