Mr. Xu Lianjie is China’s top "hidden rich man", low-key and mysterious. He is known as the "Godfather of Southern Fujian business, leader of Fujian businessmen, and industry tycoon."
Mr. Xu Lianjie has also topped the list of Fujian businessmen for many years; In the earth-shaking era, many younger entrepreneurs rushed to imitate things, but while he was spreading his experience, new ideas and concepts continued to emerge. In Quanzhou’s business community, he has been imitated, but he has not yet been surpassed; he is the youngest one of the first generation of entrepreneurs in China. In the rounds of scourges by private entrepreneurs in the Mainland, he has been humble and ordinary. Mentality, has always maintained a keen sense of touch and desire to advance, and constantly explores the forefront and margins of wealth, making a small township factory built with funds to become China’s largest tissue paper manufacturing group with an annual output value of over 100 billion; The family management model is grafted with the most advanced knowledge landing business management, with unique insights into the living space of human beings, warming countless lives and hearts with kindness and love, personal donations of more than 500 million yuan, and the group and its main shareholders have donated more than 1.3 billion in total Yuan's generous dedication interpretation: what is responsibility, what is great love. He created the miracle of Chinese private enterprises, and also wrote his own legend...
Mr. Xu Lianjie
Mr. Xu Lianjie was born in 1953 in Jinjiang, Fujian. In 1985, he founded the private enterprise Hengan Group, and began to invest in the sanitary napkin field, becoming the first "crab-eater" engaged in sanitary napkin production in China. It was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 8, 1998. In 1991, Quanzhou was preparing to build Jinjiang Airport, and Hengan Group donated 2.88 million yuan, which was an amazing amount of money at the time. Since 2002, Hengan Group has successively introduced world-renowned management consulting companies, Thomas Group, Booz and IBM, to implement comprehensive management reforms three times to enhance the core competitiveness of the company. On June 7, 2011, Hengan International was officially included in the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index constituent stocks. Hengan Group is one of the first companies to enter the Chinese sanitary napkin market. It is currently the largest domestic manufacturer of household paper and maternal and child hygiene products. It has fixed assets of more than 38 billion yuan and has a production and sales network throughout the country. In 2017, Hengan achieved sales revenue of 19.8 billion yuan and realized profits of 3.8 billion yuan. In the first half of 2018, the company's performance reached 10.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%.
While realizing corporate development, Hengan pays attention to social responsibility. In the 20 years since its listing, the company has paid more than 28 billion yuan in taxes. Over the 33 years of enterprise development, Hengan and its main shareholders have donated over 1.3 billion yuan in total.
Hengan Group CEO Xu Lianjie: Past events of Hengan
2018 is 40 years of reform and opening up and 16 years of "Jinjiang experience". In these 40 years, Jinjiang’s regional GDP has increased by 1366 times, and 1/16th of the province’s GDP has been created with 2% of Fujian’s land, with an economic density of 305 million yuan per square kilometer. Jinjiang Become an important benchmark for reform and opening up. In the past 40 years, all of us, all our families, every street and every building around us have undergone tremendous changes. Starting today, "Jinjiang News" has launched a special plan "The Reformer Says", asking them to answer: How did the great changes happen? The opening story tells us the story of reform, Xu Lianjie, known as the "Godfather of Southern Fujian Business". This year is the 20th anniversary of Hengan's listing. We will take the listing as the time node and divide it into two chapters to review the development of Hengan.
Front row from left to right: Hong Qingshan, Shi Wenbo (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Xu Lianjie (Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer), Xu Shuishen
Hengan Group CEO Xu Lianjie: Our listing, to now, including now, I I have never understood what capital operation is. I only know how the company can continue to grow, how can I have an explanation with my employees and my investor.
When he said this, Xu Lianjie was sitting in his office on the 14th floor of the Anhai headquarters building, talking to reporters about Hengan's present, past and future. This day is only a few months away from the 20th anniversary of Hengan's listing. In the past 20 years, Hengan's revenue has increased by nearly 20 times, and the return to shareholders has exceeded 50 times.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: The development and growth of Hengan is different in various stages, and there are someLow, but, we have not regressed. In the past 20 years, and 20 years, we have also insisted on our commitment to customers, investors, and my employees. This is the basis of the integrity of our original business.
One day in November 1984, Yang Rongchun, a technician from Anhai Town General Machinery Factory, knocked on the door of Xu Lianjie's house with a stack of sanitary napkin equipment manuals from Hong Kong. After listening to the introduction, Xu Lianjie was so excited that he lost sleep that night. At this moment, just six years after the reform and opening up, Xu Lianjie, who is convinced that "the sky will not only rain, but also the gold", has accumulated the first wealth in the traditional industry.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: Our original clothes and zippers are well done. Our clothing in this area is also considered to be good, and the zipper is also our first, and we have already made some fame. (Sanitary napkins), let’s not say that our man has never seen what this sanitary napkin is for. She doesn’t even know how my wife shows it to her. I bought two packs in Hong Kong, floating blue? Yes, it was made in the United States and used for him. She didn't even know what it was. On the one hand,
is a traditional industry that has a market foundation but is getting thinner and thinner. On the other hand, it is a novelty that few people have seen before the market is almost blank. Where to go? After several days and nights of thinking, Xu Lianjie made a decision that was important to his life: abandon clothing processing and switch to sanitary napkins. In 1985, "Heng'an" was born and became the first batch of enterprises in China to enter the sanitary napkin industry. This year, Xu Lianjie was 32 years old.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: I think that the market can be created. I think there is no market for our sanitary napkins in China. We decided to invest in this market. I just said that my product can bring you changes. If you become my customer, become my loyal customer, and become my repeat customer, I can create a market.
Xu Lianjie said that he is a stubborn person. At that time, because of the determination of the value of the sanitary napkin, the later Hengan Empire and the godfather of business became established. In the first year of the establishment of Hengan, the products did not sell well, so I borrowed 100,000 yuan from the folks before sending out the employee's salary for that year. Xu Lianjie did not give up. He focused on quality while branding. In less than two years, Hengan's orders increased geometrically, and there was a long queue for orders with cash.
In 1993, Hengan established Hengan Group, which began to expand its business based on women's sanitary napkins, and took the road of diversified development in the field of personal hygiene products.
On December 8, 1998, "Heng'an International" was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at a price-earnings ratio of 10 times, which was the highest price-earning ratio and the highest subscription multiple of the Hong Kong stock market that year.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: At that time, he won four firsts, the multiple of oversubscription, which was also the first after the financial crisis in 1997, more than four times. Therefore, it was a sensation at that time. Although it was only a few hundred million yuan, we were listed on the market at 2 yuan and 8 times the market profit.
In 1998, Hengan International Group Co., Ltd. at the helm of Xu Lianjie landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Even in the Hong Kong stock market after the 1997 global financial crisis, Hengan still went up against the wind and raised more than RMB 2 billion at a price-earnings ratio of ten times. , Won the four firsts of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at that time. Since then, Hengan has entered a new stage of development and laid an important foundation for the three rounds of reforms to be implemented later. However, the change has not been smooth sailing.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: At that time, when we wanted to go public, most of our shareholders disagreed. They thought that the company's efficiency was so good, and the company needed to develop and lacked money. Our shareholders wanted to invest more and more Ten thousand yuan is not allowed to be invested, so why bother to sell such a good equity.
In 1992, Hengan's career reached its first peak. That year, "Anle" sanitary napkins accounted for more than 40% of the national sanitary napkin market share at that time, and it became almost synonymous with sanitary napkins. However, when the rapid development reached 1995, Hengan began to encounter bottlenecks, and sales revenue hovered around one billion yuan. Xu Lianjie quickly realized that the management model of the family business was hindering the further development of the company.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: Because our company has a relatively large number of shareholders, and the management is also a shareholder, including some backbones, and even some of our porters are shareholders, with more or less shares. This is a continuation from our hometown. So this kind of family and friendship relationship is intricate. IIt is said that we are not financing, but in accordance with the operating rules of listed companies, there are some relatives, key positions of personnel, finance, accounting, etc., some relatives will evade.
Hengan’s listing soon paid off, and it also set a precedent for the listing of private companies in Jinjiang. In 2001, Hengan made another big move. Hengan spent 10 million U.S. dollars to introduce Thomas in the United States to implement a three-year "TCT operation" to further eliminate family-style nepotism and other management ills. It can be said that the goals Xu Lianjie wants to achieve through listing have been further deepened through this management reform. However, the voice of opposition is also stronger.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: I said (the content of the reform) can it include mergers and acquisitions. He said that you have the ability to acquire mergers. Of course you try, then I stand up. As a result, everybody saw me standing up. 27 people, everybody saw me standing up, and some of them stood up because of my face. They were embarrassed not to stand up and stood up slowly. The last sales director, he turned out to be next door to me. He said, "Don't tell me to stand up. If you beat me to death, I don't believe it. I don't stand up. I don't believe it.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group, said, “I think the right thing must be done.” Soon, the change had obvious effects. Since 2002, Hengan's annual sales revenue and profit have increased by more than 30%. At the beginning of the change, the goal of "reaching 5 billion within five years" that Thomas had promised, even Xu Lianjie himself did not believe, became a reality in 2007. In 2008, Hengan carried out the second management reform. In 2009, the company achieved an output value of 10.8 billion yuan, and it only took two years to achieve the goal of ten billion yuan.
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: It should be said that the round of changes and sorting in 2008 was also the financial crisis in the United States in 2008. So, because we were ahead of the financial crisis, in 2007, we set out to change, so in 2008, we had a new mentality to meet the changes in the market, so those years were also the most efficient for the company. , The most competitive, got another round of rapid development.
In 2014, Hengan embarked on the third round of management reform, relying on big data to change management lags and break sales traditions, create an “end-to-end” information-based visualization operation platform, implement platform-based small-team operations, and replace the original The core business group functions of more than 10 people have been transformed into hundreds of small teams with flexible operations. It is also because of this change that in 2017, Xu Lianjie, who is over sixty years old, made a comeback again and started his "second venture."
Xu Lianjie, CEO of Hengan Group: I said that I decided to return to the front line. The old man in his 60s will participate in it with the spirit of his 30s. Together with everyone, I will return to the front line and bring this round of management reform together. In the end, I said I believe that with the support of more than 2,000 shareholders, this round of management reform will surely achieve the expected results and goals.
On that day, the response was very enthusiastic.
An enterprise reflects the ups and downs of an era and records the development pulse of a city. Hengan’s development has always revolved around reform, innovation, and integrity, winning continuous development momentum, and has become a typical representative of "Jinjiang Experience". Right now, Hengan’s third round of reforms has begun to show results, and its internationalization strategy has been frequently launched. It is entering the fast lane of a new round of healthy development. We also wish Hengan to achieve its goal of 100 billion yuan as soon as possible. (Jinjiang TV Station)
