On February 25, Zong Qinghou, a famous private entrepreneur, died of illness at the age of 79. Many Hangzhou citizens went to Wahaha Group to offer flowers, including old employees of Wahaha, old teachers of Hangzhou primary schools he once helped, and young generations who grew up drinking AD calcium milk.
I said in yesterday's ** that Mr. Zong, like many outstanding private entrepreneurs, is a sentient and righteous entrepreneur, deeply influenced by Chinese Confucian culture, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness are integrated into their blood.
Zong Qinghou's grandfather is Zhang Zuolin's Minister of Finance, and his father also served in the Kuomintang, although the family was later in the middle of the road, but the family style is excellent, which is probably the reason why he has won the essence of Chinese Confucian culture, and the family's ears and eyes are too important.
Zong Qinghou is simple, low-key, diligent, and tenacious. He only started from scratch at the age of 42, and after returning to the city from Zhoushan Farm, he first worked as a school worker in a primary school, and then as a salesman. He is a smart man, with a talent for business and the ability to endure hardships, he said: "I think you have to have these qualities to do business, especially in the Chinese market, that is: the imagination of a poet, the acumen of a scientist, the mind of a philosopher, the skill of a strategist." He worked more than ten hours a day and never retired, and was the chairman of the group before his death.
Once the richest man in China, he wears cloth shoes, never flies in business class, and does not have private jets. He has excellent private morals, is loyal to his family, and his daughter is also very well educated. He is also very generous to employees, Wahaha an unwritten rule is not to dismiss employees over 45 years old, Zong Qinghou said, everyone's level is high and low, enterprises can arrange suitable positions and can go up and down the employment mechanism, but as long as it is not illegal and undisciplined, it should not be directly fired. He said that enterprises can't ask employees for 996, and the boss has fun doing business, but he can't tie employees to the chariot. Strict self-discipline and leniency towards others, this is probably the reason why he has such a good reputation.
A scientific researcher said that their laboratory has used Wahaha's pure water as their experimental water for a long time, the cost is low, the water quality is pure, a food company, so many years have not heard too much negative news, it can be seen that this company is a conscientious enterprise.
He said: "Many of the old entrepreneurs of our generation are self-made, and they are desperate for their own survival at the beginning, and they have to assume social responsibility when they accumulate more assets. This sentence reminds me of a conversation between Luo Zhenyu and Xu Zhiyuan in the interview of "Thirteen Invitations". Luo Zhenyu believes that enterprises are not obliged to donate to the society, because it is its shareholders, employees and customers who are responsible for it. And public welfare donations should be the best thing in society. The enterprise has already paid taxes and has fulfilled its obligations, so the enterprise has no social responsibility.
I don't think there are any loopholes in Luo Zhenyu's words from a logical analysis, but they just sound a little cold. Luo is the kind of narrow love territorialism, his kind of pragmatism that focuses on the here and now, and looks not far away, is very honest and poignant.
But shouldn't a company, especially a strong one, take some responsibility? This reminds me of the book "Performanceism", efficiency is the general law of this universe. Elitists feel that they take more wealth for granted, when in reality, they are just lucky enough. And if they are lucky enough, do they want to give back to society and help others after they become famous? In practice, many enterprises often regard public welfare and charity as one of their responsibilities. For example, Google helps nonprofits attract corporate funding, and these organizations receive up to $10,000 in sponsored ads donations each month. For example, Tencent Charity has many donation entrances in WeChat, making it easier to donate. For example, Walmart donated more than 1$500 million in cash and in-kind. In the United States, many companies will match employee donations, and if an employee donates a dollar, the company will donate a dollar in return.
Of course, on closer inspection, business and entrepreneur are indeed two different concepts. Of course, the first task of the enterprise is to do a good job, but those entrepreneurs who have made a fortune by relying on successful enterprises have the responsibility to do some charitable work and give back to the society? In fact, this proposition is also a false proposition, because there is really no legal provision for how they must be, and I am not in favor of moral kidnapping of rich people. But Mencius once said, "If you are poor, you will be good to yourself, and if you are good, you will help the world." Therefore, in ancient and modern times, everyone at home and abroad actually has some psychological expectations for the rich. Around the world, many entrepreneurs do the same. For example, the famous Bill Melinda Gates Association, which has total assets of about $51.9 billion (2020), and donations and direct philanthropic expenses of this association in 2020 amounted to $5.8 billion. For example, Cao Dewang, the founder of Fuyao Glass Group, has made his first donation in 1983, and his cumulative personal donations have reached 16 billion yuan.
The development of this society is more and more polarized, and the richer people are, the easier it is to make money, because they have abundant capital, and the magnitude and speed of making money are not a dimension at all compared with a person who does a small business. As a result, the distribution of wealth in society is becoming more and more uneven, according to the latest World Bank report, 5% of the population in the United States controls 60% of the wealth, while in China 1% of households control the country414% of wealth, wealth is extremely unevenly distributed.
Image source network. Therefore, in addition to taxation and other systems to balance the distribution of wealth, it is still necessary for these rich people to take the initiative to stand up and donate. In June 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett were the first to issue a "giving pledge" in the United States, calling on the wealthy to donate half of their wealth for charity. The total number of people who have taken the oath to join the initiative has now increased to 204, representing 23 countries around the world. In 2016, Niu Gensheng, the founder of Mengniu Group, was invited by Bill Gates to join the "Donation Pledge", becoming the first philanthropist in Chinese mainland to join the "Donation Pledge".
According to statistics, there are more than one million large and small charities in the United States, and three-quarters of the richest Americans have their own ** clubs, such as the Carnegie ** Society, the Rockefeller ** Society, the Ford ** Society, etc., and two-thirds of the active family ** will be founded in the past 20 years. China's charity and public welfare undertakings started relatively late, and it has not yet become a common practice for the rich to be their own families. I have many friends who are doing public welfare, such as Chen Xingjia, such as pineapple, many of them are idealists, and they have encountered many difficulties and obstacles in their actual work, such as one of my senior sisters, who is full-time in public welfare, and when the epidemic is not enough, she took the initiative to ask to cut her salary. There is a long way to go in doing public welfare, and it is not easy, but I believe that their kindness will definitely bear good fruits.
And those entrepreneurs who have kindness and great love will be loved and supported by the public, and they will also be in the shadow of future generations. An entrepreneur like Zong Qinghou is worthy of his conscience and has not failed to live up to his talent and luck. I wish their enterprises to be evergreen and continue to do it for a long time.