Author |Huang Yu.
Edit |Zhang Xiaoling.
While being envied and ridiculed by the group, the complexity of Dong Mingzhu and Gree was vividly reflected in this recent grand annual meeting.
When "the annual meeting quietly" became the label of this year, on January 28, Gree became one of the few companies that held the annual meeting, not only employees, but also invited government and enterprise leaders, dealers, etc., with a total of nearly 30,000 participants.
At the end of the event, Dong Mingzhu announced that he would issue an additional 200 million year-end bonus, which was on the hot search again. The group ridicule that came because of Meng Yutong and Wang Ziru seems to have been forgotten.
In the past year's doubts, Dong Mingzhu proved her strength with business data, and Gree's revenue once again exceeded 200 billion, which is her confidence to spread an additional 200 million.
However, as an old home appliance giant, whether it is market value or revenue, Gree has been left far behind by Midea and Haier.
The future of Dong Mingzhu and Gree still has a long way to go.
Send 200 million points?
This year, there will be an additional 200 million year-end bonuses", although standing on the opposite side of young people many times, the "Iron Lady" Dong Mingzhu has entered the hearts of young people in terms of employee benefits.
In 2018, Dong Mingzhu announced that he would divide the house for Gree employees, "as long as it is a Gree person, one person has one suite, and the house is yours until retirement", at that time, Gree had 80,000 employees, which was not a problem that could be solved with only 200 million yuan.
However, more than five years have passed, and Gree has only 3,700 houses. A few years ago, some employees publicly asked Dong Mingzhu for a house on the show, and Dong Mingzhu responded: The house is divided, of course, it is given priority to outstanding employees.
What will happen to the actual landing of the extra 200 million this time is also the focus of heated discussions in the outside world.
A Gree insider told Wall Street that the additional 200 million yuan year-end bonus has not yet been implemented, and the relevant plans are still being arranged.
A number of Gree Electric Appliance employees said that according to the experience of previous years, Gree's year-end bonus is composed of "cash + points internal purchase", and the points internal purchase is used to purchase Gree electrical products, so it is not excluded that the extra 200 million yuan will also be issued points.
In any case, for Dong Mingzhu's move to give out more bonuses this time, the outside world still praises it, thinking that "something is better than nothing". A number of employees told Wall Street that their company's performance was poor this year, not only did it not have an annual meeting, but it also had a year-end bonus.
As some investors said, companies that still have annual meetings at this time will not have too bad financial reports.
Behind the multiple bonuses, Gree's performance has reached a record high. Dong Mingzhu bluntly said that 2023 will encounter unprecedented difficulties, but Gree has achieved the best results.
Gree's annual revenue in 2023 will be about 205 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 78%, once again exceeding 200 billion; The net profit was about 29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 183%, which is in the performance forecast range previously released by Gree.
In the years before that, Gree was basically in a state of stagnation of growth.
Affected by the general environment and the entry of the home appliance industry into the stock market, it began to decline after the revenue exceeded 200 billion yuan for the first time in 2019, and it has fallen one position behind its old rivals Haier and Midea.
According to the data, in 2022, Haier and Midea's revenue will be about 350.6 billion yuan and 345.7 billion yuan respectively, while Gree will only have about 190.2 billion yuan.
Now Gree needs to go all out to catch up. Dong Mingzhu said at the annual meeting that the goal is to double the performance in the next five years.
Double-faced Miss Dong
As a rare woman in the group of Chinese entrepreneurs, Dong Mingzhu, who is 70 years old, has been full of controversy in recent years, especially in the past year, because of Meng Yutong, who resigned from the company, and the reuse of Wang Ziru, Miss Dong has become the target of ridicule many times.
The first to bear the brunt was Dong Mingzhu's angry reprimand for Meng Yutong, who was once known as the best person, and ran to make money as an Internet celebrity when he was working in Gree. What made her the opposite of the young man was the Wang Ziru incident. She seemed to be reluctantly accommodating the king's compliments.
In the hearts of many entrepreneurs of the older generation, loyalty has always been the core element of measuring employees, especially entrepreneurs like Dong Mingzhu who worked from the bottom to the helm in Gree.
However, this workplace value of dedicating one's life to a company is outdated.
Different from the helmsmen of other companies, Dong Mingzhu's outspoken and resolute personal style has made Dong Mingzhu an Internet celebrity entrepreneur.
After becoming Gree's No. 1 position in 2012, Dong Mingzhu was the spokesperson of Gree, replaced the veteran spokesperson Jackie Chan and went into battle by himself, bet 1 billion with Lei Jun, and used ** photos as the boot screen of Gree's mobile phone, and then went live in person now, etc., all of which made Dong Mingzhu personally and the Gree brand firmly bound together.
If the public doesn't like Dong Mingzhu, it may also directly lead to an impact on Gree's sales and performance.
For Dong Mingzhu, the most fundamental thing to measure her value is still Gree's performance.
Dong Mingzhu's contribution to Gree is undoubted. In the early stage of joining Gree, Dong Mingzhu was an out-and-out iron-blooded champion; In the year when he officially became the helmsman of Gree, Gree's revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time, when Dong Mingzhu put forward the goal of rebuilding a Gree in five years, and finally, it took nearly six years for Gree's revenue to reach nearly 200 billion for the first time, and the net profit tripled.
However, Dong Mingzhu, who was once full of confidence, has now made Gree obviously lag behind, not only with nearly half of Midea's revenue, but even with Haier.
Gree's biggest problem now is that it has always taken air conditioning as its main income, and this part of the income still accounted for more than 7% in the first half of last year.
In addition, overseas has become an important driving force for the performance growth of many peers, such as Midea and Haier's overseas revenue accounted for nearly 50%, while Gree's overseas revenue is only 10%.
For Dong Mingzhu, how to help Gree find the second growth curve is still a top priority. In recent years, Gree has continued to deploy new energy, intelligent manufacturing, industrial equipment and other fields, but the new business transformation is obviously less than expected, and it was previously announced that it plans to invest 1 billion yuan to increase its holdings in Gree Titanium (formerly Yinlong New Energy), which is also down, causing the stock price to fall by more than 7%.
On the one hand, she is the decisive "Iron Lady" in the shopping mall, and on the other hand, she is Miss Dong, who has put herself in the ** crisis many times, Dong Mingzhu's doubleness is destined to make it impossible to get rid of the controversy.
It is useless to say more, Dong Mingzhu needs to use more powerful performance growth to prove to the outside world that he can still adapt to the new era.