Gree rejected 900 million foreign acquisitions 19 years ago? Dong Mingzhu recalled the past in Shanghai: How can I innovate without a brand …
Hold the "skin" of innovation
Lack of self-confidence and responsibility.
And Gree, who was still unknown in 1994, desperately resisted in the face of strong acquisition in 2005. Since then, Guangdong Province has sent an investigation team, and the acquisition plan finally came to an abrupt end.
This year, Gree’s annual sales amounted to 15.6 billion yuan, and now it has exceeded 200 billion yuan.
The key reason for the stubborn resistance 19 years ago is that "the brand has been accepted, and what innovative research and development capabilities do we have?" Isn’t it a production base for others? "
The brand is like skin. If the skin doesn’t exist, how can the hair be attached?
It was hard to keep the "skin", and Gree tried hard to innovate. As Dong Mingzhu’s speech theme:Innovation is the soul of brand..
When the air conditioner blows out scapulohumeral periarthritis and cervical spondylosis, and the peers are still boasting that its air conditioner can blow 15 meters, Gree has developed the technology of "the wind does not blow people" in ten years.
When many air-conditioning brands "turned down" in the Middle East where the high temperature exceeded 60 degrees Celsius, the dual hydrogen compressor independently developed by Gree properly lowered the room temperature to 20 degrees Celsius. On the contrary, in the extremely cold zone of MINUS 40 degrees Celsius, Gree is self-sufficient.
In addition, as early as 2012, Dong Mingzhu opened its mind to develop air conditioners that don’t consume resources. After iteration, Gree’s "light storage and flexibility" air conditioning system integrated clean photovoltaic power generation, safe energy storage and electricity regulation, and intelligent system management. "Not only does it not use electricity, but it can also produce electricity. In this case, is it necessary to turn off the air conditioner at home? " Dong Mingzhu is so Versailles.
"Darkness" creates innovation
Go back to 2005 when Gree turned the wheel of his destiny. At that time, the country just started to implement the air-conditioning energy efficiency rating, in which key technologies such as air-conditioning compressors were in a state of following. When faced with a question from the provincial investigation team, Dong Mingzhu said frankly that he had "no skills".
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This can explain why Edison was not only the inventor of electric light, but also one of the founders of General Electric.
This is why, after four waves of entrepreneurship, namely, self-employed entrepreneurship in the early days of reform and opening-up, "going into the sea within the system" in the early 1990s, overseas returnees’ entrepreneurship in the early 21st century, and "internet plus" business model in 2015, China entrepreneurs are now moving towards the stage of devoting themselves to scientific research.
In Shanghai, such cases are numerous. In the field of synthetic biology, Guo Min, a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Institute in San Diego, USA, founded Kangma Biology; In the field of photonic chips and quantum computing, Jin Xianmin, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, founded Turing Quantum; In the field of artificial intelligence, Zhang Jianzheng, a doctor of engineering at Shanghai Jiaotong University, founded Sazhi Intelligence …
But innovation is not limited to hard-core technological breakthroughs. In the forum, Dong Mingzhu also shared a story that she has been obsessed with for more than 20 years-a 5-year-old child used a curved straw instead of a spoon to feed water, so that her mother who was lying in bed and could not move could drink water. This story has greatly inspired Dong Mingzhu: "Innovation is everywhere, and it is to change the pain points in a down-to-earth manner."
For example, Vipshop, the "TOP100 Brand Value List of China" released by this forum, has interpreted an innovative story of covering "cost performance" with a more advanced "quality-price ratio". In recent years, the brand discount format has become popular. If the social consumption trend is regarded as a coordinate axis, the abscissa is price and the ordinate is quality, then consumers often hope to realize the "left shift" of the abscissa on the premise that the ordinate remains unchanged.
In line with the trend of "quality-price ratio", Vipshop has established cooperation with 44,000 brands around the world, and its 1,000-person buyer team has set up offices in Britain, the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong and other countries and regions. After capturing the key market information, buyers directly negotiate with the brand and its designated official sales channels and purchase goods, eliminating redundant middleman links, shortening the supply chain and reducing the procurement cost.
"Quality-to-price ratio" also includes services that exceed expectations without extra expenses. In addition to seven days of unreasonable return, there are a series of service guarantees such as ten-day price guarantee, quick refund, door-to-door return, and worry-free damage.
It is the ultimate attempt to figure out the consumer psychology that Vipshop will win the user’s stickiness. According to the financial report, in 2023, the GMV (total merchandise turnover) of Vipshop will exceed 200 billion yuan, up 18.7% year-on-year, of which the growth rate of GMV for wear category is as high as 24%.
In the Red Sea, a consumer e-commerce company whose traffic almost peaked, it still won high growth, which is the power of innovation. Sang Dawei felt from this: "The dark moment will force enterprises to pay attention to innovation. When consumption is weak and growth slows down, it is precisely the time for outstanding enterprises to stand out. "
Specialized and special concentration
The reporter found that both Gree Electric, a keynote speaker, and the TOP100 enterprises in China Brand Value List, which came to receive the prize, were mostly specialized and innovative enterprises with high innovation concentration.
Inspired by Germany’s rich "invisible champions", Shanghai began to cultivate specialized and special new enterprises as early as 2011. Sang Dawei surveyed 2,500 specialized and innovative enterprises in Shanghai, and found that more than 40% of enterprises’ R&D investment accounted for more than 20% of their revenue, and 8.3% of enterprises’ R&D investment even exceeded 100%. This means that some enterprises invest in research and development with financing, which is deeply admirable.
Just like the domestic large aircraft C919 will be "Take-off at a large elevation angle and turn at a small angle pave the way for its commercial operation abroad in the future. Shanghai specialized and special new enterprises have also branded a deep understanding of China brand for overseas markets with a high innovation concentration.
For example, in 2021, it was selected as the first batch of state-level specialized and special new "Little Giant" enterprises supported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Zhongke Xinsong, focusing on the independent research and development and production of cooperative robot series products, won the first seven-axis cooperative robot in China, the first two-arm cooperative robot in China, the first 25-kilogram large-load cooperative robot in China, and the first 2-meter long-arm exhibition robot in China. Its products are widely used in automobile, 3C, semiconductor, medical and health industries, and exported to dozens of countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, North America and Europe.
Application of Duoke @ Dual-arm Cooperative Robot Coffee Making
ChatDUCO intelligent robot calligrapher
Yang Wei, president of Zhongke Xinsong, has never forgotten that when he purchased a motor from an American brand, the other party’s arrogance and price were not negotiable. After three months, Zhongke Xinsong successfully independently developed the motor at a cost of only a quarter of that of the other party. "Now we have more than half of our overseas customers. Without the unique skills of independent innovation, we will never survive in the harsh environment of competing with the first echelon of foreign countries. " Yang Wei said.
According to Zhao Yi, deputy director of the Shanghai Coordination Office for Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, after 13 years of incubation, the total number of specialized and innovative enterprises in Shanghai has reached 10,087, including 685 "little giant" enterprises.