His ten years in charge of the beauty: the market value is twice as much as Gree, facing the new difficulties and "waved swords" for layoffs

On August 25, 2012, a major event happened. Fang Hongbo, 45, took over the 70 -year -old founder He Xiangjian and became the new helm of the group. This also marked that Midea officially entered the Fang Hongbo era.

In the decade after taking over, Fang Hongbo did make a lot of results. Ten years ago, the market value of Midea Electric (the predecessor of Midea Group) was about 30 billion yuan, and Gree Electric was as high as 60 billion yuan. As of August 25, 2022, Midea Group's market value was 365.5 billion yuan, and Gree Electric was only 171 billion yuan. In other words, Midea's market value has never been halfway to half of Gree, which has increased to twice as much as it.

However, behind the brilliant and beautiful market value, the huge challenge also happened quietly. As early as May of this year, Fang Hongbo revealed in the group that "the next three years will be the coldest three years in your career." He expressed his right -hand right. Foreign concerns.

01. Faced with a new dilemma, Fang Hongbo still "waved the knife" for layoffs

Ten years ago, before and after Fang Hongbo's position, it helped Midea from getting rid of a trick to make a layoffs. Today, the "layoffs" in his hands cut again to the top of the employees, even if many of them are the same as him, the "old man" who has played for the group for many years.

Not long ago, an article entitled "The Dialogue between the Beauty's Employees and the Chairman Fang Hongbo" began to circulate. One of the elderly employees was frank and had for many years for the beauty. But in the end, it is difficult to escape the fate, and the words are full of sadness and sadness, and the response of the helm Fang Hongbo is just "a little sad, deeply ashamed."

According to interface news reports, Midea's layoffs have begun since March this year, and then the efforts have continued to increase. According to the prediction of insiders, the proportion of layoffs may reach 20%, and even "half cut" is also reported. "Amazing" saying. At the end of 2021, the total number of employees in Midea was 165,800. Even if it was calculated according to the above 20%layoff proportion, it was necessary to cut off more than 30,000 people.

History is always amazingly similar. The last time Midea appeared such a large -scale layoff, it was ten years ago. In 2011, there were 32,000 Midea electrical appliances, which were formerly Meimeng Group, setting a record of the A -share listing layoffs at that time. Calculated in proportion, the layoffs at the time were as high as 33%, which means that the 20%layoffs were not impossible, because there were long precedents after all.

At that time, in order to alleviate the economic crisis, the state promoted the policy of household appliances to the countryside, and seized the beauty of the opportunity. Through the "large -scale+low cost" expansion model, it began to seize the market. At the end of 2008, Midea's electrical appliances employees had only 40,000, and by 2010, it would become 98,700. With the disappearance of the home appliance subsidy policy, there is a problem with this model of beauty, and this is one of the fundamental reasons for its layoffs.

In 2012, Midea Group achieved revenue of 102.7 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 23%, which was a decrease of more than 30 billion yuan. At the same time, Mei Xiangjian, the founder of Midea, stepped down as the chairman of the chairman, and Fang Hongbo, who was officially at home, began to implement large -scale reforms. In his opinion, "the old model of China's home appliance industry in the past 30 years has failed, and it has increased by the advantages and scale advantages of low cost and low -cost labor force and cheap labor.

Fang Hongbo's approach is to say that it is to improve efficiency, streamline structure, and implement flat management. In fact, closing shops and layoffs to reduce salary. However, this trick is indeed effective, and the beauty of lightness is quickly rejuvenating. In 2013, the group was listed, and the net profit attributable to the mother increased by 63%year -on -year to 5.3 billion yuan. Yuan.

In fact, the continuous growth of Midea's performance is inseparable from Fang Hongbo's decision -making, but even more indispensable factors are that with the improvement of China's per capita income and living standards, the beauty of the high -end market has a broader one and a wider ones. Expansion capacity. However, with the emergence of factors such as the decline in the dividend period of the real estate industry, the crisis of beauty has followed.

In 2021, Midea Group achieved revenue of 34.3 billion yuan, an increase of more than 20%year -on -year, but the net profit of home mother was only 28.5 billion yuan. The growth rate of less than 5%was a new low since 2013. Essence In the first quarter of 2022, although Midea Group's performance recovered, net profit increased by 10.97%year -on -year, but compared with the "friend", the net profit growth rate of Gree and Haier was 16.28%and 15.12%, respectively. Pressing beauty.

As a result, Fang Hongbo once again chose the "sword" layoffs.

02. For the effect of 30 years, I invite Gong Li to let He Xiangjian uncomfortable

Speaking of which, Fang Hongbo's effectiveness has actually been more than 30 years.

As early as 1992, Fang Hongbo resigned from Dongfeng Automobile to the President's Office, mainly responsible for the publication of the "Beauty" corporate newspaper. As for why Fang Hongbo's fast position, there is a saying that when a business trip, the market situation observed to He Xiangjian after sorting, and relying on a unique perspective, he impressed the boss.

Although this is a story that has been circulating for nearly 30 years, Fang Hongbo is in power because of his ability, but it is an indisputable fact. He Xiangjian's evaluation of Fang Hongbo can be seen through one sentence, "My biggest achievement is to discover Fang Hongbo, Midea has today's achievements, and it has a lot to do with Fang Hongbo."

In 1995, Fang Hongbo became the chief of the Midea Advertising Section. Soon after, he threw 1 million yuan to invite the popular star Gong Li as a spokesperson, and directed by Zhang Yimou to shoot advertising films. "On the day Gong Lilai, He Xiangjian, who has always been unsmiling, smiled and couldn't hold his mouth together." Older employees who once had beautiful people recalled. It is precisely this year that Midea's products have increased significantly, and Fang Hongbo is promoted to the manager of the advertising company of Midea. Since then, Fang Hongbo's career is like opening up. From the general manager of the Midea air -conditioning business department to the president of the refrigeration home appliances group in Midea, he used to climb to the height that it was difficult for ordinary people to touch his life in just ten years. In 2009, He Xiangjian resigned as the chairman of the board of electrical appliances of the Midea. Fang Hongbo was successively served. This is the first 16 years since the listing of Midea's electrical appliances. For the first time, it has handed over the management to professional manager management. It is also the first time in listed companies in Chinese private enterprises.

He Xiangjian’s decentralization can be said to be very thorough. Fang Hongbo will not only have several reports a year. Even if it is a "big event" like cooperating with Xiaomi, it only recognizes the outside world at the time. "This is absolutely correct for beauty. "". For such a high trust, Fang Hongbo naturally does not forget to "commercially blow" He Xiangjian. "I have seen a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs, but people who can have great wisdom like He President He are really not much." Essence

In fact, He Xiangjian did not treat Fang Hongbo at a loss. As of the first quarter of this year, Fang Hongbo directly held 1.67%of the Group's group, which was the fourth largest shareholder. Based on the latest closing price, its shareholding value reached 6.1 billion yuan, which is not yet obtained. From 2016 to 2021, Fang Hongbo's salary of more than 48 million yuan.

In the past ten years, Fang Hongbo has created a lot of brilliant results, but as the "cold winter" arrives, a greater trouble from the beginning of the position follows. In fact, as early as 2021, Fang Hongbo expressed concerns, "Will the beauty miss the next era? It is long every day in 2020. This may be a watershed. Some companies will become great and some may decline."

Of course, Fang Hongbo does not want to let Meimei's decline, at least not in his own hands. Facing the dilemma, in addition to the "unique trick" of layoffs, Fang Hongbo also started to transform and exert its efforts to the TO B business. The explanation he gave is that "the strategy of dealing with the cold winter is to change to C business. The focus Transition to B business to create a second growth curve. "

Midea's To B business strategy can be summarized as "Four Great and Four Smalls". Wisdom and Mei Zhi Optoelectronics.

Among them, Wandong Medical is a listed company of Midea Group through a medical imaging equipment that has increased holding holdings. As of the latest closing, 21 yuan/share, the total market value is 14.8 billion yuan. shareholder. As for the Ante Zhilian, it is mainly responsible for the logistics business. Meiyunzhi is responsible for the Industrial Internet, and Mei Zhi Optoelectronics is responsible for lighting equipment. The latter three are also regarded by the outside world as the focus of splitting the listing.

However, the transformation represents huge unknown nature. It is still unknown whether Fang Hongbo can go forward again.

(Author 丨 City boundary Feng Chenchen)

- END -