At the age of 78, he is still on the front line, and Cao Dewang will work until he is 100 years old

Chinese entrepreneur

2024-06-30 14:18The official account of "China Entrepreneur" magazine

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01 Cao Dewang, founder of Fuyao Glass, said that he will continue to work until the age of 100 and will not retire.

02 In the past three years, in addition to going deep into the front line of business management, Cao Dewang has devoted more time and energy to Fuyao University of Science and Technology, which is the third stage of his struggle as an entrepreneur.

In 032021, Cao Dewang donated 10 billion yuan to establish Fuyao University of Science and Technology, aiming to cultivate more outstanding talents.

04In addition, Fuyao Glass, controlled by Cao Dewang, recently invested 9 billion yuan to expand production to meet market demand.

05 Cao Dewang is keen on charity, and his cumulative personal donations have reached 16 billion yuan, but he has never taken a penny from Fuyao.

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What is Cao Dewang, who is not retired, busy with?

"Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Hu Nannan

Edited by Mina

Header image source: Attempt library

"I'm only in my seventies, I'm still young, and I'm sure I'll be a hundred." Recently, Cao Dewang, founder and chairman of Fuyao Glass, said in an exclusive interview with Huishang magazine.

Regarding the question of retirement, Cao Dewang has responded many times over the years. 6 years ago, Cao Dewang explained why he didn't retire in a CCTV "Let's Talk" program, "The country cultivates an entrepreneur, and the price paid is too great, so I don't think it's easy to talk about retirement, stick to the front line, like a candle, and then talk about burning the wax, this is called dedication." If I fly my beloved plane around now, it would be irresponsible, it would be disrespectful. Cao Dewang said.

This year, Cao Dewang is 78 years old, what is he busy with who chooses not to retire?

In the past three years, in addition to going deep into the front line of enterprise operation and management, Cao Dewang has devoted more time and energy to Fuyao University of Science and Technology, which he donated 10 billion yuan to build in 2021. In March this year, he also invited Wang Shuguo, the former Internet celebrity president of Xi'an Jiaotong University, to serve as the president of Fuyao University of Science and Technology, and he was on the hot search.

Cao Dewang, who dropped out of school at the age of 14, why is he so keen on education? In Cao Dewang's view, education is the most meaningful thing, "I am very happy to donate the money I earn to the society to run education, not only to kill time, but more importantly, to bring tangible benefits to the country and society." ”

On the other side, the Fuyao glass controlled by Cao Dewang is also constantly moving. In the month starting in December last year, Fuyao announced two large investments amounting to 9 billion yuan.

Cao Dewang is known as the "King of Automotive Glass", and according to the 2023 Hurun Report, Cao Dewang ranks 253rd on the overall list with a wealth of 21 billion yuan. Fuyao Glass, which he founded, currently controls one-third of the world's glass market, and has a market share of more than 65% in China, which means that two out of every three vehicles have glass from Fuyao. According to the 2023 financial report, Fuyao Glass's annual revenue was 33.161 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.02%. Among them, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies reached 5.629 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.37%.

But there are also concerns behind the earnings report. In recent years, the gross profit margin of Fuyao Glass has been declining year by year. According to Flush iFinD data, from 2018 to 2022, the gross profit margin of Fuyao Glass was 42.63%, 37.46%, 39.51%, 35.9%, and 34.03% respectively. At the same time, as a part of the automotive industry chain, the slowdown in the growth rate of the automotive industry, the transmission of price wars to the middle and upper reaches, and the changes in the cost of soda ash raw materials and energy required for automotive glass will have an impact on Fuyao's performance.

Even if he is the "king of automotive glass", Cao Dewang still has a sense of crisis. Recently, he expressed concern about the company's new growth points, because it takes time to cultivate. But after more than 40 years of entrepreneurship, he also understands that entrepreneurs need to face all kinds of risks often, "An entrepreneur's career is a risky business in itself, so don't be pessimistic, cheer up, and do what you have to do." Cao Dewang said.

Don't waste any money you donate

In recent years, Fuyao University of Science and Technology has become Cao Dewang's permanent office. Every day, he comes to the school early to inspect the construction site and receive customers.

In 2021, Cao Dewang donated 10 billion yuan to establish Fuyao University of Science and Technology through the Heren Charity Foundation, which he founded. In his opinion, the establishment of a university is the third stage of his struggle as an entrepreneur. He is particularly interested in this university. After the construction of the university began, he went to the construction site almost every day to work and supervise the project. From the quality of construction to the laying of floor tiles, there is nothing he doesn't care about.

The establishment of the university became a career of Cao Dewang. He has calculated every account of the establishment of Fuyao University of Science and Technology very clearly. For example, the project budget for building a university was originally 6 billion yuan, but when the price of building materials was reduced at that time, and he personally supervised the construction, it only cost more than 4 billion yuan. "Don't waste any of the money I donate." Cao Dewang said.

Cao Dewang is passionate about philanthropy, and charity has become a part of his life. Since his first donation in 1983, his cumulative personal donations have reached 16 billion yuan. But donating so much money, he has never taken a penny from Fuyao. He has stressed that charity is not something that entrepreneurs must do, nor does he advocate mobilizing corporate donations. Because in his opinion, the company belongs to the shareholders, not the boss, and the shareholders' money is invested in you, how can you donate it to make a personal reputation?

But he also feels that doing charity is a process of cultivating the mind, and it is also the virtue of coexisting with society.

Regarding wealth, he once said in an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur" that wealth is neither money nor jewelry, wealth is wisdom. The money and jewelry you leave to your child are useless, and if you don't get it right, it will hurt him. But if you can really pass on the successful experience to him, this is better than anything else.

Different from the habits of local families in Fujian, there is no stone lion in front of Cao Dewang's house, but a black Pixiu. Pixiu grinned, and her whole body was round. The most unusual thing is that it has a hole in its butt. This is Cao Dewang's proud work - "People's Pixiu is only in and out, that is not to support death, money, there must be in and out." This can also be seen Cao Dewang's view of money.

More than 40 years of focus on one thing

As a company for more than 40 years, Cao Dewang has always been doing automotive glass.

In his opinion, focus is a manifestation of responsibility. In a previous interview, Cao Dewang said that Fuyao will use more than 4% of its revenue as innovation and R&D investment every year, and deeply integrate into vehicle electrification, networking, intelligence, and sharing. In Cao Dewang's view, core technology cannot be bought, and there is no shortcut, only independent innovation.

His story is legendary. Cao Dewang was born in Shanghai in 1946. Because he was born in the war-torn years, he did not go to school until he was 9 years old, but dropped out of school at the age of 14 to become a cowherd baby. In those years, he did a lot of business, selling tobacco on the street, selling fruits, and pulling carts......

At the age of 30, Cao Dewang went to his hometown of Fuqing Gaoshan Town special-shaped glass factory as a buyer, and since then he has entered the glass industry. At that time, the special-shaped glass factory in Gaoshan Town has been in a state of loss since its establishment, and 7 factory directors have changed in 6 years. But Cao Dewang combined his past business experience and thought that this was a profitable business. So, in April 1983, Cao Dewang promised the town that by the end of the year, he would hand over 60,000 yuan of profits, and hand over the rest to himself for 40%, Gaoshan Town Government for 20%, and the rest as fixed assets. That year, Cao Dewang and several partners earned more than 200,000 yuan.

By chance, Cao Dewang saw the huge profits of auto glass - at that time, cars mainly relied on imports, and auto glass was also monopolized by foreign brands, and a piece of auto glass needed to be imported from abroad to maintain a piece of auto glass, and a piece of auto glass was imported from Japan, with a cost price of 200 yuan, and it was sold for more than 8,000 yuan in China.

This stimulated Cao Dewang, and made him determined to make a glass of his own for the Chinese. So in 1987, Cao Dewang and more than a dozen other shareholders raised more than 600 yuan to establish Fuyao Glass Company.

In the early days of entrepreneurship, Cao Dewang also took a detour. In 1993, Fuyao Glass had occupied 40% of the domestic market share. At that time, many enterprises began to diversify and expand, and Cao Dewang was no exception, and began to diversify, dabbling in real estate, decoration and other industries.

Later, when Fuyao was about to go public, a securities investor woke him up, "If investors like glass, they will invest in glass stocks, and if they like real estate, they will invest in real estate stocks. Since then, Cao Dewang has decided to give up diversification, focus on strengthening the main business, and focus on doing a good job in automotive glass.

Cao Dewang's layout of overseas markets is also very early. In 1995, Cao Dewang entered the U.S. market. At present, Fuyao's overseas market revenue accounts for more than 45% of the company's total revenue, and its products are sold to more than 70 countries around the world. Today, automotive glass is still Fuyao's main source of revenue, accounting for about 90% of total revenue.

Invest 9 billion yuan to expand production

Cao Dewang once again invested in the construction of the base.

On December 30 last year, Fuyao Glass disclosed that it had invested 3.25 billion yuan in the construction of an automotive safety glass project, equipped with advanced modern production equipment, and finally formed a production scale of about 20.5 million square meters of automotive safety glass per year.

On January 25 this year, Fuyao Glass once again announced that it would build an automotive safety glass, auto parts glass and float glass project in Hefei City, Anhui Province, with a total investment of 5.75 billion yuan, and eventually form an annual production scale of about 26.1 million square meters of automotive safety glass and two high-quality float glass production lines.

Fuyao Glass's investment has always been cautious. Previously, Fuyao Glass had 10 automotive glass production bases in China, most of which had an investment of no more than 1 billion yuan, of which the largest Suzhou project had an investment of only 2.2 billion yuan.

After the announcement of these two large investments, many people called Cao Dewang. At the shareholders' meeting held by Fuyao Glass on April 25 this year, Cao Dewang responded, "I only voted after thinking clearly, not blindly." In an interview with the media, Cao Dewang further explained that this investment and expansion is because Fuyao signed order contracts with some automobile customers as early as 2021 and will supply them in 2025. However, in 2023, Fuyao once had a shortage of supply, and at this time, it expanded its investment in order to be able to conduct trial production in the first half of 2025 to meet the supply needs.

More attention has been paid to the investment in the Hefei project in Anhui Province. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, Anhui has also become a market that Cao Dewang cannot ignore. Fuyao Glass said in the announcement, "Anhui has gathered BYD, Chery, Volkswagen, Weilai and many other car companies, and Hefei's automobile industry is in a stage of rapid development. ”

According to reports, the investment project of Fuyao Glass will bring Hefei an annual output of 4 million sets of automotive supporting glass and 4 million pieces of accessory glass. In fact, Cao Dewang has been working closely with Hefei even earlier. It is understood that most of the various automotive glasses after the NIO ES8 model are supplied by Fuyao Glass.

Having been operating a business for more than 40 years, Cao Dewang has made automotive glass the first in China and the world's leading, and Cao Dewang understands what to do, what not to do, and what to do. A brokerage researcher who has been tracking Fuyao Glass for a long time said that such a large investment reflects the company's optimistic judgment on the market prospects.

The large-scale investment in production expansion also comes from confidence. Cao Dewang said that Fuyao's financial situation is very good, and the benefits are also very good. Fuyao now has a few hundred million left after subtracting bank loans from bank deposits, and there is no money owed to the bank, and the current assets are several times the current liabilities.

Resources:

""Entrepreneurs should be more good as an example of hard work" - an interview with Cao Dewang, Chairman of Fuyao Group, China Business Times

"Cao Dewang: The Profound Meaning of "Fuyao" into Anhui", Huishang Media

"Cao Dewang, Dead Knock One Thing", City Boundary

"21 billion billionaire Cao Dewang, smashing 9 billion to expand production", financial industry

"Entrepreneur Endeavor is at the Right Time丨Cao Dewang, Chairman of Fuyao Group: Focus is a Responsible Performance", CCTV Finance

Cao Dewang: Annotated Heart of Bodhi, Chinese Philanthropist Magazine

"More than a year ago, we talked to Cao Dewang about American factories", China Entrepreneur Magazine

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