1978, 20-year-old Niu Gensheng entered a cattle farm. Five years later, Niu Gensheng entered Yili, started as a bottle washer, and was gradually promoted to workshop director. 1992, as vice president of Yili management. Starting from 1998, Niu Gensheng was dismissed by the board of directors of Yili. There is no reason to dismiss, and the only solution is to make the best of it.
At that time, Niu Gensheng was not so relaxed. He was very unhappy when he left Yili. This year, he was 43 years old and went to the talent market. People over forty are no longer considered here. Niu Gensheng people, as the name implies, are burly and have a loud voice. They are not the kind of people who fail easily.
Niu Gensheng is known as the "dairy geek" in dairy industry, and has more than ten years of dairy management experience. Together with him, there are several middle-level cadres in Yili. They got together and decided to start the dairy industry again. The most difficult talent problem for enterprises is the earliest and easiest problem to solve for Niu Gensheng.
Niu Gensheng said: "Maybe I like to send money to my subordinates when I am in Yili, and I have a good reputation." It turns out that when Niu Gensheng was in Yili Group, the highest annual salary reached 6.5438+0.08 million yuan, which I often share with you. Everyone thinks it's safe to give money to Niu Gensheng.
Sun Yubin, who started his business with Niu Gensheng and is now the general manager of Mengniu Ice Cream Company, said: "Cows always come out without pulling us, and always educate us to work hard in Yili. Why should we follow him under the conditions at that time? We have been learning a lot under his training, and we also think that he has the ability to do a good job again. "
At that time, several people had some original shares of Yili. They sold these shares and collected more than 6,543,800 yuan. They rented a one-room office in 200 yuan, where Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy Group was established, with Niu Gensheng as the chairman and president. However, a mere 6,543,800 yuan is obviously not enough.
Niu Gensheng's old men heard about this situation and invested in Mengniu in succession. Driven by these people, their relatives, friends and all business relationships began to invest money in Niu Gensheng. These people dare to give money to Niu Gensheng because they believe in his ability. In an interview with our reporter, we learned that many shareholders think that Niu Gensheng will be able to set up a big enterprise.
However, things are not always smooth sailing. At that time, Mengniu was in a very humble office, and some business partners and their friends, family members and business partners sent a lot of cash. Suddenly someone reported to the relevant state departments that there was an illegal fund-raising den here. As a result, the relevant departments found out that there were more than 7 million. I didn't expect so much money to be hidden in such a humble place, and I was going to treat it as illegal fund-raising. Mengniu has made many clarifications through various aspects, but it has been monitored for a long time.
This is a bad start, but it has just begun. Three months later, Mengniu moved from the rented office building to Lesheng Economic Park in Hohhot and Linger County. The park is surrounded by loess, only one piece of land is still idle, but there are several old trees with a total area of about 7 square kilometers and thousands of cubic meters of wood. Although the use value of this old tree is not great, it can't be cut down, otherwise it will be deforestation, and the problem is very serious. At that time, Mengniu had to cut down this forest in order to build a factory, and someone sued the State Forestry Administration, which caused a storm in the city.
Talking about this matter, Niu Gensheng is very grateful to the county magistrate of Helinger County. "At that time, the county magistrate said to us," Do it yourself. You arrest people, I go to jail, and you do a good job in the enterprise. You do a good job in the enterprise in one year, and I can come out in one year; You have done a good job in the enterprise for two years, and I will be out in two years. "The county magistrate wants us to do a good job in enterprises, promote local economic development, and plant more valuable trees." Today's Mengniu factory, four-season fruit trees can be seen everywhere. "See flowers in spring, leaves in summer and fruits in autumn." Niu Gensheng think this just live up to the trust of the county magistrate.
Niu Gensheng recalled the past and used the word "unbearable". He said: "When a company is new, every step is very difficult." 1999 1, Mengniu Dairy was formally incorporated with a registered capital of 1 10,000, which is basically the money from the sale of Yili shares by Niu Gensheng and his wife. "At that time, I rented a small bungalow as an office in a community in Hohhot. At that time, it was only 53 square meters and the monthly rent was more than 200 yuan. When Mengniu Dairy was founded, there were hundreds of dairy enterprises headed by Yili in Inner Mongolia alone. Yili Group, which is in Hohhot with Mengniu Dairy, has been listed for many years and has a complete production and sales system of frozen products, liquid milk and milk powder. The net profit of that year reached more than 80 million yuan.
When Mengniu Dairy 1999 started its business, there was no milk source, no factory building and no market, so it can be said that there was nothing. However, there are people in Niu Gensheng. Niu Gensheng's Mengniu Dairy banner is pulling heroes from all over the world back to China. After learning the news, the old men who were still working in Yili put down their bodies and began to defect in batches. There were hundreds of them, and they fought with him from scratch without any regrets. However, when the profit pattern of the dairy industry was basically formed, the living space of Mengniu Dairy was squeezed, and either explicit or implicit calculations came from all corners.
Some competitors began to hope to strangle Mengniu Dairy, a newborn baby, in the cradle. Mengniu Dairy has experienced incidents such as billboards being smashed and milk being spilled. In the face of a competitor's stab in the back, Niu Gensheng chose the strategy of retreating for progress.
At that time, Zheng Junhuai, president of Yili, had a deep understanding of Niu Gensheng's ability, so Yili suppressed Mengniu Dairy the most. But on any occasion, Niu Gensheng showed full respect for Yili, who had abandoned him mercilessly. Mengniu Dairy was very modest at first, and its advertising slogan was: Learn from Yili and strive to be a national enterprise. At that time, Mengniu Dairy was the second largest dairy brand in Inner Mongolia, and Yili was the first.
Niu Gensheng mentioned Yili on different occasions, and his words were always full of attachment to Yili and respect for the old leader Zheng Junhuai. Niu Gensheng's approach gradually won more sympathy and support. As for why he did it at that time, Niu Gensheng's analysis was "If you don't strike back, you won't retaliate. Only in this way can you survive and grow. " Facing the strategy that competitors want to kill, Niu Gensheng said frankly: "If you don't fight back, you can't kill yourself. As long as you fight back, the possibility of strangulation is particularly high.
Being beaten and scolded at that time was to avoid being beaten and scolded in the future, to survive and develop well, and finally to avoid being beaten and scolded. When you have struggled for several years and experienced the process of beating and cursing, you must learn to win without fighting. "
Weakness is always easy to be bullied. In order to seek opportunities for rapid growth, Niu Gensheng thought of borrowing capital experts. In June 2002, Morgan Stanley, CDH Investment and Win-Win Investment invested in Mengniu Dairy.
However, under the slogan of "eliminating the strong and helping the weak", Morgan Stanley and other three investment banks not only brought a total of 60 million US dollars of venture capital to Mengniu Dairy, but also put a yoke on Niu Gensheng: in the next three years, if the compound annual growth rate of earnings per share of Mengniu Dairy is less than 50%, the management of Mengniu Dairy headed by Niu Gensheng will pay 78 million shares of Mengniu Dairy to three foreign shareholders headed by Morgan Stanley, or pay the equivalent cash price; If the management can achieve the above objectives, the three foreign shareholders will donate 78 million shares of Mengniu Dairy to the management team headed by Niu Gensheng.
It is impossible for many people in the industry to get 50% a year in the manufacturing industry where strong enemies look around. This is a hopeless gamble. It seems that only others can enjoy the land captured by the cattle corps. However, with the strong enemy around, only the "fast fish" can survive, otherwise it can only be eaten by the "big fish". Niu Gensheng agreed to the terms of an international investment bank, and decided to cross the rubicon, pay a high salary, and fight the last battle.
With financial support, Mengniu Dairy seems to have inserted wings. Mengniu dairy industry has grown rapidly in the rain of bullets from competitors. From 200 1 to 2004, the sales revenue of Mengniu Dairy jumped from 724 million yuan,16.68 million yuan and 407/kloc-0.50 million yuan to 72 138 million yuan. "Mengniu Dairy Speed" has attracted the attention of business circles in China. CCTV's China Economic Person of the Year in 2003 wrote in Niu Gensheng's acceptance speech: "He is a cow, but he ran out of the speed of a rocket.
"Hundred Years Mengniu" is an ultimate goal of Niu Gensheng. A strong dairy industry leads to a strong agriculture, and a strong agriculture leads to a strong country. How can it last for a hundred years? Niu Laogen knows that he will definitely not live to be 100 years old, and all members of the team are not living to be 100 years old at present. So how can we make "Hundred Years Mengniu" more than just a slogan or a dream?