He Zhenlin: Hunan people regard culture as a weapon to change the world

He Zhenlin, an expert enjoying special allowances from the State Council, a representative of the 7th and 8th National People’s Congress, a national model worker, served as the vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Entrepreneurs Association, and later served as the vice president of Sany Group and the first party committee member Deputy Secretary. As a "professional entrepreneur", He Zhenlin's career has been legendary. He was praised by Prime Minister Li Peng as a "scholar-type entrepreneur" due to his dialogue with Prime Minister Li Peng at the Seventh National People's Congress. At the Eighth National People's Congress, Comrade Zhu Rongji's famous saying was quoted in the dialogue: "Blow the whistle and play ball, and you will definitely win." It attracted the attention of major media across the country and was nicknamed a "professional parliamentarian." In the 1990s, He Zhenlin was promoted to deputy director of the Provincial Department of Light Industry, deputy general manager of the Provincial Light Industry Group, and deputy director of the Provincial Salt Bureau. After retirement in 2006, he was invited to join Sany and served as Vice President and First Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Sany Group. In January 2013, He Zhenlin's book "Me and the Richest Man Liang Wengen: Revealing the Secret of Trinity" was first released in Beijing. The book comprehensively interprets a series of major events related to Trinity and Liang Wengen and the stories behind them. At the time when the book was published, He Zhenlin fulfilled his promise when he joined Trinity. After seven years of itch, he left Trinity and retired from the world again. I have had many meetings with Mr. He Zhenlin, the former vice president of Sany Group. Mr. He Zhenlin is erudite, profound and sharp. He has the feeling that "only Chu is talented" and who else is better than me. Not long ago, I went to Hunan to give lectures, and met Mr. He Zhenlin again. Meeting an old friend, looking back on the past, I was filled with emotion.

Why I chose Sany

Cheng Guanjun: You have been an official and have worked in a state-owned enterprise for a long time. From officials to leaders of state-owned enterprises, and then to private enterprise Sany Heavy Industry. How did you come to Trinity at that time?

He Zhenlin: I came to Sany 9 months after I finished my time in the system. That's how I am, straightforward, with nothing to hide and no pretense of being deep. I have four sentences to sum up my life: The first sentence: Skills and excellence lead to enterprise. I was good at technology, and ended up becoming an entrepreneur. 99.37% of the employees elected me as the factory director, which was completely elected by the people. And I pointed out at that time that if I didn’t get more than 80% of the votes, I would definitely be inappropriate. If the people didn’t support me, what would I do? The second sentence: If you try your best, you will succeed. He did relatively well in the enterprise and became a leader. The third sentence: If the government is bad, the people will be affected. This is a kind of self-deprecation and also a kind of self-deprecation. I am too academic and too conceited. I have been stuck in politics for 14 years and will be a commoner when I retire. The fourth sentence: Fame comes back to the enterprise. Finally returned to the business. These four sentences sum up my life.

During the Seventh National People's Congress, Comrade Li Peng came to our Hunan delegation to listen to his speech. This time, I had a dialogue with Comrade Li Peng. I was an entrepreneur at that time, and I proposed to Premier Li Peng that we should pay attention to the pivotal position of entrepreneurs in the market economy. At that time, Li Peng evaluated me as a "scholar-type entrepreneur." I told Comrade Li Peng that only by comprehensively improving the political, economic and social status of entrepreneurs can the role of this group be brought into play. At the Eighth National People's Congress, I had another conversation with Comrade Zhu Rongji. Zhu Rongji had a well-known saying called "Blow the whistle and play ball at the same time." This sentence was derived from my conversation with him. At that time, I proposed that China Four major drawbacks of politics. At that time, Premier Zhu Rongji went to the Hunan delegation to listen to the speeches. Some representatives of our Hunan delegation seemed timid when speaking in front of Premier Zhu Rongji. I think this has greatly reduced the ability and level of our Hunan League representatives to discuss politics. Seeing this situation, other representatives of our Hunan delegation were also very anxious. At this time, a secretary of the leader said to me: "Mr. He, come on." I said: "I was not asked to speak by name." He said: "What are you afraid of?" I am most afraid of provocation. He said to him: "Afraid but not afraid." As a result, when everyone was about to speak, I suddenly said: "Premier Zhu, as a representative of the business community, I will speak for one minute." As soon as my words came out, the whole audience was stunned, and Zhu Rongji immediately opened his eyes and looked. Holding me. At this time, I spoke as fast as I could about four issues in Chinese politics. First, the reappearance of government and businessmen; second, banks, I am the fish and meat, he is the knife.

There are also two major issues involving the national economy and people's livelihood. When I talked about the re-emergence of official business, I made an analogy. If the stadium is compared to a market, then the two warring parties are the companies and the referees are the government. I said: "Excuse me, Prime Minister, if the referees also come to play, ?” Zhu Rongji immediately said astonishingly: “Blow the whistle and play ball again, you will definitely win.”

During the 7th and 8th National People’s Congress, I was a national model worker, a representative of the National People’s Congress, an expert enjoying special allowances from the State Council, and the vice chairman of the Hunan Entrepreneurs Association. At that time, even Mou Zhongzhi of the Nande Group invited me to communicate with him. Mou Zhongzhi talked with me for two hours, starting from the future direction of China and the world economy to Wall Street for five thousand years. Mou Zhongzhong was very imposing, tall and tall, and he kept gesticulating and talking incessantly when he spoke. His eloquence, thinking, speaking ability and eloquence are all outstanding. I am a person who never admits defeat in my life. When we met this time, he admired me and I admired him too.

As early as that time, Liang Wengen had been observing me, looking at my energy and thinking, my style and sentiment. Every time he sees me, he tells me that you are getting younger and younger, your conversation is still so sharp, your thoughts are still so sharp, etc. Later, he sent out invitations many times. He said: "What kind of director do you want to be? Come to me." I said: "Boss Liang, please forgive me. I have struggled with the Communist Party all my life. You can’t defect midway. If you want me to come, then I’ll put an end to the Communist Party.” Later, he told the director of our State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission that Director He was a man of integrity.

Just a few days after I retired, Liang Wengen called me: "Director He, the day I have been looking forward to has finally arrived." I said, "Boss, please allow me to think again!" After procrastinating for several more months, Liang Wengen finally invited me to talk a lot with me at the Aiwan Pavilion in Yuelu Mountain, one of the most historic places in Trinity. At this time, I was moved by Chairman Liang's sincerity. Just imagine, I have already come down, I am no longer a director, I am already a common man, but Sany still insists on me coming. I'm sorry if I don't come. I said, "You can come, but I have one condition. I don't do economic work. I said that I have been in the whirlpool of the economy all my life. I am worried about progress and worry about retreating. If I cannot complete the order, I will be ashamed of my customers and withdraw." There is no way to explain to the employees. Chairman Liang said that you can do anything, including strategy, labor union, party affairs, and culture. I said that I can do everything except financial responsibility. When I came to Sany, Chairman Liang asked me to take charge of culture. Later, I served as the first deputy secretary of the party committee, in charge of the work of the trade union, external liaison work, corporate relations, and some special tasks assigned by him. Many times, I was his special envoy, and even some of his personal The affairs are also left to me.

State-owned and private enterprises: How to achieve role change

Cheng Guanjun: You once served as deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Light Industry and also served as a large state-owned enterprise. The top leader of the company. How did you change your role after arriving at Sany?

He Zhenlin: I served as deputy director for 14 years and later served as the head of the Light Industry Salt Industry Group. After retiring from the light industry and salt industry, I came to Sany not long after that. I had studied Sany seriously for six years, and I should say that I still have a little understanding of Sany’s economic, political, cultural, and party affairs. . It can be said that in the past few years, I have been studying Trinity, interpreting Trinity, and improving Trinity. Before that, I had always wanted to write a book about Trinity. , but it has never been realized. There are several books about "Huawei", but only two books about Sany have appeared, and both of them are irrelevant. The truly authoritative book describing Sany has not been published until last year. The main reason is that Liang Wengen, the chairman of Sany, has always kept a low profile. Every time I ask him for advice on writing about Sany, he always says that he can prepare the materials and is not in a hurry now. He hopes to become a Fortune 500 company. Publish a book about Sany. After leaving Sany, I wrote a book called "The Richest Man Liang Wengen and I - Revealing the Secret of Sany". This book can be said to be a comprehensive and accurate interpretation of Sany.

My interpretation of Trinity culture is from the perspective of a scholar.

Trinity has different interpretations at different times, but it remains true to its origins and the general direction is basically the same. For example, the interpretation of culture, strategy, and innovation are definitely the same.

Sany is a very interesting company. Although Ren Zhengfei is the most low-key among private companies, Ren Zhengfei will publish an article from time to time, such as "My Mother and Father", "The Boring Winter" and " "A River of Spring Water Flows East" and so on clearly demonstrate his cultural and strategic intentions. In comparison, Liang Wengen is the most low-key. First, he hardly attends various meetings (unless it is a party meeting) and rarely gives interviews to the media. Regarding Trinity, Tsinghua University has written about our case, Peking University has written about our case, Northern Jiaotong University has written about our case, and many well-known domestic schools have written about our case. The Central Party School, the highest institution of the Communist Party of China, also wrote about our case.

To truly understand Trinity, we must not only understand the economy, but also understand the politics and culture. Because the growth of Sany is not a unilateral economic rise, but the crystallization of Sany's high political wisdom, economic wisdom and life wisdom. Therefore, it is not easy to write about the March 1st. It is not simply an economic system. In a sense, the March 1st is completely integrated with the mainstream ideology. When Chairman Liang Wengen was elected as a representative of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he said that since I joined the party, I have integrated the cause of the party and the cause of Trinity.

Cheng Guanjun: You are a thoughtful person who dares to love, hate, and bear blows. You are a popular figure among Hunan entrepreneurs. You have had conversations with two prime ministers. The ancients said that it was once difficult to find water in the sea, and I think you are like "it was difficult to find water in the Xiangjiang River."

He Zhenlin: During the seven years of working at Sanyi, I came into contact with many famous scholars in the field of economics. Before coming to Trinity, I worked in a state-owned enterprise. I was a representative of the seventh and eighth National People’s Congress. The people I came into contact with were all China’s top scholars and celebrities. The famous economist Mr. Li Yining is a very good friend of mine. When I was studying at the Central Party School, Li Yining gave us a lecture. It was I who persuaded him to go. He originally only gave lectures to provincial and ministerial-level classes. As a result, the leader of our department-level class knew about my friendship with him and lobbied me. Go and convince Professor Li. I said to Li Yining, you teach small classes and you teach big classes. Why can't you teach big classes? As a result, he spoke. While studying at the Central Party School and during the National People's Congress, I came into contact with a large number of leading figures in Chinese academic circles. For example, Mr. Li Zehou in philosophy, Mr. Liu Danian, historian, and Mr. Zhang Zhongpei, archaeologist, are all my very good friends. We would talk for hours, sometimes even all night long. My enlightenment concept of market economy was instilled in me by the famous economist and Professor Wang Jue of the Central Party School.

Saying that I have theory and practice, a very important point is that I mainly stand on the platform of Sany. Every economic concept I talk about is supported by the case of Sany. How does Sany do it? What results were achieved? We hope that all sectors of society can understand and interpret Trinity comprehensively, systematically, and correctly from multiple perspectives such as the political level, the economic level, the personnel level, the social level, and the strategic level. Because the success of Trinity is not a unilateral success. It seizes the development opportunities of our country and deeply understands the needs of mainstream ideology. For a company to grow, it must first identify with the mainstream ideology. Mainstream ideology created Trinity. In fact, many of my interpretations involve this issue. "Trinity" people have great wisdom, great generosity, and great strategies. The reason why this enterprise has reached such a scale is the result of many kinds of wisdom. Recruit talents from all over the world and promote major events in the world. Simply put, it can be attributed to these two aspects, one is political wisdom, and the other is talent strategy.

I have deep friendships with many leading figures in Chinese academic circles. The reason why I have a place in academia is firstly due to my experience, thinking and keeping pace with the times. More importantly, Trinity has provided me with a very large platform.

Mao Zedong said that Zeng Guofan defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with culture. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom put forward the idea of ??being neither fishy nor foreign, neither Chinese nor foreign, while Zeng Guofan raised the banner of defending national culture, so all scholars responded. Therefore, Zeng Guofan's power lies not only in his situation and methods, but also in his cultural appeal. Mao Zedong, the leader of New China who came out of Hunan, was able to "destroy Zhou Tianhan" by relying on six words: attack the local tyrants and divide the land. He has unearthed the thousands of years of demands of the Chinese people and satisfied them. Who wouldn’t come to make a revolution? Because most people in old China did not have land. Therefore, culture is a motivation that fundamentally stimulates demand. Mao Zedong had a heroic spirit of fighting against heaven, but he was also a man of both strength and softness. He would shed tears when he saw the poor people without food. He combined Marxist theory with Chinese revolutionary practice and produced Mao Zedong Thought, the culture of the Chinese Communist Party. The greatness of Mao Zedong is that he changed China with his great culture. From Zeng Guofan to Mao Zedong, they all have the shadow of Huxiang culture.

Zeng Guofan is the leader of Huxiang culture and the master of Huxiang culture. Hunan merchants emerged suddenly in the middle and late stages of reform and opening up. Unlike Zhejiang merchants, Hunan merchants started earlier and had already risen in the early stages of reform and opening up. So, the rise of Hunan merchants is represented by three leaders of construction machinery. From the perspective of production model, Zhejiang merchants are engaged in small commodities, while Hunan merchants are engaged in heavy industry. Xiang Wenbo, the president of Sany, once said: It turns out that people think that we Hunanese only know how to farm, kill pigs, and fight. However, when the rolling trend of industrialization is coming, entrepreneurs like Liang Wengen can stand out. This is how the times create heroes.

Huxiang culture itself has given birth to a group of people with lofty ideals who dare to be pioneers and worry about the world. He waits for the call of time, and when the time comes, he stands out and is very heroic.

Cheng Guanjun: How do you view the role of corporate culture in corporate operations and management? How do you view the dialectical relationship between culture and management?

He Zhenlin: The key to whether a person is smart or wise is whether he can understand all kinds of knowledge. The same is true for companies. The greatest companies in the world have similar cultures. Steve Jobs and Liang Wengen are similar. "Quality changes the world" proposed by Sany is consistent with all responsible enterprises. Economics and philosophy can be connected, why? Corporate culture is values ??and codes of conduct. No matter how good economics is, if it does not have a clear value orientation and does not unite people's ideas, mission, vision, and spirit, economics will be useless. Therefore, Lu You said that "kung fu lies outside poetry." Writing poetry is not just the use of simple sentences, but also includes literature, society, people's livelihood, philosophy and other aspects, including insights into birds, fish, and cordyceps. Only by carefully observing every detail can a poem be written. The same is true for economics. In fact, its work lies beyond economics, especially understanding culture, talent, and leadership. If you don’t understand culture, how can you unite people? If you don’t understand talent science, how can you lead? If you don’t understand leadership, how can you organize resources? Therefore, knowledge is all connected. For example, in personality theory and cultural theory, I think it is necessary to integrate Freud and Maslow, the truth, goodness and beauty of philosophy and the way to control the world. If you don't get through it, your knowledge will still be confused.

To engage in economics, political science, psychology, and management must be integrated. Only after you get through it will you know what the real politics of China are. Knowledge is interoperable. It is just about studying one aspect of society from different angles. In the end, it must be interoperable. Adam Smith in economics is such a person. In addition to his great contribution to economics, he also wrote "The Theory of Moral Sentiments".

Culture is the core thing that guides an enterprise. Chinese people’s thinking is systematic and comprehensive thinking, thinking from a high position. Therefore, it can absorb the essence of the world and use it for my own use. Its broad and tolerant mind can turn the most advanced and beautiful things of others into its own.

Buddhism was originally introduced to us from India. As a result, Buddhism in China has now become the largest Buddhism in the world. This is because the Chinese people have a tolerant heart. It is not like Western culture, which is partial, while Chinese culture is holistic and builds a large framework system. The development of culture has proved that the culture of the future world will definitely be Eastern culture. In fact, the whole world is a blur, and Chinese culture fundamentally reveals the mystery of the world. Chinese culture itself can best respond to integrated innovation, but Chinese culture also has its weaknesses, that is, it is difficult to respond to original innovation.

"The Analects of Entrepreneurs" columnist: Cheng Guanjun

This article was published in the October 2020 issue of "Southern Entrepreneur" magazine

About Datong Thought Network: Datong Thought Network was initiated by Du Gangjian, a representative of Mainland New Confucianism and former dean of Hunan University Law School, young scholar Zhen Ge, lawyer Zou Hongyan of Tiandiren Law Firm, and Dr. Tang Hongzhan of Yuelu Academy, and also has academic representatives Zheng Jiaming and Lu De A cultural academic network supported by a large number of scholars including Zhi, Chen Ming, Qiu Feng, Lin Anwu, Huang Yushun, Wu Jiyan, Du Wenzhong, Han Xing, He Zhenlin, Zeng Yi, Han Bingxin, Huang Shouyu, etc. was established in Changsha, Hunan on September 1, 2012 . The current goal of the website is to promote the modernization of traditional Chinese culture and practice the rule of law in China, promote the culture of kingship, the thought of the middle way, and the ideal of great harmony, and hope for the comprehensive rejuvenation of Chinese culture. In the great renaissance of Chinese traditional culture, Datong Thought Network has become one of China's unique Chinese studies websites.