On the morning of February 28, it rained heavily at the Wahaha base in Hangzhou.
At the scene of Zong Qinghou's memorial service, people spontaneously came to mourn, and nearly 1,000 people gathered at the most. In front of the factory gate, there are wreaths, elegiac couplets, flowers, and even sacrifices such as Wahaha pure water, AD calcium milk, and very cola.
It is hard to imagine that such a spontaneous mourning event would appear on a private entrepreneur.
Zong Qinghou dedicated half of his life to Wahaha. In his hands, Wahaha has grown into a beverage giant with an annual revenue of nearly 80 billion, and he has twice become the richest man in China on the Forbes list.
Source: Wahaha official WeChat.
Why do you miss Zong Qinghou?
He is an exemplary entrepreneur who lives frugally, works hard, is pragmatic and humble, and operates with integrity.
He is the first batch of ordinary entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity of reform and opening up, representing that era, and his spirit has brought everyone a positive role.
The people at the helm of some enterprises are hypocritical and vanity, short-sighted and full of opportunism, and the development of enterprises is full of impetuousness and quick success, which is in stark contrast to Zong Qinghou.
There is no one to replace Zong Qinghou, but life will continue in the future, and it will be up to Zong Fuli, the successor.
At the age of 42, he started a business with debt
Zong Qinghou's family was poor since childhood, and after graduating from junior high school, he went to work on farms and tea farms, until his mother retired in 1978, and the 33-year-old Zong Qinghou was able to return to Hangzhou, working as a salesman in a carton factory in a factory run by a workers' and peasants' school, and also ran a factory in a factory.
In 1987, 42-year-old Zong Qinghou borrowed 140,000 yuan, led two retired teachers, and successfully contracted the school-run enterprise distribution department with a target of 60,000 yuan. Here, he relied on the ** nutrient solution to sell to students and earned the first pot of gold.
In the second year, he invested heavily in attracting technicians to develop his own nutrient solution, and named it Wahaha Children's Nutrient Solution.
This may be a rare product in the Chinese market at that time.
Source: Wahaha official WeChat.
Subsequently, he threw all the money into CCTV and provincial satellite TV, and made the people of the whole country impressed by the advertising slogan "Drinking Wahaha, eating is fragrant"; At the same time, he has explored the development strategy of "push and pull collection", that is, through the TV pull, the joint sales body to promote.
He created the "joint sales body" model, grading dealers, and at the same time collecting a deposit first, settling the payment before shipping. This not only gives Wahaha abundant cash flow, but also allows dealers to have one mind.
In 1996, he set up a joint venture with Danone, a Fortune 500 company, and introduced many advanced product lines.
Then in 2006, the relationship between the two sides broke down, Danone intended to acquire Wahaha at a low price, and Zong Qinghou fought back, and the "Dawa Dispute" fought until September 2009, and finally Danone's ** equity withdrew from China, and Wahaha returned to Zong Qinghou's control.
After more than 20 years of growth, Wahaha has become a beverage giant with tens of billions of revenue and nearly 30,000 employees, and Zong Qinghou's wealth has also increased significantly, becoming the richest man in China on the Forbes list in 2010 and 2012.
Looking back on the history of creating Wahaha, we can see many characteristics of Zong Qinghou as an entrepreneur: the vision and courage to see the outlet and decisively devote all in; was a natural marketing master, and gave full play to the endorsement ability of the top TV stations and newspapers at that time; The precise control of the national channels is undoubtedly handsome.
Why do you miss the "ordinary person" Zong Qinghou?
Zong Qinghou is a good Chinese person in the simple concept of the public, and a model of private entrepreneurs, there are not many such people, which are both precious and scarce.
The first is his frugality.
Even though he became the richest man in the world twice, and his Wahaha annual revenue is tens of billions, he is still frugal.
He only smoked 18 yuan of cigarettes, wore cloth shoes of more than 30 yuan, got a haircut in a community barber shop, went out to take a second-class seat on the high-speed rail, and did not buy any private jets.
He quit smoking and tea in his later years, and his personal expenses did not exceed 50,000 yuan per year.
Source: Wahaha official WeChat.
Secondly, there is his diligence.
Even if he became the CEO of nearly 30,000 employees, he would do everything himself.
He has almost no handrails in the company, and goes to work before 7 o'clock every day, often until the early hours of the morning. He retains the habit of starting a business, often visiting the front line of the market to understand the most real situation, and travels more than 200 days a year. This is even more commendable for a richest man.
Most importantly, he always has his employees in mind.
Different from the argument of "unemployed at the age of 35", Wahaha prohibits the dismissal of employees over the age of 45.
Zong Qinghou once stated in an interview with Yang Lan: "He is doing a good job here, why are you dismissing him?" Even if there is a difference in ability, will the poor never find a job? ”
He also cares about the income of retired employees, so that their pensions subsidized by social security and the company can exceed 10,000 yuan.
In Wahaha's shareholding structure, the major shareholder is Hangzhou Shangcheng District Culture, Commerce and Tourism Investment Holding Group, which holds 46% of the shares, and Zong Qinghou only owns 294% of the shares, while the Wahaha Employee Stock Ownership Association holds a similar 246%, which is believed to be the status of employees in Zong Qinghou's heart: sharing hardships and prosperity.
Thrifty, diligent, and caring for employees, these precious qualities can accompany Zong Qinghou for the rest of his life, and it is no wonder that employees and the public will admire and miss them.
Wahaha's unknown future.
Zong Qinghou once said: "For me, there is only one Wahaha, it is all the dreams of my whole life, all the meanings, values, labels and symbols, it is the proof of my existence in this world." I hope it will become a century-old enterprise and a symbol of immortality. ”
After all, Zong Qinghou can't continue to lead Wahaha, and at present, it seems that it is his daughter Zong Fuli.
Source: Wahaha official WeChat.
Zong Fuli studied in the United States when she was young, started from the grassroots level of Wahaha Group in 2004, served as the head of the group's brand public relations department in 2018, and officially took over as the vice chairman and general manager of the group in 2021.
Zong Qinghou praised his daughter many times, saying that her work performance could score 90 points. These 20 years of careful cultivation can also show Zong Qinghou's ardent expectations for his daughter.
Although Wahaha is still a behemoth with an annual revenue of 50 billion, there are two obvious reasons for the lack of revenue growth in recent years.
One is the lack of explosive models.
After the launch of Nutrition Express in 2005, Wahaha has no new hits, although in recent years, Zong Qinghou and Zong Fuli have made efforts to rejuvenate and launch hundreds of new products, but there are almost no successful cases.
For example, Zong Fuli led the replacement of Xu Guanghan, Wang Yibo, Gong Jun and other traffic spokespersons, and launched products such as kellyone juice, kellyone chacha, one tea, and angry bobo, but did not produce new hits.
Source: kellyone official WeChat.
In an industry like FMCG beverages, the market is huge but fragmented, especially for new consumers who are rapidly iterating on consumption concepts.
The change of consumption concept and brand appeal has reversed the change of the market, and in an era, it is very difficult to capture the hearts of many people, and even has an element of luck.
The second is the change in sales model.
The "push-pull collection" strategy that Wahaha once relied on for success is obviously disjointed and weak in today's era of Internet, e-commerce, and fast digestion.
However, in the process of transformation to new channels and new methods, it will inevitably experience the pain of adaptation.
For example, Zong Qinghou has also been on the Wahaha Douyin live broadcast room several times to promote, and has also created e-commerce platforms "Fast Selling Network" and "Kangli", and even named the 2024 Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Dragon, but consumers still feel that Wahaha is a drink for older talents.
Of course, all this shows that the FMCG giant has begun to age and needs to adjust and transform.
Now that the old helmsman Zong Qinghou has left, where will the new helmsman Zong Fuli take the giant ship Wahaha?
Hotspot Engine Program