The story behind the CEO of Gome Electric Appliances

Huang Guangyu was born in May 1969. When he was a child, Huang's family was poor. During the most difficult times, Huang Guangyu once picked up rags and garbage. Because of his family's financial difficulties, he dropped out of junior high school before graduating from junior high school at the age of 16, and followed his 20-year-old brother from his hometown of Shantou, Guangdong, to go north to Inner Mongolia to do business.

In 1986, 17-year-old Huang Guangyu (his name was Huang Junlie at that time) followed his elder brother Huang Junqin, carrying the 4,000 yuan he had saved in Inner Mongolia, and then borrowing 30,000 yuan in loans to live in Beijing. A 100-square-meter storefront called "Gome" was built at No. 420, Zhushikou East Street, Qianmen. There, the Huang brothers first sold clothing and later switched to selling imported electrical appliances.

"At that time, I also thought about doing the food business, but people's consumption level at that time was not that high. In the clothing business, there are fabrics and seasonality, which I don't understand very well. Home appliances are relatively It was relatively established, so I thought it would be more suitable for me to do it myself. At that time, there was still a lot of home appliances to sell, so it just depended on whether you could purchase them," Huang Guangyu said when recalling the situation when he started his business.

On January 1, 1987, the signboard of "Gome Electrical Appliance Store" was officially put up. Although there was no need to worry about selling the goods, the Huang brothers still decided to adopt the business strategy of "persisting in retail and making small profits but quick turnover". In the context of the seller's market at that time, many merchants were adopting the strategy of "raising selling prices in order to make huge profits". way of doing business.

Huang Guangyu recalled that there was actually an element of "force" at the time. Because most of the commercial institutions at that time were state-owned units, with first- and second-level wholesale stations, and their own channels and networks. They were stronger than him and had more connections than him. "As an individual enterprise, if you want to find a way to attract customers, you must have something of your own." The method he came up with at that time was the simplest and most effective - small profits but quick turnover.

The low-price strategy has brought many repeat customers to the small Gome electrical appliance store. Not only does he make small profits but quick turnover, he also puts great effort into the supply of goods. "At that time, washing machines, color TVs, etc. were all supplied by ticket. If you wanted to get these goods from informal channels, you had to find a way. Sometimes, other people had many products, but no one came to buy them, so I tried to find a way to get them from them. "Bring the goods here." In order to find cheap and high-quality "good goods," Huang himself has never answered directly whether Gome, like many home appliance retailers at the time, sold some smuggled goods from Panyu, Guangdong. There are many rumors about this.

However, no matter what, you have to admit that Huang is a business genius. Huang Guangyu and his Gome have left many traces in this market, and many of the retail expansion models he pioneered have become common models in the industry.

In 1991, Huang Guangyu was the first to think of using the slogan "Buy electrical appliances, go to Gome" in the middle of the "Beijing Evening News" to publish the prices of electrical appliances every week. At that time, state-owned stores' understanding of advertising was still at the level of "only products that cannot be sold need advertising." Even though some people later wanted to learn from Gome's advertising strategy, Huang Guangyu had already purchased the newspaper at a low price of 800 yuan per time. Center seam.

The small amount of advertising investment attracted a large number of customers to Gome. The electrical appliance store business was "extremely popular" and "all the inventory was sold out." Huang Guangyu pursued the victory and opened many stores one after another, with names such as "Guohao", "Yahua" and "Henderson". Before 1993, there were seven or eight small stores.

In order to avoid the situation where "consumers don't know where to buy products after seeing the advertisements", Huang Guangyu persuaded those foreign manufacturers that used US dollars to advertise their products to cooperate with Gome in advertising, which not only allowed the manufacturers to advertise Expenses can be reduced, and consumers can "see and buy". Huang Guangyu further requested the manufacturer to give some samples to Gome for display, and to open corresponding product counters so that customers could see and touch them and buy them on site.

In 1992, Huang Guangyu initially started chain operations in the Beijing area and named several of his stores "Gome Electrical Appliances", thus forming the prototype of a chain operation model.

By 1993, the number of Gome electrical appliance chain stores had grown to five or six. After the Huang brothers' wealth increased, the two brothers separated due to different business philosophies. Huang Guangyu received the "Gome" brand and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. If Huang Guangyu is described by many manufacturers as a "price butcher" in the retail market, then Huang Guangyu has initially created the "butcher knife" of "Gome".

After the 24-year-old Huang Guangyu separated from his brother, he began to focus on building his home appliance retail empire, and from then on he began to write his and Gome’s wealth myth at an alarming speed: In 1993, Huang Guangyu’s small storefront It became a large electrical appliance mall; in 1995, Gome Electric Appliance Mall grew from one to 10 stores; in 1999, Gome expanded from Beijing to the whole country...

"Everyone is the same, there is only one step difference." That’s it, sometimes it’s half a step.” Huang Guangyu said. It is precisely because of this "half step" in the lead that Huang Guangyu doubled his confidence and worked hard to expand. Currently, Gome has opened 330 stores in 88 cities across the country, and the number is expected to reach 400 within the year.

"I don't exist for Hurun"

Recently, when Huang Guangyu was interviewed by reporters after he topped the Hurun Rich List, he said calmly: "This only means An evaluation of our company by the society. "I have never calculated my own worth - I think it is meaningless. In fact, there are many rich people in China, and I have no idea about the term 'China's richest man'." He said that he would redouble his efforts in the future to continue to make Gome Group bigger and stronger.

Huang Guangyu said frankly that he does not like such rankings to expose his wealth, but he also said that he is not afraid of being on the list, "Because this list does not explain anything, the efficiency of the company is the most important , I don’t exist for Hurun.” Agreeing with Li Ka-shing's "Businessmen have no territory", Huang Guangyu has been in business for 18 years and has built a retail network across China. In June 2004, Huang Guangyu's transactions in the Hong Kong securities market shocked everyone. He asked a listed company with a market value of only 200 million yuan to issue convertible notes and spend 8.8 billion yuan to acquire 65% of the equity of Gome Electric Appliances, which he wholly owned. Before this acquisition, Hurun put Huang Guangyu's total wealth at 4.6 billion yuan, and this transaction made Huang Guangyu the "richest man in China" in one fell swoop.

"Opening Gome stores abroad is something we have been preparing for." Huang Guangyu returned to his usual calm tone. According to reports, Huang Guangyu is considering Gome's high-level shareholding plan, but he will never give up his absolute controlling position. According to Gome Group's vision, by 2008, sales revenue will exceed 100 billion yuan. From this point of view, Huang Guangyu's worth still has a lot of room for appreciation.

After working hard in Beijing for 15 years, he earned 1.5 billion, and successfully ranked 27th on the "Forbes" Mainland China Rich List in 2003. He started out by marketing home appliances and is also very good at capital operations. Huang Guangyu, the head of Gome.

When he started his business, Huang Guangyu was keenly aware of the huge potential of Beijing's home appliance market, determined to do long-term business, and determined a business strategy of small profits but quick turnover, breaking the monopoly of department stores operating home appliances in one fell swoop. Gome quickly gained a foothold in Beijing. In 1999, Gome took a key step towards establishing a nationwide chain network. However, at this time, Huang Guangyu entrusted the position of general manager of Gome Electrical Appliances to his brother-in-law Zhang Zhiming. He also founded Pengrun Investment Co., Ltd. with total assets of approximately 5 billion yuan and retreated behind the scenes to conduct capital operations.

“Interaction, mutual assistance and complementarity” have always been the investment philosophy that Huang Guangyu adheres to. Gome uses cash flow from commercial operations to complement real estate and has achieved good synergy effects. In Beijing, where housing prices remain high, Huang Guangyu also wants to "use the model of making home appliances to make real estate." Pengrun Homes has played the price card more than once.

On October 26, 2002, Huang Guangyu regained control of the National Football League. Subsequently, Huang Guangyu made the largest adjustment to Gome's senior personnel and organizational structure in recent years. The frequent changes in Gome within a year even triggered deep doubts in the industry.

Huang Guangyu is notoriously low-key and reticent. In 2003, Huang Guangyu, the president of Pengrun Investment, the general manager of Gome Electric Co., Ltd., and the chairman of China Pengrun Group, made only two public appearances. Huang Guangyu's low profile also gave Gome a negative evaluation of "no tone". Some analysts pointed out that in Gome, which has a high rate of public attention, there is no socially significant operational experience or theoretical product output generated by actual operations. Packaging that lacks theoretical elements has resulted in the Gome brand's lack of height and theoretical depth. Whether the family can continue to operate effectively under centralized power is the biggest test for Huang Guangyu.