Li Yonghua, a reporter from China Economic Weekly, | Reported by Changsha, Hunan
The great times made Trinity. After crossing 100 billion in revenue, Liang Wengen, founder of Sany and chairman of Sany Group, said that Sany is facing new opportunities.
On April 29, Sany Heavy Industry released the best quarterly results in history: the operating income in the first quarter was 33.328 billion yuan, an increase of 93% year-on-year; Net profit was 5.538 billion yuan, an increase of 164.16% year-on-year, close to the annual performance of 2010.
In 2019, Sany Group's sales exceeded 100 billion yuan. In 2020, overall sales continued to grow to 136.8 billion yuan.
At the Trinity Day Commendation Party held on February 28, 2021, Sany Group distributed a huge reward of 1 million yuan per person to the 33 gold medal employees who accompanied the growth of the company all the way, with a total amount of 33 million yuan. In addition, Sany Group also issued cash rewards to a large number of employees such as the holders of "100 billion commemorative vouchers" and heroes of earthquake relief, with a total amount of up to 100 million yuan.
With a heavy award of 100 million yuan, Liang Wengen said: "I want to thank you for your outstanding contributions to the cause of Sany, and in particular, I would like to thank you for your trust in Sany. ”。
Xiang Wenbo, secretary of the party committee of Sany Group and president of Sany Heavy Industry, said that some people chose to believe and some people chose to give up. Today, we present awards for Choose to Believe.
Believing is never easy. From employees to executives, the reporter of China Economic Weekly heard different understandings in Sany, some people said that it was trust in Liang Wengen's team and the company, and it was trust in the equipment manufacturing industry; some people said that it was trust in the times; more importantly, it was a firm belief in realizing the "Chinese Dream". In this way, the genes precipitated into the Sany culture also support the four beams and eight pillars of the Sany Building.
At the March Day party, Liang Wengen awarded awards to employees.
Trinity cultural genes: from the blood book to aspire, sacrificing oneself to serve the country as the beginning
Starting from 35 years and 60,000 yuan, why did Sany Heavy Industry leapfrog from a small enterprise in a township to a benchmark for Equipment Manufacturing in China?
At this year's March Day commendation party, Liang Wengen took out the Lan Ti that had been treasured for 35 years for the first time. This blood book with dappled marks reveals the source of Trinity's power.
The blood book reads: "Liang Wengen, a native of Lianyuan County, Hunan, is now like-minded with Yuan Jinhua, Mao Zhongwu and Tang Xiuguo, and is willing to become brothers and contribute his life's efforts to the take-off of the Chinese nation... October 30, 1985. ”
Bloody alliances, determined to serve the country, sounds full of righteousness and idealism. History, however, is often driven by idealists.
Xiang Wenbo told China Economic Weekly that it is precisely this blood book, which has a unique tension, attracts young entrepreneurs who "respond with the same voice and seek the same breath", and then become their original intention and belief, and write into the history of Sany entrepreneurship.
Flip the hour back to 1983 for the time being. That year, Liang Wengen graduated from Central South Mining and Metallurgical University and was assigned to Hongyuan Machinery Factory. This was a large military enterprise under its command, with a population of 4,000 to 5,000 people at that time, and it was a large local factory.
However, young college students such as Liang Wengen, Tang Xiuguo, Yuan Jinhua and Mao Zhongwu were not satisfied with their jobs here. They often "mix together" and see that the people in the factory are superfluous and senior.
"In the 1980s, the whole society was full of passion, and our group of young college students had great ideals, all had feelings of home and country, and wanted to do something practical." Yuan Jinhua, a director of Sany Group, said that the reality of Hongyuan Machinery Factory is that "the machine is broken, and the workers are very happy, because repairing the machine is someone else's business."
Discussions among young people have intensified. "It is better to heal an old cell than to build a new one", this is the choice they made. Four young people immediately submitted their resignation reports to the factory.
The pride of young people collides with the ideal of the era of "realizing the four modernizations", blooms into a firm belief flower, and as soon as the leg is raised, the decision to start a business is completed.
On the evening of October 30, 1985, Liang Wengen, Tang Xiuguo, Yuan Jinhua and Mao Zhongwu scratched their fingers on the top of the mountain and wrote: "In this life and this life, the liver and gallbladder look at each other, the hardships and hardships are shared, and they vow to fight for the revitalization of the national industry." ”
Once deeply planted, beliefs spread like weeds. Later, the core members who joined one after another, such as Xiang Wenbo, Yi Xiaogang, and Zhou Fugui, also deeply believed that it was true, and have been consistent since then. In retrospect, beliefs have created a small concentration of founder teams and senior management in the corporate world.
Despite this, at the time, their shocking behavior was difficult for those around them to understand and accept.
The 30-year-old Liang Wengen was already a deputy department-level cadre of the department-level state-owned enterprise, and was then the deputy director of the Hongyuan Machinery Factory Structural Reform Committee, close to the core decision-making level of the enterprise. Upon hearing the news of his resignation, Liang Wengen's father was furious and chased him with a flat shoulder to beat him back to the Hongyuan Machinery Factory.
Entrepreneurship is difficult and difficult. Before going to the sea, Liang Wengen, who has always been a heavy man, proposed that in order to go, it is necessary to have a complete plan and action plan, and it is necessary to "be familiar with ten industries, come up with ten plans, and make ten drawings."
Even so, bare-handed young people still run into walls everywhere. I have sold sheep, sold wine, made fiberglass, and all failed.
"For more than a year, several people have not earned a little income." Yuan Jinhua said that it was not until March 1986 that the welding material factory was opened, and the first payment of 9,000 yuan was paid back in September. The enterprise survived and gradually grew bigger.
In the Spring Festival of 1989, Liang Wengen wrote a couplet: "Create a first-class enterprise and create first-class talents." By chance, Xiong Qingquan, then secretary of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, inspected Lianyuan and said after seeing the couplet that he would "make first-class contributions."
Since then, the "Trinity" has been frozen.
A white stripe, a trust, created today's Trinity
Liang Wengen said: "In Lianyuan, with a lot of enthusiasm, we quickly made the welding materials the first in the country in the field of segmentation. But this is not enough to carry the lofty ideal of our industry to serve the country. ”
In 1992, Sany put forward the "double-advance strategy", that is, entering the big city of Changsha and entering the large-scale construction machinery industry, which is equivalent to a second venture.
In 1994, Sany Changsha Industrial Park broke ground and Sany Heavy Industry was officially established.
In early 1995, the night before the Changsha Industrial Park went into operation, Liang Wengen told 209 employees: "This is an important strategic node, this is a beautiful day that should be remembered." Liang Wengen recalled that he originally wanted to give everyone a sign, but in a hurry, he arranged for someone to make a batch of white strip "redemption coupons", and solemnly promised: When Sany achieves a major development milestone, it will give heavy prizes to employees who hold "redemption tickets".
Kuang Canghao, who was engaged in procurement at that time, told the "China Economic Weekly" reporter that when he first made concrete tow pumps, he encountered the problem of "stuck neck" of the core components of the collector valve, "The original supplier also made concrete tow pumps themselves, and they were unwilling to sell them to us."
Yuan Jinhua said: "Around 1995, it was the most difficult period in the history of Sany, the product was returned, there was no sales return, the funds were almost broken, and the company fell into a loss. ”
Yi Xiaogang, an expert at the Beijing Machinery Industry Automation Research Institute and later became the leader of Sany technology, was impressed by Liang Wengen and stepped onto the stage of Sany, using a new design method to solve the problem of the collector valve and open up the situation for Sany.
This is the first patent owned by Sany, which has torn a crack for Sany to break through the foreign technology blockade. Conquering core technologies and realizing the autonomy and controllability of core components has become Sany's strategy.
It is worth mentioning that in the 90s of last century, the equipment manufacturing industry was subject to the overall development bottleneck of the industry, from sophisticated hydraulic components, power cores, to high-precision machine tools, chips, and then to basic scientific research, the key links in the entire industry chain were almost powerless to be autonomous, far behind advanced countries, and could only "rely on people's sniffles".
In this context, the determination to take the road of independent research and development of core technologies and strive to achieve import substitution not only requires extraordinary courage, but also shows the foresight of spanning the times.
Xiang Wenbo said that now, there are few imported parts left in Sany's pump trucks, and the key components are almost all Sany's self-made or excellent domestic supporting enterprises' products. At present, through independent innovation and collaborative innovation, Sany has successfully developed core components such as special chassis, engines, controllers, cylinders, pump valve motors, reducers, slewing bearings, etc., and fully applied them, completely bidding farewell to the dilemma of "card neck" and realizing the "independent controllability" of the whole industry chain.
This is an exciting achievement.
With independent core technology, and coinciding with the environment of China's economic take-off, Sany has made rapid progress, and the gold content of the white strips written by Liang Wengen in that year is getting higher and higher.
In 1996, the white strip "redemption ticket" was replaced with a bronze medal.
In 2003, Sany Heavy Industry went public, and each bronze medal successfully cashed 10,000 yuan in cash and replaced it with a "gold medal" made of 24K gold, so these employees were called "gold medal employees".
In 2007, Sany Group exceeded the mark of 10 billion yuan, and its sales reached 13.5 billion yuan. At the March Day party on February 29, 2008, Liang Wengen once again fulfilled his promise and gave 100,000 yuan to the gold medal employees. At the same time, Liang Wengen promised that when the group's sales exceeded 100 billion yuan, the gold medal employees would receive a bonus of 1 million yuan per person.
Liang Wengen said: "It is this white note at the beginning, it is this trust, it is this contribution, together with the efforts of Sany people, to create Sany today." ”
Sany Heavy Industry No. 18 lighthouse factory automatic sorting line
People's hearts are Sany's biggest "confidence investment"
At the commendation meeting on February 28, 2021, the largest group of winners was 4159 Sany employees who held "100 billion commemorative coupons", who chose to believe at the trough and finally reaped an excess return totaling 54.21 million yuan.
A month later, at the Sany Science and Technology Festival, Sany announced the issuance of the annual R&D project incremental gross profit award, and the total amount that has been issued alone is as high as 160 million yuan, of which the individual single award is up to more than 3 million yuan.
In addition, Sany has also taken out nearly 80 million yuan to motivate "new workers" who master emerging technologies, and nearly 30 million yuan to encourage employees in key positions to learn independently and renovate digital knowledge... For a time, Sany became "someone else's company" in the outside commentary.
Amazing numbers, put back into the waves of history, will not seem so exaggerated.
In 2008, the financial crisis swept the world, the economy declined, and Sany Heavy Industry's orders fell sharply.
Liang Wengen applied for only one yuan annual salary, and the company's executives voluntarily applied for a salary cut.
Prior to this, thousands of employees of Sany Group voluntarily applied for a salary cut. In this regard, the decision of the board of directors is: "No layoffs, no salary cuts, and no acceptance of applications for salary cuts from ordinary employees." The company only approved its abandonment of 10% of its year-end bonus, which averages around $200 per person.
In June 2009, these employees who chose to overcome the difficulties with the company received a beautifully made "100 billion commemorative coupon". 10 years later, the commemorative vouchers were successfully redeemed.
In Liang Wengen's view, these year-end awards that are voluntarily abandoned are valuable development funds "lent" by employees to the company, and are the largest "confidence investment" that the company has obtained so far.
Luo Xiaojun, an employee of Sany and who participated in the Wenchuan earthquake relief in 2008, said that whether it is facing a natural disaster or an industry crisis, Sany can always give people confidence. "As long as I can take care of myself, I am willing to stay here, and I believe that one day Trinity will get up."
Huang Jianlong, director and chief financial officer of Sany Group, said that under the stimulation of four trillion yuan of investment, China's economy quickly recovered, and the crisis in the construction machinery industry soon passed, and the real impact was the cold winter of the industry after 2012.
Liang Wengen said frankly that since 2012, we have suffered a deep adjustment of "through the furnace" for 5 consecutive years, and the demand for domestic construction machinery market has fallen by 75%. This is the biggest challenge Sany has faced since its inception.
Xiang Wenbo told the "China Economic Weekly" reporter that under the pressure of deep adjustment, many enterprises are transforming, and Sany's internal ideas on the development of enterprises are indeed facing some new tests, "However, our position is still unswerving to make Sany a world-class construction machinery enterprise." The 'belief' that was established decades ago is still ingrained in our genes. ”
Huang Jianlong said that over the years, Sany has had many opportunities to make more money, such as real estate and health care products, but it has never been involved, "things that do not conform to Sany's values are not done."
In 2017, the construction machinery industry recovered. Xiang Wenbo said: "Sany has become the biggest beneficiary. ”
From the lowest trough of more than 20 billion yuan, back to 100 billion, if you put the revenue data of Sany since 2012 into the volume chart, people will see an exaggerated deep V curve on it, and the visual impact is not enough to reflect the shock of the heart.
Sany Heavy Industry excavator
New commitment: Sany's total market value reaches 1 trillion yuan, and each gold medal employee will be awarded 5 million bonuses
In the past 35 years, every commitment of Liang Wengen has meant a major node. Everyone who chooses to believe in Liang Wengen and chooses to believe in Sany has received great rewards.
Standing on the high ground, Liang Wengen made a new commitment - "When the total market value of Sany's listed companies reaches trillion yuan, 5 million bonuses will be issued to each gold medal employee!"
At present, Sany Group has two listed companies - Sany Heavy Industry (600031.SH) is mainly earthmoving machinery, concrete machinery and lifting machinery; Sany International (00631.HK) is mainly engaged in coal mining machinery and port machinery. On March 29, the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed that it had accepted Sany's IPO application for the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and a fast-rising wind power machine manufacturer was about to go public.
Sany Concrete Machinery has become the world's first brand, with a global market share of 45%, fully replacing imports. Excavator for 10 consecutive years of domestic market share first, become the global production champion, leading the domestic brand to rise in an all-round way; crawler lifting machinery, piling machinery, coal machinery, port machinery ranked first in China.
Xiang Wenbo said: "In the field of excavators, we have killed a blood road in the market monopolized by foreign brands, becoming the first in the country, and washing away the shame that domestic brands cannot produce the above products in production." ”
The indicator that highlights the quality of operation is that in 2020, Sany Heavy Industry's profit ranks second in the industry, and its per capita output value exceeds that of Caterpillar, the global construction machinery boss, and ranks first in the industry.
Towards the new goal of trillion market value, what does Sany rely on?
At an internal dinner, Liang Wengen pointed out: "Standing at the intersection of the past and the future, we must not only change, but also return. Return is to return to the spiritual origin, and the success of Sany in the past is the success of adhering to values. In the new stage of development, we must always adhere to the belief that 'quality changes the world' and adhere to the belief of 'three first-class'. Regression is to return to the origin of the market. ”
Liang Wengen said that during the period of deep adjustment, Sany found a unique weapon to cross the cycle, that is, digitalization and international transformation.
Xiang Wenbo introduced that in the future, Sany will change from the current 30,000 workers to 30,000 engineers and 3,000 workers, supporting an output value of 300 billion yuan, the core of which is intelligent manufacturing.
The first factory built when it landed in Changsha in 1994 has now become Sany Heavy Industry's No. 18 factory, which is the industry's first intelligent manufacturing lighthouse factory and has become a famous local industrial tourism spot in Hunan. Nearly 100 intelligent robots have been installed here, and the overall efficiency of the factory has doubled compared with before, from a steel plate to a concrete pump truck off the line, the whole process of intelligent production, the off-line speed is only 45 minutes, and the maximum can be off the line pump truck 30 times a day.
It is understood that Sany's 18 domestic industrial parks, more than 60 workshops, more than 8,200 machines and equipment, and more than 100,000 kinds of materials, all realize online IoT through the platform.
Not only the manufacturing process, Sany's products are also intelligent. At present, the world's first 5G remote control excavator, "unmanned crane", "unmanned spreader group", "unmanned electric mixer truck", unmanned electric collection card, hydrogen fuel mixer truck and other intelligent equipment have been rolled off the production line in Sany, leading the industry into the intelligent era. Among them, Sany 5G excavators have been put into use in Henan and other places, which is the first case of 5G application in the global construction machinery industry.
At the same time, Sany Cloud Platform collected more than 600,000 construction machinery and equipment operating parameters, forming a famous "excavator index" in the industry, known as the "China Economic Barometer", which is submitted to the relevant ministries and commissions of the state every half month.
Behind this is a huge investment in research and development. Sany Heavy Industry's 2020 annual report shows that in 2020, the company's R&D investment was 6.259 billion yuan, an increase of 1.560 billion yuan, an increase of 33.20%, accounting for 6.30% of the operating income, which greatly enhanced the competitiveness of the company's products. By the end of 2020, there were 5,346 R&D personnel, an increase of 69% year-on-year. The company has applied for more than 10,000 patents, and the number of applications and authorizations ranks first in the domestic industry.
Sany, whose level of intelligence is constantly jumping, will take internationalization as a new point of strength. Sany's product quality has the ability to compete globally, and the construction of lighthouse factories has developed to Indonesia, Russia, and the United States, and the overseas market share increased significantly in the first quarter.
In 2012, Sany Heavy Industries acquired the world's largest concrete machinery company at the time, Putzmeister, Germany. Putzmeister's revenue was only 60 million euros that year, and in 2019, it was 700 million euros.
"Now, all those who have been to China and have come to Sany know that we have been ahead of us in many ways, and we have developed trust in 'Made in China'." Xiang Wenbo said.
"Always remember the unremitting self-improvement and industry to serve the country; always remember the hard work and abide by the good faith; always remember loyalty to the motherland and loyalty to the cause." Xiang Wenbo introduced that on the first day of the New Year every year, Liang Wengen will lead all the senior management teams of Sany to present flower baskets at the bronze statue of Chairman Mao in Shaoshan, and solemnly swear to relive the arduous process of Sany's entrepreneurship in this special way, encourage everyone to continue to maintain the excellent style of hard work, and encourage the next step of Development of Sany.
In Liang Wengen's view, as an enterprise, whether it is a large enterprise or a small and medium-sized enterprise; whether it is a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise, it has a better and loftier goal than profits -- that is, the responsibility to the country and the nation. "In the era of economic globalization, the economy has no borders, but enterprises and entrepreneurs have nationalities. In the past 70 years, it is precisely because of the joint efforts of Sany and thousands of enterprises like Sany that China has become a manufacturing power. ”
Liang Wengen believes that the new mission of Sany today is to become a pioneer in intelligent manufacturing and use new actions to promote China's transformation from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power; through international transformation, Sany's development space will expand unprecedentedly and become a truly world-class enterprise.
(This article was published in China Economic Weekly, No. 9, 2021)
Cover of China Economic Weekly, No. 9, 2021