On July 31, 2018, just 5 days after the "coming-of-age ceremony" was held for the "child" he personally brought up, Huang Zheng appeared at the Pinduo multimedia communication meeting, his face full of exhaustion. Ben is not good at words, but he has become exceptionally talkative.
When a reporter asked him how to understand the problem of fake goods in Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng was serious: "Today, in fact, the problem of copycats and the problem of fake goods is mixed together, and when public opinion is further improved, all problems have become fake problems." Cracking down on counterfeiting, we have always been particularly serious, the cottage is not a fake, consumers are making progress."
Huang Zheng, who is "protective of his son's heart", released a letter from all employees on this day, calling for "adhering to the 'duty', even if it is a malicious attack, it must be interpreted in good faith." And the word "duty" was advocated by his mentor Duan Yongping.
Since the founding of Pinduoduo, it has received the support of many industry leaders, including Ding Lei, founder of NetEase, Wang Wei, founder of SF, and Sun Tongyu, former CEO of Taobao. Recently, however, Huang Zheng said in an interview: "The biggest thing about his business education is Duan Yongping."
Duan Yongping is revered as "Duan Feite" in the investment community and is the chairman of BBK Group. According to the official data of Chang'an Town, Dongguan: in 2015, 8 of the top 20 enterprises in Dongguan in terms of operating income were his subsidiaries. In 2016, his two mobile phone brands, OPPO and Vivo, had a total sales of 270 billion. In his own words: "I make more money investing than I have made in my 10 years as a businessman." "His company is not listed, it is not financing, how much his wealth is, it is still a mystery ...
<h3>One</h3>
30 years ago, with the boom of "peacock flying southeast", Duan Yongping went south alone, as a senior migrant worker, he took the former debt-ridden little bully, to achieve an output value of more than 1 billion, he was the "working emperor" of that era. Due to the repeated setbacks in the reform of the shareholding system, Duan Yongping offered to resign, and public opinion was in an uproar at the time, in his own words: "This is not just a matter of money."
"Do you want to take someone away?" On the eve of leaving, the boss asked him with a concerned face. Duan Yongping was only in his 30s when he resigned, and it must be too early for him to leave and retire, even if he leaves Xiaobawang, he still wants to do something, and he will certainly not let go of talent resources. Ecstatic, he replied without hesitation, "Of course it is best if you allow it." "Can you take 6 people with you?" Duan Yongping waved a big hand, "Good, produce three, develop three."
In this way, Duan Yongping took 6 people to hang up the commander and went out, laughing at the sky, my generation is a basil people! In September 1995, BBK Electronic Industry Co., Ltd. was established in Dongguan City.
I remember that many years ago, when BBK was in full swing, there was a very interesting rumor that Duan Yongping was interviewed on a TV station in Shanghai, and someone always asked him: "Why is BBK not listed?" He replied domineeringly: "The listing raised that little bit of money, I made a few phone calls to solve it." ”
In 1998, Duan Yongping met his current wife Liu Xin, who was the chief photojournalist of the Palm Beach Post in the United States at the time, and the two quickly married after only two months of acquaintance, and he promised Liu Xin: "After pushing backgammon to a new level, I will definitely come to the United States to meet her." Duan Yongping did not renege on his word.
"Let go and do it, do a good job of dividing the money, do not close the door, do not have a burden." Just when BBK was in the ascendant, Duan Yongping split BBK into three independent companies, which were divided into three major disciples, Jin Zhijiang, Chen Mingyong and Shen Wei. These three companies were later BBK Education Electronics, OPPO and Vivo.
Whether it is Chen Mingyong, Shen Wei, or these two Duan disciples, most of the business concepts are the same as Duan Yongping. They are all focused on doing a good job in a niche area of products, through the bombardment of advertising to open the marketing business road, and then offline intensive arrangement of their own outlet layout. For OPPO and vivo, which do not pay attention to scientific research and technological innovation, although in a short period of time, this business concept is conducive to opening up the market, which will be their fatal shortcoming for a long time to come, especially the smartphone industry has encountered a growth ceiling.
In 2001, Duan Yongping fulfilled his promise to move to the United States, explaining: "Before getting married, I promised to settle down in the United States, and my green card was done. "It is better to bear the world than to live up to the red face" has also been rumored as a good story, which is the true color of a great hero, but the true celebrity is self-styled. From then on, Duan Yongping set foot on the other side of the ocean, managed his love and life, and focused on his investment career.
<h3>Two</h3>
On a Saturday in November 2013, Liu Zuohu, then vice president of OPPO, received a phone call from CEO Chen Mingyong, and the general content of the call was that Chen Mingyong wanted Liu Zuohu to be in charge, and they worked together to make a new brand. After answering the phone, Liu Zuohu did not hesitate in the slightest, nor did he have any discussion with his family, and he decided to do it, and he made a single request to Chen Mingyong to set up a completely independent new company, and Chen Mingyong did not hesitate to agree immediately.
In 2014, an emerging mobile phone company, with an annual sales of one million units, rose strongly, the name of this emerging mobile phone company is "OnePlus", and the founder is Liu Zuohu. When OnePlus became the focus of emerging mobile phone brands, Liu Zuohu did not hype and did not alliance. Compared with "hype marketing", Liu Zuohu, who was once a "disciple of Duan's", believes that products are the foundation of the enterprise, and the set of Internet thinking only wants to look at it from a distance and does not want to play. Liu Zuohu once said humorously and humorously that the set of Internet thinking, I don't want to learn or can't learn, I am still more suitable for being a quiet "beautiful man".
"Duty" is also a label attached to Liu Zuohu, and "Duty" in addition to him includes: "Do the right thing + do the right thing" in addition. There is also: "do something, do something don't". Liu Zuohu also applied Duan Yongping's "slow" philosophy to perfection, "slow is fast, fast is slow, no matter what you do, you must be slow and fast, and you must seek progress in stability."
In mid-2014, Mr. Liu turned down a Large Order for 500,000 Phones from a South Korean operator. The reason is that the South Korean operator hopes to pay a one-time payment at the time of delivery, and Liu Zuohu wants to receive a 20% deposit when he places an order, and finally the two sides cannot reach an agreement, and the cooperation is canceled, it is said that the Korean operator has been stationed in the one plus office for more than a month in order to reach cooperation with OnePlus.
For many emerging startups, this "astronomical" order is something that others can't dream of, but when it comes to Liu Zuohu, it is directly rejected. For Liu Zuohu's rejection of the outside world expressed incomprehension, he responded: "Many people say that I am very conservative, but the most important thing for startups is to live, a decision if it touches this bottom line, then I would rather not do it, if one day, one plus is big enough, as big as 500,000 mobile phones all hit the water, the company is not dead, then I will do it." This is also the imprint left by more than ten years of OPPO's work experience, to survive and not to venture.
<h3>Three</h3>
In 2001, the cold winter of the Internet, Ding Lei's NetEase also failed to get rid of bad luck, and it was Duan Yongping who pulled Ding Lei out of the miserable world.
One day, Duan Yongping's secretary received a call from Ding Lei, saying that he wanted to talk to Duan Yongping. "Can I sell the company (NetEase) and start another one?" Ding Lei, with a confused face, asked Duan Yongping, "You have a company now, why don't you do a good job of him?" Duan Yongping asked rhetorically. In order to give Ding Lei full confidence, coupled with a unique business vision, Duan Yongping invested most of his belongings and bought $2 million of NetEase stocks from the open market to send charcoal to Ding Lei.
In Duan Yongping's view, Ding Lei's NetEase is still quite responsible, and he has not engaged in some messy things such as blind expansion, even if the stock fluctuates, his heart is still quite solid. With Duan Yongping's momentum of "I am born to be useful, and the gold is scattered and returned", so Ding Lei regrouped hard, and after a few years, netease's market value rose sharply, and Duan Yongping's investment return was nearly 100 times, for the two of them, this investment is a real win-win situation: reaping benefits and winning friendship.
Duan Yongping and one of the closed disciples "Google Double Male" Huang Zheng acquaintance, is also the credit of Ding Lei, Huang Zheng from Zhejiang University after graduation to the University of Wisconsin in the United States to study computer science, under the introduction of Ding Lei to know duan Yongping in the United States, did not expect that the age difference of 20 years of the two people have since become friends.
In 2004, just a few years after its rise, although Google was in the limelight, it was still particularly immature in front of Microsoft's "big brother".
Huang Zheng, who has just finished computer science at the University of Wisconsin, faces a difficult choice in the face of employment problems, and he does not know whether to choose Microsoft or Google.
At this moment, Duan Yongping's words made him no longer linger, and in a private conversation with Duan Yongping, Duan Yongping said to him in a serious tone: "Google looks like a very good company, it is worth your look, this is good for your future entrepreneurship, if you go, stay at least three years, because one or two years is not really able to enter important institutions and departments, so you can't really understand this company."
Huang Zheng, who studied at Google, later said with emotion: "The income from working at Google has a feeling of pie in the sky. "Because corresponding to the rapid development of Google after its listing, it is more and more 0 on Huang Zheng's bank account." Huang Zheng recalled the experience by saying that Google had given him far more than he had contributed to Google. It wasn't until three or four years after he left Google that he realized that it was indeed a matter of pride to have the opportunity to work for that company at that time. This rare opportunity in decades, Huang Zheng was lucky to seize it. With the listing of Google, Huang Zheng had a net worth of millions of dollars at that time.
Huang Zheng said more than once that Duan Yongping was his mentor in life, and when someone asked Huang Zheng what enlightenment Duan Yongping had given him in business and life, Huang Zheng replied: "I think Duan Yongping has the deepest influence on me is my duty."
Duan Yongping's so-called "duty" is to "do the right thing + do the right thing; On the issue of principle, we cannot detach ourselves from the nature of things, right is right, wrong is wrong, and right and wrong should not give way to interests. Although Pinduoduo has grown into a giant in the e-commerce industry, the "cottage" problem has always been a problem that Pinduoduo cannot get rid of.
<h3>Four</h3>
Some time ago, starring Shen Teng, a movie that was very popular in China, "The Richest Man in Xihong City", was released. There is such a bridge section in the movie, the protagonist Wang Duoyu spent 40 million yuan to buy a lot of shares in the sunset industry, and won the opportunity to have lunch with buffett, the stock god, so the shareholders followed up, and the result was that he made a lot of money. Buying low-priced stocks and eating with the stock god, isn't this bridge section telling the story of Duan Yongping?
In 2006, Duan Yongping spent $620,000, becoming the first Chinese to dine with Buffett, in addition to bringing his own son, Duan Yongping also brought Huang Zheng. Yongping asked Buffett at the end of the meal: "What can't be done in investment?" Buffett replied: "Don't do empty, don't borrow money, the most important thing is not to do things you don't understand." This coincides with Duan Yongping's investment philosophy, Duan Yongping summed up Buffett's investment philosophy very simply, "You only need to buy a stock, in fact, you are buying this company, so you must understand him, which is very different from speculation!".
That is, the dinner with Buffett, Huang Zheng and Buffett discussed the future e-commerce pattern, and it was this discussion that made Huang Zheng understand the power of simple and common sense, and after returning to China, he started four consecutive businesses from this core. The Pinduoduo founded by Huang Zheng has only been in just over three years, and it has formed a trend of chasing deer in the Central Plains with Ali and Jingdong on the e-commerce platform.
This "sky-high price" dinner was also over-interpreted by the outside world at that time, and was criticized and insulted by many domestic media, and even labeled as "sublime and charming", but Duan Yongping had a calm and self-assured style, and had no intention of pandering to or appeasing any social emotions.
When someone asked him, "Is it worth it to spend so much money just to have a meal with Buffett...?" Duan Yongping replied angrily at that time: "I am not taking the matter of eating with Buffett as a business, I just want to give him a show for the old man's home, to tell the world that his old man's things are really valuable, he is not short of this money, I am not for this meal, not like some people imagine that I want to go to him to ask for a secret recipe, a good idea, which day to take a look, you can make a fortune, this is all nonsense, I just think it is fun." "Because he eats with Buffett and Buffett out of his own pocket is his usual pie."
<h3>Five</h3>
In 2012, when Apple's market value was about $300 billion, many OV employees and Duan Yongping together bottomed out Apple stock. At that time, he also said humorously and humorously: "Or OV bosses, while the product imitates the Apple style, while buying Apple stock, let Apple help you make money a few times." ”
Smart people are trying to make money while buying shares from competitors. In this way, even if you hang up at home, you can also make money from the opponent's stock, of course, this premise is that the stock you choose has room to rise is very important. At this point, Duan Yongping was indeed much smarter than Jia Yueting.
Vanke is a stock that Duan Yongping bought in the Chinese market, Duan Yongping has known Wang Shi for a long time, Duan Yongping asked Wang Shi to come out to chat, and when they first met, Wang Shi was slightly nervous. Duan Yongping smiled and said to Wang Shi: "You don't have to be nervous, I won't ask you how your performance is this quarter, I just want to talk to you about corporate governance and corporate culture." These are the "inside information" that Duan Yongping believes is the most useful investment, in his own words, the future performance of a company can not be asked, the key is to feel the managers of this company, to feel their philosophy of doing business, in order to further determine whether this company has the potential to invest.
Duan Yongping's investment philosophy is very simple, that is, a sentence: "Buying a company is buying a company's future cash flow discount." Duan Yongping's investment style is a bit like zeng guofan's "hard village, fight a stupid battle" method, the business model of the investment enterprise should be high, and the future development of the enterprise should be far-sighted. NetEase, which was invested before, and Maotai and Apple, which are now invested, are all manifestations of this investment style.
At that time, Apple and Tencent's WeChat public account tipping problem was very unpleasant, when someone asked him: "What do you think of apple and Tencent's weChat public account tipping problem?" He replied: "I kind of don't understand why Apple is doing this, nor do I understand Tencent's response. It seems that they are not considered from the user's point of view, and good companies sometimes make bad moves."
<h3>Six</h3>
If there is indeed a preset track in everyone's social role, Duan Yongping will often be the one who suddenly deviates from the track and lays another track on his own. It should be said that Duan Yongping believes that "self-feeling" and "happiness" are the most important things in a person's life.
When someone asked him: "When you have the wealth of a country that is rich and invincible, the external things are the evaluation of you by outsiders, but do you feel very happy yourself?" When asked questions like that, he always smiled and replied, "A happy life is the greatest wealth, I have seen too many examples, many people become unhappy because they have money, and I personally think that it is stupid if a rich person is unhappy because of money." 」
To this day, Duan Yongping said that he had long since stopped asking about domestic affairs, and that when he returned to China two or three times a year, he was looking for Chen Mingyong to play with them and did not talk about business. It is said that several companies still retain the position of chairman for Duan Yongping, and when they hear that Duan Duan is coming, they will respectfully call "chairman".
Three years ago, a magazine interviewed Chen Mingyong and asked him to talk about Duan Yongping, and he said: "After he comes back, we will chat and play together, but it is limited to entertainment." Ah Duan has said a lot of things, one of which is that this matter is entrusted to you; If you don't do it well, you will do another thing, and you will shut down the enterprise well; Don't expect me to do anything more, I'm long gone. ”
Although Duan Yongping has been away from this "jianghu" for a long time, the "jianghu" still has his legend.
This article is written by Wang Xiaolou
Source: Lu Songsong blog, welcome to share