Ren Zhonglun: "Ideal" is not a doctrine

Ren Zhonglun, 2003 EMBA of Antai School of Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, currently President of Shanghai Film Group Corporation

The spirit of adventure, chasing ideals including EMBA, and making ideals into every reality of career development

University teachers→government civil servants→editors→Vice Chairman of Film Association→ Vice President of a film and television company → EMBA on the job → President of a film and television company and director of a film studio

Successfully reformed the Shanghai studio and realized real international cooperation

Go Ten years after leaving the university podium, Ren Zhonglun still can't forget it.

As the current president of Shanghai Film, former secretary of the Writers Association, editor-in-chief of a newspaper, screenwriter for film and television, and professor of the Chinese Department of Shanghai Normal University, what he admires most is his "teacher" status ten years ago.

"Being a teacher, you will never be restricted by any restrictions, you can run your own imagination, influence or change the thoughts of people around you." In the end, he still boils down to "I like both roles". Because "idealists can indulge their imaginations, and when the president can realize all their imaginations in reality."

From researching movies to running movies, this idealist also re-imagined himself. To this end, Ren Zhonglun, who is nearly fifty years old, started as a "student". Facts have proved that he can be a good professor and a good student. Last year, as an EMBA student of Shanghai Jiaotong University's 2003 class, he was named "China EMBA Honorary Graduate". In addition to the EMBA class, he also started his career as a president at the same time.

Let the ideal come into reality

"2046", "Tokyo Trial", "Three Gorges Good Man", "Lust, Caution" directed by Ang Lee, the 2008 New Year's Eve film "Slam Dunk" starring Jay Chou, and There are "Lianhe Cinemas" that exceed 300 million yuan - all in the four years that Ren Zhonglun came to the film. Everything is proclaiming that "Shanghai Film", which is the same age as New China, is heading towards the glory of "Oriental Hollywood" in the last century.

On May 28, 2003, the first day of Ren Zhonglun's tenure as president, Shanghai Film was a different scene. This old-fashioned film studio with a history of more than 50 years and more than 4,000 people is experiencing the common problem of state-owned enterprises. From four or five years of a good film to four or five a year, it is almost impossible for the employees. For this new "professor of the Chinese Department", from top to bottom, there are more cold eyes than expectations. Recalling this, Ren Zhonglun mocked himself and said that the Chinese people may have identified "one hundred and no one is a scholar".

In less than a year, Shanghai Film People discovered that Mr. Ren was an explorer rather than a scholar. The world in the camera is almost all the ideals of this idealist. He thinks and takes risks that ideals don't just stay in his own world.

At the end of 1996, after dedicating the most precious twenty years of his life to the campus, Ren Zhonglun took up the post of editor-in-chief of Wenhui Film Times. For him, it was just a different role to continue watching movies. But in the eyes of old colleagues, the price he paid for it was too high. He was not far from retirement that year. He could retire as a professor, so why take the risk?

A true idealist may be an explorer. The first step he took from No. 100 Guilin Road, since then his pace has become faster and bigger. In November 2000, he was transferred to the Shanghai Writers Association, and in December 2001 he became the vice-chairman of the association. At the same time, he also worked in the Literature and Art Department of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. He is credited with a number of Shanghai-produced film and television works such as "Life and Death", "Loyalty", and "Out of Xibaipo".

However, his appointment as president of Shanghai Film Group surprised many people who knew him. "When you taught us film and television classes back then, it took eight years for you to leave the teaching position and take this position." Not to mention that his students couldn't imagine it, the "Teacher Ren" who warned freshmen about wisdom back then might not have imagined it either. In the first class for freshmen, he always wrote two words on the blackboard: "knowledge" and "wisdom". He said that the "wisdom" of "wisdom" has one more sun than the "knowledge" of "knowledge", which is the sun that illuminates everyone's life.

Without wisdom, the ideal is just an adventure, and it can't be brought into reality. Although there are many problems in the system, redundant staff, debts, funds and other issues of state-owned enterprises, there are many problems in the shadow; but with ideals and wisdom, the reality is not gloomy.

First of all, Ren Zhonglun talked with the former president Zhu Yongde for nearly 100 hours, and listened to the reports of the leaders of more than 50 subordinate units one by one.

"How can movies solve problems, only reform." When he said this, another jingle was circulating in the factory: reform is courting death, not reform is waiting for death, and euthanasia is not reform. This is not a joke. Only if Shanghai Film is restructured from a public institution to an enterprise, the retirement benefits of 2,388 employees in 11 main units of Shanghai Film will drop by more than 1,000 yuan per capita. For this reason, the hot water bottle in the factory's union office was smashed by angry workers, and the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai Film Factory was held under the escort of a police car.

"Respect for public opinion, I think this is the most extensive basis for us to solve problems." Ren Zhonglun has set up a reception station in the company, and every working day has a special person to write down the opinions of employees. He will read it one by one. Finally, "3 overall interest issues, 12 group interest issues, and 238 outstanding individual interest issues" were summed up, and they were all answered and resolved in a targeted manner. During the Spring Festival of 2004, Ren Zhonglun visited a family of workers and families who were living in difficulties, and tears welled up unconsciously. This was also the first time he shed tears since he came to the film.

"People-oriented" cannot be quantified, but it has become the most solid guarantee for the realization of ideals. Ren Zhonglun's ideals never belong to him alone. As he often said, "the top of an enterprise's 'enterprise' is a personal character, and the bottom is a 'stop' character", without the support of people, the development of the enterprise will stop.

Creating examples for success

The ideal of a bookish spirit and the practice of EMBA, Ren Zhonglun gained the trust of Shanghai Film People in his first year as president. At the beginning of 2005, the "Overall Reform and Development Plan of Shanghai Film Group" was unanimously approved, and the "Regulations on Labor Contracts and Post Employment of Shanghai Film Group Corporation" and "Implementation Opinions on Labor Relations and Personnel Diversion in the Transformation of Shanghai Film Group Corporation into Enterprises" were approved by 94.4%. passed by a high vote.

The employees held up the circled approval votes and walked to the ballot box. They said, "It's not that we have no opinions on the reform plan, nor do we have no emotions. We all have it. But seeing the reform and development of Shanghai Film Group, and seeing that you leaders think about our employees, we recognized it, we voted, and we voted. It's a vote of confidence! It's a vote of hope!"

Ren Zhonglun understands that only by studying and re-learning can he live up to the filmmakers and his lifelong ideals of film. The success of the group reform is only the first step.

Still at Shanghai Normal University, he has completed a film manuscript of more than 5 million words. It can be said that before coming to the film, Ren Zhonglun was already a famous film scholar in the country. But in business management, he is still a new recruit. "After I arrived at Shanghai Film Group, I studied business administration for two years. My own feeling is that these concepts let me quickly understand the operation of the enterprise." The intense group reform work did not make him drop his studies. In addition to limited EMBA study, unlimited business operation practice is also his good teacher.

"In the process of negotiating with Warner, what I learned is more practical than what I learned from books. It is also the most practical and useful in cooperation with Zedong Company and British companies. Yes." From partners to rivals, even a peer's financial annual report has become a successful example for him and Shanghai Shadow.

Ren Zhonglun still clearly remembers the financial annual report of MGM that kept him awake all night. What attracted him was not the dense charts, but the few sentences summed up at the end of the article. The annual report believes that copyright management is a magic weapon for large production companies to avoid financial risks. Data shows that MGM made CDs from film music in its film library, and its annual revenue of US$90 million was close to the annual box office of Chinese films.

"The rate of return for domestic films is only about 20%. As an entrepreneur, what I pursue is to maximize profits. The reason why the rate of return for Chinese films is relatively low is because we have not developed the film industry chain well. Copyright Management is undoubtedly the business that Shanghai Film will develop in the future.” Shanghai Film is like MGM, its film library is a piece of Chinese film history, and it has become a unique copyright resource. Ren Zhonglun believes that the operation of the film library on the basis of its own copyright determines the future of Shanghai Film to a large extent.

Copyright management has thus become one of the three strategies set by "General Manager Ren" for Shanghai Film. In addition, there are "Chinese Movies" and "Transnational Co-productions".

Ren Zhonglun said that as a scholar, he is accustomed to understand everything thoroughly. After nearly two years of investigation, he believes that “the ratio of investment and return is disproportionate to domestic films, and the average recovery rate is about 30%.” Therefore, only by breaking through the mainland market and entering the world screen can the benefits of Chinese films be maximized. He proposed that Chinese-language films and transnational co-productions are precisely for Chinese films to use global resources to go to the world, and to go far and well.

This is also what he thinks the president should and must do. At the beginning of taking office, some people questioned that he did not understand all aspects of the film industry. In this regard, he was not convinced, "If you want to understand, there must be 300 jobs. I spend a year to understand a job, so did God give me 300 years? He didn't give me 300 years. I only You can sit in my position as the president of Shanghai Film Group and take on the responsibilities that a president should take."

Now, the filming of "Slam Dunk", which Shanghai Film has invested 100 million yuan, is about to start. What makes Ren Zhonglun more proud than the amount of investment is the new method of "scheduled schedule" for the film, that is, starting from the beginning of the film's shooting for the most suitable release date, rather than "blindly crowding into the Lunar New Year stalls" after the filming.

In his view, this operating mode, which has become popular abroad, will provide another successful example for the Chinese film market. And in one creative copy after another of successful examples, his ideal is one step closer to reality. In other words, his higher ideals are brewing one after another.

Attachment: Resume of Ren Zhonglun

Before 1996: Teacher of Shanghai Normal University, Deputy Director of Chinese Department.

1996-2000: Editor-in-chief of Wenhui Film Times, Wen Wei Po.

2000-2003: Worked for the Shanghai Writers Association, served as the vice-chairman of the association.

2003-2005: On-the-job learning EMBA of Shanghai Jiaotong University Antai School of Management.

2003-present: Vice President of Shanghai Culture Radio and Television Group, President of Shanghai Film Group Corporation, Director of Shanghai Film Studio.