Dong Mingzhu, Deputy To The National People'S Congress And Chairman Of Gree Electric Appliances: China Wants To Become The World R & D Center Of Manufacturing Industry

Ye Bihua, reporting group of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress of Nanfang finance and economics group in Zhuhai

Opening remarks

In 2021, it has become the consensus of the current society, especially the industrial circles in the economic field, to break through in innovation, develop in innovation, and become a global power in innovation.

The media has an unshirkable responsibility in the tide of social innovation.

Innovation is essentially a change. This change in the past may be more reflected in the reference to different fields by analogy, and the future change may be more of a brand-new and refreshing change. Facing the future, strengthening communication is bound to be another incremental content brought about by innovation activities.

Innovation is a systematic project. As the main body of innovation, enterprises not only need the government to create a fair market environment and provide appropriate policy support for innovation, but also need the collaborative promotion of industrial clusters, upstream and downstream including basic fields, and more importantly, the whole society needs to form an atmosphere of encouraging innovation, tolerating failure, and embracing innovation and innovation.

Innovation is an inevitable result of ideas and education. It is true that never being satisfied is a good quality of a nation, but if there is no methodology and no sorting out of human's knowledge wealth in the past, innovation may be only "ambitious and talented".

Under such a background, our newspaper has launched a long planned series of reports on "the road to greatness: Top 100 big country innovation", striving to comprehensively, multi angle and in-depth introduce the innovation and exploration of many domestic industries in different fields and at different stages, so as to achieve the purpose of communication, exchange and promotion of common understanding.

"China wants to become the world R & D center of manufacturing industry" is the first article in this series, and more wonderful reports will be presented to readers.

2021 is the first year of the 14th five year plan, and also an important year to enter the new world pattern change. Under the special background of great uncertainty in many external factors, including the trend of the epidemic situation, the international situation and Sino US relations, innovation is still the biggest driving force for the high-quality development of China's manufacturing industry.

"Over the years of reform and opening up, our country has made a lot of achievements, and has become the second largest economy in the world. People's lives have undergone great changes. I think in this context, we need to pay more attention to the short board rather than the long board. What are our short boards? It is the ability to master core technology independently. " Recently, Dong Mingzhu, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Gree Electric (000651. SZ), said in an interview with the 21st century economic report that there will always be challenges, but innovation will never stop.

During the eight years when Dong Mingzhu officially took the helm, Gree's income increased from RMB 10084 billion in 2012 to RMB 1981.53 billion in 2019, and its net profit also increased from RMB 7.378 billion to RMB 24.697 billion, totaling RMB 110 billion of state tax, far ahead of the total tax amount of 20 years. Behind the remarkable achievements is closely related to Gree's investment in R & D and its adherence to independent innovation in recent years.

According to Dong Mingzhu, this year Gree Electric will further speed up the ability to master the core technology, accelerate the transformation of innovation achievements, and take talent training as the top priority, focus on scientific and technological innovation, increase the research on key core technologies of intelligent equipment and CNC machine tools, as well as more in-depth Research on key components of electronic products such as motors and capacitors.

"The pattern has been established, the layout has also been established, and the direction is clear. In fact, what we have to think about is how to do it well and succeed in a down-to-earth way. This is what we should take seriously." Dong Mingzhu said.

In Dong Mingzhu's opinion, independent innovation finally settled on the problem of human beings, and the most important thing for innovation is to solve the talent problem. Photo by Gan Jun

The most important thing of innovation is to solve the problem of talents

Gree really decided to develop its own technology, strictly speaking, after the 18th CPC National Congress. "Although we also talk about our own innovation, the essence is mainly imitation. It is like changing cloth shoes to leather shoes, which may be regarded as an innovation, but I don't think it's core innovation. Core innovation is subversive." In Dong Mingzhu's opinion, independent innovation finally settled on the human problem, and the most important thing for innovation is to solve the talent problem.

In the face of innovation, some enterprises choose to invest and cultivate talents by themselves, while some enterprises quickly acquire technology accumulation and precipitation in a certain field through merger and acquisition. Dong Mingzhu believes that there is no right or wrong way to distinguish between the two ways, but only choose different ones.

In her opinion, the development of enterprises is diversified, and there is no fixed mode, because everyone has different strategies and ideas, so we can't impose our own strategy on others, and others can't impose strategy on me. However, merger has always been the way that Dong Mingzhu does not advocate, because it may come soon, but it takes time to build up its own corporate culture.

"Innovation must have a good culture and create an innovation platform. Culture determines the inheritance of your independent innovation." Under this logic, Dong Mingzhu is more willing to cultivate talents on his own. Even though he may not be able to do so today, he can make achievements if he insists on training.

For example, Gree didn't have core technology when it started to do air conditioning, but now Gree has become the leading brand in the air conditioning market. Its technology is ahead of the industry and has created numerous technologies that were not available before. "This has increased our self-confidence." Dong Mingzhu said.

According to the list of invention patents authorized in China in 2019 issued by the State Intellectual Property Office, Gree Electric Appliance ranks the sixth in China with 1739 invention patents, and the first in the home appliance industry. So far, Gree has been in the top 10 of the national intellectual property list for four consecutive years, ranking first in the household appliance industry. Up to now, Gree has applied for 63956 patents, including 31500 invention patents and 2099 international patents.

This is not achieved overnight, but the efforts of Gree researchers over the years. It is understood that at present, Gree has a total of 90000 employees, including 14000 scientific and technological R & D personnel and 36000 skilled talents.

Gree holds a science and Technology Innovation Conference every year to improve the innovation enthusiasm of scientific research personnel. In May 2019, Gree will reward employees and project teams who have made outstanding achievements in scientific and technological innovation with a bonus of 50 million yuan. The maximum bonus for a single project is up to 1.2 million yuan.

"We do enterprises, we must think about how to provide a good environment for employees, so that they can put their energy into work." Dong Mingzhu revealed that Gree will soon launch 3700 houses this year, starting with the implementation of "one suite for one person" from scientific and technological personnel.

Dong Mingzhu's R & D strength and young talents are the most touching points of Dong Mingzhu in the past year. When the epidemic just broke out and everyone went home in isolation, Gree did not give up scientific and technological innovation because of the epidemic. On the premise of doing a good job of protection, during the Spring Festival last year, a group of R & D personnel did not have a rest, and spent two months developing the "Hunter" air purifier to kill the new coronavirus, so as to assist the front-line medical staff in the work of anti epidemic and epidemic prevention.

In the field of intelligent equipment, Gree also takes the road of independent innovation and cultivates talents independently. "The most important thing in this process is investment, capital investment and time investment. We can't achieve a great cause overnight, but we need a precipitation process. Enterprises should take a long-term perspective, dare to pay time and money costs, give young people time to exercise, and build platforms. This is a virtuous circle. " Dong Mingzhu believes that a good enterprise must be carried on from generation to generation, while a powerful enterprise is to contribute to the society, not to take.

Creating a fair environment to encourage innovation

Looking back on the development of gree in the past eight years, Dong Mingzhu believes that its biggest growth is to challenge itself. "Gree Electric now insists on independent research and development and its own technology. It has developed from an enterprise in the field of consumer goods to an enterprise that can independently develop intelligent equipment at the same time."

According to its introduction, Gree has achieved initial results in the field of industrial equipment, and has the technical ability to independently develop various kinds of CNC machine tools. In the past eight years, Gree has gone from never understanding to understanding, from groping to today, creating "international leading" technology. For this achievement, Dong Mingzhu believes that it comes from firm belief.

"What Gree has been sticking to for so many years is that all the high-tech R & D teams are in China. Maybe we will go a little slower. But I believe that this kind of precipitation and accumulation can promote China to become the R & D center of the world one day." Dong Mingzhu hopes that he can create his own international talents and gradually realize it with determination, so as to truly build China into the world's R & D center.

It also means that China's manufacturing industry may need more determination. "In fact, this is a self challenge. Don't be eager for quick success and instant benefits. You should calm down and be able to keep loneliness." Dong Mingzhu is looking forward to it. In the next few years, Zhuhai headquarters will basically be a research and development center, focusing on research and innovation in an all-round way.

In fact, in the past year, Gree has also created many products needed by users under the epidemic situation, such as "Hunter" air purifier, disinfectant manufacturing machine, eye protection mask, mask, etc. In her opinion, technological innovation can also bring people a healthier and better life. But as a manufacturing enterprise, if the products produced are harmful to consumers, it is ultimately unhealthy. Therefore, Dong Mingzhu will continue to suggest that the state should crack down on inferior products in the market.

She believes that there are two important reasons why many people worship foreign countries. First, there are indeed some manufacturing industries in China that do not respect people, cut corners and focus on immediate interests, leading to more and more distrust, which is a great harm to Chinese brands. "This is also why I have been shouting for so many years that the state must introduce policies, not to support enterprises, but to crack down on enterprises that cut corners. The more these enterprises develop, the more harm they will do to society."

On the other hand, the government should give more consideration to science and technology-based enterprises, and give support to enterprises with core technology and enterprises with firm innovation in accordance with national standards. In Dong Mingzhu's view, in fact, a good enterprise does not need money from the state, but needs a fair market and a fair environment.

This year, we will continue to reform our channels and deepen our internationalization strategy

Affected by the epidemic situation, in the first three quarters of last year, Gree Electric recorded a revenue of 125.889.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.8%; and a net profit of 13.698.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 38.06%. In the first quarter of the outbreak, Gree's sales in February were almost zero due to the closure of the community and the closure of offline stores.

In order to lead 1 million dealers to accelerate the transformation, Dong Mingzhu began to try to carry goods by live broadcast in April last year. From the initial unsatisfactory to the later, he became more and more brave in the war. In 2020, he held a total of 13 live broadcasts, with a total sales volume of 47.6 billion yuan.

As for the issue of channel reform, Dong Mingzhu thinks that "some achievements have been made initially, and some experience has been found out". She said frankly, because Gree now has more than a million dealers, if simply switch to online, these people may be hurt, "he has to face the choice of career, and the online mode is another mode, its marketing and some ways of doing things are very different from offline."

"So I'm thinking about how to create a brand new marketing model so that everyone doesn't lose their jobs and at the same time further improve their service level." Dong Mingzhu told the 21st century economic report that Gree will continue to do live broadcasting this year and continue to carry out online and offline reform.

In her opinion, the live tour was originally for marketing, but later it has become a culture. "After I arrived in Ganzhou, I thought that the real way to get rid of poverty is to be able to generate blood, not just blood transfusion." Dong Mingzhu hopes that the live broadcast can be made into a platform for cultural communication. Besides bringing goods, more people can understand the culture and characteristics of different places in China, so as to revitalize the local resources and revitalize the rural economy.

The second plan of Gree this year is to promote the internationalization strategy. Dong Mingzhu believes that in the development process of the "14th five year plan", as China's manufacturing industry, how to go to the world is also a problem that needs to be considered at present. She firmly believes that to go to the world, we must launch our own brands, and also show the influence of our own brands, so that people can understand China through our brands and products.

"Some western media see China as terrible and say that China is backward. But I think we can use our products to let others know what China is like, which is also the responsibility of entrepreneurs and enterprises. " Dong Mingzhu pointed out that in the past, China's export volume was very large, but it did not have its own brand. In the process, it was greatly squeezed and became a OEM without the right to speak. "But today we have completely mastered the technology by ourselves, and have broken through some more advanced new technologies. We should build our own brand."

"If we want to be internationalized, we need to promote Chinese brands, and change the world's vision and the image of made in China in the world." For the economic situation and international trade environment this year, Dong Mingzhu believes that the situation is changeable. For enterprises, the key is to have the expected goal and how to achieve it.

She always believes that Gree is a diversified and focused enterprise. "Now we have 16 research institutes and more than 1000 laboratories, and we will add more as needed. In particular, we will increase more research institutions to further strengthen the strength of Gree manufacturing or made in China

As for how to evaluate the current achievements of Gree's independent innovation, Dong Mingzhu thinks that we should have calm thinking. On the one hand, Gree has nothing to say in the field of air conditioning after years of independent innovation technology, but at the same time, we should also see that there are still many key high-tech core technologies and materials research that have not been achieved. "We still have a long way to go, so we can't be ignored by the achievements or achievements in front of us The impact of performance is to calmly do more investment and research and development. " Dong Mingzhu said so.