The gears of fate pushed Wu Rongzhao in front of the camera and became an "Internet celebrity" entrepreneur.
Editor Mina
Headshot photography Shi Xiaobing
It was difficult for Wu Rongzhao to let go of himself in front of the camera. "I get very nervous when I see the camera." Wu Rongzhao, chairman of Hongxing Erke, said in an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneur".
For such a person who was afraid of the camera, the gears of fate pushed him in front of the camera and became an "Internet celebrity" entrepreneur.
On the day Hongxing Erke became a hot search topic, Wu Rongzhao was attending a meeting of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in Inner Mongolia. He spoke as a representative, and the theme of his speech was about "ideals and beliefs." The night after the meeting, he flew directly back to Xiamen. It wasn't until the next day that he saw the hot search and discovered that Hongxing Erke was popular.
At 12 o'clock in the evening on July 23, 2021, Wu Rongzhao, who was about to fall asleep, suddenly received a call from an employee, saying that many live broadcast netizens wanted to see the boss. After hearing about this, he immediately stood up and rode from his home 3 kilometers away to the company's live broadcast room. "Yes, I still have to go, because they said there are many people waiting online."
It was almost 1 a.m. before he hurried to the live broadcast room. That night, Hongxing Erke's live broadcast room had more than 7.5 million viewers, and sales increased by more than 52 times year-on-year. Looking at the growing sales data in the background, Wu Rongzhao began to "suggest everyone to consume rationally."
But he does not completely refuse the camera. As he said himself, if it were not requested by users, he would not take the initiative to come to the stage. This is due to his personality. He appears in the live broadcast room because he wants to do his own thing well and play his role well. This is the responsibility of an entrepreneur.
On July 27, the fourth day after the hot search, Hongxing Erke’s Douyin, Kuaishou and Tmall official flagship stores all suspended live broadcasts. "Our IT system has been upgraded. In fact, it was just a small bug." The real reason for stopping the broadcast was that he did not want users to wait too long. For the sake of user experience, he also wanted to better present the product to users. He believes, "These problems need to be dealt with first."
Wu Rongzhao was surprised and flattered that Hongxing Erke became popular. But after calming down, he felt a little uneasy and even started to feel anxious.
The outside world has put forward many suggestions to Hongxing Erke. For example, users hope that products and designs can be improved quickly, which makes him particularly want to do things well. "If we cannot lead the team and make great progress in these aspects in a short period of time," he is worried that he will live up to the expectations of tens of thousands of netizens for Hongxing Erke. To this day, he still feels anxious about it.
Also becoming popular is Wu Rongzhao himself. Today, on Weibo, Wu Rongzhao has a personal super chat, with more than 730,000 fans, and each Weibo post has hundreds of likes and retweets, making him a veritable "Internet celebrity". But he himself said that he didn’t understand Chaoshu, rarely managed Weibo, and never thought of himself as an Internet celebrity. “My first role is still an entrepreneur.”
As the months have passed, the public’s enthusiasm for Hongxing Erke has gradually returned to normal, and the current sales of Hongxing Erke have remained stable. But compared to before it became popular, "it has increased somewhat."
Wu Rongzhao’s reaction to the ups and downs experienced in just a few months was flat: “We still have to be normal and return to our original aspirations.”
In the past period of time, Wu Rongzhao and his team have spent a long time Looking back over time, every opinion and suggestion put forward by users and fans seems to have opened up a new world for him. Many real user perspectives have touched him greatly.
"Sometimes after working in an industry for a long time, you will unconsciously think about products from your own point of view." Now he found that whether it is making brands, products, or services, You must have a user perspective and think about problems from a user perspective.
Since 2019, Erke has been targeting the vertical sports field of running shoes. This is also an area that Wu Rongzhao wants to stick to for a long time.
At present, it has built a series of running shoe product matrix. In 2021, in order to meet user needs, he asked all team members of the company to run.
Wu Rongzhao also often runs at night. His goal this year is to run six to seven hundred kilometers. A little girl in the team ran more than 3,000 kilometers in 2021. At this year’s annual meeting, she set a flag in public that she would run 5,400 kilometers in 2022. "After we run, the products we make are the real products based on user thinking."
Changes have brought progress to the team. Only when new products are presented in front of them, Wu Rongzhao feels his anxiety Slowly releasing it.
Looking back on the more than 20 years of Hongxing Erke's entrepreneurship, there have been constant ups and downs, but Wu Rongzhao never dared to relax for a moment. It suffered heavy losses due to listings, delistings, store closures, mistakes in transformation, and heavy losses due to floods and fires. The result is that in 2008, Hongxing Erke’s revenue was 2.889 billion yuan, and in 2020, Hongxing Erke’s revenue was 2.843 billion yuan. This means that Hongxing Erke’s revenue growth has stagnated over the past decade or so.
In this regard, Wu Rongzhao summed up the past in a few words: "I stepped on some pitfalls, and happened to encounter some bad luck." He admitted that he would be uncomfortable and desperate at the time, but there was no way out. , as an entrepreneur, there is no way to give up on the entire team. "So many years of work and so many people's hard work, should we just throw it away?"
Recalling that after graduating from college, he went to Australia to study and completed a two-year course in only 15 months. At that time, Wu Rongzhao was in high spirits and thought about going home to make shoes. When he graduated, he thought, “I can finally start doing this.” Wu Rongzhao said that he had no second choice in life except making shoes. “Most entrepreneurs are like this, and they go all the way. ”
Wu Rongzhao is tall, lean, and handsome. He wears a pair of rimless gold glasses and has a bookish air. When he speaks, he always speaks softly and smiles. It is difficult for you to connect the identity of the chairman with him.
He also speaks very slowly and likes to repeat a sentence twice, such as "No, no", "It's okay, it's okay". He also likes to watch literary movies, especially award-winning movies that can be watched over and over again. For example, "The Pursuit of Happyness" and the domestic film "Alive" starring Ge You.
"I prefer movies with a slow pace and a strong sense of immersion." He also likes the literary star Tang Wei, and likes her starring role in "Beijing Meets Seattle". "It's very interesting. "The most important thing is to be real. After the performance, it feels very real. I like that feeling." His most intense hobby is probably running.
With such a "slow" character, he will inevitably make the outside world feel that he is very Buddhist, and will also blame Hongxing Erke's current situation of falling behind. But he immediately corrected this statement, "Buddhists will not come out to start a business." He said that although the goal of becoming a world-leading sports brand is far away, he particularly wants to achieve it.
Wu Rongzhao considers himself an introvert, so he rarely participates in negotiations. He's better at sitting around and working on stuff, and he's loved working on products since he was a kid.
When he was 13 years old, the small workshop where his father and relatives made shoes was the place where Wu Rongzhao spent most time after school. The elders used scissors and hammers to make every step of the shoes by hand. This kind of slowly carving work step by step impressed him deeply. Influenced by this environment, he also fell in love with making shoes. And "in those days, being able to wear a pair of better shoes and go out was a matter of pride." Under the influence of this craftsman atmosphere and concept, Wu Rongzhao's idea of ????making shoes gradually took root in his heart.
Until now, Wu Rongzhao is most focused on making shoes, and he has the strictest requirements for products. As long as there is a small flaw in the production process or supply chain, the entire product will be rejected. Product rejection happens almost every day within Hongxing Erke.
He believes that his management style is neither iron-fisted nor easy-going. Instead, after setting the goal, everyone will complete the goal together, but will strictly handle the more critical matters.
Therefore, the outside world always feels that this company is very Buddhist and not wolf-like enough.
What is the real Wu Rongzhao like at work? When he is with the team, colleagues report that he often emphasizes discussing matters as they arise. "This way things will be simple." And his speech was also short and concise, without much desire for expression.
During the interview, when the question touched on his personal issues, he would directly refuse, "Let's not talk anymore." But Wu Rongzhao was also very candid. The temperament of a brand has a lot to do with the personality of the founder. Big relationship. When asked whether Hongxing Erke's image to the outside world has something to do with his personality, he said: "It should be possible. Maybe everyone sees it at this level. But we have our own business philosophy, which is to be down-to-earth. His talent is extraordinary."
Wu Rongzhao's self-evaluation of his entrepreneurial journey in the past two decades is "unsuccessful." But Hongxing Erke has been able to persist until now. He believes that two points are very important: one is to do things down-to-earth in order to achieve one's goals; the other is to concentrate on doing one thing. "Focusing on things can also affect the team." .
In May 2007, Wu Rongzhao took over the CEO position from his brother Wu Rongguang. In the same year, Hongxing Erke began to rapidly expand its channels, and the number of offline stores once increased to more than 7,000. This radical expansion behavior caused them to fail to control the quality of their channels. By 2008, many stores suffered losses. Although Hongxing Erke continued to adjust internally from 2009 to 2010, Hongxing Erke's 2010 financial report showed that its losses were as high as 1.6 billion yuan, a 1,000% drop from the same period.
The nightmare started from this moment. In addition to huge losses, Hongxing Erke experienced financial difficulties in 2010 and was forced to suspend trading for 17 months. In August 2012, Wu Rongzhao temporarily left the position of CEO, and the vacated position was temporarily replaced by his brother Wu Rongguang.
Today, Wu Rongzhao is unwilling to disclose more details about this experience. But he also said frankly that he must have paid the tuition, but at least he was not beaten down. "As long as the lesson is not beaten down, it is positive."
How cautious and conservative would Wu Rongzhao be today? According to people around him, he is now very meticulous in doing things and must see the entire process before making a decision on anything. He even proposed the "Three Present Principles", namely the scene, the present object, and reality. There are many things that he needs to see in person, arrive at the scene, and see with his own eyes. "Everything is done very carefully, and many things are done personally." said an employee of Hongxing Erke.
Due to the various ups and downs the company has experienced, Hongxing Erke has been under certain financial pressure for a long time and cannot afford the operating costs of some stores. Therefore, stores in first- and second-tier cities are absent. status, especially in core business districts and shopping malls in first-tier cities. The cost of these places cannot be afforded by Hongxing Erke. Wu Rongzhao said, "There is no way to open a store here, so we have lost many users."
But becoming popular is an opportunity. After becoming popular due to donations, in July and August 2021, many users in Beijing or Shanghai wanted to buy Hongxing Erke shoes. As a result, many users found after navigation that these Hongxing Erke stores were in the suburbs or in very remote places. This incident greatly touched Wu Rongzhao. He felt that it was necessary to have a place where he could communicate with users in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
After going through ups and downs, Wu Rongzhao made a comeback. Although he is anxious because of the fear of letting down netizens, it is still unknown whether he can lead the popular star Erke to practice his internal skills, keep up with the changes in young people's sports trends, and realize his wishes.
#红星尔克#