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A representative of private enterprises has passed away. At 10:30 a.m. on February 25, Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, died at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Zong Qinghou is a late bloomer, but excellent people will always shine, it's just a matter of time. Since starting his business, he has continued to practice the "Four Thousand Spirit" of "traveling through thousands of mountains and rivers, speaking thousands of words, trying every possible way, and enduring thousands of hardships". Self-made, he has been the richest man in China three times, and his down-to-earth spirit of doing business is admirable, resonant and thought-provoking.
The departure of Zong Qinghou has brought people back to the vigorous tide of reform and opening up, and the entrepreneurial spirit that has been demonstrated in the struggle has been talked about by people. There is no doubt that Zong Qinghou is one of the best among them.
In addition to his entrepreneurial spirit, what did he leave behind that people will never forget and regret?
Wahaha proved that Zong Qinghou had come
Zong Qinghou's memorial service was held on February 28 at Wahaha Hangzhou Xiasha Base, and people from all walks of life from all over the country came to mourn this business giant with both ability and virtue.
Zong Qinghou's family was poor when he was a child, and although he had excellent academic performance, he had to drop out of junior high school to do business, share his parents' worries, and make a living. Later, he was selected as an educated youth and assigned to a farm in Shaoxing, where he has been working and living for 15 years. The experience of youth tempered his will and physique, and he worked hard, and after middle age, he became a trendsetter of the times.
In 1978, when China's reform and opening up kicked off, he returned to Hangzhou and worked diligently in the school-run factory for 9 years. In 1987, 42-year-old Zong Qinghou led two retired teachers to start their entrepreneurial journey by relying on a loan of 140,000 yuan to contract the school-run enterprise distribution department in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, which had been losing money for many years.
From selling popsicles to salesmen, Zong Qinghou founded Wahaha under the wave of reform, and let AD calcium milk create 6The output value of 8.5 billion yuan.
In the 90s of the last century, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed the establishment of a socialist market economic system. In the way of "small fish eat big fish", he merged Hangzhou Canned Food Factory and established Wahaha Group. After that, he closely followed the market changes and developed Wahaha children's oral liquid, Wahaha pure water, AD calcium milk and other products and sold them all over the country, realizing the leapfrog development of the enterprise.
At present, Wahaha has become one of the largest beverage manufacturers in China and one of the world's leading beverage manufacturers, with 81 production bases and 187 subsidiaries in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, with nearly 30,000 employees.
Zong Qinghou once said emotionally: There will be a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and there will be a thousand Wahaha in the eyes of a thousand people. But for me, there is only one Wahaha. It is my whole life, all my dreams, all the meanings, values, labels and symbols, and it is the proof that I have existed in this world.
What kind of spirit should a true entrepreneur have?
The reason why Wahaha's foundation is evergreen is inseparable from Zong Qinghou's diligence and keen sense of the market.
After more than 30 years of entrepreneurship, Zong Qinghou is known as Wahaha's "first diligent person", going to work before 7 o'clock in the morning and leaving work after 11 o'clock in the evening. This is true 365 days a year, for decades. The office is his second home, where he often sleeps.
In his office, there is a pile of cloth shoes, a couple of trolley suitcases, and a makeshift bed. He travels more than 200 days a year, ready to change into cloth shoes, lift a trolley suitcase and go on the road, and when he returns, he rests on a simple bed. Over the years, this high-frequency pace of business travel has not changed.
Every time he goes on a business trip, Zong Qinghou's habit is to visit the local government first, then hold a branch or dealer meeting, and then run the streets and alleys to chat with ordinary people. When chatting, he can get a lot of useful information, such as which drinks sell well, under what circumstances people will buy them, and how they feel about **.
These first-hand information can allow Zong Qinghou to understand the market demand and changes as soon as possible, so as to target R&D and production scheduling.
In 2018, Zong Qinghou summarized his business philosophy as "focus on the main business, run in small steps". The so-called "small steps" refers to being cautious in decision-making, expanding in small steps, and immediately retreating and stopping losses if they find something wrong; "Running fast" means acting quickly and seizing the opportunity as soon as it arises, without hesitation.
Zong Qinghou not only went to the market, watched the market, and read the market in China, but also went abroad. After being named "China's richest man" by Forbes in 2010, he frequently went abroad. Everywhere he went, he went to the supermarket, bought drinks, and packed them back home. Someone joked that Zong is the person who drinks the most of all kinds of drinks in the world.
In terms of channels, Wahaha has created a "joint sales" model in the national sales network. In order to solve the problem of dealers fleeing goods and arrears of payments, Zong Qinghou proposed that dealers should pay "deposits", pay first and then goods, and strictly prohibit cross-selling, otherwise the margin will be deducted and the dealers will bear the rules of sales targets.
Benefiting from this, Wahaha has established a strong business partnership with distributors, and products such as mineral water, eight-treasure porridge, and nutrition express have become large single products with the blessing of a huge distribution system. The most eye-catching point is that the annual sales of Nutrition Express once sold 20 billion yuan, becoming a well-known single product.
Diligent, sensitive, daring to be the first, and at the same time extremely frugal to himself. In the early years, someone calculated that his annual personal expenses were about 50,000 yuan, and he himself said that the wealth beyond 10 million yuan was actually social. Forbes named him "China's richest man" three times in 2010, 2012 and 2013, but he is not impressed by the title.
I just have my own beliefs and goals. There is nothing to be proud of being the richest man or the richest man in two grades, it is just a recognition of wealth as a criterion for judging value. The important thing is that we always have the strongest desire in our hearts, and it is important to keep our hearts and do the right thing. Zong Qinghou once talked about the evaluation of the "richest man".
He doesn't care about the richest man, he cares more about the entrepreneurial spirit behind the numbers.
People don't hate the rich, and the times miss the entrepreneurial spirit
In the list of the richest people in China, Zong Qinghou is probably the most simple one.
In the days after reminiscing about Zong Qing, Wahaha's old employees all felt a lot about the departure of the "richest man in cloth shoes". Zong Qinghou started his business in his 40s, and he has rich life experience, and can empathize and resonate with ordinary people, and sympathize with employees. In addition to not dismissing employees over 45 years old and a considerable year-end bonus at the end of the year, Zong Qinghou has been running for different ways to solve the housing problem of employees for so many years.
Let the homeowners have their own houses, treat the old employees well, do something for the young, and the middle-aged people are stable, which is the happy life that all living beings on the Internet dream of. However, Zong Qinghou did all this by himself, and he continued to practice it until the last moment of his life.
Zong Qinghou set a very high standard for a group of people who got rich first. People's commemoration and remembrance of Zong Qinghou are not simply to commemorate him, but to hope that there will be more leaders who can take Zong Qinghou as an example to create wealth and change the world, and also convey warmth to the society and repay the society in the way of entrepreneurs.
Through the commemoration and remembrance of Zong Qinghou, you will be surprised to find that people do not hate the rich. People just hope that the rich can care more for ordinary people and contribute more to society while realizing their self-worth.
In addition, through the entrepreneurial history of Zong Qinghou, people continue to miss the era of national entrepreneurship and vigor. Zong Qinghou is a sign of the times, and when people miss him, they miss the era when they dare to be the first and are full of vitality.
At that time, people chanted the slogans of "tomorrow will be better" and "the first rich will lead the latter to become rich", making themselves rich and making the country strong. As some have summed it up, "he is a sign of the times".
When people miss Zong Qinghou, they are nostalgic for the era when hard work would pay off and a farmer could become the richest man in China. And those who have stood at the gate of the factory for a long time and are reluctant to leave, hope that there will be more leaders like Zong Qinghou to guard the era full of hope and protect the prosperity.
When people remember Zong Qinghou, it is a respect for the entrepreneurial spirit and a recognition of the contribution of private enterprises.
Summary:
Zong Qinghou, who is still fighting on the front line in his 70s, is gone, which is a major loss for the Chinese business community.
The legend is over, but the afterglow is still there! Zong Qinghou has too many labels and stories that deserve to be written many times.
Zong Qinghou said before his death that the reason why we chose to become entrepreneurs is not from our instinct, nor is it due to our real character. We are just trying to find a way out for ourselves in an era where we can't find a way out. When I got older, I looked back and saw that I had actually walked out of a road - a waterway, a road of "three thousand weak water, I only take one scoop to drink".
At present, China's economy is still in the critical stage of climbing over the hurdles, and this giant ship calls for more people like Zong Qinghou to stand at the forefront of the times again, promote enterprises, promote the economy, and promote society, and continue to rush forward.