By Dong Mingzhu

Discipline Means Progress

By Dong Mingzhu

Iplayed a very close game with the government of the city of Zhuhai.

Attracting investment from overseas is one of the ways local governments wooing economic development.World top 500 enterprises are the same target for them,especiallyforthoseofthe coastal cities.

Thegovernmentof Zhuhai had been looking forward for years to them settling down in this city. In the year 2004,American company Carrier came into their eyes.They wanted Gree to be persuaded by Carrier.

Dong Mingzhu,president of Gree,a top air-conditioning corporation in china

As for me,it was a very profitabledeal.Carrier promisedmeanannual salary of 80million yuan, hundreds of times of that given by Gree.Zhuhai could fulfill its dream through this purchase,but Carrier is not a Chinese company listed in Fortune 500.It is not made by our own hands,either.That disobeys my dream of making our own Top 500 company by our own hands. So I absolutely disagreed.

Iextendedmy claim to leaders of relativeprovincialdepartment face to face, andenumeratedmy reasons for disagreement.I listed a lot of companieslike ZhonghuaToothpaste asexamples.Everything is just the same after buying,workers, workshops,and evenmaterials.But the brand of product is no longer Chi nese.The leader didn't say anything.I was very disappointed.

Soon after a group of people was appointed to investigate my suggestion in our company,and they drew a conclusionafterinvestigationthatmy opinion was correct.Ten years later Gree marched into the square array of the world top 500 with a gross income of 140 billion yuan,over 10 times that of 2004.From 100 million yuan in 1991 to 140 billion in 2014,this is a great leap not only in number but also in system of organization.Statistics could be made nice temporarily.But that wouldn’t last long,unless the cul ture and management are good enough to support it.

In 1995 Gree fell into a big embarrassment.All members of its marketing team left the company just because of selling policies,the sales commission rate of Gree was just 0.8 percent, far away from the 5 percent sales commission rate offered by our competitor in the neighborhood.I was appointed director of the marketing department to face the challenge,though unwillingly.The reason was very clear.My reward was as high as over 1 million while working as a sales woman.To beadirector,myannualincome would be reduced to one tenth.After a long period of thinking I changed my mind.I thought it impossible to market while the company bankrupted.I was the best seller,and the most valuable thing was to have my experiences shared by others.

Things were quite out of my expectation.Seated in the chair of my office,I was shocked by the disorder here.No rules and regulations,no standards of conducts,and with unbearable corruption.Amid weak sales season all sales men and women sit in their offices,eating,drinking and chat ting all day long.Nobody felt any pressure.The personal relationships were very complicated.Friendship,fellowship,andsocialacquaintances formed many groups.Few of them worked hard and actively.

Details determine the success or failure.A little leak will sink a great ship,and when a big company has a real problem,it will be very difficult to revitalize it.Facing such a tense situation,I decided to give Gree rules and regulations to standardize everything.I wrote down criteria and re quirements for every post on paper and hung them on the wall.And I asked everybody to read them and review their own behaviors accordingly as thefirst thing every day.In order to carry out all the rules and regulations,we set up discipline inspection office.Positive energy and negative energy exist everywhere.If you carry forward positive energy,most of the people will support you.

While disciplining the company internally,I also adjusted our external operation procedures.From the day I became the director on,I required cash before cargo.This policy was objected by all marketing-related workers and leaders.They deemed it unimaginable to stipulate such a strict order under present market situation.I told them that I was the director,and I would make no concession.Gree's marketing operationmodewas changed in a glimpse of eyes.All the distributors remittedmoneybefore our delivery.

After the reformation that year,things changed gradually,and the situation came right for us. Webegan controlling themarket insteadof being negativeaswe were in the past.Gree shook off the embarrassment of relying on loan.Our gross sales income marched forward from 4.2 billion in 1997 to 140 billion in 2014,and we developed by ourselves without any bank loan these years.Nowadaysmanymiddle-and-small-sizedcompaniesare bothered lack of money.That is not true.What they are really short of is not money but management,regulations and rational partners.

Some say that I am a marketing expert,a marketing queen.Factually I do not have any knack in marketing.But I keep on doing things and making friends with honesty and sincerity.Let co-operation with your distributors and partnersbebeneficial and win-win.Based on thisidea, theywill trust you and yourdecisions.Your policies cannot be realized if your eyesight is always focused on your own interest.

(FromChinese Merchants,Vol. 8,2015.Illustration:Shan Lifeng)