Southern Weekly: The Mystery of Sany Heavy Industry's Rapid Growth: The Grass and the Rich

Transferred from: Sina.com Source: Southern Weekly Reporter: He Dazhuo Chen Nan

In the mechanical engineering industry, where foreign enterprises and state-owned enterprises once dominated the country, the rise of Sany Heavy Industry is eye-catching, and its rampant competition style and its vertical and horizontal in the capital market have also caused many controversies. How did this new version of "Made in China" come about?

One day in early October 2011, in the canteen of Sany Group's headquarters in Changsha, Hunan Province, dozens of people led by 55-year-old chairman Liang Wengen sat down at a nearly 30-meter-long dining table. They usually eat three meals a day together, and those above the level of assistant to the president must participate, and those who are late will be fined 100 yuan.

Tang Xiuguo, president of Sany Group, recalled to Southern Weekend that he quipped that day: "Don't you know that Liang is always the richest man?" Why are these dishes still the same? A table of people burst into laughter. Liang Wengen became the richest man in Forbes and Hurun in 2011, and Sany Group also became the company with the largest number of wealthy people, with a total of seven people on the list, and Liang Wengen and other four entrepreneurial brothers are a lot.

At the dinner table, Liang Wengen told a joke of his own. He was born in a small mountain village in Maotang Town, Lianyuan City, Hunan Province, and occasionally went out by train with his father, who was a carpenter, as a child. At that time, the South Railway Station in Tianxin District, Changsha City, was not abandoned, and it was a train transfer station in Hunan Province*5655. Therefore, when he was studying at Central South University of Technology, Liang Wengen told his classmates: "All trains in China have to pass through Tianxin. ”

"They still laugh at me." Liang Wengen said.

is such a poor boy, at the age of 29, he resigned from his job in a state-owned enterprise and went to the sea to start a business, so angry that his father raised his burden. Today, he has a fortune of 70 billion yuan, and according to several media reports, he may "abandon business and enter politics".

Sany Heavy Industry (stock code: 600031), founded by Liang Wengen and others, has also become a listed company with a market value of 5661 in China's construction machinery industry. In July 2011, Sany Heavy Industry entered the Financial Times Global 500 list for the first time with a market value of 21.584 billion US dollars.

In the mechanical engineering industry, where foreign enterprises and state-owned enterprises once dominated the country, the rise of Sany Heavy Industry has attracted the attention of the industry, and its rampant competition style and its vertical and horizontal in the capital market have also caused many controversies. How did this new version of "Made in China" come about?

Liang Wengen, chairman of Sany Group, became the richest man on the Forbes and Hurun rich lists in 2011. (CFP/Figure)

　　Born in the grass　

The first phase of 30 excavators was completely wiped out, and it was finally sold as scrap iron.

Tang Xiuguo met Liang Wengen during a morning run, and Liang Wengen said to him: "If I were you, I would run to Washington in three years." "This is 1983, Hongyuan Machinery Factory of the Ministry of Ordnance Industry in Lianyuan City, Hunan, both of whom have just graduated from college and are assigned. Liang Wengen said this sentence to inspire Tang Xiuguo to be admitted to Harvard University as a graduate student, which was a dream of Liang Wengen, but he was 28 years old at the time and had a family, and Tang Xiuguo was only 21 years old at the time.

Although Liang did not know that Harvard University was in Boston and not Washington, this common-sense mistake did not diminish the stimulus to Tang Xiuguo. "I adore him." Tang Xiuguo still says now, "He has social experience, he has experienced the stage of making a living by making small handicrafts, and Yuan Jinhua has also been to the countryside for a few years, but Mao Zhongwu and I are only fresh graduates." ”

The four brothers who started their business together were made up in Hongyuan Machinery Factory. Among the four brothers, Liang Wengen is age*5655, and he is old and likes to talk about current affairs, and he looks like a reformer. And after starting a business, he became a person who can make stories; Tang Xiuguo wears a pair of big glasses and often smiles; Mao Zhongwu has a face of Chinese characters, and his speech is sharp, he has been a worker, and he has read overnight; Yuan Jinhua has a round face, keeps a separate head, goes to the countryside, and later graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology (Weibo).

Liang Wengen put forward the idea of resigning and starting a business, when New China's *5,656 "birth permits" for the private economy were born with the establishment of China Guangcai Industrial Co., Ltd. Although I haven't heard of the word "going to the sea", in front of his brothers, Liang Wengen put forward a more demagogic statement: "Be a test field and explore modern enterprise management." ”

In 1986, the four of them made up a principal of 60,000 yuan, and in the first few years of the business, they did not make much money such as selling sheep and welding chips, and finally relied on new materials to gain a firm foothold, and in 1993, Sany New Materials Factory was renamed Hunan Sany Group Co., Ltd. (Weibo), with an output value of more than 100 million.

Xiang Wenbo, who graduated from graduate school, joined Sany in 1991. Around 1994, affected by macroeconomic control, the new material industry was sluggish. After inspecting the market, Xiang Wenbo believes that the concrete machinery industry has a good prospect. So, Liang Wengen and Xiang Wenbo came out of Maotang Township with a capital of 3 million yuan and went to Changsha to establish Sany Heavy Industry.

"At the beginning, it had the meaning of 'fighting against the water, and if you don't succeed, you will become benevolent'." Tang Xiuguo recalled that at that time, everyone had to get the contract back and sell the product. At that time, the company had a small stall, and as long as it sold a few products a month, it began to make a profit.

However, before 2000, China's construction machinery market was still the world of imported products. International brands such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Liebherr occupy 90% of the market share. The remaining 10% will be divided by state-owned enterprises such as XCMG (Weibo), which ranks *5656 in China's construction machinery industry, and Zoomlion (9.46, -0.16, -1.66%). In front of them, Sany Heavy Industry's first product - concrete pump truck belongs to the level of "small fights". At that time, Sany Group's main source of profit was still the metal materials and welding materials business in its hometown.

Despite this, in 1997, after the product of *1 achieved profitability, Sany looked at the excavator market again. At that time, it was still a risky decision to make this "offensive". Prior to this, South Korea's Daewoo, Hyundai, and German Atlas brands have poured into the Chinese excavator market, and local brands have all been wiped out.

Trinity's "lunge and punch" gene has flares up again. "We can do a pump truck for more than 3 million yuan, how can an excavator of less than 1 million yuan not be able to do it?!" Tang Xiuguo from 1998, 4 consecutive years in various company meetings to discuss the manufacture of excavators, in addition to the hydraulic system, cab to rely on imports, the key problem is in the hydraulic cylinder, Japan KYB exported to China how many cylinders, determines how many excavators China can produce.

In March 2002, Liang Wengen personally took charge of the production of *5656 excavators. The hydraulic system is imported from Komatsu Japan, the engine is purchased from Germany, and the cylinder is produced by Sany itself. A set of equipment is put together, and the result is that it does not work at all. The first phase of 30 excavators was completely wiped out, and it was finally sold as scrap iron.

The core components of the excavator still need to be imported, and after the KYB cylinders were reused, the supply of Komatsu's hydraulic system was problematic again. From 2002 to 2006, the excavator business has always been a bone that Sany gritted its teeth and wanted to gnaw on.

Although the "slamming and slamming" allowed Sany to break into the excavator market, it suffered heavy losses in the automobile business. Sany Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., established in July 2002, originally included heavy trucks, buses,Truck craneschassis, etc. However, one of the buses has been discontinued because of the "lack of Sany advantage".

A person familiar with the construction machinery industry told a reporter from Southern Weekend: "That time, Sany probably lost more than 100 million. ”

However, he felt that Sany's style was like that. "They attach great importance to the development of the market, and even if they fail, they are willing to pay again and again, and then launch new products."

　　Stealing from Japan

German products can be used for 4 years, ours can be used for 3 years, but their machines are broken and the maintenance can't keep up, Sany can provide maintenance services quickly. That's innovation.

In the second half of 2004, after the government tightened the monetary system and controlled the scale of infrastructure, Sany Heavy Industry ran into trouble.

"We put some development plans on hold at that time. Concerns about internal and external forms make us worry about the day the project is put into production, which is the day it is shut down. Tang Xiuguo said that at that time, in order to improve the efficiency of the company's decision-making and strengthen horizontal communication between departments, Sany Heavy Industry also held a breakfast meeting at 7:30 in the morning and became a written system.

Several of the founders picked up books they had read 20 years ago. "I watched Drucker's The Effective Manager back in 1985. At that time, it was still the Taiwanese version, called "Effective Manager", which was blue and not as beautiful as today's packaging, which was made by Mr. Liang. Tang Xiuguo's memories of discussing reading with the management are very clear.

Drucker's promotion of marketing and innovation has since become a common topic of conversation among Trinity's leadership. Tang Xiuguo, who is mainly engaged in manufacturing, feels that if he wants to understand this, he has to go to a Japanese company to steal teachers.

The Japanese supplier that once made Sany love and hate, Tang Xiuguo basically visited. Komatsu, Shengang, Isuzu, Kawasaki, and KYB looked all the way, and he found that Sany's manufacturing level was very average, because Sany's discrete skill manufacturing - scattered product types, many customer requirements, difficult to control skills, etc., could not be replaced by large-scale assembly lines.

The MIT team that specializes in the Toyota model was once invited to the factory by Sany. From Toyota's lean thinking, its business ideas to Sany's future production methods, after listening to each class, Sany's leaders have to admit that the past development is a little too "extensive".

"To what extent? I think that anyway, as long as the growth is good and the profitability is strong. In order to achieve this goal, we build no house, we fight for land without space, we buy no equipment, and we recruit no one. Tang Xiuguo said.

At that time, Liang Wengen proposed "quality changes the world", and also set up a military order for Sany: technological innovation, service innovation, and quality excellence.

"The peculiarity of this industry is that products are prone to breakage. If we can ensure that the quality is not much worse than that of German goods, and then make up for it in service, we may choose Sany's products. He Zhenlin, vice president of Sany Heavy Industry, said that for example, German products can be used for 4 years, and ours can be used for 3 years, but their machines are broken and maintenance can not keep up, and Sany can quickly provide maintenance services. That's innovation.

This law spreads throughout China's construction machinery industry, making the import substitution phenomenon of the industry more and more obvious in recent years. At the end of 2010, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Sunward Intelligent (11.78, -0.16, -1.34%) and other enterprises accounted for 80% of the national concrete trailer pump market, and the domestic market share of hydraulic static pile drivers and concrete pump trucks was 70%.

　　No hesitation in rewards

When the output value of Sany Group exceeds 10 billion, you can receive a bonus of 100,000 yuan with a brand; When the output value exceeds 100 billion, you can receive 1 million.

"Yuan Jinhua went to Brazil to start a business." Xiang Wenbo told Southern Weekend. Tang Xiuguo also lamented that people in their 50s are still uprooted, but I want to tell him to stay there and watch the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and come back.

This is basically the division of labor of the entrepreneurial team of Sany Group. "It's like a joke." Tang Xiuguo said, "I told Mr. Liang, how about I take charge of this tomorrow?" Okay, then you can do it. ”

In Sany Group, Liang Wengen is the "statutory" chairman; Tang Xiuguo is the president of Sany Group, responsible for the management of the group; Xiang Wenbo is the president of Sany Heavy Industry, a listed company, and is called "Sany Strategy * 5656 people" by Liang Wengen; Mao Zhongwu is based in Beijing, in charge of Sany Electric, and is also the chairman of the board of directors of Sany International, an H-share listed company; Jinhua Yuan currently heads Sany Brazil.

In the Sany Group, Liang Wengen and Xiang Wenbo are the two who show their faces the most, and Liang Wengen also encouraged Tang Xiuguo to participate in more social activities, but he refused, saying: "I can sometimes drive a fast train now, and people outside don't know me." ”

As the chairman of the board of directors of Sany International, Mao Zhongwu simply did not attend the shareholders' meeting, and he asked rhetorically: "We people are done with some practical work, why are we going to do that?" "The Chairman's Arrangement" made Mao Zhongwu the chairman of the board of directors, he was born in sales, ran through the market, asked for debts, spoke and did things meticulously, and had a great appetite for international investors.

No matter what they talk about now, these people are called "arranged by Mr. Liang". In fact, according to the original intention of the business, it was not originally designed this way, and the brothers had already planned to split up.

At that time, most of the more famous private enterprises were in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so that the brothers did not understand a few points is that these enterprises have been separated after the * has been done, so everyone feels that long-term cooperation is a test.

"What if the cooperation is not good? It's better to do a booth by one person, and everyone will hold each other's shares in the future, and there will be only cooperation and no competition. Tang Xiuguo recalled. So, several people discussed, and whoever did the next enterprise would be controlled by whom.

This statement is enough to explain why the shares of the four entrepreneurs of Sany Materials Company, located in Maotang Township, Lianyuan City, Hunan Province, are basically the same, accounting for more than 20% each. When it came to Sany Heavy Industry, Liang Wengen accounted for almost all the shares. "We are independent, equal, and we all work together." Tang Xiuguo said. Although they later gave up the opportunity to start a new business on their own and came to Changsha from Lianyuan one by one, they still maintained the temperament of independence and equality between each other.

What can make the other three entrepreneurs not abandon is Liang Wengen's "big brother style" in the internal incentive of the enterprise.

At the groundbreaking ceremony of Sany Heavy Industry, Liang Wengen was full of spirits, and gave a bronze medal to each of the dozens of employees who participated in the groundbreaking, and told them: "Keep it well, there will be a good return in the future." ”

"The brand is not worth much, it is only about ten yuan a piece, and there is a piece of paper with the name of the person written on it, which proves that he participated in the groundbreaking ceremony." Tang Xiuguo described. The brand is issued to the individual, and the paper is left at the bottom of the company. When the output value of Sany Group exceeds 10 billion, you can receive a bonus of 100,000 yuan with a brand; When the output value exceeds 100 billion, you can receive 1 million.

Many people didn't take Liang Wengen's words seriously, and they couldn't find the brand when they threw it away, and when Sany cashed in the reward of 100,000 yuan, some couples quarreled because they lost the brand. "Next year, Sany will be 100 billion, 1 million per person." Tang Xiuguo sneered, "Isn't it more noisy." ”

Tang Xiuguo also has such a bronze medal, when Sany Heavy Industry laid the foundation, he and Yuan Jinhua and Mao Zhongwu still stayed in Lianyuan Township Sany New Material Factory, and the bronze medals were later reissued. He liked what Liang Wengen did, but he said, "I still have a good thing. ”

This "good thing" is a pen. On February 28, 2008, the senior management of Sany Group signed a performance agreement with an output value of more than 30 billion yuan. Tang Xiuguo said: "I want it, I will give 100,000." Mao Zhongwu on the side said: "I will give one hundred thousand and one hundred." Liang Wengen glared at Mao Zhongwu and said, "Don't make trouble, if you want to come out, you can do more." ”

* In the end, Tang Xiuguo took a shot of this pen for 100,000 yuan, and Liang Wengen said: "If our output value exceeds 30 billion in any year, I will redeem this pen for 3 million." The employees below exploded, and Liang Wengen continued: "If the company can achieve 100 billion, I will redeem 10 million." Now that the pen is locked in Tang Xiuguo's safe, he rejected Liang Wengen's bid of 3 million this year, and plans to sell it for 10 million next year.

　　Public enemy of the industry?

In the expansion of infrastructure, real estate and other construction projects for ten consecutive years, especially in the 4 trillion economic stimulus plan, 3.2 trillion yuan is related to engineering construction, giving the industry a fertile ground for cultivating the richest man.

Although Sany Heavy Industry is brave and enterprising in the market, it has a poor reputation in the industry. Although this is somewhat inferior to peers, it is also related to the way Sany Heavy Industry acts. Carlyle's acquisition of XCMG is a case in point.

Sany Heavy Industry's main business income in 2004 was only 2.656 billion yuan, even if the entire industry is still more demand than supply, but in order to achieve the 2010 sales of 30 billion yuan set at that time, Sany must quickly increase production capacity. In addition to the establishment of industrial parks in Shanghai, Kunshan and other places, direct mergers and acquisitions of enterprises have also become one of Sany's necessary measures.

In order to achieve this goal, Liang Wengen and Xiang Wenbo, who had visited Changsha together 10 years ago, went out again. This time, they went to Jiamusi and went to Shenyang Machine Tool (9.19, -0.21, -2.23%) factory, and the industry boss XCMG was also on Liang Wengen's inspection list. Around 2002, when Liang Wengen went to XCMG to visit, he could only be a "little brother" in front of Wang Min, chairman of XCMG Group, the industry boss.

But in June 2006, at the juncture of Carlyle's acquisition of XCMG Machinery waiting for the approval of the management, Xiang Wenbo successively published on his blog "The Leading Power of Strategic Industry Development is National Sovereignty" and "300 Million US Dollars, Can Sany Acquire XCMG?" "Carlyle's acquisition of XCMG is an illegal transaction" and other articles, describing Carlyle's acquisition of XCMG Machinery as "foreign capital endangers the security of national industries".

"We see XCMG's acquisition by Carlyle as an opportunity for development, and what Chinese brands lacked at that time was capital and technology, and from this point of view, we support XCMG." Sun Changjun, vice president and general counsel of Zoomlion, denied a "national hero argument" that has long been a household name.

Although it successfully blocked Carlyle's acquisition of XCMG, Sany's move also made it difficult for industry peers to accept. The Shenyang Machine Tool Factory on Sany One did not agree with Sany Holdings, and the merger and acquisition were not completed. Since then, the establishment of its own industrial park has become the first way of expansion of Sany Development.

Another Sany-related scandal occurred in April 2011. A whistleblower publicly uploaded 19 internal documents of Sany Heavy Industry and its Xinjiang branch suspected of offering bribes of 5.02 million yuan in the name of "business expenses" and "Spring Festival public relations expenses" to the Internet, causing an uproar, and Liang Zaizhong, who was in charge of the Xinjiang branch, had to be urgently withdrawn from the position of general manager.

Liang Zaizhong is the son of Liang Wengen, formerly known as Liang Zhizhong. "Liang Zaizhong was in charge of the Xinjiang company at the time, and this was planted for him." Tang Xiuguo said. Afterwards, the Hunan provincial government also issued a red-headed document clarifying that it was a competitor who framed it, but it had to ask several founders to step up education on the "successor".

Liang Wengen's "political economy" is a must-talk content, he has long proposed in the Sany Group that cadres must first submit an application for joining the party to be promoted, and he himself was elected as a representative of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2007, becoming the first private entrepreneur in Hunan to become a party representative. This should also be the line followed by the "right" successor.

Liang Zaizhong likes cars, and he really modified one, which is very similar to Tang Xiuguo's interest. But Liang Wengen persuaded his son not to drive, citing the example of Hangzhou's rich second-generation drag racing car hitting and killing passers-by, and Liang Zaizhong really didn't drive.

Now in addition to Mao Zhongwu's children who are still in junior high school, the children of the other four entrepreneurs have gathered in Trinity. In the summer of 2006, Liang Zaizhong graduated from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom with a major in computer management, and joined Sany Group, successively serving as workshop dispatcher, deputy general manager of the financial department and secretary of the Youth League branch, step by step into the role of successor.

Liang Zaizhong is preparing to go abroad to study for a master's degree and is reviewing. But no matter where he studied, the experience of sitting on the board of directors at the age of 16 was the most profound education for him.

In fact, Liang Zaizhong was not the only observer on the board of directors of Sany Group, and several founders encouraged their children to audit. "The path that Mr. Liang's son will take is basically the path that my son will take in the future." Tang Xiuguo said. His son and Xiang Wenbo's son have both graduated from college and come to Sany, and Yuan Jinhua's son also arrived at Trinity after being demobilized from the army.

One of the challenges these successors will face in the future is how to maintain the current growth rate of Sany Heavy Industry. A person in the mechanical engineering industry told Southern Weekend, "20 years ago, the richest man* would not have appeared in this industry. He believes that the expansion of infrastructure, real estate and other construction projects for ten consecutive years, especially the 4 trillion economic stimulus plan, 3.2 trillion is related to engineering construction, giving the industry a fertile ground for cultivating the richest man.

But when the 4 trillion effect slowly dissipates, can Sany Heavy Industry still be as prosperous as it is now?