Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On February 14, home appliance giant Hisense once again announced Yi Shuai. Group President Jia Shaoqian officially succeeded Lin Lan as chairman, while Yu Zhitao took over as executive vice president. After this change of coach, the core management of Hisense has basically completed the rejuvenation, and the post-70s who are at the golden age are at the helm. Zhou Houjian, the former chairman of Hisense and the soul of Hisense, announced his retirement as early as last year.

Hisense is not the only household appliance giant that has completed a dynasty change in recent years. Zhang Ruimin, who stepped on the stage of history at about the same time as Zhou Houjian, also left Haier, who had been in charge for more than 30 years, two years ago.

After a long period of development, these enterprises have indeed reached the time of upgrading. However, when looking through the resumes of these home appliance bosses, the value Research Institute (ID:jiazhiyanjiusuo) found something interesting: Zhou Houjian, Zhang Ruimin, and Wang Xuning, the founder of Jiuyang, are all from Shandong.

In China's economic territory, Shandong's sense of existence is not low. According to GDP statistics in 2022, Shandong ranks third in the country with a total economic value of 8.7435 trillion, second only to Guangdong and Jiangsu. However, the industrial structure of Shandong is not as distinctive as that of Guangdong and Soviet provinces, and there is no so-called giant enterprises emerging.

But in fact, household appliances, an industry that is both traditional and innovative, plays a vital role in Shandong's economy. And a group of home appliance giants coming out of this land have profoundly changed the development process of China's home appliance industry.

Although Zhang Ruimin and Zhou Houjian have retreated to the second line, the brand they left to their respective enterprises and even the entire home appliance industry has not disappeared; their business philosophy and values also affect the development of Haier and Hisense.

Reviewing the entrepreneurial experiences of these Shandong home appliance bosses is also of great significance to today's practitioners.

The entrepreneurial stories of the bosses are relatively long, so I would like to sort out the following key points for you:

Start: start with drastic reforms

Labor pains: the squeeze of foreign brands

Counterattack: the victory of made in China

Expansion: going out to sea to open up a second battlefield

Dormant: the traditional home appliance market is becoming more and more saturated

Transformation: the old tycoon should also seize the new wave of intelligence

Abdication: the influence of the founding generation continues

Starting from the drastic reform, Wu Jinglian, founder of Chinese economics and researcher of the Development Research Center of the State Council, mentioned the importance of the 1980s to China's economic development in his book "witnessing Major Reform decisions-Oral History of Reformers".

In 1981, state-owned enterprises began to expand the reform of enterprise autonomy, and key enterprises from many provinces and cities took the lead in participating in it. It was also from this time that the east wind of reform and opening up swept the country from the southeast coastal areas, and the national economy also ushered in an important moment of structural adjustment. The rise of private enterprises, the reform of state-owned enterprises, and a large number of enterprises and entrepreneurs who will affect the economic pattern of China and even the world in the future began to step onto the stage of history.

In 1982, Zhou Houjian, who just graduated from the electronics department of Shandong University, entered Qingdao TV Factory and got the "iron rice bowl" that young people dreamed of at that time. In those days, college students were still rare, and Qingdao TV Factory was worried about the shortage of technical talents. Zhou Houjian, a professional counterpart, was unexpectedly reused by his superiors after his arrival.

At first glance, Zhou Houjian got an enviable male script: a high education, a stable job and a bright future. But in fact, his Qingdao TV factory is being mercilessly crushed by the great wheel of the times, and what lies in front of him is not a broad road covered with flowers, but a dangerous mountain road full of thorns.

At this time, the reform and opening up is in full swing, the economy of the eastern and South China coastal areas is developing rapidly, and the national policies and resources are greatly tilted. Shandong, which also belongs to the coastal zone, did not enjoy this dividend for the first time-from the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, a large number of traditional enterprises bumped into each other in the process of transformation and exploration.

The limitations of R & D and production capacity have seriously limited the development of local home appliance manufacturers. Two years after Zhou Houjian entered the factory, the Qingdao refrigerator factory next door felt the pressure of survival.

Although it is called Qingdao refrigerator General Factory, the factory did not actually transform into refrigerator production until 1983. Despite the backward technology, the production line originally used to produce motors and hair dryers is simply unable to meet the new production needs. In this year, the annual turnover of the whole factory was less than 3.5 million yuan, and the net loss reached 1.47 million yuan.

At the critical moment, Qingdao refrigerator General Factory ushered in the savior, but also the Terminator of the old factory system.

December 26, 1984, Qingdao refrigerator General Factory, and even the entire Chinese home appliance industry in the development of a very meaningful day. On this day, 35-year-old Zhang Ruimin took over the post of director of Qingdao refrigerator General Factory.

I don't know if it's a coincidence of fate or a coincidence of history. In 1992, also at the age of 35, Zhou Houjian also sat on the position of director of Qingdao TV Factory and officially became the head of the factory.

When the two chosen sons took office, they both chose the same strategy: reform. The comprehensive innovation from day-to-day management, R & D and production system to the company's long-term development strategy has earned two shaky old factories a ticket to a new era.

Zhang Ruimin, who runs the army with an iron fist, immediately came up with the "13 military rules" that were repeatedly praised by the media and netizens in the future. If it is normal to prohibit sleeping, drinking, ganging and damaging factory equipment during working hours, then the seemingly bizarre rule of "no defecation in the workshop" reflects the extent to which factory management was chaotic at that time.

(picture from Haier's official website) on the other side, Zhou Houjian, who started at the grass-roots level, has completed experience in the design, assembly, and even finance departments over the past ten years. Ten years of experience and background as a technician have given him an insight into the aspirations of the staff at the bottom and the importance of respecting talents. After the new official took office, his first task was to set up the so-called "special talent zone" system, substantially raise the salaries of technical personnel and reform the incentive system.

Through the internal reform, the two household appliance factories in Qingdao, which have reached their twilight years, have gradually glowed with vitality. With the promulgation of the Trademark Law in 1993, standardizing intellectual property rights and renaming has become a new task for old factories. Zhou Houjian took action at the first time, and Qingdao Television Factory finally decided on the new name Hisense through all the nominations. In the same year, the reorganized Qingdao refrigerator General Factory also announced that it had changed its name to Qingdao Haier refrigerator Co., Ltd.

A new legend begins.

Labor pains: after the squeeze of foreign brands has completed a series of operations such as reform and renaming, Hisense and Haier are full of ambition, hoping to take advantage of the east wind of reform and opening up and the growth boom of household appliance consumption to wantonly attack cities and land.

However, reality is far more bony than imagination. The 1990s is the outbreak period of the global home appliance industry, but at this time, the market and consumers prefer those foreign manufacturers who already have certain technology accumulation, good reputation and brand appeal.

And with the deepening of reform and opening up, China's door has been further opened, and the entry of foreign brands into the Chinese market has become more smooth. It is at this time that the strong rival of local brands, Japanese household appliance brands, ushered in their own peak moment.

In fact, the outbreak of Japanese brands in China has long been a sign, but also experienced a long time of preparation and practice. In the late 1980s, when Haier and Hisense were still stuck in internal reform, Panasonic invested more than 24 billion yen to set up Panasonic Color Picture Tube Co., Ltd. in Beijing; Hitachi also set up Hitachi TV Co., Ltd. in Fujian at about the same time, sounding the bugle of entering the Chinese market in an all-round way.

Guotai Junan Securities statistics show that the sales and share of Japanese household appliance brands in China reached an all-time high from 1990 to 2000. Take the refrigerator which is one of the "four big pieces" as an example, the CR4 is as high as 64.34%, and Japanese brands such as Toshiba and Hitachi take the lead.

In the competition with Japanese household appliance manufacturers, the lack of core technology and high-end R & D personnel is the biggest lifeline of local brands. The backwardness of technology and production line results in a vicious circle of unstable product quality, word-of-mouth collapse and then drag down sales.

Historical data show that it was not until 1983 that Chinese enterprises introduced the production technology and equipment of refrigerator compressors from overseas, and the color TV localization project implemented in February of the following year did not improve much in the early stage. In that era, Japanese home appliance giants monopolized a large number of home appliance technology patents. Take color TV as an example, Sony's Trilon picture tube dominates the market for more than 40 years.

(Sonnet Lilong color TV, picture from Imagine) in the long-term confrontation with Japanese household appliance brands, Haier and Hisense gradually realized that technology and innovation are the driving forces of the home appliance industry. Only by breaking the technical barriers of foreign giants can local household appliance brands really win market recognition.

In fact, while Haier and Hisense are busy fighting against foreign brands, some changes have taken place quietly-the innovative potential of China's home appliance industry is being unleashed.

In 1994, Zhang Ruimin and Zhou Houjian's Shandong fellow-townsman Wang Xuning still worked as a teacher at Jinan Railway Vocational and Technical College. When he returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, he also specially went to see the old man who used to come and go in his childhood and sold tofu and soy milk next door to the orchard. The 75-year-old spent 7-8 hours grinding a cup of soy milk through a series of processes such as soaking beans, pushing and grinding, and filtering, which deeply conquered Wang Xuning's taste buds and heart.

Coupled with the fact that he has been unwilling to be insipid and tired of the boring post of a technical secondary school teacher, the desire to develop a soymilk machine quietly grows and then takes root. In this way, after more than four months of continuous testing and improvement, the world's first soymilk machine was born in Shandong. In the same year, Wang Xuning split his name into two to name the company and register the trademark, and Jiuyang was established.

In the early days of its birth, the new species of soymilk machine was not recognized by the market. But for China's home appliance industry, which was still in a technological depression at that time, this pioneering spirit was very precious. The same upsurge of technological innovation has also spread in Hisense and Haier.

Among them, Zhou Houjian, who has a technical background, quickly responded by opening the door to the introduction of talents, and regarded the promotion of technology and the flow of talents as the best way to catch up with foreign giants. In 1996, Zhou Houjian welcomed an important helper-"Hisense Iron Lady" Yu Shumin officially joined the company as general manager.

Driven by Yu Shumin, Haier's R & D system has undergone a series of profound reforms: increasing R & D investment, from introducing only foreign technology to grabbing high-end talents, improving product structure and taking a diversified approach. Until many years later, Yu Shumin still stressed the importance of technological innovation in public:

"in the 1990s, many people thought that multinational companies would bring advanced technology in order to occupy the Chinese market, but the fact is that the market has been occupied by others, but our technology has not improved. Technology dependence is the phenomenon that we need to be most vigilant about."

By 2000, Hisense took the lead in launching domestic variable frequency air conditioners, which indirectly triggered a price revolution in the domestic air conditioning market. With the breaking of technical barriers and the decline of product quality, the dominant position of Japanese household appliance brands has also been severely impacted.

At this point, the story that belongs to the bosses of home appliances in Shandong can be regarded as the most exciting part.

Counterattack: the victory of made in China is undeniable that foreign giants also played an important role in the early stages of the technological revolution of Chinese manufacturers. Among them, Haier obtained a large number of refrigerator technology patents from Liebherr of Germany, while Hisense purchased a large number of color TV production equipment from Japan's Panasonic Group, and on this basis produced the best-selling 14-inch color TV sets at that time.

However, after entering the 21st century, the original ability of Chinese home appliance manufacturers has made great progress. Hisense, Haier and Jiuyang have also produced a large number of technology patents labeled with Chinese labels.

In the specific direction of reform, Zhang Ruimin has always been quite bold in the introduction of talents and technology, and is keen to "make foreign things serve China."

He imported not only equipment and technology patents from Liebherr, Germany, but also as many as 1942 automated production standards. Later, Haier fully integrated these 1942 standards into its daily production and trained a group of technicians who reached the leading international standards.

Zhang Ruimin later mentioned in an interview that Liebherr signed up not only Haier but also two other companies in Wuhan and Hangzhou to introduce technology. But later, the enterprise in Wuhan was merged, and the company in Hangzhou was lost. Only Haier survived through integration and independent innovation, and the better and better.

Zhang Ruimin, who is keen on reading, seems to have learned a lot of experience and truth from the development history of enterprises in the United States, Germany and Japan. One of the eternal and common principles for all industries is to respect talents and encourage their employees to innovate boldly and have the courage to try and make mistakes.

Zhou Houjian is also a loyal supporter of technology and talent. But unlike Zhang Ruimin, who runs the army with an iron fist and introduces a large number of advanced experience, Zhou Houjian wants to take a high-quality route, and his technological reform has been committed to the word "original".

Under the guidance of this strategy, Hisense has indeed won many firsts in China and even in the world in the past few years: developed the first generation of HD digital video processing chips in China, ending the history of no "China core" in Chinese color TV sets; built the first LCD module production line in the country to achieve a jump in production capacity; in 2008 developed the thinnest LED LCD TV in the world at that time, promoting a new round of "thickness revolution".

(photo from Hisense's official Weibo) the young Jiuyang is highly in line with advanced foreign manufacturing enterprises and has established a three-tier R & D system early-- a model that combines forward-looking technology, innovative technology and regular technology upgrading.

In the R & D department of Jiuyang, the company research institute is responsible for forward-looking technology exploration, mainly based on user feedback and competitive products to predict market trends, and to guide the new generation of product research and development. The major business departments are responsible for the application and upgrading of front-end technology, specializing in eating all kinds of "hard bones". In addition, Jiuyang has a special technical maintenance team to update the existing products regularly to achieve rapid iteration of the products.

It is worth mentioning that this respect for talent and individual creation does not exist only in technological research and development. After entering the millennium, the sales, production and even the management structure of functional departments of domestic household appliance enterprises have ushered in a new upgrade.

Zhang Ruimin put forward the groundbreaking "single person in one" management model in 2005, that is, every employee can be combined freely and compete for orders internally. Its core principle is to reduce the management and restriction of front-line employees, so that employees and users can unite more closely.

Through this series of reforms, the reputation of Chinese household appliance brands has been significantly improved, and the product quality has also been substantially improved. While actively carrying out technological upgrading, China's home appliance industry has also ushered in another important moment: the surge of economic globalization and the emergence of a new window of opportunity.

Expansion: going out to sea to open up a second battlefield on November 10, 2001, Kemal, then chairman of WTO, fell with a hammer, and China officially joined the WTO. This day is a time to change the fate of the global economy, as well as tens of thousands of domestic enterprises, large and small.

A group of statistics released by relevant government departments on the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO in 2021 can directly reflect the contribution of China's accession to the WTO to China's national economy and local enterprises: China's trade in goods has risen from the sixth in the world to the first in the world. China's trade in services has never risen from the top 10 to the second in the world, and China's foreign direct investment has soared from the 20th to the first in the world.

At that time, home appliance enterprises were the new force for Chinese brands to go abroad. Haier is undoubtedly the vanguard of Chinese home appliance enterprises going out to sea, and even was criticized by public opinion for paying too much attention to overseas markets.

As early as 1999, Haier invested nearly 30 million US dollars to establish an industrial park in South Carolina. To this end, some media released an article entitled "remind Zhang Ruimin" to ask Haier's soul: why not eat meat at home and drink soup abroad?

In response to these questions and disputes, Zhang Ruimin chose to fight back with a more radical and determined strategy of going to sea-in his eyes, only actions and achievements can solve the questions, and no heated debate is as powerful as action. In terms of specific strategy, Zhang Ruimin also showed a consistent tough style: insisting on not doing contract manufacturing and only doing independent brands and products, insisting on transplanting Haier's entire production and sales system overseas, and not allowing foreign dealers to earn the price difference.

In the first five years of the new century, Zhang Ruimin personally led Haier's international department to set up 10 factories, 17 marketing centers and 9 R & D bases overseas, and established a complete R & D-manufacturing-sales trinity business system. Since then, Haier has opened a precedent for Chinese home appliances to dominate overseas. According to Euromonitor International, Haier has been ranked No. 1 in the global retail list of large household appliances for 13 consecutive years by 2021.

Compared horizontally with other household appliance companies, Haier also leads the way in terms of influence and penetration in overseas markets. According to Best Buy statistics, Haier has 52,170 and 10 independent brands SKU in North America, Europe and Asia respectively, while Midea's and Gree's overseas independent brands SKU have not reached three digits.

Compared with Zhang Ruimin, Zhou Houjian of Hisense and Wang Xuning of Jiuyang are not so high-profile and radical, but there are a lot of layouts.

Hisense in the process of going out to sea, but suffered a lot of losses, caught in the scale or profit of the difficult double topic.

From the point of view of the time of going out to sea, Hisense was even earlier than Haier and established its first overseas production base in South Africa in 1996. However, in the early days, Hisense attached importance to the size of the market and was willing to sacrifice part of its profits, which led to a long-term low profit margin and became an OEM.

It was not until 2006, when Zhou Houjian put forward the strategic slogan of "Hisense's future development, most of its head is overseas", that Hisense began to change its channel.

At that time, the income of Hisense's own brand in overseas business was less than 10%, and contract production was thankless. Under the leadership of Zhou Houjian, by joining sub-brands of air conditioners and refrigerator projects, Hisense's overseas R & D team and product matrix have grown rapidly, moving towards a diversified and independent development path. By 2012, the overseas sales of Hisense TV business has historically exceeded the domestic market, which is the best affirmation of this reform system.

As for the young Jiuyang, he took a completely different route-attracting allies and coordinated development.

Over the years, Jiuyang has been cooperating with overseas brands in research and development, sales and other links, and then directly acquired a number of American home appliance manufacturers. For example, Shark, which owns a line of household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, steam mops and floor-sweeping robots, and Ninja, which is mainly composed of blenders and multi-functional cooking cookers, have joined Jiuyang's embrace in the future, and Jiuyang's product lines not only complement each other, but also open up new areas.

No matter which way to go, Haier, Hisense, Jiuyang's determination to go to sea and their success in overseas markets are obvious to all. But everything scores on both sides: home appliance giants are becoming more and more committed to going out to sea, in addition to taking a fancy to the broad growth space of the overseas market, the faint recession in the domestic market is also a potential reason.

Dormant: the increasing saturation of the traditional home appliance market is the same as the rise and fall of Japanese manufacturers. After nearly a decade of scenery, the first batch of local home appliance enterprises ushered in their own dormant stage shortly after entering the new century.

Data show that during the period from 2006 to 2008, the traditional home appliance market has shown signs of prosperity and decline. From the performance of these home appliance giants, we can see some clues. Take Haier as an example, data show that its global turnover in 2008 and 2009 was 122 billion yuan and 124.3 billion yuan respectively, up 3.39% and 1.89% respectively from the same period last year. In 2007, its turnover increased by 9.77% compared with the same period last year.

Although the growth rate of performance at this stage has declined, it has been more or less affected by the global financial turmoil. However, from the comparison of other industries, we can also see that the traditional manufacturing industry is facing the severe impact of the new era. And not many companies can escape the recession of traditional home appliances sweeping the industry-giants such as Haier can survive without arms, and small and medium-sized enterprises that are not so strong or unlucky can only go bankrupt.

Chunlan air conditioner, which was once called "Chinese troika" with Changhong and Haier, was one of the earliest household appliance enterprises in China to land in the capital market, and once became the national air conditioner sales champion. But after 2005, Chunlan air conditioner, which missed the opportunity to go to sea and did not succeed in diversified reform, faced years of losses and finally delisted from the market. The Little Swan, which once produced the country's first fully automatic washing machine, was also eliminated by consumers because of its lack of innovation, and sold its beauty in 2008.

The hard days of Hisense and Haier are far from over.

Take Hisense's most important color TV business as an example. Statistics from Shen Wanhongyuan Securities show that with 2012 as the dividing line, the operating rate of TV sets in China has changed from rising to falling, falling to 70% in 2016 and less than 30% three years later. The viewing myth and color TV sales records created during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are more like the last salute for funerals in the old era.

The serious decline of traditional home appliances is not only reflected in the large household appliances that cannot be sold, but also in the decline of consumers' freshness and market saturation.

According to data from Yikang in GFK, China's soymilk machine retail market fell 20.7% in 2011 from a year earlier, the first negative growth since statistics were available. In the previous three years, although soymilk machine sales continued to grow, the year-on-year growth rate slowed from 145.1% in 2008 to 47.9% in 2010, which actually heralded a recession.

Haier, Hisense and Jiuyang, which are at the top of the food chain, certainly will not go to the point of delisting and selling themselves, but it is also an accepted fact that the pressure has doubled. It is an immutable law in the business world that poverty leads to change. Compared with the two big brothers with a long history, aging internal organizations and intertwined interest groups, the younger and more flexible Jiuyang took the lead in initiating the reform.

In 2011, Jiuyang announced diversified reforms to expand its business into the areas of chef electricity and water purification equipment. However, the financial report shows that five years after the start of the transformation plan, Jiuyang's average annual compound growth rate of revenue is only 5.9%, and the annual compound growth rate of net profit is 2.8%, which is far from its peak, even lagging behind its peers, and the reform plan has also been questioned.

At the critical moment, the big brothers have to stand up and hold their positions.

In 2012, Zhang Ruimin announced Haier's fifth strategic transformation after its establishment: entering the era of network strategy, that is, from a traditional home appliance enterprise to a founder incubation platform. After this transformation, Haier reduced its investment in traditional home appliance business, began to invest heavily in innovative business and products, and carried out a new round of major reform of the management and sales system that had been in use for many years.

At the same time, Hisense continued to delve into technology under the leadership of Zhou Houjian, and gradually made breakthroughs in core areas such as chips and panels. Jiuyang, which has taken detours for several years, has also given up the blind diversification transformation, re-concentrated resources on soymilk machines, wall-breaking machines and other core products, implemented the "big single product" strategy, and improved the product pricing range and profit margin by technological upgrading.

In Zhang Ruimin's own words, the first thing these old companies have to do is to "break the fence": both the internal organization and the product side, Haier has been trapped in the glory of the past for too long. When the brilliant achievements of the past become a cage, only when we completely get out of the fence can we get a new life.

Zhang Ruimin, who have regained their entrepreneurial status, have finally waited for the next tuyere that can make them turn against the wind: smart home appliances.

Transformation: the old tycoon should also seize the new wave of intelligence. when did smart home appliances begin to replace traditional home appliances and become the mainstream of the market and the hearts of consumers?

It seems difficult for us to find a direct answer to this question. But there is plenty of evidence for the decline of traditional large household appliances, such as declining sales market share and the rise of new brands.

The comprehensive intelligence of the home appliance and consumer electronics industry is not without a key node: the birth of iPhone 4 in 2010, and the world has officially entered the era of mobile Internet. IPhone 4 and smartphones have opened up a new world for all related industries in the upper and lower reaches of the industry chain, and the concept of the Internet of everything has begun to take root.

After years of development, network connection technology is mature, smart home appliances also ushered in the outbreak. According to Oviyun's data, smart TV shipments and activation began to grow rapidly from 2016 to 2019, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 25%, from 97.29 million to 216.04 million.

Xiaomi and Huawei, which also get rich by making mobile phones, have rapidly grown into leaders in China's smart home appliance industry by taking advantage of this east wind.

According to data provided by Xiaomi, smart TV shipments ranked outside the top 10 in the country since 2017 and climbed to third in the country the following year, second only to Skyworth and Hisense. In 2019, Xiaomi's smart TV shipments reached the top, with a market share of 19.25%. Among them, 32-inch, 43-inch, 50-inch and 65-inch smart TVs are all at the top of the list, and 65-inch TVs account for more than 30% of shipments.

Also in 2017, retail sales of traditional color TV sets declined by 6.6% from a year earlier. In the face of the merciless crushing of the great wheel of the times, the old tycoons have no choice but to fight.

In fact, as early as 2010, Hisense announced its intelligent strategy and began to set foot in new fields such as smart city and smart health care. Zhang Ruimin announced a few years later that Haier has entered the sixth strategic transformation and launched the ecological brand strategy with the goal of establishing a perfect ecology of the Internet of things. While Xiaomi and Huawei advance by leaps and bounds, these big brothers are also accumulating energy, hoping to rise abruptly based on their accumulated strength.

Judging from the current performance of these enterprises, their transformation strategy is undoubtedly effective.

Hisense has created an intelligent life of new business type, which starts with a screen to get through the three intelligent platforms of Haixin Love Home, Hisense Home and Xin Wisdom City, as well as a large number of users behind them. in entertainment, learning, games, fashion, food, health and other N formats for comprehensive layout. At present, Hisense has become one of the largest Internet TV cloud platforms in the world.

Haier and Jiuyang are not limited to the product end, but from the internal management, production, research and development, sales and even marketing and other aspects of intelligent upgrading. For example, Jiuyang relies on self-built digital platform to achieve online orders, nearest distribution, door-to-door after-sales and omni-channel marketing launch.

Haier was listed in November last year as the only Chinese household appliance company on the list of industry 4.0 by European management consulting group Ruoying Efeiso. The intelligent kitchen intelligent manufacturing system enabled by its industrial Internet of things platform Kaos and Laiyang Kitchen Electric Internet Factory applies a series of new technologies such as AI, cloud edge computing and 5G+MEC.

Zhang Ruimin, Zhou Houjian and Wang Xuning have defended their positions despite the inevitable decline in public attention to the home appliance industry and the emergence of new challengers. It's just that heroes always have their twilight moments. Thirty years of turning around again and again, but also let these bosses boil from green hair to silver temples-the change of power has long been written on the calendar of this group of home appliance giants.

Abdication: the influence of Chuangshi continues as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the latest development of Hisense is that it completed a new round of management reshuffle yesterday, and Jia Shaoqian took over the baton from Lin Lan and became the new head of the group.

It is common for any enterprise to replace the old and the new. It's just that Hisense's coach change is really fast-less than a year has passed since Lin Lan took over from founder Zhou Houjian at the helm of the board. This phenomenon also indicates that traditional household appliance enterprises are speeding up the pace of upgrading.

Generally speaking, when the story develops to this stage, the era that belongs to the older generation of home appliance bosses such as Zhang Ruimin and Zhou Houjian is about to spend a rest. Strictly speaking, Wang Xuning, who is a full generation younger than Zhang Ruimin, is still on the front line, but he will inevitably encounter the problem of succession and decentralization in the future.

However, the influence of these big brothers will not fade immediately-in the view of the Institute of values (ID:jiazhiyanjiusuo), their entrepreneurial stories teach us a lot and are worth learning for future generations.

First, we should comply with the trend of development and seize the dividends sent by the times.

Whether it is the reform and opening up in the 1980s and 1990s, or the globalization at the beginning of the new century, it is a completely new thing for Chinese enterprises, and no one can predict how the market will develop in the future. If you hesitate at this time and miss the tuyere, then there will be no later story.

Compared with entrepreneurial losers, Zhang Ruimin, Zhou Houjian and Wang Xuning all lack courage and vision, and can capture the window of opportunity for the first time. It can be said that it is a kind of talent to successfully catch the tuyere for the first time, but the success of the transformation again and again is inseparable from their accumulated experience and fierce vision in the long-term operation.

Second, to respect technology and talents, we must build our own technical barriers.

This is not only for the home appliance industry, for any technology enterprise, technological innovation is an immutable trump card. From Hisense to the research and development of domestic chips, liquid crystal production lines and panels, to Zhang Ruimin's implementation of new governance methods such as "human in one" in Haier, all reflect this group of entrepreneurs' respect for technology and talent.

It is reported that Zhang Ruimin even tried to remove Haier's middle management positions on a large scale to provide employees with a transparent upward channel. As he later recalled this series of management reforms, human value is priceless:

"the single unity of human beings is the maximization of human value, and we must give human dignity."

Third, it is not advisable to indulge in the glory of the past, never lose the ability to learn new things, and learn to let go of your obsession with power.

As we all know, Zhang Ruimin is a loyal reader of Peter Drucker, a management expert, who has used a sentence in his masterpiece effective Manager many times in public: a well-managed factory is always monotonous. Nothing exciting happened. Now that he takes the burden off his shoulders, maybe he can find more fun outside of work.

But for their successors, the tedious and challenging work continues.

It is difficult to start a business, but it is even more difficult to keep it. It is hoped that the next generation of leaders of Haier and Hisense will be able to hold on to the rivers and mountains laid down by the founding generation. The experience accumulated over the past decades at the helm of the predecessor is believed to provide the necessary help to the successor.

In the end, when the replacement of the old and the new becomes the norm, the senior management and employees of Hisense may not have too many waves in their hearts. But in retrospect, the impact of these founding generations on their companies has not completely disappeared.

Set the clock back to March 12 last year, Zhou Houjian's last working day.

The process of the day is simple: hold a regular business review meeting to announce your resignation and say goodbye to your colleagues. However, in addition to his regular work, Zhou Houjian has another extra itinerary-- attending the unveiling of the "letter seal" logo on the first floor of Hisense Building. This sign is also regarded by the outside world as the spiritual totem left by Zhou Houjian to Hisense. After it retreats to the second line, its business philosophy and entrepreneurial philosophy will continue to influence the course of the home appliance giant.

Of course, the era that belongs to the founding generation will pass, and it will be difficult to reproduce the magnificent epic of China's home appliance industry from scratch during the decades of reform and opening up. But veterans will not wither, and their stories will still be mentioned by future generations after many years, and have already left an indelible mark on the stage of history.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: Institute of value (ID:jiazhiyanjiusuo), author: Hernanderz

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