On December 12, 2023, Wahaha Group's "2024 National Sales Work Conference" was held in Hangzhou. The most anticipated highlight of the year is Chairman Zong Qinghou's speech at the conference, but this time, the spokesperson unexpectedly became Zong Fuli. Zong Qinghou did not say a word, and only awarded awards to outstanding dealers.
This change was also interpreted by the outside world as a signal of the change of power of Wahaha Group, Zong Qinghou officially retreated behind the scenes, and Zong Fuli walked to the forefront.
Zong Qinghou, who is obviously thin, has not appeared in the public eye since. It wasn't until February 22 that his health was once again in the spotlight, and three days later the news of his death came out, and a generation of business legends came to an end.
Previously, Feng Gensheng and Lu Guanqiu had died before him. So far, as one of the most prestigious troikas in the history of the development of local enterprises in Hangzhou, Zong Qinghou ended his legendary life of 79 years.
Compared with many legendary business celebrities with mixed reputations, the low-key Zong Qinghou is one of the few controversial business leaders, even in the heyday of being the richest man in the country, there is little negative news, and his self-made and late-blooming entrepreneurial story has always been a good talk in the market. The rumors about him are not even as lively as his daughter Zong Fuli.
Zong Qinghou was born in a noble family, but his family was in the middle. When he was 14 years old, his father suddenly lost his job, and the family lost all the economic **, and the mother who was also everyone's best friend picked up the burden of life for the whole family of 7.
At the age of 17, because the family was too embarrassed, Zong Qinghou gave up his studies and moved back to his hometown Hangzhou with his father's family to join his relatives. My father has been unemployed because of his status, and my mother has been hired to teach in an elementary school, and then go out to work at night to support the whole family, which shows the hardship of supporting the whole family.
Zong Qinghou is the eldest in the family, in order to reduce the burden of his mother, he began to go to the countryside to cut the queue, successively worked in Zhoushan and Shaoxing countryside, planted tea on the farm, dug salt in the sea yard, and even burned the kiln. It wasn't until 1978 that he returned to Hangzhou to take over his mother's teaching job, and later gave up the job to work as a salesman in a school-run company.
When mentioning this period of time, Zong Qinghou once said that his level was too low to teach. In fact, this is just a kind of self-humility, he has excelled in learning since he was a child, and it is more than enough to teach primary school students, but he is not ambitious here, his dream in his heart is the sea of stars, and his younger brothers and sisters at home also need him to take the lead.
In every decision in his life, Zong Qinghou received the resolute support of his mother Wang Shuzhen. Zong Qinghou is a filial son, if his mother does not support him, he will definitely not rely on his own temperament. Later, the old mother, who was over 90 years old, once said that she had the original idea, she said that Zong Qinghou was very similar to her husband, very smart, learned things quickly, was very attentive to everything, and did not care about anything else at work, and was very energetic. But compared with her husband's indecisiveness, Zong Qinghou is more aggressive and driven.
The intangible wealth left by his mother to Zong Qinghou, in addition to tenacity and hard work, also has an open-minded and advanced consciousness. This is also a major support for Zong Qinghou to dare to take over the school-run enterprise later.
At that time, Zong Qinghou was already 34 years old, not only was he not married, he didn't even have a partner, and he was about to be beaten as a single. Fortunately, an old teacher who has always been optimistic about him helped him match him and introduced a girl who was also an older young man, that is, his later wife Shi Youzhen.
Shi Youzhen is 4 years younger than Zong Qinghou and is in her early 30s. In this way, an old girl who can't get married, an old young man who is about to be beaten a bachelor in a year, met like this. The following year, they got married, when Zong Qinghou was 35 years old. Two years later, their daughter, Zong Fuli, was born.
After getting married, Zong Qinghou worked in the school-run factory for 10 years, during which he not only worked as a salesman, but also tried to open an electric fan factory and an electric meter factory, but without success.
1987 was the first year of Zong Qinghou's business.
At that time, the Shangcheng District Bureau of Culture and Education wanted to outsource the distribution competition of school-run enterprises, and put forward an annual income of 40,000 yuan. Zong Qinghou, who was worried about falling behind, directly opened a target of 100,000 yuan to scare everyone away. led two retired teachers to start a business.
Everyone is questioning Zong Qinghou's praise of Haikou, and he dares to take that porcelain job without a diamond, and they are all waiting to see his liveliness. At this time, his wife Shi Youzhen gave him encouragement and help, taking care of the young Zong Fuli, and at the same time helping Zong Qinghou, running back and forth.
Even if Zong Qinghou becomes the richest man in the future, Shi Youzhen is still not known to the outside world. Even Zong Fuli knows that Shi Youzhen has always been a mystery. In fact, Shi Youzhen, like her mother-in-law Wang Shuzhen, has always been a low-key virtuous helper.
Around 1988, Zong Qinghou wanted to develop a nutrient solution independently, so he found Zhu Shoumin, who was working at Zhejiang Medical University at the time, and invited him to go out to help. In addition, he also invited Zhang Honghui, a technician from the century-old store "Hu Qingyutang", to join, but Zhang Honghui did not buy his account and never agreed, but under the soft grinding of Zong Qinghou's "three visits", he finally chose to get out of the house. In order to express his sincerity, Zong Qinghou also gave Zhang Honghui a set of three major rooms that had just been allocated to him by the Education Bureau. In all this, his wife Shi Youzhen didn't say a word.
After the establishment of Wahaha, Zong Qinghou's career quickly embarked on the fast lane, and he rode the dust, completed the leap and overtaking, and quickly became the leader in the industry.
Throughout Zong Qinghou's business life, the biggest crisis in his business appeared in 2006, that is, Danone's acquisition of Wahaha that year.
In the spring of 2006, France's Danone wanted to forcibly acquire Wahaha Group at a low price of 4 billion yuan, so as to obtain actual control of Wahaha. Seeing that the child he raised was forcibly taken away, Zong Qinghou certainly would not give up, and he resigned in anger. Zong Qinghou's sudden resignation caused a strong ** within Wahaha, met with strong opposition from employees, and quickly became an incident of national concern.
Since then, the two sides have entered the litigation stage, fighting dozens of lawsuits back and forth, but none of them have been won. In the end, they reached a settlement on October 1, 2007, and parted ways, and Wahaha was more firmly in the hands of Zong Qinghou.
From starting a business at the age of 42 to passing away at the age of 79, Zong Qinghou cleaved the waves in the ups and downs, creating a legend in business, and the country and society have also given full affirmation, and the honor and status that can be given to him have also been given.
Zong Qinghou's curtain call was perfect. Under the coffin, he is enough to smile at the world and the next life. Of course, there is always something in perfection.
The only thing that worries Zong Qinghou is probably Zong Fuli. Remembering her marriage and worrying about her control over the business.
Zong Fuli once mentioned that her biggest frustration was her father's "disapproval", she felt that she was okay, even better than her father, but in Zong Qinghou's eyes, she still needed to beat more.
Since Zong Fuli entered the ** field of vision, the outside world seems to pay more attention to her marriage and love than what she did in Wahaha, which is also the most distressing thing for Zong Fuli. She needs to be recognized by the outside world, and she needs to reassure her father, especially after learning that her father is seriously ill, she is more eager to take on the heavy responsibility.
On December 12, 2023, when Zong Qinghou, who was sitting in the audience, watched his baby daughter speak on stage, he must have mixed feelings in his heart. At the moment when his life is about to come to an end, when he looks at his daughter, it is not only the inheritance of the corporate scepter, but also the deepest, most concerned and most reluctant love of a father for his daughter.