Founder Of Li Ning Co Retire Fortune Favors Dreamers

In 2011, there was a noticeable turn in the development of Li Ning Co. Company executives turnover, inventory backlog, earnings warning, stock price fall... To deal with a series of crises, Lining The company's practice is to change "handsome".

In July 5th, the Li Ning Co announced that Zhang Zhiyong had resigned as chief executive and appointed TPG partner of private equity fund Jin Zhenjun as executive director and executive vice chairman. Before hiring a new chief executive, the company's business will be led by Lining, founder and executive chairman, and vice president Jin Zhenjun. Lining will focus on external affairs, while Jin Zhenjun is mainly responsible for the internal affairs and operation of the group.

Not only is the significant change hidden behind Li Ning Co's "change of handsome", but also the founder of almost all commercial activities, Lining.

Of all the post-90s youngsters in the Li Ning Co, who are aware of Lining's two brilliant life, probably not much, but this does not affect Lining's gold medal and business success in the sports and business circles.

In 2006, Lining was selected as the "60 year Asian hero". So commented: Lining, the business arm of the Chinese gymnastics legend, shows his flexibility in sports.

Fortune favoured dreamers

Lining's athletes and business career have always been blessed with luck.

He has a rare athletic talent. In the sixth World Cup Gymnastics Competition in 1982, Lining won 6 individual champions, including the all-around, floor exercise, horizontal bar, vault, pommel horse and rings, which created the myth of World Gymnastics history. This result is not only unprecedented, but also almost gone. From then on, Lining was praised as the "Prince of gymnastics".

On the jeep in his home town of Guangxi, the young Lining enjoyed the crowning glory of ten thousand people. However, no one had thought that the athlete who won 106 gold medals ended 17 years' sports career with one mistake.

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Lining, 25, fell from his jump. "After retirement, my sports life is over, and I will never make up for this loss." After the defeat, Lining sat on the lawn outside the Olympic Village and said, "in this world, I have more pain than anyone else."

The condemnation of Lining, driven by passionate patriotic sentiments, was like a surge of water, which made him fall from glory and let him see the world.

However, this tragic ending is not the end. The failure to wait for Lining is another good fortune. Unlike other retired athletes, they were arranged to be coaches or officials. Lining, who had been neglected by the system, was invited by a person, who brought Lining into a business career. He was then Li Jingwei, chairman of Jianlibao group of Guangdong.

Lining resolutely joined the Jianlibao group and went on business. Some people say that Lining is so lucky that few people can get an unrequited help from an entrepreneur.

Indeed, in Lining's mind, Li Jingwei knew him well. "He taught me to learn to interact with society and organize enterprises so that I could find my place in a society from a special athlete."

{page_break}

At that time, Lining had a dream: "let Chinese athletes wear sports clothes made by Chinese people". He recalls, "every time I compete in a foreign country, I am often mistaken for a Japanese, a Korean, or a Taiwanese or a Hongkong person because I am wearing a sportswear abroad. At that time, I was wondering when I could be in the international arena wearing the Chinese people's sportswear." A few months later, Lining asked Li Jingwei to set up a sports clothing factory.

Li Jingwei gave him the chance to dream. In 1989, Lining began to prepare for the Li Ning Co business. In April 1990, he registered the "Lining brand" trademark. In May, he announced the establishment of the company and Lining became the general manager. At that time, even Lining himself did not expect things to go so smoothly.

But at the first order meeting, no one bought Lining's product, so Lining had to find a way to promote it himself. What he had was the influence brought by the title of "Lining", so he thought of establishing a monopoly store and running his own marketing system. In this way, Li Ning Co moved towards Brand Company under the wrong circumstances.

Many people believe that Lining's success has benefited from his star status and benefited from his encounter with mentor Li Jingwei. However, only Lining and his side know that the dream of "Chinese people needs their own sports brand" is the motive force to push him and his team to make unremitting efforts.

In order to let more people know the Lining card, Lining seized the opportunity of the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. He found the familiar national sports committee officials, persuaded them to abandon the $3 million foreign company sponsorship with patriotic enthusiasm, and chose Lining who could only produce 2 million 500 thousand yuan.

Style and quality were not the best Lining sportswear at that time. They were finally selected as the Eleventh Asian Games torch relay designated clothing and the Chinese national team award dress. After the Asian Games, "Lining" clothing became popular in China overnight. In the month when the Asian Games closed, Lining received an order of 15 million yuan.

After the Hiroshima Asian Games and the twenty-fifth Olympic Games, until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese athletes did not cross the clothing of other sports brands when they won the prize.

Lining's dream has come true.

Targeted decentralization

"I only have a clear goal and then go all the way. And this is the most training I get when I am an athlete. With the dream of building a world-class sports brand, Lining has always had a clear goal and a good sense of direction.

Many young people today do not know Lining, nor do they know that he is "the greatest athlete of the last century". It was Lining's intention to leave the stage and disappear from the public view. Because he believed that only Lining gradually faded out of people's sight, "Lining" would not be forgotten.

Since the Li Ning Co profits in 1993, Lining has turned down the overwhelming majority of interviews. He told Zhang Qing, the manager of the advertising department of the then company, "to let the consumers know that Lining is a brand, not me, I will be old. You must not move me out of nothing."

{page_break}

Lining gradually faded out, not only the public's vision, but also the management of Li Ning Co.

Lining knew clearly that the dream of "Lining" becoming the greatest sports brand in twenty-first Century could not be realized by himself. "There must be a system. Without this system, my dream will always be a dream, an empty dream."

So what Lining has been doing is pushing the whole team to professionalism, and finding the right people to take their own rights. He said, "as a company, I don't like to rush ahead, and then you are finished and the business is over."

Lining's teacher, Peking University Guanghua School of management EMBA center, Wang Yafei, said: "Lining's personality is relatively plain, but in a sense it is not suitable for business. Can you imagine him going to look for debt?" but he can bring talented people around him and use it for him.

In 1991, when the newly established Li Ning Co was hiring, Chen Yihong, 31, arrived at the 26 year old Lining with his team. Lining asked Chen Yihong to form the footwear industry, playing an important role in the Li Ning Co, and Lining began to fade out of the company's management.

The value of a strong team soon emerged. By the end of 1991, the footwear department led by Chen Yihong had only realized sales income of 6 million 800 thousand yuan in 8 months. Then, with the help of Chen Yihong, the Li Ning Co achieved a profit in 1993. In July of that year, Lining gave up the position of the general manager to Chen Yihong, and he became chairman of the board and went to Peking University for further studies.

Lining evaluated Chen Yihong: "he is a businessman by nature." The two of them built the 1616.80,0.80,0.05% of Li Ning Co for ten years, and let Lining occupy the first place in the market of local brands in 10 years.

However, such a patriarch went away from the Li Ning Co in 2001. The outside world once speculated about the reason, the most widely said saying is "Li Ning Co has never been able to enter the club of 1 billion yuan". Chen Yihong himself knew that his management philosophy was contrary to Lining's expectations.

Outside, Chen Yihong likes commercial adventures and challenging jobs. He works hard and solves problems with his own experience. But this is not the practice of a Brand Company.

"Li Ning Co in the future should rely on one process, one post and organizational capability to complete a business, not a single person." Lining thought, "even the colors of a pair of shoes, the style of a shirt, all like to meddle in it." Chen Yihong should move back. So Lining said to Chen Yihong, "you need to find an assistant."

This assistant is Zhang Zhiyong.

When Zhang Zhiyong was chosen to serve as CEO in 2001, a former Lining executive pointed out that "Lining's choice of Zhang Zhiyong is partly due to his recognition of Lining's culture and the inheritance of Lining's culture."

Lining gave the main business of the company to Zhang Zhiyong, and he led the development of the enterprise from a higher angle. Like Chen Yihong, he has full confidence in Zhang Zhiyong, giving him enough platform and loose environment to expand his business. Lining also discussed many things with Zhang Zhiyong, mainly based on strategic issues, not talking about a particular business.

{page_break}

At that time, Li Ning Co was facing a listing. Lining understood that a company wants to go up to the next level. We must abandon the experience and traditional management mode and manage it with a modern enterprise management mode.

I have to admit that Zhang Zhiyong is very well placed to grasp the market. Once he was promoted to CEO, he helped Lining step into the 1 billion threshold. In 2004, Lining went public in Hongkong, and Zhang Zhiyong was still selected as the CEO of the listed company.

"He is not good at business, but he is very good at employing people." This Chen Yihong's evaluation of Lining has been corroborated.

Dedicated and atmospheric leaders

Lining once said to Zhang Zhiyong, "really want to do one thing to do with life." He is so dedicated and persistent.

At the beginning of his career, Lining was personally familiar with all the affairs of the company. Zhang Qing, a public relations commissioner at the time of Li Ning Co, recalled that in order to open up the market, Lining had been attending the store's ribbon cutting all the way, from Xiamen to Henan and Shandong, and finally to Shanxi. On business outside, on the floor of the hotel, he will lay the design samples on the floor and lie on his own. He will call back to the company and make changes overnight.

In the construction of Lining store, Lining was personally involved in every job from site selection to decoration, and even cleaned floors with ordinary employees.

The veteran employees of the Li Ning Co remember the time when they just came to Beijing. If they met late into the night, there must be Lining in the conference room. The sponsorship of the 1990 Asian Games torch relay and the sponsorship of the athletes from 1992 to 2004 four Olympic Games were all discussed by Lining.

Just after leaving the Jianlibao group, in order to make the Li Ning Co develop more healthily, Lining, who values his affection, persuaded his brother, sister-in-law and cousin to work away from each other. This laid the foundation for Li Ning Co's subsequent internationalization and shareholding system.

In carrying out the equity reform and building a public company, he used all the knowledge at North University. "Lining and the advisers of the investment bank design the salary mechanism and incentive mechanism together. He used the spreadsheet to design the mechanism on his computer. Can you imagine a child with a somersault? "Wang Yafei said.

In people's stereotypes, a person who does things with his life will be somewhat paranoid and harsh. Lining is not.

In the impression of an official of the national physical culture and Sports Commission, "Lining is a man of very gentle character. He seldom gets excited about anything."

The gentle character made him smile peacefully after falling from the jump. Years later, he said, "ups and downs are normal in life and business." Such a calm is not surprising from young age.

From an athlete to an enterprise manager, Lining went through a long process of exploration. But the people around us say that Lining's temperament has not changed much. His modest and friendly style of work made him quickly integrated into the business circle. The atmosphere is the evaluation of Lining by many people. That is to say, in such a calm and atmosphere, we can gather talents with distinct and strong personalities.

{page_break}

When Chen Yihong first arrived in Li Ning Co, the first thing he did was to produce the first Lining shoes: "Lining 001". But when the "Lining 001" was produced, there was a quality problem. The batch of products worth 200 thousand yuan should be scrapped. This is the first major product crisis faced by Lining. Chen Yihong's self-confidence has been hit, and the pressure can be imagined.

But Lining did not criticize him. Lining waved his fist and said, "let's go back." "Lining was only 28 years old. I think he was very mature and very atmospheric!" Chen Yihong said. After this incident, he and Lining established more trust and support.

After ending 15 years of cooperation, Chen Yihong said, "fortunately, he was met because, like me, you call it a very arrogant person, without his boss, we will not cooperate for so many years.

In addition to getting along with others, Lining's atmosphere is also reflected in his understanding and grasp of things.

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Lining ignited the torch as the torch bearer, which gave the Li Ning Co a surprise that Adidas failed to win the Olympic sponsorship. At that time, many colleagues told Zhang Zhiyong that this is a good opportunity. We should act quickly to do business related to this concept.

The management team of the company discussed with Lining, and Lining said, "this is an athlete representing the Chinese people and representing the whole world. If we commercialize it, it seems that our mind is too narrow." Zhang Zhiyong remembered that Lining sent a message to him specially. He said that the honor was not personal by Lining, nor by Li Ning Co. Finally, all management decisions unanimously do not do any commercialization of the torch.

As Lining, who returned to the operation of the group, said, "the past, the present and the future have been paying for the brand of Lining". However, in the past decade or so, he has been hiding behind the scenes, standing at another level, and now he is returning to the stage.