"One is to dare to be the first and not forget the original intention, the second is to change and innovate and keep pace with the times, the third is to transform and upgrade, and the fourth is to operate globally."
Source | China Entrepreneur Club
On October 26, 2021, a new book tasting meeting with the theme of "All Things Are Born - Reading Made in China in the Wave of Globalization from TCL" and "All Things Are Born – TCL Dares to Be 40 Years" was held at Yue Art Museum. "All Things Are Born - TCL Dares to Be 40 Years" is the official enterprise growth and record history officially released on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of TCL enterprises, and is the history of TCL's entrepreneurial development through the full cycle of reform and opening up.
Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL, brought two authors of "All Things Born - TCL Dares to Be 40 Years", Qin Shuo, an observer of humanities and finance, and Qi Dezhi, a senior media person, to attend the new book tasting meeting. Other guests attending the book tasting session included: writer and founder of One Way Space Xu Zhiyuan, senior media person and director of "Detailed Talk" Li Xiang, Founder and CEO of Huigu Family Chen Ting, President of CITIC Publishing Group Commercial Company Shen Jiale, Director and General Manager of Hanlinhui Information Industry Co., Ltd. Yang Lianqi, Vice President and Director of TCL Technology Group Fu Heping and COO Wang Cheng. Guests from all walks of life and the audience enjoyed the new book and discussed the international environment and the environmental issues that Chinese enterprises may face.
In the roundtable dialogue session, Li Dongsheng, Qin Shuo, Xu Zhiyuan and Li Xiang shared what opportunities and challenges are China's manufacturing industry facing in the current global change environment on the topic of "The Road to China's Manufacturing under the Global Great Change"? "All Things Are Born - TCL Dares to Be 40 Years", a book that records the history of TCL enterprises in 40 years of entrepreneurial development, what value can it bring to China's manufacturing industry? The following is the content of the roundtable session:
Moderator: When we talk about the great changes in the whole world, first of all, I would like to ask the guests to share, what challenges and opportunities do you think the current global changes have brought to China's manufacturing industry? First of all, please ask Li Dong to share your views with us.
Li Dongsheng: In the global changes, China's manufacturing industry has challenges and opportunities. The restructuring of the global industrial structure and the changes in investment and trade rules have brought us challenges. From the perspective of product and commodity flows, if Chinese enterprises still export products, the market may become smaller and smaller, and most countries have relatively high tariffs on product imports.
In addition, in recent years, the United States has taken a lead and raised additional taxes on China, which actually has an impact on other countries, including The markets of Europe and other major countries. They didn't follow the U.S. to raise taxes on China alone, but they did do so in different ways by increasing barriers for Chinese goods to enter their markets.
This change is the global operating environment facing China's manufacturing industry, and we must change our business models to adapt to this change. For TCL, we want to deepen the industrial chain and supply chain to the world, which is also the direction we have been working hard to do for more than a decade.
Li Dongsheng also said in his speech: "TCL's 40 years of development has experienced the whole process of reform and opening up, and the most critical factor that can come to this day is the gene of change and innovation. This enables TCL to seize opportunities and stand at the forefront of China's economic development at every stage of its economic development. In addition, he also elaborated on TCL's "dare to be": "One is to dare to be the first, not to forget the original intention, the second is to change and innovate, to keep pace with the times, the third is to transform and upgrade, and the fourth is to operate globally." ”
▲Li Dongsheng | Director of China Entrepreneur Club, founder and chairman of TCL
Moderator: I would like to ask Mr. Qin Shuo, how do you think about the challenges faced by Chinese enterprises under the current great changes, and where are its opportunities?
Qin Shuo: After decades of experience, China's manufacturing industry has formed its own unique competitive advantage, and this competitive advantage is unlikely to be replaced by emerging manufacturing countries such as Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia and so on in a short period of time. Now the problem is that there are many markets in the world that want to block Chinese manufacturing from entering them with the export model, and at this time, Chinese manufacturing faces two choices: the first choice, since others block you, I simply do not go. Second, inspire us to integrate further into the world.
If you only look at the blocking side, you can see the "double reverse", you can see the imposition of tariffs, and you can even reduce the tax exemption amount to a very low, such as $3, and your clothing can no longer go in. So from that point of view, there will be a lot of obstruction.
But at this time, you must change your thinking, if you only use the local market as a sales export, you can't create more value for the local area, why do others welcome you? So this direction can only be to go further.
In the process of going out, we can also use global resources to improve ourselves in turn. We now always say that our workers are industrious, hard-working, intelligent, disciplined, and easy to control. But in fact, I recently started to do research, foreign workers are not as we think as this can not work, that does not work, they also have good places, their things once stimulated, can also help us. In other words, let the global resources be used by me, improve myself, and find a helping point in all aspects, the key is to adjust the mentality, integrate with the world, and overcome the difficulties and confusions and difficulties in this process, only in this way, we can eventually go to the world and be accepted by the world.
Host: So, do you think that as far as you just talked about, are Chinese enterprises more difficult than opportunities, or are there more opportunities than difficulties?
Qin Shuo: For those who go out and have already experienced a period of experience, there must be opportunities greater than challenges. I just asked Li Dong that TCL's overseas sales have accounted for 52%, and the proportion of profits may be higher. After going through the experience, going out, making efforts, and now starting to start the latecomer advantage is slowly rising. Some emerging cross-border e-commerce companies have also done a very good job overseas.
But until now, I have not made preparations, and now to find a way, I have to pay a lot of tuition, there are many many adaptations, there are many difficulties. But I think this type of enterprise also has to go out, why? Because capacity requires you to go out. What to do? I think it's important to learn from companies like TCL that have already learned lessons and have a good model, and that's the point of this book.
Moderator: Okay, thank you. Teacher Li Xiang, the 270,000 words of this book are the most concerned about you, including the field where the enterprise goes global just said by Teacher Qin Shuo, which link of cross-border e-commerce or enterprise industry chain, which area is your most optimistic field in the global environment of great changes?
Li Xiang: From the perspective of an ambitious company, whether there is a so-called global change or not, it is inevitable to use global resources to go to the global market. Because the reason is very simple, I remember the first two years when we did a simple comparison, China's leading companies, in the industry if you compare the leading companies in the United States, including European companies, our market value is basically only one-fifth to one-third of the other side, the reason is very simple, because China's local leading enterprises, like Alibaba, Tencent, to the old manufacturing enterprises, very simple, you use one-fifth of the world's human resources, occupying a market of more than one billion people, The United States uses global human resources, global patents, and global markets. I mean, whether there is a global change or not, for an ambitious entrepreneur, he must go global, use global resources, and sell his products to the global market.
Back to this book, because I may be more from the perspective of the industry and enterprises, there are a lot of interesting things in it. Like what's the first one? Today's TCL is very different from 30 years ago, 40 years ago, but at least it started from consumer electronics, which is a very leading consumer electronics brand in China. But consumer electronics stands in the world, it is very cool, because of 2C, but it is very cruel.
The book also mentions that the first generation of consumer electronics companies that we are very familiar with are all American companies, including when Jobs founded Apple, one of the role models or idols was Japan's Sony, when Sony was the world's leading consumer electronics company. I also know that when many Chinese entrepreneurs started their own businesses, they used Sony as a role model to learn from. But you see very fast, and then Samsung, Apple began to renovate, including today's China's Huawei, oppo, vivo and other products out, a consumer electronics in the rapid change, you have to keep evergreen, TCL to do 40 years, in fact, is very, very difficult things, or you are on the heavens, such as user insight, user grasp to be very in place, always able to make to meet the needs of users very cool products, early like Sony to do whether it is TV or Walkman, This includes Apple's iPhone, including China's leading mobile consumer electronics company. TCL is very interesting, I understand is "into the ground", to the depth of the industrial chain, with a lot of determination, a lot of cost to do the panel, because to go to the depth of the industrial chain, I think this is not only today's new consumer electronics companies (mobile phones), to the future whether it is Vietnam, India's enterprises, if you want to maintain an evergreen posture, not to be overwhelmed by the tide, are very instructive.
The second point that Teacher Qin and Li Dong just talked about is the strategic choice of internationalization. Today, there are two paths to choose, one is TCL's merger and acquisition of France's Thomson, with the help of the old brand and old channels, into the global market, into the terminal, into the brand. Another path has also appeared today, and some companies are going out step by step with the help of their own brands. In fact, you see Huawei, Oppo, VIVO, Xiaomi are like this. Next, when we look at new companies, will they choose to copy the short path of globalization through mergers and acquisitions? There are many methods, experiences, and lessons of TCL, whether it is the fruit picked or the pit that falls, they are all references.
The third point is that if we talk about Made in China, it is actually very obvious, we have a very obvious path choice from reform and opening up to now, which is the same. So far so far as it is still on the card table, whether it is a product enterprise, a brand enterprise, a manufacturing enterprise, as long as it is still on the card table, just like TCL made a particularly big determination to enter the panel industry, Teacher Qin called it "high investment, high risk" is a very heavy field, if you do not do such a thing, we can see a lot, you see the manufacturing enterprises that have won the so-called superficial victory, and today they can't see it at all.
In short, this is the case, at least in these three aspects: the path choice of consumer electronics companies, the path choice of entering the global market, and the path choice of a company, which can be learned from TCL's 40-year history. Thank you!
Host: Just now when Teacher Li Xiang talked about facing the global market, it may be the big change situation that we are currently in, I don't know what Teacher Xu thinks?
Xu Zhiyuan: I think of 2003 and 2004, when I was with Li Xiang in the Economic Observer, and I went to Huizhou to interview Mr. Li, a young journalist who had just graduated. China was full of ambitions to catch up with the world, when China joined the WTO and even football was played in the World Cup. China just began to want to embrace the world, everyone wants to be world-class, world-class benchmarks come from the United States, every industry has the desire to become world-class, TCL was the leading Chinese manufacturing enterprise at that time.
Teacher Qin Shuo first started doing "South Wind Window", and he definitely wanted to become a magazine like Economist. We do the Economic Observer, we want to be the Financial Times, and every industry is inspired by that ambition. There seems to be a lot of referenced systems ahead.
I remember going to the Pearl River Delta, Huizhou, Huizhou has a very beautiful West Lake, Huizhou is also a story full of past globalization, because in the Huizhou Uprising in 1900, the first internationalist Japanese friend who died died in Huizhou, it was a revolution, it was a global story.
On my first trip to Vietnam in 2005, to Hanoi, I was delighted to find that there was a TCL advertisement on a dilapidated house or a corner of a street. When you go out looking for some kind of identity, you always see Samsung, you always see these billboards in Japan is very irritable, you suddenly see TCL is very happy, then you realize that globalization is a diverse language.
20 years ago everyone was talking about the power of softness, hard power is difficult to really win the trust of others, after 20 years of rapid growth, China's expansion is beyond anyone's imagination. In 2003, Mr. Li told me about Jack Welch that we would not have imagined that Chinese companies would one day become so huge, which was completely beyond our imagination.
But at the same time, we also found that if you want to really become a world brand and win the respect of the people of the world, you need not only the seemingly huge scale of power, but also a lot of power, a lot of narrative, and constant mutual understanding and communication with people, I think that kind of tolerance, a sharper insight into the world, like I just said, because I am very excited to read the book, I feel that TCL is inserted in various parts of the world.
In the face of such great changes in the world, (locals) they carry their former heritage, with their own heritage and pride, how do Chinese enterprises face all this, all this is not only the acquisition of Chinese enterprises, it should be our own country, or this society to obtain a new cultural wealth, spiritual wealth. If you really visit all this and paint a specific experience, it's very interesting, a great business, not only a great profit-making company, but also a place where anthropologists, sociologists, writers, documentary filmmakers can gather, this story can become a broader Global Story, and when this Global Story comes out, I think all of our industries will become interesting, fascinating, and everyone will not feel isolated. I felt like it was going to turn into a new huge story. In fact, I am very much looking forward to it, because this is 40 years, and China's 40 years of wealth accumulation, which may be rare in history, may be compared to the "Gilded Age" of the United States.
In the next 10, 20, 40 years, will we be able to turn this story into a richer global story? We look at the global perspective, in the pursuit of profit, scale, there is a richer perspective, this is the new global story I am very much looking forward to.
Conclusion: The publication of the book "All Things Live" is not only a wonderful presentation of a documentary biography of an enterprise, but also a wave of globalization, reflecting how China's manufacturing industry is constantly changing, constantly adapting to the international environment, and constantly adapting to the international environment.
Since the release of the new book "Everything Is Born - TCL Dare for 40 Years", it is selling well on the whole network and has reached the top of the multi-platform list. It has topped the Jingdong bestseller list and the new book list, and also topped the list of new books and new book management of Dangdang. A number of outstanding achievements at the first place reflect the book "All Things Are Born", which has received great attention and recognition among experts and ordinary readers from all walks of life inside and outside the industry.
Bai Chongen, dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, commented on the book "All Things Are Born - TCL Dares to Be 40 Years": "The development of TCL reflects the growth process of Chinese enterprises in the era of reform and opening up. As the captain of TCL, Li Dongsheng is one of the representative figures of China's manufacturing entrepreneur group that grew up after the reform and opening up. "One Leaf Knows Autumn", "All Things Are Born" helps us better understand how Chinese enterprises are innovating themselves step by step in a fully competitive market environment and achieving staged growth. ”
Song Zhiping, president of the China Association of Listed Companies, said: "This book is not written as a successful history of enterprises and entrepreneurs, but reproduces the hardships and pains experienced by entrepreneurs in the process of enterprise growth, describes how an entrepreneur perseveres in the situation of repeated defeats and battles, and reproduces the phoenix nirvana and extraordinary reengineering of enterprises." ”
In addition, Wang Yusuo, founder and chairman of the board of directors of ENN Group, Ma Weihua, chairman of the National Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Guidance Fund and former president of China Merchants Bank, Chen Dongsheng, founder, chairman and CEO of Taikang Insurance Group, and Chen Chunhua, professor of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, have all jointly recommended this book, hoping that readers can read this history of enterprise development.