Lining Curtain Call: The Return Of Star Founder

The story of a star founder and company, brand and two CEO: in the eyes of the outside world, Lining implanted his savvy in competitive sports into his enterprise practice.

In the past 18 years, Lining has been looking for more powerful people and even teams instead of himself.

It is very likely that the final gymnast is the great gymnast but not the company he founded.

Like the sequels written in the literary history for those masterpieces, they almost gave up the plan of pcendence from a single stroke.

Lining's presumption of speculation is not the main thrust of this article.

As a matter of fact, he is one of those few sports talents who has succeeded in his own fame in another field.

If you put Li Ning Co in those companies that are created by various stars, its excellence is obvious.

Today, a famous sports brand called LI-NING has gained popularity and richness far beyond the "Lining" itself.

In the view of the outside world, Lining has implanted his savvy in competitive sports into his enterprise practice.

Lining agreed with this view and unconsciously reflected his conceit of creating an era.

Luckily, he realized the following fact very early: that era was gradually forgotten with the great changes in people's values.

"Now the old lady is my signature."

He said humorously.

The danger lies in it.

If you can't pform your influence into an organization, the company will start with Lining and stop at Lining, just like many well-known companies we are familiar with.

Lining avoided this trap.

But this does not mean that he is a prescient.

"I really don't have any long-term plans for life.

I didn't expect to be an Olympic champion when I was an athlete.

Next, he said the key to the problem: "I am a self aware person."

He hopes to make "LI-NING" an international sports brand that can lead the industry trend.

He knows he is not strong enough.

He has only the power of an Olympic champion, and these intangible assets do not provide all the power needed to achieve that dream -- he sees and acknowledges that they are rapidly failing.

"If I do not regard this as my personal matter, it is everybody's business, it will inspire more people to fight for this cause.

Otherwise, many people will become working for me.

The employee doesn't need to look at my face. He just looks at the face of the business.

Another reason why it is not unimportant is that he loves freedom.

Falling from the rings of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, he got something that had been surging in his heart for many years.

He did not want to set himself in trivial business and accounts.

Therefore, from the very beginning, he entered the free state of the enterprise and did not allow it to have full possession of himself.

This makes him different from most successful entrepreneurs.

The latter has maintained a posture of charge, and regarded the enterprise as the absolute control of his kingdom, even though he and his career eventually looked like Sisyphus and his stone.

Lining is different. He is no longer the legal representative of the company named after himself. He can not even appear in the media for more than ten years.

He thought that the first thing he had done was to destroy the company. "My life is over, and the business is over."

"It's not that I don't want to be an enterprise, but this business needs me to make this choice."

He said.

In the past 18 years, Lining has been looking for more powerful people and even more teams instead of himself.

"My responsibility is to keep the company able to find people who can sit in CEO posts and see new businesses in the future."

He first found Chen Yihong, then Zhang Zhiyong.

The latter helped him to complete the pition from individual to organization.

He is not merely an observer in the rest of the time.

He is not interested in specific business, nor is he good at it, but he is passionate about how to make "LI-NING" a great brand.

He never changed the direction of his efforts, even though the process turned around a long time - the company did not always face his dream, and sometimes it even went to the opposite side.

How can he ensure that the fully decentralized company is always moving in the right direction?

He has been trying to overcome the confusion in his methods and his alternatives, and he has been trying to get a higher position to broaden his horizons.

Although Lining, 44 years old, explained his own top and white hair as heredity, they could still serve as a symbol of hard exploration.

Today, Li Ning Co is probably the lightest one among many private enterprises in China.

As Lining, chairman of the board of directors, is pleased to see, this is a "sound system, standardized management, good operation" excellent enterprise, continuous years of high growth, deeply loved by the capital market.

However, without any harsh criticism, it is like a "three good student" with almost zero shortcomings. It has studied tirelessly to Nike and Adi, a more powerful "teacher". It uses IBM, Roland Berger to make strategic planning, run SAP ERP software, and hire 4A advertising companies such as Leo Bernold, almost everything to match the industry benchmark.

However, it is often those traitors who rewrite industrial game rules. Don't forget that Einstein has never been a top student.

Many years later, a researcher who is interested in Lining and his company history may describe him like this: you see, Lining said to the people around me, I have a dream.

He convinced them that the dream was worth their efforts and got the assurance that they were willing to work for it. Then he came out to help them when they looked very tired, and soon disappeared.

Later, when difficulties came, they were used to conquering themselves.