Text/Wu Xiaobo Source: Wu Xiaobo Channel
Last week, He Boquan came to Hangzhou to see me. The first sentence he met was: "This is the first time I have taken a plane in the past two years."
In the past many years, he has been abroad for most of his time. Since he withdrew from LeBay's , he has become a low-key investor. The startups he has invested in include Noah Wealth , Aikang Guobin , Jiujiuya, etc. The most famous project in recent years is the internet celebrity tea drink brand " Heytea ".
Since last year, he has never been abroad, mainly traveling between Hong Kong and Xiaolan Town in Zhongshan. He has had five quarantine experiences, the shortest is five days, and the longest is twenty-one.
Since this year, most of the entrepreneurs I have met, whether they are familiar with each other or not, are worried. When I saw Lao He this time, his expression was actually pretty good. I asked him jokingly: "Did you pick up any good project?"
Wu Xiaobo and He Boquan
He really told me a project, which surprised me and sighed. Today I wrote a column to talk about it.
This year, He Boquan really did a project, but not for his own money, but for his hometown Xiaolan Town . The name of the project is - "Economic Development Strategy of Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan City".
He Boquan is a native of Xiaolan. When he was young, he worked as a counter salesperson in a state-owned store. Because of his active performance, he also served as the secretary of the town Youth League Committee for a while. In 1989, 28-year-old He Boquan went into business and founded LeBay's Beverage Company. Nowadays, post-90s generations may have no feelings for LeBay, but more than 20 years ago, LeBay and Wahaha were the two heroes in the Chinese beverage industry, and their brand popularity was well known.
Xiaolan is located in the central and southern part of Pearl River Delta. In the 1990s, due to the prosperity of entrepreneurial brands such as LeBao, Vatti and Lanthus, the "golden generation" such as He Boquan, Huang Wenzhi, and Xu Jingxin appeared. In the most glorious 2007, Xiaolan once ranked seventh among the top 100 towns in the country, and was a "industrial strong town" that looked down on all directions in the Pearl River Delta.
Xiaolan Town
However, in the past decade, Xiaolan Town has become a "lost person".
As early as 2012, " Southern Daily " published an analysis report "Where do you think about Xiaolan's competitiveness decline?", pointing out that Xiaolan Town's advantageous industries are inconsistent: "The pain of transformation and upgrading is becoming stronger and stronger, but its path to breaking through and taking off is not clear. Where will the country's famous industrial town go now?" The decline of
has not been reversed. On the latest list of the top 100 towns in China in 2021, Xiaolan fell to the 20th place. In the strong town sequence in Guangdong Province, the top four of that year also dropped out of the top ten.
In addition to the weakness at the industry level, what is even more worrying is the frequent changes of the ruling team. Some people calculated that in the past ten years, the party and government officials in Xiaolan Town have changed six times like a lantern, the shortest is less than one year, and the longest is less than two years. This situation directly makes the top-level design impossible.
"Xiaolan has changed from 'Chinese Xiaolan' to 'Guangdong Xiaolan', and then ' Zhongshan Xiaolan'. If you don't feel excited, you may just be 'Xiaolan'." This is the most painful feeling of He Boquan, a native of Xiaolan.
Xiaolan's dilemma lies in both political and business levels.
Zhang Wuchang once attributed the success of China's reform and opening up to the victory of "local government corporateism". In his opinion, whether an regional economy can be revitalized over the past 40 years is the result of the joint efforts of private entrepreneurs and local ruling teams. Xiaolan's dilemma is that on the one hand, the "golden generation" such as He Boquan has come to an end, and new industrial momentum and entrepreneurial echelons have not been formed; on the other hand, the ruling chief officials have frequently changed, and the medium- and long-term planning of regional industries has fallen into hollowness and disorder.
He Boquan, who was trapped in Xiaolan due to the epidemic, suddenly had a whim and thought that he could do something within his ability: after the Spring Festival this year, he visited more than a dozen entrepreneurs in Xiaolan Town, many of whom were old friends who fought with him back then, and proposed that everyone raise 5 million yuan to make a strategic plan for their hometown Xiaolan Town.
's proposal was quickly responded to by everyone. Fifteen Xiaolan entrepreneurs volunteered to invest, and 5 million yuan was quickly collected. He Boquan found his old friend, perhaps the best regional strategic planning expert in China, Wang Zhigang, and Zhigang Think Tank was responsible for the implementation of the project.
Teacher Wang Zhigang at the Xiaolan project communication meeting
Wang Zhigang is also my teacher and friend. He used his heroic articles such as "Sails Rising the Pearl River" to cheer for the rise of the Pearl River. After taking over He Boquan's project, he personally brought a team of elite soldiers and generals to gather at Xiaolan to conduct research. The strategic planning of
was officially launched on April 24 this year. In more than half a year, researchers intensively interviewed 235 people from all walks of life in Xiaolan, including corporate representatives, industry experts, cultural celebrities and relevant government functional departments. Wang Zhigang required that each interview should not be less than two hours, and it is necessary to be objective and detailed.
Xiaolan Town Development Strategy Project Launch Ceremony
Until last week, when I met He Boquan, the first draft of the "Xiaolan Town Economic Development Strategy" had been completed, and I had the honor to have a sneak peek.
is a very different story from reports or plans in the general sense because it entrusts excellent and responsible professional institutions and maintains an independent position.
is the overall perspective of the planning first draft. Wang Zhigang’s team placed Xiaolan’s future under the two major backgrounds of integration and industrial intelligent upgrading in the Pearl River Delta. In view of the current situation of “the stock has not been broken through, the incremental has not been cultivated, and the towns cannot be empowered”, it proposed the strategic idea of building an “advanced manufacturing integration and innovation zone in the Greater Bay Area”, and implemented the “Qingcao Xiaolan” industrial revitalization plan and the “Elegant Chrysanthemum City” urban breakthrough plan.
Source: First draft of "Xiaolan Town Economic Development Strategy"
Xiaolan Town's hardware industry is very famous in the Pearl River Delta, accounting for one-quarter of the town's industrial output value. However, Xiaolan Hardware's industrial level is very traditional, mainly locks, hinges, gas valves, , etc., with low added value. Especially in the environment of sluggish real estate in recent years, it has suffered a devastating blow, and the confidence of the entire industry is sluggish and it is stagnant. Through field interviews, the
research team proposed the idea of "to upgrade traditional hardware to smart hardware through industrial translation", and listed smart locks, smart logistics hardware, smart home hardware, service robot hardware, new energy photovoltaic bracket hardware, etc. as breakthrough points for industrial upgrading.
is followed by the global view shown in the first draft of the planning. After more than 40 years of development, Xiaolan Town has a complete industrial and commercial structure. Among its 90,000 market entities, 99% are small and medium-sized enterprises, which is also the general appearance of Chinese towns today.
Zhigang think tank team has introduced a large number of international and domestic advanced cases in its strategic planning, such as the hidden champion model in Kanazawa City, Japan and Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the precise incubation model in California, the United States, as well as the Ningbo Development Fund in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and the TOD development model in Hongqiao, Shanghai, etc., which provides Xiaolan's strategic concept with a broad multi-dimensional vision. The third impressive feature of
is that from the perspective of government governance, the speaker has carried out comprehensive plans from industry, education, transportation to land reserve transfer, and proposed that the government needs to take the initiative to create five platforms, including finance, resources, industries, talents and think tanks, so that small and medium-sized enterprises in the town are no longer "fighting alone" at big risks, but "having a platform to rely on" and "having a blueprint to follow."
Source: First draft of "Xiaolan Town Economic Development Strategy"
From research to planning, from blueprint to steps, from implementation to persistence, the efforts of He Boquan and Wang Zhigang are the beginning of a strategic vision. It is unknown how far it can go and whether it can truly play a decisive role in Xiaolan's revival.
However, in the uncertain 2022, they did something beautiful.
No entrepreneur is looking forward to national chaos, and no one does not expect a good economy. However, the overlap of uncertainties between various economic and non-economic factors is causing anxiety and confusion in the entire class.
On the 30th of this month, I will conduct my year-end show as scheduled, and this year's theme is determined as "Glow, brave." I hope to find the people who are trying to save themselves and him in a year full of powerlessness, and discover the courage to face the future from their stories and cases.
He Boquan is a very inspiring "alternative brave man". He reminds me of the top entrepreneur Zhang Jian a hundred years ago.
Zhang Jian was in a more turbulent period of dynasty change. He realized very early that "China's responsibility to revitalize its industry must lie with the gentry." After , 1895, , he resolutely devoted himself to business as the top scholar and achieved success in the textile field. During the ups and downs of the business world for more than 20 years, the changes in the world made him exhausted. However, Zhang Jian always insisted on "get the best within the scope of the possibility, and be as good as possible." With his unremitting efforts, his hometown, Nantong , was transformed into the "most advanced small city" in China at that time.
Zhang Jian once said: "Heaven is born to man, it is no different from plants and trees. If one or two useful careers are left, and one or two things are born with plants and trees, it will not be corrupted with plants and trees. Therefore, those who are enthusiastic about following the public will do one point, and one inch will make one inch."
is an enterprise. In addition to running its own company and protecting its employees and customers, there are actually very few things that can be done. However, under the national conditions of China today, the sustainable development of any private enterprise is actually inseparable from the support of local governments and the medium- and long-term planning of the regional economy.
The action of He Boquan and fourteen Xiaolan entrepreneurs gives us a new space for action. It reflects a rational and independent willingness to cooperate and demonstrates the sociality and constructiveness of contemporary private entrepreneurs.
Let yourself survive, leave behind a few useful careers and things that benefit the country and the people. Do one point is one point, and do one inch is one inch. 2023 is coming, Lao He, let’s encourage each other.
·The list of sponsors is missing, and the specific details are subject to the top message. The article has been authorized by Wu Xiaobo Channel . It is recommended to pay attention to the knowledge service platform - Wu Xiaobo Channel
·Business consultation phone number: 010-85560270
·Media and communication related matters Please contact: 18722171289
"Great Country and People" has been published for two years, and has sold more than 200,000 copies, which are widely loved by readers from all walks of life and age. But what many readers regret is that the first hardcover version of "Great Countries and People | Wang Zhigang's Talks about Chinese" has been sold out, and many readers want to collect it but have no way to go.
For this reason, Zhigang Think Tank negotiated with Aoyuan Group , asking Aoyuan Group to generously donate and take out a small number of collections of hardcover books for readers. The inventory is limited, first come first served!
