Although Dong Mingzhu and Zhou Hongyi are not on the same track, their actions are becoming more and more similar.
On May 14, Dong Mingzhu claimed in a live broadcast room that he planned to hold a "Gree Good Anchor" talent contest nationwide, and selected a "Dong Yuhui" like a super anchor for Gree, and the top ten winners could participate in Dong Mingzhu's family banquet, and Dong Mingzhu would personally cook for everyone.
It is not known whether this was affected by Zhou Hongyi's auction of the Maybach S600 that had been driven for 10 years, or the advice of Zhang Qi, who is known as a "new business architect, global traffic architect, expert in corporate profit growth model, and business training lecturer". The important thing is that Dong Mingzhu seems to have been determined to go on the road of "Internet celebrity".
Some netizens didn't buy Dong Mingzhu's reward for participating in the family banquet, and one netizen asked rhetorically, "What can I do if I participate in her family banquet?" Dong Mingzhu did not answer.
Interestingly, Dong Mingzhu has always denied that he is an Internet celebrity, and on May 10, at the 2024 10th China Brand Economy (Shanghai) Forum, Dong Mingzhu also emphasized that he is not pursuing the Internet celebrity effect by creating his personal IP, but hoping to convey a firm commitment to consumers. What's more interesting is that Zhou Hongyi, chairman of the "Internet celebrity entrepreneur" 360, said early on that Dong Mingzhu was born an Internet celebrity, and encouraged him to try boldly to become an Internet celebrity.
Dong Mingzhu has been really busy recently, and he is in the limelight. After participating in the China Economic Brand Forum in Shanghai on May 10, Dong Mingzhu appeared in the ancient capital of Luoyang on May 12, this time she specially dressed up on the spot, and changed into a set of exquisite Hanfu to shuttle through the streets of the ancient city. Attentive netizens unsurprisingly discovered the figure of Wang Ziru, vice president of Gree, and now the former "Internet celebrity" Wang Ziru has already become Dong Mingzhu's right-hand man. Although Dong Mingzhu does not admit that he is an Internet celebrity, there are many Internet celebrities in Gree's management, such as Wang Ziru, such as Meng Yutong, who has left Dong Zhu, and Wang Ziru is currently the person in charge of the channel reform project and the vice president of Gree.
Dong Mingzhu's move did bring more attention to Gree, entering 2024, Gree's share price rose from 32.17 yuan to 42.76 yuan at the close of May 15, an increase of 33%, but compared with the high of 61.79 yuan at the end of 2020, the stock price fell by 31%.
Fanatical about building personal IP
Dong Mingzhu once had a 1 billion century "gamble" with Lei Jun and successfully won, according to Dong Mingzhu's own words, she did not ask Lei Jun for a bet, but seeing Lei Jun's successful creation of personal IP, Dong Mingzhu seems to have understood the importance of traffic to enterprises from this time.
In 2015, Gree launched Gree mobile phones for almost 10 years, but during this period, Gree mobile phones have been in an embarrassing situation of thunder and rain, and there are even rumors from time to time that Gree wants to cut off the mobile phone business, in the first half of 2023, Dong Mingzhu said in an interview, "We must insist on making mobile phones", responding to the rumors of the dissolution of the core team of Gree mobile phones.
Dong Mingzhu has publicly promoted Gree mobile phones many times. However, at present, Gree's newly launched sixth-generation smart phone, and the combination of it with the "Gree +" smart home, the Gree Dasong mobile phone G7, has only sold more than 8,000 units in the Gree Dong Mingzhu store. Gree mobile phones are not popular in the market, and what is widely criticized is that Dong Mingzhu's avatar appears on the boot screen. Dong Mingzhu once confidently said that the boot screen must be me, and users will not be disgusted.
On May 14, Dong Mingzhu was asked during the live broadcast why the boot screen of the Gree mobile phone was her avatar when it first came out. Dong Mingzhu said that because the first generation of mobile phones had just been made at that time, I hoped to communicate closer with consumers. But such a reply did not satisfy netizens, after all, it is as strong as Jobs, the boot screen of the Apple mobile phone is not Jobs, and the boot screen of the Xiaomi mobile phone is not Lei Jun. Dong Mingzhu set the boot screen of Gree's mobile phone as his avatar, which is suspected of creating a personal IP.
In fact, as early as 2000, Dong Mingzhu began to build his own IP, which was even earlier than Lei Jun. In April 2000, Dong Mingzhu's first autobiographical book, "Chess in the World", was published by Huacheng Publishing House in Guangzhou, which was the first work written and published by professional managers in China's home appliance industry. Because this book aroused widespread attention and heated discussions in the home appliance industry and marketing circles at that time, Dong Mingzhu also became the "traffic star" at that time, among tens of thousands of professional managers in China, Dong Mingzhu stood out and became the most well-known one, which also paved the way for his later helm of Gree.
With the influence created by this book, Dong Mingzhu was elected as a representative of the 10th National People's Congress for the first time in 2003, becoming the first professional manager in the home appliance industry to be elected to the National People's Congress. Subsequently, Dong Mingzhu was re-elected as a representative of the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th People's Congress, becoming one of the longest-serving deputies to the National People's Congress of the household appliance industry.
Six years after the publication of "Chess in the World", in 2006, Dong Mingzhu's second personal IP book "No Regrets in Chess" was published, which once again attracted widespread attention, and Dong Mingzhu became a star in China's business circles. In the 2006 CCTV China Economic Person of the Year, Dong Mingzhu was on the list together with Shi Zhengrong, Shang Fulin, Jiang Jianqing, Zhang Yin, Gao Dekang, Li Jiaxiang, Zhang Jindong, Shen Nanpeng, Liu Yonghao, and Li Ka-shing, the richest man in China.
Since then, Dong Mingzhu has won the China Economic Figures Award twice in 2010 and 2013, and is the only business woman who has won this honor three times.
Many deputies to the National People's Congress and economic figures have pushed Dong Mingzhu to the pinnacle of China's business community, Dong Mingzhu has become a top traffic star in China's business community, and once became the earliest super IP in China's business community. But her super IP is not as affordable as the personal IP created by Lei Jun, at least in terms of traffic realization, Dong Mingzhu is far inferior to Lei Jun.
Take charge of Gree's achievements
In 2012, Dong Mingzhu officially took the helm of Gree, and at this time, the previous chairman Zhu Jianghong handed over Dong Mingzhu's family background was very solid. Gree was the undisputed brother of China's home appliance industry at that time. At this time, Gree air conditioning has become the first in the industry for 8 consecutive years since 2005, and its own brand exports account for one-third. Gree's financial report shows that this year, Gree's operating income was 99.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.43%, net profit was 7.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 40.92%, operating cash flow was 18.41 billion, total assets were 107.57 billion, net assets were 26.74 billion, and the return on net assets was as high as 31.38%.
According to Gree's financial report in 2023, Gree Electric's revenue was 205 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.82%; net profit was 29.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.41%. In other words, in the 11 years that Dong Mingzhu has been in the position of chairman of Gree, Gree's revenue has increased by 105.68 billion yuan and its net profit has increased by 21.64 billion yuan. It looks really good, but if you compare it with the development speed of similar competitors, you find that Gree is gradually falling behind.
As a comparison, Midea Group's 2012 financial report shows that in 2012, Midea's revenue was 68.07 billion yuan, less than seventy percent of Gree's, net profit was 3.48 billion yuan, less than half of Gree's, cash flow was only 4.3 billion yuan, less than a quarter of Gree's, total assets were 60.9 billion yuan, less than sixty percent of Gree's, and the return on net assets was 16.73%, 14.65 percentage points behind Gree.
In 2023, Midea Group's financial report shows that Midea's revenue in 2023 will be 373.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%; net profit was 33.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%. During Dong Mingzhu's 11 years as chairman of Gree, Midea's revenue increased by 305.63 billion yuan, and its net profit increased by 30.24 billion yuan. The revenue increased by 200 billion yuan compared with Gree, and the net profit increased by 8.6 billion yuan more than Gree.
Haier Smart Home's revenue of 79.86 billion yuan in 2012 was also lower than that of Gree, and its net profit of 4.361 billion yuan was also lower than that of Gree. Also after 11 years of development, Haier's revenue increased to 261.4 billion yuan, an increase of 181.54 billion yuan, and its net profit increased to 16.6 billion yuan, an increase of 12.24 billion yuan. Because Haier's net profit margin is not as good as Gree's, the net profit growth is not as good as Gree's, but its revenue is 75.86 billion yuan more than Gree's.
Now Gree has not only become the lowest of the top three home appliances in terms of revenue, but also gave up the first place in the air conditioning market share, Dong Mingzhu also "tried a lot of mistakes" during this period, mobile phones are just one of them, as well as the car-making business, and the appointment of Meng Yutong incident.
In the past 11 years, Dong Mingzhu has made Gree develop a lot, but compared with the development speed of other competitors, it is far from enough, and Gree has gradually fallen from the first to the third of the triumvirate, and what is even worse is that there are competitors like Xiaomi who are eyeing each other.
Dong Mingzhu and Zhou Hongyi's secret battle in the air
It is undeniable that among the many entrepreneurs recently, the most popular ones in the recent past are Zhou Hongyi and Dong Mingzhu. In a forum, after Dong Mingzhu's speech on Gree's mobile phone dream and car dream, Zhou Hongyi wore a red polo shirt with his logo to give a speech, he said that compared with other entrepreneurs, "I am a relatively two-handed entrepreneur", "After listening to Miss Dong's impassioned speech, I can't wait to take out my mobile phone and throw it on the ground." And claimed that "Dong Mingzhu attracts artillery, and I shout in support from behind."
Not long ago, Zhou Hongyi talked about the topic of "every entrepreneur must become an Internet celebrity", he believes that some people are born Internet celebrities, such as Dong Mingzhu, she was born with the temperament of an Internet celebrity, so she does not need to cultivate Internet celebrities, she is an Internet celebrity. "As an entrepreneur, at first your business is unknown, but at a certain point, you have to learn to deal with the media, and then at a certain time, you have to learn to deal with investors, and this kind of expression ability has to be learned."
A careful combing of Zhou Hongyi and Dong Mingzhu's resumes can find that the two have a lot in common. Both of them have their own traffic, and both companies have been involved in the mobile phone business and the car manufacturing business. Of course, there is another common denominator - the performance of both companies fluctuates greatly.
In the past 5 years, it is almost the "lost 5 years" of Gree, in 2019, Gree's revenue was 200.5 billion yuan, and the net profit was 24.7 billion yuan. After five years of development, Gree's revenue only increased by 4.5 billion yuan, and its net profit increased by 4.32 billion yuan. 360 is basically similar to Gree, but it is also a "lost 5 years", in 2019, 360 revenue was 12.841 billion yuan, and net profit was 5.98 billion yuan. Five years later, in 2023, 360's revenue will only be 9.055 billion yuan, and its net profit will be -492 million yuan, and in the past five years, 360's revenue will decrease by 3.786 billion yuan, and its net profit will decrease by 6.472 billion yuan. Zhou Hongyi and Dong Mingzhu are not only getting more and more similar on the road to Internet celebrity, but also have a "dark war in the air" in the company's performance.
Or because of the continuous decline in 360 performance, Zhou Hongyi had to be an "Internet celebrity", according to previous media reports, Zhou Hongyi also said that Huawei's Yu Chengdong is a big Internet celebrity who is far ahead. He also believes that Yu Chengdong has saved Huawei at least 1 billion yuan in publicity costs through many passionate speeches. This is also one of the sources of motivation for Zhou Hongyi to continue to be an Internet celebrity.
Whether Dong Mingzhu has been affected is not very favorable, but it is an indisputable fact that Gree has been continuously surpassed by Midea and Haier in the past 5 years. In recent years, Dong Mingzhu has participated in more than a dozen variety shows of all sizes such as "Tucao Conference", "You Belong", "The Strongest Brain", "Wonderful Sayings", etc., but such strong exposure has not boosted Gree's performance.
The head of the enterprise needs to build IP, but if he blindly indulges in it or it is counterproductive, the outrageous words and deeds of the head of the enterprise can bring enough exposure to the company, but it will also bring huge criticism, such as Dong Mingzhu's remarks in the past two years that "college students can't just find jobs for money" and "they should pay me for training" have had a negative impact on Gree.
The heads of Midea and Haier have not taken the Internet celebrity route, but Midea has already left Gree behind, and Haier has also surpassed Gree in terms of revenue. Is this in the interest of investors? After all, Dong Mingzhu has been in the position of chairman of Gree for 12 years, which is already considered an overage service, and the cruel industry competition has not left much time for Gree.
Author | Mowgli