Wang Zhentao, The Head Of AOKANG: 24 Years Of Hardship And Happiness

I still remember a few years ago when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Wenzhou a few years ago.

He said, "

It was in late August 2009, when Premier Wen also came to AOKANG.

At that time, China suffered an unprecedented impact on the international financial crisis, and the "made in China" situation was very difficult in the global economic crisis.

Similarly, Premier Wen said later.

When he visited Wenzhou again in early October last year, he said: "we must be confident in the development of Wenzhou and be confident in solving the current difficulties.

We should not overlook the problems we encounter, but we must not hide them from one another and deny or fail to see the accumulation of Wenzhou's development over the years, including material accumulation and experience accumulation.

He added: "since reform and opening up, the development of Wenzhou depends on the spirit of challenging ourselves, striving for self-improvement and forging ahead.

Under the new situation, this spirit will encourage the people of Wenzhou to break through a new path and promote the development of Wenzhou's economy.

Wenzhou is still alive and promising.

I have full confidence in that.

The background of Premier Wen's visit to Wenzhou is that Wenzhou has just experienced an unprecedented private financial crisis. For a time, usury and boss's running almost became the label of Wenzhou, and even triggered a controversy about whether or not to save Wenzhou.

It is said that Wenzhou is a weathervane of China's private economy.

When China's economy is facing problems, people will think of Wenzhou for the first time and ask Wenzhou how it is. In recent years, debates surrounding "Wenzhou's decline", "Wenzhou model's ending" and "Wenzhou industry's hollowing up" have been heard all the time.

Wenzhou is not easy, Wenzhou enterprises and bosses are not easy.

As an entrepreneur who was born in Sri Lanka, I feel this way of "not easy".

But as the motto on my desk, "Phoenix Nirvana, can be heard for nine days", like most Wenzhou and even China's private enterprises, these 10 years, we are growing step by step in the pcendence.

If there is any experience to share, I think: when the cold current is coming, we must learn to "cold resistance" and "winter swimming". In the midsummer of restlessness, we should be good at grasping opportunities, but also calm down, resist temptation and learn to "dispel summer heat".

Winning at the turning point

AOKANG has been in existence for 24 years since its establishment in 1988.

Over the past 24 years, we have experienced the process of growing from small to large, from nothing to strength, from weakness to strength.

Therefore, I summed up a sentence: people do not win at the starting line, but win at the turning point.

Especially in the last 10 years, we have experienced several turning points.

First, it invested 1 billion yuan in 2003, and built 2600 acres of land in Bishan County, Chongqing.

This is the largest investment project of Zhejiang enterprises in the west, and it is also an attempt to pfer industries across regions.

At that time, the central western development strategy just started soon. We promised that "the people will give me a land, I will return the people to a city".

But not everyone agrees that I have invited some Wenzhou entrepreneurs to investigate in the past.

Who just told them, many people refused.

Then the people who came to Bishan saw the place where they were going to build their shoes. They were just a wilderness full of rocks and rocks. Their confidence began to waver. Someone said to me, "we believe you have come with you. But can you see that gold can be produced on such barren land?"

I explained again and again, but some people still do not believe what miracles can happen in such a place. Even two of them stayed in Bishan for less than two hours, leaving without saying goodbye and returning to Wenzhou overnight.

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After several years of construction, several stages of the western shoe market have been completed, and now it has become one of our main production bases.

It is dramatic that an entrepreneur who had left without leaving office later found me on his own initiative, hoping to give a quota to the western shoe market.

Another turning point is the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. We are suppliers of leather products, shoes designed by the etiquette ladies and flag bearers.

This ticket is not easy to come by.

Starting from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, we hope to squeeze into this sports festival representing the world business stage.

First, like farmers giving food to the Red Army, tens of thousands of pairs of shoes were sent to the 2000 Olympic Games.

To some extent, sponsorship of Olympic Games is the most expensive sponsorship in the world. If it is not well handled, it will probably become a "burning money campaign".

But I said, how far is the Olympic Games, and how far AOKANG can go.

There are two meanings: first, to help the Olympic Games.

In June of last year, with the approval of the State Council Administration of the authority of the State Council, the leather shoes, leather bags, belts and other products were selected into the "313 special gifts".

Tiger and lion game

The biggest event in the past 10 years is undoubtedly China's accession to the WTO at the end of 2001.

In the first 10 years, the advantages and disadvantages of joining the WTO are no longer discussed frequently.

But looking back, this is not an easy process.

China's entry into WTO not only brings opportunities to Chinese enterprises and industries, but also brings more competition pressure after opening up.

In 2003, when the outside world was still discussing the future of Chinese manufacturing industry in the face of foreign enterprises, we surprised people to sign a strategic partnership with the first brand GEOX of Italy shoe industry, known as "world shoe capital".

Cooperation with GEOX is to win.

At that time, it was ready to enter the Chinese market and delineated many domestic enterprises including us.

Several of these companies are better than us in terms of reputation, scale and strength, and GEOX's trip has set us as the last object of investigation, and even once suggested that we should not waste any more time.

But our sincerity finally touched them.

If it is a partner with GEOX, then it will be a war with the European Union, a protracted battle.

After joining the WTO, the footwear industry of the European Union crowding out Chinese shoes is very intense.

In September 2004, due to the impact of Chinese footwear trade on the local footwear industry, Elche, a small town in southeastern Spain, was planning to boycott Chinese shoes.

In 2005, the European Union launched an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese leather shoes.

When I heard the news for the first time, my heart began to pick up: can cooperation with GEOX continue? Account for nearly 20% of the total sales, and what can the workers do? However, anti dumping is inevitable. Only discontent and protest are useless, and we need to take the initiative to deal with it positively.

Later, we sent representatives to China's "protest group". I also went to Spain and other countries to lobbying for China's shoe industry.

In October 2006, the European Union decided to impose an anti-dumping duty of up to 16.5% on leather shoes originating in China.

We immediately hired a lawyer to join other 3 companies in bringing the case to the European court. After 5 years, other enterprises could not endure the long suffering and choose to give up. Only we are still sticking to it.

Finally, good news came in March last year: the EU decided to formally cancel anti-dumping duties on Chinese leather shoes.

It is said that joining the WTO is "dancing with Wolves". Now looking back, competition with foreign enterprises is a game of tigers and lions.

In international competition, we must learn to complement each other and compete in competition.

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The pain and pain of private finance

Last year, the private debt crisis in Wenzhou made Wenzhou's private finance revisited again.

Over the past 10 years, we have tried many times in private finance.

The constitutional amendment published in March 2004 clearly pointed out that "the State encourages, supports and guides the development of the non-public sector of the economy and supervises and manages the non-public sectors of the economy according to law", which gives us great confidence.

In June 2004, the Sino Swiss consortium, which was jointly funded by 8 other private enterprises in Wenzhou, was officially launched.

At that time, it was envisaged that the Sino Swiss consortium should be built into a comprehensive private consortium based on industrial investment and financial capital, integrating industrial capital and financial capital, so that it could participate in competition with internationally renowned large multinational companies or consortia as soon as possible.

We also envisage that through extensive gathering and mobilization of large scale private capital, it can not only participate in and support the key construction of the state, but also participate in the M & A and stock conversion system in the reorganization of enterprises.

The idea and strategic objectives of the Sino Swiss consortium are very good, but they are not ripe at all. The financial capital is still in the imagination.

In the same year, we and several other companies hope to set up a "Jianhua bank" with a private nature, which is positioned as a community bank, that is, serving the local SMEs in the Wenzhou region, but it has not been approved by the relevant departments.

Until 2008, AOKANG, as the main sponsor, formed a small loan company.

Because of policy restrictions, small loan companies can only borrow money, do not absorb public deposits, rely solely on their own capital and bank financing. If there is a chance, I hope that small loan companies can be upgraded to village banks and have the right to operate.

In February of this year, Chen Derong, Secretary of the Wenzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC, said, "if Wenzhou's private finance follows,

Winter and spring of these years

The growth of Wenzhou's enterprises in the past 10 years is like a four seasons replacement, experiencing ups and downs, prosperity, recession, depression and resurgence.

Enterprises in the deep part can be described as "fish drinking, cold and warm self knowledge".

In April 2003, I made a speech entitled "winter is not far away" at an internal meeting of the company.

At that time, the manufacturing industry flourishing and the shoe industry was still a sunny day. But I said, from a macro perspective, we can not relax.

Indeed, in the past second years, the first macroeconomic regulation and control came into being in the new century.

At that time, the situation in Wenzhou was almost the same as that before last year's civil financial turmoil. The private lending market was extraordinarily active, and the interest rate of private lending rose steadily.

In early 2009, because of the "cost robbery" and "capital robbery" in Wenzhou enterprises, the news of ceasing and closing down of enterprises ceased to be amplified by the outside world into "collapse tide" attacking Wenzhou private enterprises.

Wearing a coat is far from enough. If you want to resist this thorough winter, you must train your inner strength well.

Business is like running a family. At that time, I became a "family husband".

To give a simple example, the cafeteria, the telephone bill, including the travel expenses of the business trip, these are negligible expenses for others. We have listed 10 detailed calculations.

10 projects can save 23 million yuan per item, all down is tens of millions of yuan.

For example, the dining hall, AOKANG usually about four thousand or five thousand people to eat, two canteens 1 years of spending about about 10000000 yuan.

We made a very realistic adjustment, that is to buy the cheapest dishes at the right time, not to buy the whole day dishes when the dishes are expensive in the morning, and to buy at night.

This will save a lot.

Through the "cost revolution", we finally beat the speed of rising costs.

At the end of 2008, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao held a forum on the heads of Zhejiang enterprises in Shaoxing.

I remember Premier Wen said at the meeting: "the characteristics of Zhejiang's private enterprises can be summed up in 10 words: pioneering, innovation, perseverance, hardship, flexibility and perseverance in these 10 words. We will surely overcome the difficulties ahead."