1 yuan entrepreneur: 1 yuan annual salary = out of the predicament, create brilliance?

1 yuan is enough to buy a handful of shallots, enough to buy 2 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to buy 0.005 grams of gold...... What else is enough to buy? Since 2009, it has also been able to buy Liang Wengen, the "richest man in Hunan" and chairman of Sany Heavy Industry, for a year's work. As a result, Liang Wengen became *5,656 well-known Chinese entrepreneurs who received "1 yuan annual salary", and at the same time, other company executives also generally cut their salaries, * by 90%.

In an email to employees before the Chinese New Year, Jack Ma said that Alibaba Group still had a generous year-end bonus plan for 2008 and a salary increase plan for 2009, but "the only difference this time is that in previous years, all senior executives, including vice presidents, will not raise salaries." Ma Yun said that the more difficult the period, the more the company's resources should be tilted towards ordinary employees, and the sense of urgency and crisis should first come from the company's senior managers.

There is also a listed company, Yiyang Information Communication, whose executive compensation was reduced by 10%-20% in 2009; The leaders of the nine large enterprises under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai SASAC collectively cut their salaries, ranging from 10% to 40%.

Layoffs and salary cuts to save costs are not new for Chinese companies, but in the current crisis, entrepreneurs (senior management teams) took the lead in reducing their wages to "1 yuan", and at the same time expressed generosity to ordinary employees, which was not seen much in the previous economic crisis. For the "1 yuan" entrepreneurs, some public opinion has reported support and affirmation (Obama must be the first supporter in China), and there are also views that the "1 yuan annual salary" is just a show, and the effect on reducing the operating costs of enterprises is very limited.

"1 yuan annual salary" began in the United States 30 years ago. Lee Iacocca raised the banner of "1 yuan annual salary" to save Chrysler from the near death and create brilliant achievements. Later, the CEOs of Apple, Cisco, Yahoo, and Google adopted the "1 yuan annual salary" to motivate themselves and their employees to share their fate and boost morale when the company was in danger. By 2008, Apple's Steve Jobs had earned a basic salary of $1 a year for 11 consecutive years -- even though Apple* had been thriving in recent years.

The showmanship theory seems sharp, but it is biased. Since there have been similar classic cases for a long time, if Chinese entrepreneurs are purely for show, why not jump out and do so during the last round of economic downturn? Why is there a "1 yuan entrepreneur" like Liang Wengen at this moment today?

A coincidence is that Sany Heavy Industry (600031) is also the first A-share listed company to achieve full circulation of shares since the reform of equity division. Sany Group, in which Liang Wengen holds 58.5% of the shares, holds 61.29% of the shares of the listed company, and its personal shareholding market value exceeds 10 billion yuan even at the moment when the market value has shrunk significantly.

Similarly, some of Alibaba's executives also hold a varying number of equity options in Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed company.

Their measurement and perception of personal income and material income have long surpassed those of ordinary company people. Many entrepreneurs have taken the initiative to take responsibility and pressure from starting their businesses to "live more freely and better" today, trying to motivate their teams to realize their visions with less cash income, which is certainly an evolution of China's entrepreneurial spirit, but it is also a reflection of the evolution of the system at a certain level.

In an interview with China Entrepreneur, the director of the Shanghai SASAC said that the leaders of state-owned enterprises can take the lead in reducing salaries and leading enterprises to tide over the difficulties, and the SASAC has a supportive and encouraging attitude. At the same time, He Chang also denied that the salary cut of the leaders of the nine large enterprises was hinted at by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, he said: (salary cut) is the independent behavior of enterprises, and it is one of a series of measures to reduce the operating costs of enterprises.

Regarding the "1 yuan annual salary" of Liang Wengen, chairman of Sany Heavy Industry, He Chang said: "I personally admire this attitude, but I think it should not be advocated in state-owned enterprises. The income of private enterprise executives is actually diversified, and the owners and operators are the same, not caring about the salary, but only about the return of the enterprise; The leader of a state-owned enterprise is a working-class worker, but in fact he is a relatively high* worker. Our current leaders of state-owned enterprises did not receive high salaries, and if they went to get an annual salary of 1 yuan, it was completely unnecessary and impossible. As long as you have a reasonable relationship with employees and performance, you can do it. ”

The reasonable relationship mentioned by the director refers to the fact that according to the "Measures for the Management of the Remuneration of Persons in Charge of Central Enterprises" designated and issued by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the *5661 salary of the person in charge of a state-owned enterprise should be multiplied by a coefficient according to the average wage standard of employees in the same region and industry, and *5661 should not exceed five times the evaluation salary of employees.

Before the Spring Festival, the Ministry of Finance issued the Measures for the Management of the Remuneration of Persons in Charge of Financial State-owned and State-Controlled Enterprises (Draft for Comments) to major state-owned financial enterprises, which reportedly stipulates that the basic annual salary of the person in charge of financial enterprises is 700,000 yuan for the basic annual salary of 5,655 yuan, and the small value is 50,000 yuan; The annual performance salary is linked to the performance evaluation results of financial enterprises, and the annual performance salary is generally controlled within 3 times of the basic annual salary based on the basic annual salary.

Private entrepreneurs have taken the initiative to cut their salaries, and the leaders of state-owned enterprises are also facing "salary limit orders" from the government. The indicator of "1 yuan" subtly reflects that under the economic crisis, the relationship between corporate executives and other stakeholders of the enterprise, and the relationship between the enterprise and the society, is being adjusted.

The introduction of Sany "one yuan annual salary" from beginning to end

From a salary cut of one yuan per employee to an annual salary of only one yuan, Liang Wengen has repeatedly measured

On January 14, it was cold and drizzling in Changsha, and all afternoon, the directors of Sany Group (hereinafter referred to as "Sany") gathered in a large conference room next to the golf driving range.

At dusk, the woods on the outskirts looked thin, and the cold wind made the road longer, more than a dozen carsPump trucksRow up quietly on the side of the road. Chairman Liang Wengen opened the door and walked out, talking and laughing with the people around him: "Just one dollar, my life this year is really difficult, and a large family needs me to raise it." ”

This afternoon, Liang set a record: the lowest annual salary among the chairmen of China's listed companies is only 1 yuan. According to the 2007 annual report of Sany Heavy Industry (600031), Liang's previous annual salary was 630,000 yuan. Compared with his net worth of tens of billions, the loss in 2009 was only a drop in the bucket, but for him, it was still a crucial decision.

Is there a need for a pay cut? Who can take a pay cut? How much is appropriate? Can it add "added value" to the pay cut? This is a difficult problem that has plagued the decision-making level of Sany since November 2008.

At the beginning of 2008, at the board of directors of Sanya, Liang Wengen announced in a high-profile manner that he would achieve the goal of sales of 800-100 billion yuan in 2012. At that time, Sany Group's sales revenue had just reached 13.5 billion. The construction machinery industry is sensitive to the economic cycle, and his ambitions soon encountered a series of unexpected challenges, and he put forward "one rise, two tightening, three drops, and six strengthening", the so-called 32-word winter policy.

In November, it became the worst month for Sany's performance, and this signal made the group quite nervous. "In this case, how to face the crisis and take advantage of the crisis, every company is considering. We also felt the need to create an atmosphere and a state. Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany Heavy Industry, recalled.

At a public event, someone suddenly asked He Zhenlin, vice president of Sany Heavy Industry, who was attending the meeting: Do you lay off employees? He Zhenlin paused for a moment, and then promised that the board of directors of Sany had already said that no matter how difficult it was this time, there would be no layoffs. This is the first time that Sany has publicly promised not to lay off employees, and in fact, the board of directors has not yet made a formal decision at that time, but He Zhenlin heard Liang Wengen and Xiang Wenbo say this when they received guests. He's statement was agreed by the board of directors, and the principle of "no layoffs" was immediately determined, but Liang Wengen was still hesitant about whether to reduce salaries.

He Zhenlin remembers that during a meal, Liang Wengen once mentioned that he wanted all employees to reduce their salaries by one yuan per person to create everyone's sense of crisis, but he felt that this might not achieve the expected effect, but would cause chaos and not be implemented.

Sany has a party system that is not inferior to that of large state-owned enterprises, and internal documents show that its party committee has issued a proposal to "work together to tide over difficulties", which includes suggesting that party members and cadres take the lead in "reducing salaries", "postponing annual salaries or receiving half of annual salaries, and postponing receiving year-end bonuses or receiving half of year-end bonuses." ”

After receiving the proposal, each branch organized activities according to its own understanding, and most of the "petitioners" automatically asked for salary reductions and reduced benefits. Looking through the records of each branch "implementing the call of the group party committee", it can be seen that some party members and cadres of the branch took the initiative to ask for a salary cut of 10%-50%, and some took the lead in giving up the annual leave and overtime allowance in 09, and some had to ask to cancel the shuttle. Taken together, it is the "5,000 employees took the initiative to ask for a salary cut" incident.

There are traces of planning by the grassroots management department in this incident, which has also caused dissatisfaction among some employees. For a time, posts about Sany disguised layoffs and salary cuts spread everywhere, and "employees took the initiative to ask for salary cuts" was dismissed as a farce.

Sany is an enterprise that constantly shows its sense of morality, from the share reform * 5656 guns to the bombardment of XCMG restructuring, and the important nodes of reform and opening up, they have left their own voices. For it, the pressure of similar criticism is enormous, "Trinity is no small matter." Xiang Wenbo told the reporter of "China Entrepreneur" magazine. Regarding the online discussion, the office has collected a large number of books, and internal salary reduction applications need to be processed as soon as possible, and internal and external voices are forcing the board to clarify the "salary cut" as soon as possible.

At this time, the business environment changed again, various rescue measures were intensively introduced, and the policies to promote infrastructure construction were directly related to Sany, and the business performance in December rebounded immediately. Xiang Wenbo believes that if the goal of GDP "guaranteeing eight" can be achieved, it will be a pull of 16 points for Sany. "A few years ago, we issued 2.8 billion short-term bonds, and the state approved them quickly, and if there was no economic crisis, I think it would not have been approved so quickly. In addition, China Construction Bank alone has granted us a credit of 13.9 billion yuan, and we are now unable to spend enough money, and we still have billions of yuan in our accounts, and there is no problem with the capital chain and operation." Xiang Wenbo said that Sany's wintering technique has been slightly adjusted, and the tightening of investment in the "32-character policy" and maintaining the scale of cash are no longer the golden rule. It has also launched a €100 million project in Cologne, Germany, which is China's first industrial investment in Europe*5655 to date.

"Now is not the time to tighten investment, but to increase investment, even mergers and acquisitions." Xiang Wenbo said that the salary strategy in this context is not to solve the cash flow, nor the cost, but to simply inspire the spirit.

On January 6, 2009, Sany held an annual enlarged meeting of the board of directors, and Liang Wengen*5656 put forward the idea of receiving only one yuan of annual salary. At the meeting on the 14th, the matter became a final decision, and at the same time, the standard for the salary reduction of senior executives was determined, that is, the salary of all directors in 2009 was reduced by 90%, and the senior executives above the assistant director (inclusive) can voluntarily apply for a salary reduction of less than 50%.

There are about 200 executives within the salary reduction range, with an annual salary of more than 100,000 yuan, and they are generally equipped with cars. According to the participants, there was no controversy about the high-level pay cuts, and the focus of the disagreement was whether ordinary employees still needed to take a pay cut.

Some directors believe that since they have pledged not to lay off employees, it is understandable that ordinary employees should have their salaries reduced slightly. Other directors feel that senior executives who grasp the direction of the company can usually be regarded as "pampered", and salary cuts can serve as an example and stimulus. Salary cuts are unnecessary, they are not able to afford it, and their family members may have lost their jobs or cut their salaries, releasing the pressure to this level is a blow to morale. The board of directors adopted the latter view, and there were no pay cuts for rank-and-file employees.

*The 5655 divergence is over the year-end bonus

According to the usual practice, the year-end bonus increases year by year. "After discussion, we felt that it was not appropriate to raise it according to the 2007 standard, after all, the world economy is still declining, and there are still uncertainties in 2009, so we decided to increase it by 20% according to the 2005 standard." Xiang Wenbo said. The year 2005 was chosen as the base point because of macroeconomic control in that year, and there was also a decline in efficiency.

Liang Wengen suddenly had another proposal, thinking that he could make a "small game" on the year-end bonus. When the company achieves 100 billion, set up a "100 billion special award" to reward employees 10 times, if part of the part is abandoned, the part of the abandonment will be rewarded 10 times. That is to say, if an employee's year-end bonus is 2,000 yuan and he gives up receiving 500 yuan, when he realizes 100 billion yuan, he will enjoy a bonus of 2,000×10 + 500 ×10, a total of 25,000 yuan.

Several executives believe that this is equivalent to issuing an option to employees, and Sany will pay a huge price at that time, which needs to be cautious. * Hou Liang Wengen clapped, "Since this thing has been done, you might as well make it more beautiful."

For Liang, this is not his *5656 "painting cakes". At the groundbreaking ceremony on March 1, 1995, he sent a note to each of the people present, saying that when the sales revenue reached 10 billion, 100,000 yuan could be cashed out with this note. At that time, Sany's sales had not exceeded 100 million, and most people thought he was just joking. 12 years later, Liang asked everyone to take out the note to cash, and only 21 people were still kept. Liang also promised that when this note reaches 100 billion, it can be cashed out another 1 million, and the intestines of those who lost the note are repentant.

"Looking back, I think the company may have deliberately adopted a strategy in November to let everyone feel that they are going to take a salary cut, and they may not pay a year-end bonus, and there is a very low expectation. Then let everyone discuss what improvements can be made in this situation. Because Sany used to be a long-term and rapid development, when the business situation was relatively good, it was doing R&D and development, and it did not take much time to think. Now it's time to reflect on whether we can make products with low gross margins and so on. Zhang Ke, director of the human resources department of Sany, guessed, "* and then suddenly announced the salary plan to give you a surprise." ”

There is no shortage of precedents for "one-dollar annual salary" overseas, in order to bring the company out of the trough, Apple's Jobs, Chrysler's Lee? Icocca has taken "one dollar". But before making a decision, Liang Wengen did not refer to other people's examples, and used a crisis to interpret a story, which is his style.

Enclosure: They all once received an annual salary of "1 yuan"

Chrysler lost $204 million in 1978 and $1.1 billion in early 1979, with $4.8 billion in various debts. Plum? When he took office, Iacocca declared that before the company came back to life, he was paid $1 a year. In 1980, the company turned a profit, making a profit of $1.17 billion in 1982, paying off $1.3 billion in short-term debt, making a profit of $900 million in 1983 and repaying $1.5 billion in government loan guarantees seven years ahead of schedule. In 1984, it made a profit of $2.4 billion. Since then, "1 yuan annual salary" has been written into business textbooks, and has become synonymous with leading enterprises out of difficulties and creating brilliance.

Another classic case of "1 yuan annual salary" happened 10 years ago in 1998, the founder of Apple in the United States, Steve? Jobs returned to Apple as CEO, and it took only one year to lead Apple from a loss of $1 billion to a profit of $309 million, and also sacrificed the battle flag of "1 yuan annual salary".

Cisco CEO John? Chambers also received an annual salary of $1 for three years from 2001 to 2004. Chambers once again led Cisco out of the shadow of the dot-com bubble after sales plummeted 18 percent, its stock price fell 90 percent, and 8,500 jobs were laid off. At the time, it was commented that $1 could not buy a cup of coffee, but it bought the fighting spirit of Cisco's 34,000 employees around the world, and appeased the resentment of hundreds of thousands of Cisco shareholders.

In 2004, in order to challenge the then Internet hegemon Yahoo, Google CEO Eric ? Eric Schmidt, and the two founders and co-presidents, Larry Schmidt? Paige (Larry Page and Serge)? Sergey Brin's three executives demanded a reduction in annual salary to $1 in the second quarter of 2004, after which Google, led by the Big Three, overtook Yahoo to become the world's 5655th Internet company.