"Foshan Entrepreneurs take the 'jun business spirit' as their internal motivation and constantly motivate and motivate themselves, which has achieved the development and growth of Foshan private enterprises in the past 40 years of reform and opening up." On the occasion of "Foshan Entrepreneur Day" on September 27, Yang Wangcheng, director of Foshan Business Roads Research Institute, accepted an exclusive interview with "Foshan Business" magazine, deeply analyzing the connotation and inheritance of Foshan's entrepreneurial spirit.
In Yang Wangcheng's view, the current main force of Foshan's entrepreneurial group comes from grassroots entrepreneurs in the early stages of reform and opening up, and low-key and pragmatic are the background color of Foshan's entrepreneurial spirit. In the ups and downs of market economy for more than 40 years, Foshan entrepreneurs have formed a unique "jun business" temperament. They adhere to the right way to make money, adhere to the business philosophy of integrity, and have a "real, agile, and tenacious" business style and a "trust, integrated, and humble" management style.
For the second-generation entrepreneurs who are on the stage, Yang Wangcheng believes that they generally inherit the low-key and pragmatic characteristics of a generation of entrepreneurs, and at the same time, their mentality and vision are more open, which is expected to bring Foshan enterprises to a broader market. At the same time, he also pointed out that second-generation entrepreneurs need to set greater ambitions and a noble sense of mission.
Four waves of entrepreneurship have created four generations of entrepreneurs
"Fu Shang": In your opinion, what is " Entrepreneurship "? What is the significance of entrepreneurship for corporate development and economic development?
Yang Wangcheng: Entrepreneurs are the main body of economic activities, and entrepreneurship is an important endogenous variable in economic growth and social development. As economist William Bowmore wrote, "Without the participation of entrepreneurs, the practical application value of inventions and its indispensable contribution to economic growth will be far lower than the level of participation of entrepreneurs. Without the participation of entrepreneurs, we will basically be unable to achieve unprecedented economic growth in recent centuries."
In China, reform and opening up have burst out the entrepreneurial spirit, which has spawned thousands of enterprises, jointly creating an economic miracle that has been advancing for more than 40 years. Foshan is one of the earliest places to bathe in the spring breeze of reform and opening up, and there has been a tradition of heavy commerce and heavy industry in history. Foshan's dense rivers and waterways flow with rich entrepreneurial spirit. The continuous business veins of thousands of years have proved this, and the private enterprise market formed after the reform and opening up also illustrates this.
"Fu Shang": You once stated in your article that entrepreneurship has a distinct imprint of the times. How to understand this sentence? What are the differences in entrepreneurial spirit in different eras?
Yang Wangcheng: Since my country's reform and opening up, four waves of entrepreneurship have roughly emerged. The first wave was in the early stages of reform and opening up. During this period, farmers mainly washed their feet and went to the fields to find a way out for a living, which gave birth to the first batch of grassroots entrepreneurs in China. The second wave was after Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992, and the wave of entrepreneurship in the country was surging. Intellectuals from government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and universities went to start businesses one after another. Compared with grassroots entrepreneurs, their outstanding characteristics are their education and resources. This wave of entrepreneurs has a common title, which is "92彩". The third wave is the Internet entrepreneurship wave after 1997. The main entrepreneurs are returnees, their horizons are broader, and the entrepreneurial field is also focused on the field of information technology. The fourth wave is the wave of mass entrepreneurship and innovation in recent years. Most of the entrepreneurs born during this period are still in the growth stage.
is from entrepreneurs with different entrepreneurial waves. Their management styles are very different, and the entrepreneurial spirit reflected must be different. Taking the grassroots entrepreneurs in the first wave as an example, most of them have the motivation to start a business to solve the problem of food and clothing, and the starting point of entrepreneurship is generally low. They lack awareness of technology, especially cutting-edge technologies, are unfamiliar with the capital market, and have no understanding of the macro laws of economic operation. But they have excellent qualities of hard work, which is what we often mention later on in summarizing grassroots entrepreneurship.
Grassroots entrepreneurs would not set big goals at the beginning, and they were accustomed to taking one step at a time or even half a step, which was really touching the stones; today we see that the grand visions and blueprints they put forward were actually gradually proposed after a long period of time in starting a business. On the one hand, they reflected their growing confidence in the national policy of reform and opening up of the Party and the government, and on the other hand, they also reflected their increasingly deeper understanding of enterprises, industries, and market operation laws. At the beginning, they may not dare to think, but they generally dare to do it, and no matter the size of the business, they will do it first. Their hearts are growing step by step. From small business to big business, they have gone through many rounds of cycles to reach their current status.
40 years of experience, grassroots move towards "junshang"
"Fu Shang": What are the significant characteristics of Foshan's entrepreneurial spirit? Why do such traits form?
Yang Wangcheng: We just talked about four waves of entrepreneurship, each time shaping different groups of entrepreneurs, and they have strong characteristics of the times. Today, the main force in Foshan entrepreneurs is still from the first wave. For example, the well-known He Xiangjian , Yang Guoqiang , She Xuebin, etc. are all grassroots entrepreneurs. Their common characteristics are low-key and pragmatic, and emphasize doing their duties well. This is the background color of Foshan’s entrepreneurial spirit.
Foshan entrepreneurs often say, "What do you do if you care about so much? It is the most important thing to be yourself." This is also projected to industry choices. Generally, they choose industries closely related to life. They do whatever people need to improve their lives.
I once wrote an article to summarize the entrepreneurial spirit of Foshan as "jun business spirit", which is characterized in seven words: righteousness, reality, agility, resilience, trustworthiness, integration, and humility. Among them is the general outline and the origin. Reality, agility and tenacity are management styles, while trustworthiness, integration and humility are management styles.
Foshan entrepreneurs pay the most attention to the word "right" when doing business. The fundamental thing is to do business in the market and seek development. This is fundamentally different from non-productive businessmen who rely on relationships. Secondly, Foshan entrepreneurs pay the most credibility and integrity in their business, and are completely different from the so-called unscrupulous businessmen.
"Practical" includes preferring industry and having a spirit of hard work. There is a well-known slang in Foshan, "If you don't have the strength, don't make money", which is a business philosophy that local businessmen have long pursued. Foshan private entrepreneurs are all activists and pragmatists. They rarely talk big and eager for quick success and instant benefits, and they don’t like to be imaginative and ambitious.
"sensitivity" is reflected in its sensitivity to business opportunities. Once a business opportunity is discovered, act quickly. "Resilience" means resilience. The most typical case is that after the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, the world economy fell into a serious recession, and my country's manufacturing industry also suffered a huge impact, and traditional manufacturing industry was even more severely affected. However, Foshan was the first in the country to get out of the predicament and achieve a strong reputation against the trend. This is also an important manifestation of the resilience of Foshan's private enterprises.
Trust, integration and humility are management styles, which mainly guide the relationship between various stakeholders in the enterprise. "Trust" means that Foshan private enterprises value goodwill, which is prominently reflected in their emphasis on brand building. Foshan has therefore become a nationally renowned brand and famous brand market. "Union" means that the sea embraces all rivers, Foshan is not exclusive, and "Union" is one of its distinct local spirits. "Highlight" means humility. The most impressive thing about "humanity" in Foshan private entrepreneurs is first of all, low-key and not ostentatious. Another embodiment is the win-win concept of "everyone makes money".
Foshan entrepreneurs take the "jun business spirit" as their internal motivation and constantly urge and spur themselves, which has achieved the development and growth of Foshan private enterprises in the past 40 years of reform and opening up.
faces the market's "cold winter" and highlights its true nature of "sensitivity" and "resilience"
"Fu Shang": At present, due to the impact of the epidemic and international trade frictions, China's manufacturing is facing challenges. Foshan's manufacturing industry, with traditional manufacturing as its pillar, is at a critical node for transformation and upgrading.According to your observation, under the severe challenges, what kind of entrepreneurial spirit has Foshan entrepreneurs demonstrated, and how do they face the storm and waves and seek a way to break through?
Yang Wangcheng: Currently, enterprises are facing a severe internal and external environment, with the triple pressure of "demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations", and the external international environment is complex and changeable. And these happened to happen at the critical moment when we transformed to with high-quality development of , which is even more difficult. It can be said that this is the most complex and difficult time facing entrepreneurs since the reform and opening up.
But the most complex and difficult statement itself also shows that this is a temporary difficulty. Most Foshan entrepreneurs have suffered, and no matter how hard they are now, they will not be as hard as they were back then. And they have also understood the market's "temper" and experienced the ups and downs. They have a deep understanding of difficulties and hardships and are also very tenacious.
Faced with such a general environment, I hardly saw the Foshan bosses giving up and depressed, and they are still working hard. Although the short-term goal of struggle has become to survive, they do not forget their future development. They are preparing to spend the winter in "weaving winter clothes", but they are also ready to take off at any time when the market recovers. This is their current mood.
Since Foshan's industry is mainly aimed at thousands of households, although the overall demand growth is not as strong as before, this demand will not disappear. It has only changed from a significant increase in demand over the past years to a slow growth and stall growth, but structural things have not changed. We have seen some Foshan companies vigorously dig deep into market demand, such as Midea's development of high-end product lines, Xiaoxiong Electrical Appliances and Lin's Wood Industry precisely develop products to match the needs of young people, etc.
There are also some companies that are constantly looking for new tracks, such as Koda manufacturing entering the new energy track, Bangpu focusing on lithium battery recycling, etc.; in addition, some companies that are blocked in Europe and the United States have discovered new business opportunities in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Middle East , Africa, and South America.
I think Foshan enterprises are not the worst when the situation is bad; if spring comes, Foshan enterprises will definitely have the best recovery momentum. This is my confidence in Foshan entrepreneurs.
inherits a pragmatic and low-key temperament and opens up a global vision
"Fu Shang": Foshan's second-generation entrepreneurs have been taking over for some time. The second generation of entrepreneurs represents the future of Foshan's manufacturing. How do you think the second-generation entrepreneurs and the first-generation entrepreneurs will have different understandings of entrepreneurial spirit? What impact will this have on the development of Foshan’s manufacturing?
Yang Wangcheng: I think that low-key and pragmaticity have been passed down among the second-generation entrepreneurs in Foshan. In addition, there are several different characteristics of second-generation entrepreneurs from first-generation entrepreneurs:
The first is that the second-generation entrepreneurs are more open to employing people. Words such as "outsiders", "laozi" and even "working boys" are almost extinct among their generation. Now more and more Foshan companies adopt the partnership system, and the core is that the boss transforms the backbone of the company into shareholders. Under the partnership mechanism, everyone has an equal cooperative relationship, not a relationship between the boss and the employee.
The second generation of entrepreneurs are more sensitive and more accepting about technology, especially cutting-edge technology. They may promote transformation and upgrading to technology-driven enterprises, or create new businesses in the field of high-tech.
The third is that the second generation of entrepreneurs have a more global vision. Many first-generation entrepreneurs have doubts about the foreign market and dare not take the lead due to their lack of understanding of the foreign market. In contrast, many second-generation entrepreneurs have experience in studying abroad and have more advantages in developing the global market. I think that without the influence of this anti-globalization trend, Foshan enterprises will enter the global market faster under the leadership of second-generation entrepreneurs.
and above are the advantages of second-generation entrepreneurs, but they also have shortcomings.Most of them grew up in an environment where food and clothing are not a worry. The original motivation of many generations of entrepreneurs is to solve the problem of food and clothing, and later to have dignity and status, which makes them have to work hard. However, this problem does not exist in the second generation. What is their motivation? I think this is a problem that needs to be further solved. As a second-generation entrepreneur, you must have greater ambitions and a noble sense of mission.
[Compilation] Lin Dongyun Ye Jiechun
[Author] Lin Dongyun
[Source] Southern Media Group Southern + Client
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-