Dong Mingzhu: If we hadn't offended those people, Gree wouldn't be where it is today

　　Dong Mingzhu’s famous quotes and stories are always present in the world.

Wu Xiaobo had a conversation with Dong Mingzhu in the "Ten Years and Twenty People" series. In this conversation, Dong Mingzhu responded to the bet between herself and Lei Jun, the dispute between Gree and Gome, and the conflict with Midea. Dong Mingzhu's remarks were still bold and full of golden sentences.

"I thought too much about that bet"

Gree, which has the slogan of "Made in China", seems to be a little far away from the rapidly developing Internet economy. It is for this reason that the bet between this "star enterprise" in the manufacturing industry and Xiaomi has aroused widespread discussion. In the interview, Dong Mingzhu responded to this matter.

Dong Mingzhu said: "It was like this. In the backstage, Lei Jun said, they (the program) asked me to make a bet with you, did you know that? I said no one told me. He (Lei Jun) said that after reading your information, I felt that Gree was amazing, but let me make a bet with you, so we should go on stage and do it. He said just bet one dollar, and I said then don't talk about the bet. After going on stage, Lei Jun actually brought up this matter and said bet one dollar, so I said, if you want to bet, let's bet on a contest, and take out 1 billion."

Dong Mingzhu believes that she and Lei Jun are not on the same platform or the same planet, but everyone hopes that he (Lei Jun) can succeed. In fact, winning or losing is not important, but it is a way to make everyone clearly aware of their responsibilities. "Responsibility is too important," Dong Mingzhu said.

While everyone thought it was just a joke, Dong Mingzhu said that she made this bet without thinking. Dong Mingzhu smiled and said: "If your (Lei Jun) data exceeds mine, I hope the data will be more transparent."

In response to Wu Xiaobo's suggestion that "taxes should be used instead of turnover for gambling", Dong Mingzhu also showed her own tax data, saying that based on the tax reduction and exemption in 2017, Gree has paid more than 80 billion yuan in taxes to the state in the past five years. If Lei Jun is gambling with himself (Dong Mingzhu), he hopes that everyone can make all the numbers clear, including sales. Dong Mingzhu also laughed and said: "Lei Jun now proposes to return to innovation and products. In this regard, I have already won."

“I can’t be wrong”

In response to her own high-profile statement that "it is impossible for me to make mistakes" and Wu Xiaobo's question "what if I make mistakes?", Dong Mingzhu asked in return: "Can (Gree) make mistakes? It is impossible."

Dong Mingzhu gave a reason: When she makes a decision, she will first do risk prevention and control. There are many unknowns, but she cannot stop doing it because of the risks. "It must be done, but after doing it, it cannot affect the survival of the company." Dong Mingzhu gave an example, for example, I prepared 5 billion yuan to invest, and if the 5 billion yuan is gone, it will be gone, but it will not affect the healthy development of the company. No one can guarantee that everything is right. If the failure leads to the collapse of the company, this is a wrong decision.

As for one of her decisions, Gree mobile phones, Dong Mingzhu said: "We are very happy and it is very good because we produce it ourselves and the scale is not large. Small-scale enterprises just need to sell their products after they are produced. It (Gree mobile phones) can support itself."

Back to Gree's core business. In the field of air conditioners, Dong Mingzhu said frankly that compared with foreign countries, Gree is at least not inferior, and it can be said that it is not inferior, but leading.

“I’m good at talking”

From 1990 to now, Dong Mingzhu has been in the industry for almost 30 years, but Dong Mingzhu said that she is not bored. On the contrary, she will always be dissatisfied with herself and always think that what she makes is flawed.

For such a long time, Dong Mingzhu has always triggered a series of discussions from the outside world with her radical and bold remarks, but Dong Mingzhu still thinks that she is a "good speaker".

Dong Mingzhu said that when she was a salesperson, everyone called her "Sister Dong" and everyone said "Sister Dong is the best at speaking". She was able to become a department manager because she is good at speaking. Now many people say that they are not good at speaking, because they become bad at speaking at work.

Dong Mingzhu once worked her way up from a salesperson to a department head at Gree. In her opinion, the difference between being a department head and being a salesperson is that one is about managing people and building systems, while the other is about managing things. Being a department head means offending people. Dong Mingzhu believes that she must "confront" others, but not with her colleagues or her profession, but with bad behavior. She said, "If you don't offend people, you won't be a good department head."

"If we hadn't offended these people, Gree wouldn't be where it is today"

Wu Xiaobo asked a more "sensitive" question: One day you (Dong Mingzhu) will no longer be the chairman of Gree and leave the company. Three or five years later, can the system and culture formed by Gree be passed on?

Dong Mingzhu admitted, "To be honest, this question is not easy to answer."

Dong Mingzhu has always believed that the beliefs, persistence and values ​​of the top leader are very important, and the choice of the top leader is also very important. She said frankly that she already has a lot of wealth and can enjoy it without working, but she believes that her value is not in enjoyment, but in the change reflected in the process.

Dong Mingzhu believes that the two most important things for an enterprise to develop from a century-old enterprise to a thousand-year-old enterprise and then to an everlasting enterprise are, first, to establish systems and, second, to cultivate a group of people who dare to speak the truth.

Talking about the people she has offended, Dong Mingzhu said with a smile that if she had not offended these people, Gree would not be what it is today. For example, regarding the previous closure of the Hubei distributor, Dong Mingzhu asked with a smile, if she had not offended those people, how could Gree's sales have reached 150 billion yuan?

As for the "breakup" between Gree and Gome in 2004, Dong Mingzhu still believes that this was her success, because although she lost some of the benefits of cooperation with Gome, she preserved the interests of 99% of dealers, so she thinks she is successful.

Wu Xiaobo also mentioned the lawsuits between Gree and Midea. Dong Mingzhu said frankly that it was not Fang Hongbo (Midea's chairman) who offended her, but Fang Hongbo who offended her. "They poached people from Gree in large numbers and endlessly. Can you not resist? They stole my patents. Can you not sue? I also sell many of my patents to others, but 'stealing' is not good."

Dong Mingzhu then said that this might not be Fang Hongbo’s original intention, but she still wanted to give him some sincere advice: his (Midea) corporate culture really needs to be reformed.

"What the boss is like, what the industry will be like"

The corporate culture that Dong Mingzhu set for Gree is "loyalty".

Dong Mingzhu said that she had always “not wanted” anyone who jumped to Gree from the home appliance industry, but now all the executives of Gree are her own (Gree) people, many of whom were born in the 1980s, and now Dong Mingzhu will boldly recruit those born in the 1990s.

During the conversation, Wu Xiaobo mentioned that his deepest impression of Gree was Gree's mold factory. Dong Mingzhu said that running a mold factory requires a certain spirit, because it requires large investments, small returns, and a long cycle. At this stage, it is basically a sacrifice, and you won't see a return within 10 years, but 10 years later, it will definitely bring a return.

Dong Mingzhu believes that this process can be considered from two perspectives. "First, from a national perspective, if China wants to truly go global, it cannot become stronger without these things. Second, from the perspective of corporate development, Gree used to rely on others for all its air-conditioning equipment. Our intelligent transformation is not superficial. If production can be automated, it is called automated production. I believe that the era of intelligence is when Gree can have the ability to independently create these intelligent equipment. This is the real intelligent transformation."

"What changes will the air-conditioning industry see in the next five years?" Dong Mingzhu did not answer this question. She only said that no matter how things change, Gree will always be the leader. "This point will not change." Dong Mingzhu repeated this sentence twice. She said that even if she stopped doing it, Gree's position as the "boss" would not change. Because what she has spent a lot of effort on in the past few years is to complete the construction of Gree from system, capital to talent.

When it comes to the industry, Dong Mingzhu believes that the "boss" in an industry is very important. What the boss is like will determine what the industry will be like. At the same time, technology is endless. If you want to be the boss forever, you must constantly challenge yourself. Only in this way will others always follow you.

The reason why Dong Mingzhu caused controversy and discussion is largely because of her identity as a "female entrepreneur". However, in Dong Mingzhu's view, there is no advantage or disadvantage in gender. Once you choose a position, you should require yourself according to the standards of the position, not according to your gender.

"You should have a normal mind," Dong Mingzhu said. "Don't always review what you have done just because others say something about you. There will always be people who slander you, the interest groups you have offended will always play games with you, and the people you have offended will always hate you."

Finally, Wu Xiaobo asked Dong Mingzhu about her two regrets. Dong Mingzhu's expression suddenly lost its previous firmness and became much softer. She said her regret was that she did not take good care of her family and did not accompany her parents enough. But she went on to say that there must be a small number of people in the world who cannot accompany their parents, so that so many people can accompany their parents.

"Really, that's right," said Dong Mingzhu.

Maybe. Dong Mingzhu is just like what Wu Xiaobo lamented in the program: girls like her are quite rare.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.