Text |Shengma Finance Xu Chuan.Not long after it was revealed that he was hospitalized due to illness, Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, unfortunately bid farewell to this world.Edit |Ouyang Wen.
Shengma Finance learned that Wahaha issued an obituary on February 25: Comrade Zong Qinghou, founder and chairman of Wahaha Group, died at 10:30 on February 25, 2024 at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Zong Qinghou is a legend, not only because he has been on the domestic rich list many times, but also because he founded a national brand that has stood tall in the domestic market for decades, and as an outstanding entrepreneur, he has not only achieved outstanding achievements in the Chinese food industry, but also won a reputation in the international business arena.
The Wahaha Group, which he founded, has become a leader in China's food and beverage industry, and its products are exported to the world. Mr. Zong Qinghou has been committed to promoting enterprise innovation and sustainable development, and has set an example for private enterprises in China.
With the death of Zong Qinghou, the burden of Wahaha Group's development will undoubtedly be transferred to the shoulders of his daughter Zong Fuli, and whether the second generation of the company, who was recently promoted to the general manager of the group, can take over smoothly will undoubtedly become the focus of attention from all walks of life.
A model of self-made private enterprisesMany entrepreneurs will claim that they have never relied on external forces and completely relied on personal hard work after making their careers, but Zong Qinghou's struggle is a real "self-made".
On October 12, 1945, Zong Qinghou was born in East Street, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, in 1963, in order to reduce the burden on the family, Zong Qinghou, who graduated from junior high school, went to a farm in Zhoushan to dig salt, dry salt, and pick salt on the beach; A few years later, he went to a tea farm in Shaoxing, planting tea, cutting rice, and firing kilns. Stayed in the countryside for 15 years.
Zong Qinghou went through hard work, cultivated a tenacious will, and also laid the foundation for future business struggle. He returned to Hangzhou in 1978 and became a worker, and through his own efforts and deep understanding of the market, he contracted the distribution department of the school-run enterprise in Shangcheng District in 1987 and started his own business.
Zong Qinghou started from a small business through the distribution department of the contracted enterprise, gradually expanded the scope of business, and developed products such as Wahaha children's nutrition solution.
According to his own statement: "At first, there were only me and two retired teachers in the distribution department, and the start-up fee was 40,000 yuan, and the remaining 140,000 yuan were loans, and we had to make money to repay." The profit target set by the leader for us that year is 40,000 yuan.
At that time, the profit of the entire school-run enterprise was only a few thousand yuan, but I said that I promised to hand over 100,000 yuan. Before I worked as a supply and marketing clerk in a school-run factory, pasted cardboard boxes, sold electric meters and fans, and worked at the bottom for nearly 10 years, I understand the market, so I have confidence.
We started with a small business, providing stationery, paper and other daily necessities to various schools, and later selling and processing pollen oral liquid to others. A year later, we took out the report card and handed over the profit of 2220,000 yuan. ”
With keen market insight and attention to products, Zong Qinghou has successfully established brand awareness in the market. In the operation, he tried his best to achieve a key step in Wahaha's large-scale operation by acquiring the Hangzhou canning factory.
In the process of development, Zong Qinghou also showed his commitment to social responsibility, and demonstrated his sense of responsibility to the country and society through practical actions such as counterpart assistance to poor areas in the western region.
Zong Qinghou's innovation in management and adherence to the concept of the main business have gradually developed Wahaha from a small enterprise to a large enterprise with more than 80 production bases across the country. He emphasized that through his own development, he will drive the local economy, invest in poverty-stricken areas, actively participate in social responsibility, and make positive contributions to social harmony and sustainable development of enterprises.
* The problem has become the focus of Zong Qinghou's death, the first is the first generation of the company's ** problem, in fact, how to cultivate the first generation of founders of private enterprises to smoothly achieve the transition of corporate control has always been a hot topic in the domestic business community.
At present, with the age of some private entrepreneurs who have started businesses since the reform and opening up, and their descendants have gradually completed their studies and begun to enter the society, many private enterprises have begun to enter the peak period of "handing over". These second-generation private entrepreneurs, who were born with golden keys, began to face tremendous pressure brought by the exchange. Whether they can successfully hand over the economy will determine to a certain extent the healthy and sustainable development of China's private economy and the transformation of economic development mode.
In 2018, Zong Fuli, the daughter of Zong Qinghou, served as the head of the brand public relations department of Wahaha Group, which marked Zong Fuli's entry into Wahaha's management.
In 2020, Zong Fuli concurrently served as the deputy general manager of Wahaha Group Sales Company. In 2021, Wahaha officially announced that Zong Qinghou's daughter Zong Fuli will be the vice chairman and general manager of Wahaha Group, responsible for daily work, and Zong Qinghou will still serve as the chairman of Wahaha Group.
Regarding Zong Fuli's daily work in Wahaha, Zong Qinghou has affirmed in public many times, "I think she has done a good job." ”
It is worth mentioning that after taking over the management of Wahaha, Zong Fuli once caused a lot of controversy by replacing Wang Leehom, who has endorsed Wahaha for more than 20 years, and many consumers think that Zong Fuli is "unloading the mill and killing the donkey". However, after that, because Wang Leehom himself was in a deep emotional and moral crisis, it detonated, the star halo disappeared, and Zong Fuli's decision to change the spokesperson was regarded as "prescient".
The last time the father and daughter appeared on the same stage was in December 2023, at the Wahaha National Sales Work Conference, Zong Qinghou and Zong Fuli attended the meeting together. At the meeting, Zong Fuli, as the general manager, presided over the meeting.
In a previous interview with **, Zong Fuli said that she doesn't mind others calling herself the second generation, she feels that the new generation of Zhejiang businessmen should not deny the past, "Standing on the shoulders of giants, the most important thing is to make yourself smaller, do a good job in the enterprise, don't think too much, be down-to-earth, and do what you should do." ”
According to the summary article of the 2023 Annual Summary and Commendation Conference released by Wahaha's official ***, Zong Fuli said in her summary and analysis of the group's business development that the company's development is at a critical juncture of transformation and upgrading, and it is facing many challenges and problems. She emphasized that only by continuous improvement and innovation, and finding the correct positioning and advantages in the overall market situation, can enterprises strive to forge a new path in high-quality development.
With the dismal death of Zong Qinghou, a new challenge for Wahaha Group has also arrived, and Zong Fuli has also ushered in a real test.