Dong Mingzhu is a very controversial and very individual entrepreneur.
Three years ago, Wang Jingdong, director, vice president and secretary of the board of directors of Gree, resigned, followed by another major personnel change in Gree. The resignation of Huang Hui, the CEO of Gree, known as "Dong Mingzhu's first person". Previously, Meng Yutong, a female ** who was "appointed", was also expelled.
Someone pointed the finger directly at Dong Mingzhu, saying that it was her "Iron Lady" whose fiery personality caused instability within the company.
Later, Dong Mingzhu responded domineeringly in an interview with **: "Everyone has their own goals and choices, but Gree is enterprise-centric, and anyone who can't serve the enterprise, or even causes destructiveness, must leave!."”
From an ordinary marketer to the world's top 500 female leader, Dong Mingzhu must have her own secret of success, Dong Mingzhu summed it up very simply: "Don't let 1% of people break the rules of 99% of people." ”
1. The ruthless past of the "Iron Lady".
Dong Mingzhu was 36 years old when he went south to Gree to do sales, and Gree had just turned losses into profits at that time, and it was a small factory with annual sales of about 20 million and only 20 salesmen.
The first problem she solved was to "collect debts" for the company. In fact, it was originally the job of the former salesman to clean up the loan, but Dong Mingzhu thought that since he had taken on this job, he had the responsibility to recover the 420,000 yuan of payment.
As the saying goes, "the one who owes money is the uncle", there is no connection, and the boss that the inexperienced Dong Mingzhu met is such a scoundrel who pays the bills: I still have tens of millions of goods in the warehouse, and no one says that I want to pay the account!In a word - no money will be refunded, and no money will be returned.
According to Dong Mingzhu's recollection, he just admitted death at that time, and surrounded the boss with a car for more than 40 days, and finally recovered the payment for the goods to make up for the company's losses. This beautiful battle made Zhu Jianghong, then chairman of Gree, pay attention to Dong Mingzhu.
But what Dong Mingzhu thought at this time was that the previous model of "goods before payment" must be changed, and "payment before goods, never on credit" must be established.
However, at that time, the consignment model of the entire industry was "goods before payment", and Dong Mingzhu's rule was established, and all dealers did not say a word and sent customers one after another.
Fortunately, Zhu Jianghong saw the importance of this rule and supported Dong Mingzhu very much. After experiencing the pain of hitting the wall again and again, I finally signed one order after another.
In 1992 alone, Dong Mingzhu's sales in Anhui reached 16 million yuan, accounting for 1 8 percent of Gree's sales. With the full implementation of Gree's "payment before delivery", the accounts receivable on the account have decreased sharply, and the collection of funds has become healthier.
To this day, non-payment is still a common phenomenon among companies. But since 1995, Gree's cash flow has always been positive under the leadership of Dong Mingzhu, and Gree has not had a penny of accounts receivable. This seems to have worked a "miracle".
2. Break off with the unruly brother for 20 years
In 2019, at the Gree induction conference, Dong Mingzhu told the story of his family tree being removed. Subsequently, "Dong Mingzhu refused to help his brother go through the back door and was kicked out of the family tree" directly on the hot search.
It was in 1995, Dong Mingzhu, who had just become the head of the business department, was in charge of the sales of Gree air conditioners. She directly faces hundreds of thousands of sellers across the country, and billions of dollars of annual payments with Gree dealers are all in her hands.
In the market background of short supply, dealers want to please this "God of Wealth", it can be said that as long as she has a little selfishness, a lot of benefits will be sent to the door. But Dong Mingzhu doesn't look at the world's human feelings at all, and the balance is never crooked.
Later, a dealer found her brother and promised to give him a 2% commission as long as his brother could help him get 30 million goods. Brother found Dong Mingzhu: Selling someone is not selling, and I don't want you to lower the price.
But Dong Mingzhu not only refused his brother's request, but also personally scolded the dealer.
From then on, he will no longer supply other goods. As a result, he received a "letter of renunciation" from his brother and removed her from the family tree. Since then, the brother and sister have not been in contact for more than 20 years.
Dong Mingzhu admitted that she was also very entangled at the time, but she knew that once she opened her brother's precedent, other dealers would follow suit, not to fight for competitiveness, but to fight for relationships. In the end, it was Gree's original rules and principles that were destroyed.
Without this insistence, Gree would not have ranked first in the country in terms of air conditioning production and sales, sales revenue, and market share in the 11 years since 1995. The so-called "no rules, no circle" is such a truth.
IIISticking to the principle of hegemony: breaking with the United States
The relationship between manufacturers and distributors has always been delicate. But a dealer commented on the best force: Selling Gree's goods is very simple, and I never have to bother to consider my own interests, because Dong Mingzhu will consider my interests and her interests in a balanced manner, and never let the interests of any of us suffer.
Gree's long-term close cooperation with various dealers is derived from Dong Mingzhu's "win-win" principle - the interests of both sides of the cooperation should be balanced. She once said stubbornly: Whoever violates the principle is my enemy!
In February 2004, Chengdu Gome privately reduced the price of Gree air conditioners. After Dong Mingzhu learned the news, she categorically broke with Gome, what she wanted was long-term and overall development interests - with Gome's status, its price reduction behavior would only hurt the interests of other dealers. Therefore, Dong Mingzhu categorically ordered: stop supplying to Gome.
This "win-win" principle has made Dong Mingzhu deeply trusted by dealers, and since then, Gree's sales have increased by an average of 30% per year, and the net profit has maintained a 15% increase.
For more than ten years, Dong Mingzhu has used this simplest but most iron-blooded trick to become the president of Gree Electric Appliances from the lowest marketer, and has been ranked among the top 50 global business women in Fortune magazine, and was named the 2006 CCTV China Economic Person of the Year.
IV. Conclusion
Huainanzi said: If the moment is not right, it cannot be square;If the rules are not correct, it cannot be round. Dong Mingzhu's consistent "iron fist" management has also cultivated the corporate culture of Gree people seeking truth and being pragmatic and respecting rules, which has become the cornerstone of Gree Electric Appliances to rank among the world's top 500.
Competitors described her as "the road she has walked, not a single inch of grass grows", and those "veterans" who tried to fish in troubled waters and lay on the "merit book" to eat their old books are obviously different from Dong Mingzhuzhi, and they can only ask for more blessings.