Zong Fuli: Princess out of the Mountains

Even if she didn't want to, she had to -- the only daughter of Zong Qinghou, the richest man in the Hurun Report, and the junior owner of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, the world's fourth-largest beverage maker. But the timeline of corporate history will soon turn to her: since 2010, Zong Fuli has integrated the import and export related businesses of Wahaha's various departments, including supply and engineering, as general manager of the import and export company, and has also been in charge of the group's overseas investment, and started to promote the internationalization of the Wahaha brand.

Heir apparent to a vast empire

In China, Wahaha is a brand that everyone seems to know. The food and beverage company has grown steadily since it was founded 24 years ago, ranking No. 1 in China's beverage industry for 14 consecutive years. According to the public information of Wahaha Group, "Wahaha" has 60 bases and more than 160 subsidiaries in 29 provinces and autonomous regions in China, and its products cover more than 150 varieties of nine categories, including milk drinks, bottled water, carbonated drinks, tea drinks, fruit juice drinks, canned food, etc. Among them, bottled water, milk drinks, and canned rice porridge production and sales have been the first in China for many years. The company has 30,000 employees and total assets of more than 32 billion yuan. Wahaha has become an empire. In this empire, the founder Zong Qinghou is undoubtedly the power center, the "emperor". As the "daughter of the emperor" Zong Fuli, known as the "princess", she is the "Wahaha empire" and "anointed" successor.

A girl grows up at home

Born in 1982 Zong Fuli, grew up in a happy family, the Zong Qinghou of the old come son is very fond of his daughter in every way. If her upbringing is different from others, it is that she was born under the red flag and grew up in a foreign country. After completing her junior High School education, Zong, one of the first practitioners of today's youth craze for studying abroad, went to the United States to attend SanMarino High School in Los Angeles, California. Four years later, Ms. Zong enrolled at Pepperdine University, majoring in international trade.

Years of study in the United States not only broadened her vision, and enriched her knowledge, but also had an important influence on the shaping of her character. Under the influence of multi-culture, she developed an independent, confident, frank, and rigorous style.

In 2005, after returning to China from the United States, she served as the assistant director of the Management Committee of Xiaoshan No.2 Base of Wahaha Group, and then as the deputy director of the Management Committee of Xiaoshan Base and president of Hangzhou Hongsheng Beverage Group. In 2010, the revenue of Hongsheng Beverage reached 6.437 billion yuan. After that, she took charge of the import and export business of Wahaha Group as the general manager of the import and export company and began to explore the path of internationalization. Last year, the import and export company had revenues of $28m. In recent years, she has traveled abroad frequently and participated in a large number of international exhibitions, aiming to introduce Wahaha products to the world. In the exploration of the internationalization road, Zong Fuli realized that the real internationalization is not to sell a few bottles of drinks abroad, but the whole production chain, including production, sales, and procurement supply chain built globally. With huge ambitions, she wants Wahaha to become the first truly international food company in China.

The most diligent princess

Compared with the public's impression or prejudice that "rich second generation" are pampered, Zong Fuli is "the most diligent princess". She is the first person to arrive and the last person to leave almost every day. She has the same workaholic drive as her father.

What the princess most wants to do is to connect the Wahaha brand with health and nutrition, so that Wahaha will become more international and diversified, and develop upward and downstream around its main business. Wahaha, go out to explore the international market, to count from 2011. Before that, we cooperated with Chinese who did business abroad to produce products according to their orders, and the distribution channels of products were limited to some Chinese supermarkets and communities. Therefore, Zong Fuli visited many mainstream supermarket operators in Europe and the United States and began to think about developing products suitable for the tastes of consumers in the European and American markets.

If you want to do it, do the most Chinese characteristics of the beverage, tea beverage deserves the title. Zong and her team decided to develop products based on concepts such as low sugar and herbs. The tea drinks sold in the Chinese market are generally sweet, while European and American consumers prefer the original taste of tea. To test the most suitable taste, Hongsheng has cooperated with Zhejiang University to set up a sensory evaluation group for international students of Zhejiang University test the products regularly.

After all, the number of international students at Zhejiang University is limited. Every time she goes to an exhibition abroad, she will bring the newly developed tea beverage and find someone in the venue. "What kind of tea do you want? Do you like the texture? Is it sweet or sour? What price is acceptable?" ... For each taster, she fired off a series of questions.

Outside the exhibition, she will take a few colleagues to go to the supermarket personally to see what kind of products sell well, and which tea drinks are in the packaging, the label more special. After several tests and improvements, Wahaha launched its first tea drinks for foreign markets at the end of last year. She took them to visit Spain, Britain, and other places in the supermarket to buy hands, and listen to advise. Now, the product is still being adjusted, and the relevant procedures and certifications are also being handled.

The acclimation of management style

The breakfast of Zong's father and daughter is very different from that of China and the West: the father eats flatbread and churros, and the daughter eats bread and milk. There are also differences in management styles between father and daughter. Zong admits that her management style is different from her father's humanized management. She prefers institutionalized management, while her father's management style is more about issuing instructions and letting subordinates carry them out.

Living abroad for many years, Zong is used to this kind of direct expression. When something deviated from the system, she would find the person in charge and speak out her dissatisfaction directly, with a strong attitude. Some employees could not stand it, and sometimes they would go to Zong Qinghou to cry. "They think I'm a lot harder to get along with than Dad," she says. "I'm more demanding." She thinks that her father is gentle and moderate to cadres. "This is a very obvious difference. I will tell you directly when I employ people, and I hope you can help me achieve something. If some employees do something wrong, I don't tolerate it very much because the system is here."

After being "complained about", Zong Fuli was usually asked by her father to change her working style. In the beginning, Zong Fuli did not accept it. For a long time, the contradiction between her father and her father due to different management styles became the "biggest frustration" she encountered.

Ms. Zong now oversees a division with more than 5, 000 employees, or about one-sixth of the total Wahaha group workforce. She says she wants to give her employees a boost in pay as well as create platforms for the company's employees to "grow with" her.

"What I hope to learn on my own, they should be able to learn," she said. It's not easy, she admits, but she's "working on it."

"I think any time an enterprise needs to make some succession or change, it should look at the future direction of the enterprise and then decide who the next person is based on the direction of the enterprise. Instead of saying, because I'm his daughter, I need to do this work." "Said Zong Fuli.

Efforts to change the image of Chinese food

In September 2012, Zong Fuli donated RMB 70 million to the Education Foundation of Zhejiang University to establish the Education Fund of Fuli Food Research Institute of Zhejiang University to support the construction and development of the food discipline of Zhejiang University. Eighty-five percent of the donation will be used for undergraduate education. Fuli Food Research Institute of Zhejiang University is committed to innovating the existing education and scientific research system, building a talent training and scientific research platform in the field of food nutrition and safety, and cultivating professional and research-oriented international high-end talents for China's food industry.

"I hope Fuli Food Research Institute will be a calling card of China in the future. I can do it. I'm so young. There are thousands of domestic food research institutes, but none of them have their characteristics, and the whole basic research is relatively disordered. I want to make this institute distinctive, as a way to change the status quo in China. First of all, we train some talents for the food sector in China, whether it is a research institute, a regulatory agency, or some experts in other fields. Second, we need to provide a platform for international exchanges, ideas, and innovative themes. We should do more basic research in the field of scientific research, make up for the missed courses, and increase some studies with Chinese characteristics. For example, soybeans were originally Chinese, China is the origin of soybeans, but they did not do in-depth research, but European and American countries thoroughly studied, and finally became their things." In Zong Fuli's view, the food Research Institute will become a cornerstone of Wahaha's internationalization.

"My father's generation went from having to eat to experiencing a period of great economic change in China," Ms. Zong said. Comparatively speaking, young people of their generation do not lack the necessities of life but have a strong desire to prove themselves. For her part, she wants to prove to the world in the food and beverage industry that Chinese companies can do much more than what they have done so far. Wahaha is the largest beverage company in China. If I don't pay attention to the development of the food and beverage industry, don't you think I need to do a lot less? If I don't promote the development of this industry, China will no longer have this position in the world!"

Zong Fuli'S diversification, the ROAD OF INTERNATIONALIZATION JUST STARTED, BUT THE ENTHUSIASM OF A Capricorn TO WORK AND STUDY is worth looking forward to. "There are a lot of things to learn in China. Some of my personality and ideas are not in line with my current state. I need some adjustment."