In 1964, Wei Jianjun was born in a military family in Baoding, Hebei Province.
Speaking of Baoding, the first thing that comes to mind is the Baoding Military Academy, which will produce stars and is the first regular army military academy in modern Chinese history. Wei Jianjun has the blood of a soldier in his bones, which is also the confidence of his decades-long decision to create the Great Wall Empire.
According to the 2023 annual performance report from Great Wall Motor, Great Wall Motor's total operating income in 2023 will be 173.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2626%；The net profit attributable to the parent company was 700.8 billion yuan, down 1522%。
34 years ago, no one could have predicted that a 26-year-old young man would turn a factory on the verge of closure into a leading enterprise of its own brand car companies.
A brief review of Wei Jianjun's personal resume.
After graduating from high school, Wei Jianjun (I'm embarrassed to expose Mr. Wei's first degree).He has successively worked in Beijing Tongxian Micro Motor Factory, Baoding Carpet Factory, and Taihang Water Pump Factory.
In 1990, when Wei Jianjun took over the Great Wall Industrial Company, the total assets of the company were 3 million yuan, the loss was 2 million yuan, the company had 60 employees, and sold 6 modified cars a month.
Wei Jianjun also doesn't understand cars, but he is a car enthusiast. Therefore, interest is the best teacher and the driving force that drives you to keep moving forward.
At that time, Wei Jianjun was an out-and-out rich second generation, and when the vast majority of Chinese people had not touched a car, he already owned the most fashionable car at that time - Lada.
Lord Lu has always felt,The biggest advantage of the rich second generation entrepreneurship is that they don't have to worry about their livelihood, I won't worry too much about failure, my family has money, and my life is definitely fine. This is very similar to Meituan's Wang Xing, except that Wang Xing is estimated to be in an extremely bad mood these days, and the stock price has fallen from more than 400 at the peak to more than 60 now.
Wei Jianjun himself said, "At first, there were no lofty ambitions and ideals, and taking one step at a time is the best portrayal of that period." This sentence is very true, many entrepreneurs, they did not have the so-called lofty ideals at the beginning, and even the development path was mostly at a loss.
The brave do it first, and as for those who always think before doing things, most of them will die in the process of thinking. Some experts say that the so-called anxiety is that you think too much. Before things even start, you think too much about what you'll do if you fail. Ma Yun also said that he would do it first and then talk about it, and then continue to correct mistakesIf you have to wait for all the conditions to be met, the opportunity is likely to be missed
Wei Jianjun seized the opportunity, and he understands the minds of the Chinese people very well, and the concept of "cheap and good" is deeply rooted in the bone marrow, which is also one of the important reasons why Great Wall Motors broke out of the encirclement in a large number of private car companies that year.
From sedans to pickup trucks to SUVs, Great Wall Motors has come to this day step by step, and only Wei Jianjun himself knows the hardships during this period, and he will not repeat it too much.
He has been to many car companies, including Detroit, Wolfsburg and other places, but he is particularly impressed by the headquarters of Great Wall Motors. It's not a complimentIt is its unique corporate culture that makes the master not sleep for several days.
In the park of Great Wall Motors, the road signs say "Risk Road", "Survival Road" and "Crisis Road", and walking in it, there is always a feeling of danger. At that time, the master thought,Being a Great Wall person, I'm so tired
What's more, in front of the headquarters building, there is a stone called "the lesson of the previous car", it is commonly known as the "monument of shame" by the employees, standing in 2010, which records the various mistakes made by the Great Wall Motors, the first mistake is: in 2002, the analysis of the business characteristics of the bus industry is not sufficient, blindly entering the bus market, resulting in the failure of the bus project ......
At the 30th anniversary celebration of Great Wall Motors in 2020, there was no "pushing the cup for a lamp", nor was there a lively celebration banquet, only a micro-film "What Will Be the Future of Great Wall Motors" that Wei Jianjun felt about his 30 years of car making, Wei Jianjun asked himself in the film: "In my opinion, life hangs by a thread." ”
This style is very similar to Musk, the founder of Tesla, for a period of time, Lao Ma often said that "Tesla is only a month away from bankruptcy".
Anxiety is contagious, and it also forces Wei Jianjun to be almost demanding about product quality.
Lu Ye's college classmate, who had stayed in the technical department of Great Wall Motors for a period of time, was careless by nature, and he could not accept the semi-military management of Great Wall Motors, so he could only choose to leave.
Like his college classmates, many people who work in Great Wall Motors will accuse Wei Jianjun of missing some humanistic care, but Wei Jianjun disagrees, he knows that the quality of cars is a matter of life safety, and there is no room for sloppiness. Many well-known international car companies, including Toyota and Volkswagen, even have a much stricter system than the Great Wall.
To let go of problems is to cover up and steal the bell, and to be a good person is to be soft corruption. Wei Jianjun often said.
A few more words
I said internally, if you don't want to call me chairman, just call me 'Brother Jun'." The attitude is very good, but some strong people are difficult, you are 60 years old, and you still let young people call you military brother? It's not appropriate to call the military master, so it's just the most cordial to call Lao Wei.
The 60-year-old Wei still faces serious challenges.
Although Great Wall Motor will sell a total of 1.23 million new cars in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 1529%, but it is far from the sales target of 1.6 million units set at the beginning of 2023. And from the perspective of horizontal comparison, BYD and Geely will achieve sales of 3.02 million and 1.68 million units respectively in 2023, and Great Wall Motors still needs to catch up.
In addition, the slow transformation of new energy is also one of the important reasons why Great Wall Motors has been criticized.
Editor's note
Among the 12 zodiac signs, the Chinese people have the deepest feelings for the dragon, after all, they are all descendants of the dragon. In the automotive field, there are many executives who belong to the dragon, and the reputation is also mixed.
"I found a few more representative ones, and from the beginning of the new year, I told their stories one after another.