The Success Of Jinjiang Shoe Industry'S "Two Generations"

January 10th two generation of Jinjiang

They are just the epitome of the two generation of entrepreneurs in Jinjiang.

For Xu Zhihua and Ding Shizhong, they are no strangers to their father's business, and whether they want to or not, they will shoulder the mission of making the family business "evergreen".

But unlike the first generation of the family, they tried to brand their enterprises with their unique vigor and vision.

In the second generation of integration and pformation, many Jinjiang companies have landed in the capital market in recent years, creating another myth of wealth.

From the perspective of age change, the ten years from 2010 will be the peak period for the generation of private enterprises in China.

With the majority of private entrepreneurs in China retiring behind the scenes, the two generation successors will go to the front as a whole. To a certain extent, the growth of the two generation successors will directly affect the direction of the domestic private economy, and even have a negligible impact on the overall economy.

For private enterprises with high aggregation and active development, this problem also exists in Jinjiang.

Xu Zhihua's father, Xu Jingnan, founder of PEAK group, said frankly, "how to integrate the two generation and three generation into the management system of enterprises is not very clear now.

I think, first of all, choose the best person in your family to see if anyone is willing to take the responsibility.

For these Jinjiang private enterprises, the selection, accession and succession of family managers is a headache.

"Taking care of one's father" involves not only the balance between family control and systematic operation, but also the problem of how many generations "coexist" in the company.

After all, the pition of managerial power is full of all kinds of "pain". How the last generation of entrepreneurs passed the difficulty of power pfer without hindering the growth of the company is obviously still in the process of groping.

Transition and coexistence

In 2001, Xu Zhihua graduated from university and was preparing to report to HUAWEI. He was called by his father Xu Jingnan for a long talk.

"Even if he doesn't say anything, I understand what he means."

When Xu Zhihua entered PEAK, he was at the bottom of the company.

As the earliest brand of basketball shoes in China, PEAK was once synonymous with local sports brand.

However, the company got up early but caught up late.

At that time, PEAK grew by 30% per year, but its competitors grew by 80%-100%.

Xu Zhihua wanted to make PEAK reborn immediately.

Young and energetic, he inevitably quarreled with his father.

For example, Xu Jingnan experienced the hardship of starting a business, like saving money. He often likes to take photos of the company's photographers, but this is incredible in Xu Zhihua's eyes.

In his opinion, the photos of the products must be expensive, and the professional companies can't take them.

Father and son are often out of tune. "Two days, two big quarrels, clapping the table, quarrel, I will not even attend, a person ran out."

Xu Zhihua said frankly that he had many differences with his father, for example, his father was very punctual in going to work, and he was seldom punctual. His father's gambling and enterprising spirit were more adequate. Instead, he tended to be conservative and worried about risks.

Xu Zhihua attributed the quarrels to the differences between the two generations, but after many years, he realized more about his father's concern for himself.

This is reflected in the channel reform carried out by PEAK since 2001.

At that time, the international brands represented by Adidas and Nike increased their investment in China. Anta, XTEP and other Jinjiang brands began to open their own stores. In this "enclosure campaign", the speed of PEAK gradually slowed down, because the channel of the large department stores that it used to rely on is becoming old and slow.

Further, PEAK faces the challenge of channel pformation, and its competitors do not have the problem of pformation.

At that time, Xu Zhihua, who was burning with anxiety, began to adjust the channel.

After a large number of visits, he found that many long-term cooperative dealers have not been able to keep up with the development of PEAK, but if they are replaced directly, they will be hard to give up emotionally.

Although he understood his father's helplessness, he was unable to stand idly by because of the current situation of "good people" throughout the company.

Therefore, he ignored his father's proposal and insisted on changing the dealer.

This time, his father gave him a compromise - but the problem followed.

As a result of the involvement of the interests, Xu Zhihua's assignment could not be accomplished at all.

The channel reform started in 2001 has not been adjusted in 2003.

In desperation, Xu Zhihua had to personally "cut" dealers.

For him, it was the most difficult experience. "The faces that have been cut are ugly, and sometimes they are bombed out by dealers."

But in the end, Xu Zhihua cut out half of dealers who are old and underpowered.

After the pformation, the labor pains came.

Because of the greater intensity of the "hand in hand" and the four doubts about Xu Zhihua from the company, some elders even thought that the little family was "whimsical". At the same time, the reform of the channel brought huge personnel shock to PEAK, and talents left in succession.

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Xu Jingnan naturally did not want to see this situation.

He did not want his son to fall into the historical grievances of the elders, and it was also clear that dealing with historical issues was not Xu Zhihua's strong point.

In order to save his son from controversy, he sent Xu Zhihua to Beijing to set up a branch to encourage him to do incremental marketing.

"Why have I been assigned to manage and sell brands, because the fields are new, and there is no such complex division of interests.

More importantly, no one has done it before, and it is easy to make achievements.

In the family business, the second generation only gains recognition and status through performance.

Xu Zhihua said.

Xu Jingnan's painstaking efforts were not in vain. After building PEAK's brand and marketing department and reshaping the company's sales channels, Xu Zhihua made the company regain aggressiveness.

Ever since Xu Zhihua took over PEAK CEO, Xu Jingnan no longer worked hard.

Today, PEAK must make decisions through the board of directors, most of which are still determined by Xu Jingnan.

In Xu Zhihua's eyes, his father's role is more strategic decision maker, and his role is still in execution.

For him, father is insurmountable, "I can easily get the recognition of others, but my father is always my father, to some extent, I need to do anything through him."

Do we need to go family?

Today, with the rising voice of "de familial", Xu Jingnan does not deny PEAK's family gene: "many investors call us Golden Triangle. I have formed a relatively stable management with my two sons. Investors think this model is very good."

For the division of labor between the three sons and fathers, Xu Jingnan has his own consideration: he is responsible for the coordination of the management team, and the eldest son, Xu Zhihua, is responsible for the construction and marketing of the channel. Xu Zhida, a slightly introverted son, is responsible for the production and distribution.

As a matter of fact, whether family businesses should continue to belong to family members or gradually turn to professional management has been widely debated.

Some scholars believe that only the outside professional managers can not be influenced by family grievances and take the whole company into consideration. But others point out that once the family is no longer in power, its corporate culture will no longer exist, and more importantly, the company's strategy will become short-sighted.

Xu Zhihua obviously has profound experience.

In his words, "our family, everyone's energy is on top of this company."

Father Xu Jingnan "is busy with the company's business for 365 days a year". He has only two or three days off a month.

This kind of dedication and dedication of family members is unmatched by professional managers.

On the other hand, such equity allocation is easier for management to quickly judge and make decisions, especially for the rapidly changing Chinese market.

Xu Zhida once mentioned that he often had supper with his father and his brother. "When they eat, they discuss their respective businesses."

Even so, PEAK has introduced a number of professional managers in research and development, marketing and communication positions, and more and more authorized.

Since the introduction of Sequoia Capital in 2007, more and more "non family shareholders" have entered PEAK: superior capital, Shanghai Hao Jia, Lenovo investment and Jiayin international.

The arrival of investors not only injected funds into PEAK, but also made up for the limitations of the family.

Similarly, Anta's systematic pformation since 2006 has made its management team increasingly diversified.

Ding Shizhong said that when the enterprise developed from 1 billion to 6 billion, the original experience could not surpass the limits of management. After all, he could not manage thousands of employees, dozens of dealers and thousands of retail outlets scattered everywhere, but Anta could not keep pace with the growth of the company itself.

At this time, only a systematic and internationalized process can drive the company to continue to grow.

But the next problem is that at the company's high-level meeting, Ding Shizhong found it difficult to remain neutral between family members and foreign managers, which strengthened his determination to break the family fence.

So a few years ago, he began to use his prestige to persuade family members to withdraw from actual management and leave most of their senior management posts to foreign managers.

In order to retain these elite, Ding Shizhong specially built a floor in the office building as an employee rest area, in addition to fitness equipment, but also built a small bar.

At the same time, he gradually confined his family's power to monotonous workshops, even when he heard more and more complaints.

Under the leadership of Ding Shizhong, Anta has gradually opened its arms to professional managers.

Zheng Jie, vice president of Anta, is one of the airborne professional managers. Before he joined Anta in 2008, he was the general manager of Reebok China.

In his view, from the initial discomfort to the current ease of work, Anta has gradually completed the reconstruction of corporate culture.

"Professional managers are constantly growing, and the scope of their management is constantly expanding.

Ding Zong has been letting go of his daily management.

He said.

Zhang Tao, vice president of another airborne force of Anta, believes that family businesses are not as unapproachable as he originally imagined, because "trust costs between top management teams are not so high, and we tend to communicate directly. This also makes the team's integration very high, and management system and salary incentives are only second."

In fact, the existing research has also proved that family culture and modern management are not either one or the other. Families and enterprises can develop in two ways, the premise is to have their own strategies.

Research shows that the growth of enterprises tends to be phased, and from a growth stage to another growth stage, the company will undergo some pition period, which will require changes in time and management mode.

For family businesses, when the pition period of the family and the pition period occur simultaneously, the effect is the best.

During the pition period, the successful pfer of power means a new starting point for the company.

In the contest between the elder statesman and the "little family", family managers and enterprises will change their behavior patterns.

As now, Xu Zhihua will no longer be "tough" with his father as he first entered the company, but more of a roundabout strategy, "serving his father with data and facts".