Multi-faceted Zou State Camp

"Although your name is state-owned, you have become an outstanding representative of private enterprises and set a model for state-owned enterprises." CCTV celebrity Bai Yansong once commented on Zou Guoying, chairman of Shuaikang. The reason why Shuaikang, who is about to turn 30, has grown from a dark horse of range hoods to a leading brand of kitchen and bathroom appliances, is inseparable from Zou Guoying's low-key, courageous, persistent and eager to make breakthroughs.

Zou Guoying has a strong characteristic of Zhejiang businessmen, "speaking few words, neither happiness nor anger can be shown in color". Liu Chunhua, the current brand director of Shuaikang, who was used to meeting and clapping tables in Haier, joined Shuaikang for two years, but he was still not used to Zou Guoying's calmness: "He is a person who doesn't express his opinions casually, and is always very gentle. I really suffer from some things. If you keep asking him, he won't say what you did not do well, he will just say lightly what he wants to do."

Zou Guoying's voice was not loud, but his words were firm and resolute. . Similar to the practices of Lu Guanqiu, Zhang Ruimin, Liu Bingyin and others, Zou Guoying also smashed defective products at the beginning of his business. As the first generation of entrepreneurs since the reform and opening up, they are the witnesses and builders of China's market economy from scratch. It is this generation that has smashed the quality of Chinese manufacturing, and it is also this generation that began to give products "Chinese core" and carried the banner of Chinese creation.

The decision to "go it alone"

Born in Zou Guoying in the 1950s, he has many similarities with his contemporaries. He came from a poor family when he was young, and entered a township enterprise at the age of 20. He tried to turn the tide and revive the factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy. He was also ordered to set up a small accessories factory and transformed it into the first brand in the kitchen and bathroom appliance industry - Shuaikang.

In Liu Chunhua's eyes, Zou Guoying seems to be a bit adventurous:

"He is an entrepreneurial person who likes to challenge himself in constant innovation, and in the process also leads the entire industry forward." For example, entrepreneurship At the beginning of the CCTV weather forecast column large advertising, tens of millions of yuan when the water heater launched a banquet for dealers, etc., these measures have shocked the industry. Under the leadership of Zou Guoying, Shuaikang has established its core competitiveness by leading the trend of range hood products, from making deep-type hoods, to "non-removable and washable" range hoods, to low-pitched, high suction and other hoods. After several transformations and upgrades, Shuaikang has transformed from a king of range hoods to an expert in overall kitchen and bathroom.

Many of Shuaikang's key transformations were controversial at the time. Zou Guoying also said that these decisions, which now appear to be correct, were made under enormous pressure at the time.

In the early 1990s, the national range hood manufacturers generally copied the foreign thin range hood models, which have low suction power, easy oil leakage, difficult disassembly and cleaning, and loud noise. Shuaikang's deep-type range hood is like a dark horse. In the national range hood market within three years, it has surpassed its opponents by virtue of its leading comprehensive share, sales share and coverage. However, when Zou Guoying proposed to transform the small tuner factory into a range hood, the township government and all the workers in the factory were firmly opposed. He can only find experts, run technology, raise tens of millions of funds, build international standard workshops, produce deep-type hoods with greater value and higher prices, and advertise on CCTV at sky-high prices... For a total asset However, for a small factory with a cost of 150,000 yuan, Zou Guoying had to face strong opposition from employees and the government for every decision that was "horrifying step by step". During the period, Shuaikang also experienced the discontinuation of products and the transformation of the joint-stock system of pilot township enterprises. Under these pressures and difficulties, Zou Guoying laid the foundation for Shuaikang's glory in the future by "going his own way".

In recent years, Zou Guoying has invested another 400 million yuan in the field of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal. In July 2011, Shuaikang announced its full entry into the solar energy industry. This move has attracted the outside world's evaluation of its "brain fever". Wu Honggang, senior consultant of Times Square, believes that the current solar energy industry is an industry based on the rural market, and manufacturers need to have a third- and fourth-tier channel foundation to succeed. The best channel can sink to the county-level or even township-level market. Moreover, solar water heater giants such as Huangming and Sunyu have been digging deep into the market for many years, and they have strong product development and operation capabilities. The entire market is under a lot of pressure for new products.

Even many senior executives within Shuaikang believe that it is too risky to enter the solar industry, and there are many objections. However, Zou Guoying was as indifferent as when he encountered resistance in the past: "What are you afraid of, the big deal is failure." Facing the current strong competitive brands, Zou Guoying turned his attention to the long-term market environment. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the government put forward a number of target measures on energy conservation and emission reduction, the development of clean energy and renewable energy, requiring that high-rise buildings above 12 floors must reserve solar water heating systems. By 2015, the national household solar water heaters The penetration rate reaches 20%-30%. Therefore, new energy must be the main direction of development.

Zou Guoying's thinking angle is the same as when he decided in April 2004 to roll out the side-drawing deep-type range hood. At that time, many employees thought that the side-suction range hood was still in the "cash cow" stage, and it was a pity to go offline. However, Zou Guoying believes that enterprises should pay close attention to the future development trend of products and be ahead of the market in order to better meet consumer demand. Zou Guoying's decision made the current year's performance report soaring, and most salesmen completed the annual sales plan in November.

In order to test new energy products, Zou Guoying also built two sunshine apartments with a construction area of more than 15,000 square meters as staff dormitories. Solar water heaters and photovoltaic power generation devices are embedded in them. All household appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators are powered by Solar photovoltaic power generation completed. In these two apartments, the meter runs "backwards", saving 240,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

Traveling through trial and error

Like many founders of home appliance companies, Zou Guoying is also trudging through the process of being tempted, trial-and-error, and refusing temptation in the process of developing Shuaikang.

Zou Guoying had a somewhat ambiguous attitude towards enterprise diversification. He once pointed out that specialization is a competitive advantage for small household appliances to fight against the diversified invasion of large household appliances. ". At that time, he was attracted by the air-conditioning industry, but after the industry encountered Waterloo, he sensitively focused on development: "We are now focusing on kitchen and bathroom appliances, and this core will not change much."

Saikang's diversified development journey began in 1999 when it entered water heaters. In the same year, the diversification of enterprises has become a trend, and major appliances have nuggeted the small appliance market. In the field of major home appliances, where competition has already been fierce, profit margins have been suppressed very low. Small home appliances have relatively high profits, low investment, and a shorter replacement cycle. At this time, Haier, Changhong, Midea, Little Swan and even professional refrigeration. Kelon Group has also begun to enter small household appliances. At that time, Shuaikang had been far ahead in the market share, sales volume and sales of range hoods for six consecutive years. In the face of the staking-style development of major appliances in the field of kitchen appliances, increasing the variety of products is the most effective way to expand the scale in the short term. In order to promote Shuaikang water heaters, Zou Guoying spent tens of millions to invite dealers across the country. For a time, hotels in Cixi and Yuyao were filled with Shuaikang dealers. This diversified first product has now become an important product of the company. According to the data of Zhongyikang, its market retail share is around ten. However, compared with getting involved in electric water heaters, Shuaikang has not been so lucky to enter the field of air conditioners.

In the field of air conditioners, Zou Guoying has also invested heavily, using world-class production equipment, and using high-quality foreign products for the selection of materials and accessories. However, it was the most tragic stage of the reshuffle of the air-conditioning industry at that time. In 2004, LG, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc. shifted their manufacturing focus to China, and a large number of companies were caught in a melee between investment and price. Shuaikang was reluctant to be involved in price wars, and even more unwilling to sacrifice product quality in exchange for a drop in product cost, and decided to withdraw from the field of air conditioners.

After experiencing the pain of diversification, Zou Guoying began to return to focus on kitchen appliances. He has a new insight on how to "grow up" specialized companies: "In the past, well-known kitchen appliance companies in China were often the 'single champions' in a certain industry, and then diversified related industries. The products belong to different subsidiaries within the group and are not related to each other. What consumers currently need is a one-stop solution for the whole kitchen, which is an exquisite way of life." The path set by Zou Guoying is "the key point" The first is the kitchen electricity market, and the second is the electric heating and gas market. We must make kitchen-related appliances bigger, stronger and more complete.”

Shi Zhangqiang, senior marketing consultant of Shanghai Jinkun Culture, believes that the key to Zou Guoying's diversified path lies in brand and channel building. "The technical content of small kitchen appliances is not high, but Shuaikang has accumulated a lot of patents and manufacturing experience, and has an advantage in entering related fields. In the past few years, Shuaikang's product quality, price positioning, after-sales service, etc. have no shortcomings, but the brand image It is not clear, it is a passive product classified by consumers, and there is no superiority in channel construction, so it is the top priority of Shuaikang to integrate the brand image of various products and promote channel construction.”

However, with the market, Compared with channels and brands, Zou Guoying pays more attention to the performance and quality of products. This seems to be a common feature of the first generation of entrepreneurs. They are more in love with industry, pay more attention to products than capital operation, and have a strong complex of becoming bigger and stronger. At present, Shuaikang has established a product design and R&D center in Shanghai to provide overall design for all products. Its products have strict planning in terms of design concept and appearance.

Delegating authority but not at ease

The founder of the enterprise who leads the enterprise from scratch, from small to large, often endows the enterprise with the same character and destiny as himself. He is the leading brother and spiritual leader within the enterprise. After years of hard exploration and hard work, Zou Guoying also established absolute authority within Shuaikang. Although this kind of authority sometimes seems a bit arbitrary, many companies have grown up under the iron fist of entrepreneurs, because only they can have almost abnormal demands on product quality, and only they can maverick their own ideas. Carry on, and even promote the development of the industry.

Now, Zou Guoying is about to turn 60, but "Shuakang" in his 30th year is facing more variables. Since 2007, Zou Guoying has gradually faded out of business management, in charge of corporate strategy and decision-making, and handed over the daily operations of Shuaikang to professional managers. However, the rise of e-commerce, the intensification of conflicts between K/A (home appliance chain stores) and manufacturers, and the increase in the capacity of the building materials engineering market... A variety of factors are accelerating the diversification of channels in the kitchen appliance industry; domestic and foreign brands of home appliances are accelerating The more competitive market environment, such as entering the kitchen appliance market and weak exports, is testing Shuaikang in transition.

Zou Guoying has high expectations for e-commerce. In 2009, many home appliance manufacturers did not dare to launch e-commerce rashly. Shuaikang took the lead in establishing an e-commerce department to provide resource support from the headquarters level. Shuaikang e-commerce adopts the product line strategy to solve the contradiction between e-commerce channels and traditional channels, that is, to create an online sales brand Conner, and to build online and physical store networks at the same time. Online orders are assigned to local distributors for distribution services. Physical stores can sell products or sell online through distribution platforms, but offline sales are not allowed. These measures enabled Conner, a little-known brand, to achieve a sales performance of 1 million yuan in the first month of its launch, and its performance increased by 500% within 5 months.

However, there is still a gap between the psychological expectations of Connor and Zou Guoying, who have performed well. In this regard, Wu Honggang believes that it is difficult for e-commerce to become the main sales channel for kitchen and bathroom appliances. Kitchen appliances are "semi-finished products", and they are not sold until they are installed. If there is no display, experience, installation, and service in offline physical stores, it is difficult for consumers to reach purchase intentions; and dealers in various regions have pricing power, and online prices will affect regional sales. Therefore, the contradiction between physical stores and online sales channels is difficult to resolve. . Especially, when the person in charge of e-commerce is a professional manager who has no foundation in the enterprise, these contradictions are more difficult to resolve.

The situation improved a lot when Zou Guoying handed over the Conner brand to his only son, Zou Jiefeng. "Xiao Zou" can apply for more resource support from the headquarters. Therefore, the current annual sales of Shuaikang e-commerce reaches 150 million yuan, which is equivalent to the sales performance of Shuaikang in the entire Shanghai area.

Saikang's e-commerce twists and turns have once again verified the low "survival rate" of professional managers in private enterprises. These problems made Zou Guoying, who even wanted to invite foreigners, realize: "It is the most important thing for professional managers to be in harmony with the corporate culture. Compared with the airborne troops, the internal training of talents is more important." He accelerated the promotion and appointment of internal managers in the enterprise. . At the end of 2010, Shuaikang was restructured, and the business department that was responsible for product production, marketing and sales became a special production and R&D department. The group established three major centers of marketing, sales and operation, which were respectively led by Liu Chunhua and Shuaikang veterans Zhang Jiangao and Zhu Yunwei. . Zou Guoying holds regular meetings with the three vice presidents, but rarely participates in the specific business of Shuaikang on weekdays.

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