If you mention the "glass king", Cao Dewang's name has long been a household name. He is the founder of Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd., and many people call him "the first person in Chinese glass".
This statement is not an exaggeration, because nine out of ten pieces of glass of all the speeding cars on the street are from Fuyao Glass.
Cao Dewang is not only a successful businessman, but also a well-known good man. Before the establishment of Fuyao Glass Group, he had already started charity, and so far the cumulative personal donations have exceeded 15 billion yuan, and it was also rated as the "first good" in 2010.
But on March 17 of the previous year, Fuyao Glass, the champion of the glass industry, was overtaken by the unknown Xinyi Glass.
According to the financial report at that time, Xinyi Glass's annual revenue in 2021 was 30459 Hong Kong dollars (about 247.)600 million yuan), net profit of 115HK$71 (about HK$94.)0.6 billion RMB);Fuyao Glass's annual revenue is only 2360.3 billion yuan, net profit of 314.6 billion RMB.
This time, it is the first time that the obscure "second" Xinyi Glass has surpassed Fuyao Glass in terms of revenue, and the first victory is to surpass the net profit by nearly 3 times.
Li Xianyi, the founder of Xinyi Glass, also doubled his worth because of the growth of revenue, and crushed Cao Dewang with a net worth of 51 billion yuan to Cao Dewang of 24.5 billion yuan on the Hurun rich list.
makes people call this Li Xianyi too deep.
Who is Lee Hyun Yi?Most people have never heard of it. 2009 was the year when his name appeared most on the Internet, because that year, his second son Li Shenggen married the tennis champion beauty Yan Zi, so netizens knew Li Xianyi's name by the way.
And Xinyi glass has been covered by the light of Fuyao glass for a long time, just when everyone thought that Cao Dewang was firmly sitting on the "Iron Throne", Li Xianyi riveted the car and became a new generation of "glass king".
Coincidentally, these two "bigwigs" in the glass industry are both from Fujian. But as fellow villagers, they have very different personalities.
Cao Dewang once said that he was not so smart, he could only concentrate on one thing, so Fuyao Glass specialized in automotive glass;And Li Xianyi also said that he was not smart, so he was afraid that he would not be able to do anything, so he would simply do a few more. In addition to automotive glass, he also does photovoltaic glass and method glass. Not only engaged in glass, but also engaged in energy, power storage, solar energy, holding 4 listed companies.
It is these two "not very smart" entrepreneurs, but they are the well-deserved leaders in the glass industry. The two of them also jointly won China's first anti-dumping case against the United States, and they are also enemies and friends, so let's review the completely different entrepreneurial paths of these two entrepreneurs.
"Don't call me a rich man, I'm just an agricultural entrepreneur. ”
"I don't do four things: don't do real estate, don't do finance, don't do the Internet, and don't do coal mines. These money-making industries are the vampires of society, and I just want to contribute to China's manufacturing industry. ”
In May 2021, Cao Dewang spent 10 billion yuan to build Fuyao University of Science and Technology. He is worth 24.5 billion yuan, and he has donated one of himself one after another. He loved glass, and he loved charity.
Cao Dewang was born in Shanghai in 1946, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth.
His father, Cao Heren, was a business tycoon in Shanghai, opened a company, and was one of the shareholders of Shanghai Yongan Department Store at that time, and his great-grandfather was also the richest man in Fuqing City, Fujian Province. That is also a proper "rich fourth generation".
He was supposed to be a handsome boy in Shanghai, but unfortunately the golden spoon broke before he could scoop a mouthful of soup.
In the year he was born, the war spread to Shanghai. At that time, many wealthy people in Shanghai went to Hong Kong or abroad with their families to avoid the smoke of gunpowder, and the Cao family was naturally no exception, but they chose to return to their hometown in Fujian.
is as rich as the Cao family, and the family's property cannot be pulled back to Fujian by people, so Cao Heren bought a freighter specifically for pulling Li Li.
But unfortunately, as soon as the freighter left Shanghai, it was attacked by a storm at sea. All the belongings sank to the bottom of the sea with the freighter, but fortunately, the people were safe.
In an instant, the Cao family changed from a wealthy family to an ordinary commoner. Cao's mother was originally a Jinhua in Shanghai, a woman who loved beauty, and sold all the gold and silver jewelry on her body in order to subsidize her family.
The Cao family took the money and wanted to build a house in Fuqing, but halfway through the construction of the house, they encountered the Kuomintang army arresting strong men everywhere, and this arrest took away several workers who built houses.
The house was not built, and the workers' families came to the door every day to find Cao Heren ** and ask for compensation, Cao Heren was annoyed and couldn't stand it, so he ran back to Shanghai. He also decided that he wanted to make a comeback in Shanghai. It's just that the past is different from the past, and Cao Heren's dream of a comeback has also been shattered.
The Cao family has no pillars, leaving only Cao's mother alone to pull six children to grow up. All the family income can only depend on the mother to farm, and they are often hungry. Sometimes, when she was so hungry that she couldn't stand it, her mother would call the children out into the yard to sing, and then take out a few bowls of rice soup, and a few people would pour them into their stomachs.
Cao Dewang is very young but has already suffered a lot, and he has formed a concept in his mind very early: I want to make money!
Once, when he saw his neighbor eating fish, he ran up to ask and learned that it was fish from the commune farm. Little Cao Dewang also found that as soon as it rained, a lot of fish would rush out of the commune farm, so he had a bad idea in his head.
Little Cao Dewang actually dug a canal by himself to intercept the water released from the reservoir and send it to the commune's farm. As long as it rains, he can catch a few hundred catties of fish at a time.
At that time, I was young and had no concept of the rules. Later, he was also reprimanded by his mother, and he knew that it was not good, so he never did it when he broke the rules in business.
In the years that followed, he sold tobacco, fruits, white fungus unique to Fujian, and even repaired bicycles.
Doing these small businesses did not make Cao Dewang prosperous, but it became a turning point in his life when he entered the factory.
The year he went to the construction site, Cao Dewang's first child was born, so he worked harder than others on the construction site.
At first, he was engaged in pulling soil, and used a board truck to load half squatting soil to pull more than 30 kilometers every day. It was repeated for three days, and the barracks at the construction site caught fire.
Many of the workers' supplies and carts were burned, so they surrounded the instructor and demanded compensation. Just when the instructor was at a loss, Cao Dewang, who was in his twenties, stood up: "Don't worry, I'll repair the cart for you." ”
Cao Dewang had repaired bicycles before, but he hadn't repaired board bikes. But he took it down with a hard head, and it was a big deal to repair the board car as a bicycle.
So he built a garage by himself at the edge of the camp, and helped the workers repair the carts while groping.
A month later, the compensation for the fire was sent above, and Cao Dewang also repaired dozens of board cars one after another.
When the workers came to collect the money, the instructor found that there was one person missing, and it was Cao Dewang. This stupid boy doesn't want any money, and he still stays in the garage to repair the car in a disgraced manner.
In the end, the instructor was very moved, and he personally sent the compensation money over. and gave all the remaining food stamps and cloth stamps to Cao Dewang.
Afterwards, Cao Dewang sold all these large food stamps and cloth stamps, and sold more than 1,000 yuan. In those days, more than 1,000 yuan was a lot of money, and other workers only received a few dozen.
After that, the instructor also found Cao Dewang a job as a cook, and Cao Dewang worked comfortably for more than two years until the end of the construction project.
In the summer of 1972, 26-year-old Cao Dewang was sitting under a big tree and taking a nap when a strange middle-aged man asked him to borrow water to drink. Cao Dewang didn't think much about it, went to the house to make a refreshing cup of herbal tea, and the two hit it off under the tree and talked for an afternoon. Afterwards he left him for dinner.
And this person was the director of the farm next door, and he admired Cao Dewang's eloquence and clear mind.
During the Spring Festival of the second year, Director Wang sent a large number of New Year's goods to the Cao family quietly, and two copies of chicken, duck and fish were specially sent. Cao Dewang was very moved, so Cao Dewang left the farm where he stayed before and went to Wang Changchang to become a salesman.
This work is three years, and I earned a full 60,000 yuan. He once said in his book "The Heart is Like Bodhi" that there was no concept of depositing money in the bank at that time, and he could only hide the money under the bed. And the maximum face value of the RMB was only 10 yuan, and the 60,000 yuan covered a mattress.
After that, Cao Dewang set his sights on the water meter glass and went to work in a glass factory.
At the beginning of 1983, the first document was issued: Individuals are encouraged to contract township enterprises, and practice is the only criterion for testing the truth.
This woke up Cao Dewang, who had been losing money for six years in the glass factory he was in. Six field directors have been changed in six years, all of which have been to no avail, and it is undoubtedly a "hot potato." ”
And Cao Dewang was not afraid, as an employee, he spent 60,000 yuan to buy this "hot potato". Just when many people were about to see him laugh, he used two tricks to bring the glass factory back to life in a short period of time.
First of all, he broke the production system of the factory's big pot rice, and paid the workers according to the piecework method, which improved the enthusiasm of the workers.
Then, he changed the industry standard of glass water meters, and he repeatedly went to Beijing to get the higher authorities to agree to the standards of glass water meters. As soon as the standard came up, Cao Dewang's glass was sold. At its peak, he occupied ninety percent of the country's market.
Less than a year after taking over, the glass factory came back to life and earned 220,000 yuan.
Just as he was about to show his strength, his partners said they would quit. They feel that they can make money now because they have eaten the benefits of the policy, and they will definitely lose money in the future, so they want to divide the money early and disperse.
Cao Dewang almost gave up the glass under the persuasion of everyone.
It wasn't until he went on a trip with his mother that he bought her a cane. When he took the taxi, the driver reminded him to be careful, you can't afford to break the glass with a crutch.
These words lit up Cao Dewang, and he thought to himself how much money can a Mazda car glass cost?
As a result, the driver told him that the glass was imported, and it cost six or seven thousand to change it.
Cao Dewang was stupid when he heard this, no one knows glass better than him, how could glass get so much money so quickly.
After getting out of the car, Cao Dewang immediately went to study, it turned out that China's automotive glass was imported from Japan at that time, and the transportation was long, time-consuming, and expensive.
So Cao Dewang immediately decided to make China's own automotive glass, so that ordinary people can use strong and affordable glass.
Just do it, Cao Dewang went to Shanghai to contact technology, and returned to his hometown to persuade ** to build a factory. From getting the drawings, the machine, to the construction of the factory, and then to the first piece of automotive glass, it only took him eight months.
He only sold a piece of auto glass for 1,000 yuan, which instantly reversed the domestic auto glass market.
Cao Dewang's success attracted many people's eyes, and Cao Dewang was invited to tea by the secretary of the county party committee, so he decided to leave the county and set up a glass factory elsewhere.
At the end of 1986, the output value of the glass factory was close to 6 million.
In 1987, China's first.
1. Fuyao Glass Group, the world's second largest automotive glass manufacturer, was formally established.
Later, Cao Dewang also opened factories in the United States, and the company invested by the Obamas made a documentary "American Factory". The film won the 29th Best Documentary, which tells the story of Cao Dewang's factory in the United States.
At its most brilliant, even the road in front of the factory was renamed Fuyao Street.
Together with his son Cao Hui, he also won the first anti-dumping case after China's entry into the market, becoming the first person in China to do anti-dumping. During this period, it took him four years, spent hundreds of millions of yuan, and set up an antidumping investigation and research center at the University of International Business and Economics for this purpose, and only then did he win this arduous tug-of-war.
I want to win, not for money, I want to fight for Chinese enterprises!”
After that, Cao Dewang made money with one hand and gave with the other. Fuyao Glass has also been the king of glass for many years, and his blessing and dazzling have also run through his life.
He is a high-profile philanthropist, and he still does not forget his original intention in the face of many people's doubts.
In the face of such a dazzling and legendary Cao Dewang, someone actually overtook the car in secret, who is he?
The story about Li Xianyi is not as full as Cao Dewang. He has been low-key and down-to-earth all his life, unwilling to accept too many interviews, and silent about his deeds.
In 1952, Li Xianyi was born in Ziying Village, Yongning Town, Shishi, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, 4 years younger than Cao Dewang, he is the real grassroots background.
The family was poor, and in order to help the family subsidize the family, he poked school early in the morning. Fifteen-year-old Li Xianyi began to work as a coolie everywhere, pulling coal ash to grow crops, and other children are still learning in the classroom, he is already a "little adult".
His excellence was also recognized, and the brigade gave him a job driving a tractor. Don't underestimate driving a tractor, at that time, it was a decent and honorable job.
Li Xianyi also lived up to expectations, even if he sat on this tractor for seven years, he did not make a mistake in seven years.
But this small tractor has long been unable to hold Li Xianyi's heart, at the time of reform and opening up, Li Xianyi also wanted to do a career. So he gritted his teeth and bought a new tractor, and shouted that the rest of the village would form a convoy together. The team made a lot of money, but Li Xianyi suddenly ran away to Hong Kong.
In 1982, Li Xianyi went to Hong Kong alone, and he used the savings he had saved from driving for many years to open a small auto repair shop. In fact, it can't be talked about small, and he has a total of employees under him.
At that time, he didn't know much, and many times he was crossing the river by feeling the stones.
In 1983, after the reform and opening up, Shenzhou, which was across the sea, suddenly became the most popular place for entrepreneurship. Li Xianyi closed the auto repair shop and came directly to Longgang, Shenzhou. He came to Shenzhen this time to engage in glass.
When he opened an auto repair shop, he found that China's auto glass mainly relied on imports, and it cost thousands of yuan to import dozens of raw materials, and he smelled the business opportunities almost at the same time as Cao Dewang.
At that time, Li Xianyi enjoyed some dividends because of his status as a Hong Kong businessman and saved a lot of money.
But he also prepared for four or five years to prepare for the glass factory.
In the end, he chose the village of Liuyue Niushipu and opened up his "glass kingdom" here.
At this time, the scale of the first generation of Xinyi Glass was not large, and there were only about 100 people in total, many of whom were their relatives. At that time, the conditions were not good, Li Xianyi and his employees stayed in the hot factory every day, sweating one by one.
External difficulties can be overcome, but Li Xianyi's biggest headache is that there were no professional technicians at that time. The production work can only rely on themselves and their employees to learn and explore, and after countless trial and error, they finally produced their first piece of automotive glass that meets the specifications. At the same time, Cao Dewang's Fuyao glass has begun to sell well.
Li Xianyi was not discouraged, he did not choose to go head-to-head with Cao Dewang, but chose another track to replace the glass.
When Xinyi became bigger and bigger, Li Xianyi began to take a diversified route and began to engage in float glass and photovoltaic glass. Automotive glass can't compare to Cao Dewang, but in float glass and photovoltaic glass, Li Xianyi has been silently dominant.
Li Xianyi has always adhered to the belief that quality and integrity are the foundation of business.
Cao Dewang chose to open the factory to the United States, while Li Xianyi chose to open it to Canada.
In 2001, the United States and Canada sued 15 companies for violating anti-dumping policies, including Xinyi Glass and Fuyao Glass.
Cao Dewang won this battle vigorously, and Li Xianyi also made great efforts behind the scenes, according to statistics, there were more than 200 catties of internal information and evidence printed into multiple texts by Li Xianyi himself.
This is not an ordinary battle, not only interests, but also national dignity and the mission on our shoulders.
After that, the low-key Li Xianyi also won Fuyao Glass with three times the revenue in 2021 and became a new generation of "glass king". At the same time, like Cao Dewang, he often does charity and donations.
Cao Dewang and Li Xianyi have very different personalities and business plans, but they are both winners. For them, it doesn't matter who is first or second, it is important that China has its own glass.
Who is the real "glass king" in your heart?