On the evening of July 22, Wahaha issued a statement saying that in order to ensure the stable and healthy development of the company, Ms. Zong Fuli decided to continue to perform the relevant management responsibilities of Wahaha Group after friendly consultation among all shareholders.
Wahaha also expressed its gratitude for the recent attention from all walks of life and the media, and apologized for occupying media resources.
On July 18, screenshots of Wahaha's high-level personnel changes and Vice Chairman Zong Fuli's resignation were circulated on the Internet on a large scale.
In this regard, Wahaha Group and Zong Fuli herself have never responded positively. At present, this screenshot has basically been hammered. If there is no resignation, how can you continue to perform your duties?
Today, let's talk about what's happened to Wahaha recently? Where did Zong Fuli's confidence come from?
01
The problem of the first generation of private entrepreneurs
After the sudden death of China's first generation of private entrepreneurs, there will be a huge problem left behind - "two-tier inheritance".
The so-called "two-tier succession" is the inheritance of management rights and the inheritance of equity.
When these two layers of inheritance are entangled, it is very likely that there will be big problems.
It is often the family wisdom that solves these two things to achieve smooth inheritance. The inheritance is often not well discussed.
In China, I would like to remind everyone that equity is greater than management.
If you don't inherit your shares, you may be removed at the shareholder level, at the board level, and this is the reality in China.
When you let your children take over in the company, it looks like they are taking over the management rights, but in fact the equity must also be inherited smoothly. If the two things are separated, there is a possibility that there will be a big problem.
Obviously, Wahaha is facing such a problem.
Zong Fuli has been in the company for a long time, and in terms of management, Zong Qinghou is training his daughter to take over. But I speculate that there must have been something wrong with the equity distribution of the Zong family, and a smooth inheritance has not been achieved.
In other words, the equity inherited by Zong Fuli is not enough for her to become a major shareholder of Yiping, which is the biggest problem.
In this case, Zong Fuli's stewardship was challenged. Her resignation is a resignation from management.
02
Behind Wahaha's equity
Everyone should note that Wahaha's equity is very different.
Wahaha's major shareholder has always been the Hangzhou Shangcheng District Government.
According to the ownership of the largest shareholder, Wahaha is a state-owned enterprise. Including Lenovo, Vanke, Haier, Hisense, etc., are all about this problem.
When the first generation of private entrepreneurs was founded, the local government, as the major shareholder, did not speak, and he also hoped that you, an entrepreneur, would run the enterprise well and solve the problems of paying taxes and finding employment.
In the event of death, retirement, etc. As soon as the state-owned shareholders spoke, the illusion of private enterprises was shattered.
Although the founder of the company is famous, everyone thinks that he is a private entrepreneur.
But in reality, the undertone is not something you can decide.
03
The three identities of an entrepreneur
The founder's self-awareness is particularly important, and the dark horse often tells entrepreneurs:
An entrepreneur has three identities: business owner, founder, and spokesperson.
First, you're a business owner.
Whether this business is run by you or not, it is 100% your equity. Whether you're using financing to dilute equity or give equity to your team. In any case, the company is run by you, and you are the absolute majority shareholder.
Second, you are the founder.
Speaking of Wahaha, the founder must be Zong Qinghou, and the founder of Lenovo is Liu Chuanzhi.
Third, you are the face of the company and the spiritual leader.
Speaking of Wahaha, that is Zong Qinghou; Speaking of Haier, it is Zhang Ruimin; Speaking of Vanke, it is Wang Shi.
However, these three identities are not the same in these people.
Take, for example, Vanke.
You look at Wang Shi of Vanke, he is the founder, but Vanke has been a state-owned enterprise from the beginning.
Wang Shi's mind is very clear, he didn't ask for equity, he didn't go to the share reform, and he retired directly. After he retires, the company can give him a little more pension.
The Yu Liang team that took over from Wang Shi was elected by the shareholders, and he was not chosen by Wang Shi alone, nor was he Wang Shi's personal successor, let alone Wang Shi's child.
Therefore, after Wang Shi retired, Vanke was still Vanke. Now Vanke is a major state-owned shareholder + professional manager.
As the founder, Wang Shi retired, which is the most perfect ending.
When Baoneng acquired Vanke before, Wang Shi's position was very accurate. If Wang Shi represented Vanke at that time, he would not resist Vanke's privatization, or the secondary market would be controlled by Baoneng. Then it can be said that Vanke is finished, and Baoneng is also finished. Therefore, I admire Wang Shi very much in this matter.
Let's talk about Lenovo.
Lenovo, in fact, the Chinese Academy of Sciences plus the Lenovo team. In the case of Liu Chuanzhi's continuous turning and share reform, the team's equity is increasing, but the Chinese Academy of Sciences is still a major shareholder, and various methods such as strategic investment have also been introduced in this case.
But in any case, Liu said, Lenovo is a family-owned business with no family. The Lenovo team took the baton one by one, and he also retired.
But is Lenovo a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise? It's still a big question mark. Overall, the company is also very good, and Lenovo has done a good job of inheriting it.
Let's take a look at the beauty again.
Midea was originally a township enterprise, but the government had no equity for a long time.
The last equity of Midea was inherited by the founder's son, but the management was actually handed over to Fang Hongbo's team. This is a perfect realization of the dual succession of equity and management. I think it's also a very clever arrangement.
Back to Wahaha, the biggest problem today is that we mistakenly think that Wahaha is a company 100% owned by Zong Qinghou.
If it is Zong Qinghou's company, he only has Zong Fuli's daughter, so there is no problem with this matter.
He died, and after the equity inheritance was completed, there was no such thing as Zong Fuli's resignation. You can resign, but you can't resign.
Because you, as a major shareholder, you can't resign as a major shareholder. The actual controller can only sell the company, and there is no such thing as me resigning as the actual controller.
Here, I would like to remind our dark horse entrepreneurs: you must pay attention to the fact that you have to become a business owner.
You can't have a major shareholder outside, you are inside, and this startup is very troublesome. You can't say that several brothers hold shares equally, or that two husbands and wives hold 50% to 50%, which is also troublesome. You can't have a substitute for each other, it's not good.
We often say that the shareholding structure of an enterprise is not clear, and it will not go far at all.
Entrepreneurs must distinguish three identities:
The founder is your management responsibility, the spiritual leader is your social responsibility, and the business owner is your most important captain's responsibility, and you can't abandon ship.
04
What happened to Wahaha?
Now, what's happening to Wahaha?
Obviously, Zong Fuli is not the absolute majority shareholder. Not only are there state-owned shareholders, but Zong Qinghou's equity may not have been completely inherited by Zong Fuli.
For example, if your equity is relatively large, and you have three brothers behind you, and the three of them together have a larger equity than you, which is troublesome.
The company could face an infinite amount of controversy in the course of its development, and it could be like Steve Jobs, being voted out by the three partners, or it could be very infighting.
Therefore, the issue of equity is the key issue for the development of enterprises.
Before a company goes public, the founder must become the real controller, preferably absolute control.
When you are faced with inheritance issues, it is important to give your heirs absolute control.
Otherwise, once the inheritance of the management and the inheritance of the equity are separated, it will be troublesome if the old executives who do not hold the shares are dissatisfied with your heirs.
Let's speculate boldly: Wahaha is a state-owned shareholder, the attitude is unclear, the family equity has not been fully inherited, and Wahaha's executives who originally did not have equity are also talking.
In this way, Zong Fuli, as one of the shareholders, was difficult to control the situation, so the resignation occurred.
05
Zong Fuli's confidence
Perhaps, as a former executive of Wahaha said, Zong Fuli's resignation is likely to be a retreat to advance, in order to strive for greater shareholder authorization and related rights and interests.
Wahaha has not responded to outside speculation before, and the reason is that Zong Fuli is in further negotiations with shareholders of all parties.
Judging from the ending, it is true, this game is won by Zong Fuli. Why?
In a word: a lot of chips, a little weakness.
Let's start with chips.
Only by mastering the chips can we grasp the initiative.
The first is to control the producers.
Zong Fuli controls a number of producers that have no equity relationship with Wahaha Group.
For example, Wuhan Hongsheng Hengfeng Beverage Co., Ltd., Hunan Changsha Hengfeng Beverage Co., Ltd., etc., although these enterprises are commissioned by Wahaha Group to produce, they have no equity relationship with the group, and Zong Fuli holds shares directly or indirectly.
The second is a holding company.
Zong Fuli personally holds more than 10 times the number of Wahaha enterprises in Wahaha Group, and the number of companies she holds is significantly more than that of the group. For example, she holds at least 51% of the shares in five companies, including Hangzhou Wahaha Food Co., Ltd.
The third is the actual control of enterprises.
Through Hengfeng Trading Co., Ltd. and Shengjia Group Co., Ltd., Zong Fuli indirectly controls more Wahaha enterprises, which occupy an important position in the Wahaha Group's shareholding enterprises.
Fourth, learn from historical experience.
Zong Fuli's father, Zong Qinghou, demonstrated how to maintain competitiveness by controlling non-joint ventures and high-quality production capacity in the Dawa dispute, and this experience may be instructive for Zong Fuli.
Fifth, external public opinion is more favorable to Zong Fuli.
To a certain extent, external public opinion has also become one of Zong Fuli's bargaining chips in the negotiations.
Let's talk about weakness.
The weakness is not terrible, what is terrible is not knowing how to face it.
Weakness 1: Trademark ownership.
Zong Fuli does not own the "Wahaha" trademark, which makes her dependent on the use of the trademark. Although the company she controls can use the Wahaha trademark, this needs to rely on the trademark use agreement with the Wahaha Group.
Weakness 2: Protocol dependence.
The company controlled by Zong Fuli needs to use the trademark according to the authorization letter or authorization contract signed with Wahaha Group, which makes her have certain uncertainties in the use of the trademark. If the group arbitrarily withdraws the right to use it in violation of the licensing contract, it may have an impact on her holding company.
Weakness three: management ability
Although Zong Fuli has certain advantages in equity and control, she also needs to demonstrate strong management capabilities in the company's internal management structure, finance, asset management, etc., so as to gain the trust of shareholders and employees, so as to achieve actual control of the group.
Therefore, Zong Fuli's victory is only temporary, and the real challenge has just begun.
[The author of this article is i Dark Horse, i Dark Horse original.] If you need to reprint, please contact the WeChat public account (ID: iheima) for authorization. ］