On March 28, 1991, 26 years ago, in Beijing. In Room 232 of Hademen Hotel, Wang Guangxing, nearly 50 years old, was as excited as a child. That day was the day of the tasting conference for Coconut Palm coconut juice in Beijing. After more than 1,000 sleepless nights, the haggard Wang Guangxing could finally sleep well. You may not know Wang Guangxing, but you must have drunk Coconut Palm coconut juice. The slogan printed in large characters like a psoriasis advertisement is not bragging; after all these years, no one can find a better coconut juice than Coconut Palm. This old man dared to chew hard bones. The factory lost 7.2 million, leaving only 20,000. He took on the mission at a critical moment and staged a one-man show of iron-fisted rescue when he was nearly 50.**** This old man is also particularly stubborn. He suffered grievances, felt heartbroken, and almost got 'dragged' into prison. He said, 'Even if you put a handful of steel nails in your mouth, you have to bite hard.' In his 70s, he still stays in the small island's coconut factory. The packaging of Coconut Palm coconut juice is indeed ugly, so ugly that it looks like a utility pole covered with small advertisements. Taking such a bottle of drink on the street feels like carrying a moving barrage of comments... Under the rustic packaging, in the coconut juice that has been loved for decades, lies the effort of an old man's half-life. A Heartbreaking Childhood, a Character Forged by Hardship Just like the current BAT giants - Baidu's Li Yanhong, Tencent's Ma Huateng, and Alibaba's Ma Yun - during the reform and opening-up era, there were also three giants of national enterprises: Robust's He Boquan, Wahaha's Zong Qinghou, and Coconut Palm's Wang Guangxing. Behind the creation of this deliciousness is Wang Guangxing's not-so-happy childhood. When Wang Guangxing was very young, his father passed away suddenly, leaving three siblings to a wife without income. To take care of the three children, Wang's mother had to take on odd jobs everywhere, selling old clothes to make ends meet. She often couldn't come home until late. Every night at 9 o'clock, the three siblings would sit around the table with their mother, eating leftover food. Children from poor families mature early. Shortly after graduating from middle school, Wang Guangxing decided to drop out. At 17, to ease his mother's burden, he went alone to Haikou Canned Food Factory to sign up as a temporary worker. At that time, this factory was quite impressive. In the mid-1970s, its annual profit exceeded 3 million, making it the darling of the Haikou government. The factory director initially didn't pay much attention to this 17-year-old kid, letting him do publicity work, making blackboard newspapers, and printing newspapers. But the character forged through hardship made Wang Guangxing not only hardworking but also very perceptive. After finishing his own work, he would immediately go to the workshop to help colleagues peel pineapples, transport materials, and do odd jobs. After half a year of this, the director saw this diligent young man busy all day and transferred him to the office as a clerk. However, he believed that as a worker, he shouldn't leave the workshop, so he rolled up his sleeves and went back to the production line to help. In 1982, Wang Guangxing, in his early 40s, was transferred to Haikou Beverage Factory as the director. On the surface, it seemed glorious, but the first gift this factory gave the new director was something you might not expect: more than 800 tons of liquor that couldn't be sold, stored in the warehouse. Wang Guangxing gritted his teeth, not believing that spring would not return.**** To Receive as Much Praise, You Must Endure as Much Slander The huge warehouse was piled with over 800 tons of liquor, the enterprise was half-stopped, and everyone was used to the 'iron rice bowl' mentality. People were anxious, and Wang Guangxing was also so anxious that he couldn't sleep all night. One day, he came to the lifeless warehouse, wiped the dust off the bottles, and when he smelled the aroma of red date wine, his heart ached. Such good wine couldn't be sold; why? As a former art designer, he decided to change the packaging. 'A horse needs a golden saddle, and wine needs red attire. I'll use the festive atmosphere of red lanterns to open up the psychological needs of the common people.' Unexpectedly, within a year, the beverage factory turned losses into profits, earning over 1 million yuan. But at this time, the Haikou Canned Food Factory, where he had worked for 20 years and which was once formidable with 3,000 employees, couldn't withstand market changes. It had been losing money for years since 1981, and even after four consecutive directors, it was beyond saving. The 7.2 million assets were reduced to only 20,000. The last director couldn't bear the burden and couldn't bear to see the factory close under his watch, so he invited back 'firefighter' Wang Guangxing. Indeed, Wang Guangxing had boldness. As soon as he arrived, he carried out drastic reforms. First Fire: Show No Mercy, Dig Out the Cancer.******** At his first workers' meeting, he first fired a few of the most difficult workers. Eight days later, the factory announced the dismissal of three people, one of whom was the child of his old classmate. Second Fire: Reform the System, Delegate Power.******** He announced a major dismantling of the factory, splitting it into nine sub-factories, each adapting to the market and finding its own way. Third Fire: Control Costs, Break the Iron Rice Bowl. Pineapple canning had only a 4-month production period each year, with the rest idle. Wang Guangxing decided to cut off government support, and during the shutdown period, only 50% of wages would be paid. This series of reforms caused an uproar in the entire factory. For a time, workers didn't understand, and complaint letters piled up like snowflakes to the city and provincial levels, not to mention verbal complaints. The resistance was unimaginable. Five hundred workers declared, 'If he doesn't give us food, we won't let him be comfortable!' So, as a dignified factory director, to avoid workers blocking him on the road, he would hide in his office after work and leave only after everyone else had gone. His wife couldn't stand it and forced him to write a resignation letter. His son heard nothing but curses about his father on the way to school and also advised Wang Guangxing to quit as director. But what truly broke Wang Guangxing's heart was that in 1987, he failed to be elected as a representative of the Haikou Municipal People's Congress because of rumors that he had improper conduct and wanted to profit. 'I stood helplessly in the heavy rain, asking myself: Can I still hold up? Reform has brought so much humiliation. Is this the price reformers must pay?' Wang Guangxing's stubbornness, forged from childhood, surged again. He didn't believe in evil. He held a factory-wide meeting and had a dialogue with those 500 workers.
'To let workers live, we must first let the factory live. From today on, like everyone else, I will not take my full salary until we get out of trouble! Otherwise, we will go bankrupt like Shenyang Explosion-proof Equipment Factory, and everyone goes their own way!' At that moment, the workers' hearts were enlightened. As a result, in the first year of Wang Guangxing's tenure, the canned food factory reduced losses by 3 million yuan, and two years later, it made a profit of 2.4 million yuan. A Temporary Worker with a Middle School Diploma, Completed a Task That Had Not Been Solved Worldwide for Decades But Wang Guangxing knew better than anyone that management and system reforms alone were not enough. To survive, product innovation was essential. At this time, a chance remark from an expert enlightened Wang Guangxing: 'Only by using local resource advantages to drive the development of tropical fruit planting can 500,000 fruit farmers escape poverty.' What is Hainan's specialty? Of course, it's coconut! Although Hainan's coconut production reaches 9,000 tons per year, besides eating them directly, they are mainly made into traditional foods like coconut candy, coconut horns, and coconut slices. The reason is not anything else; it's the difficulty of preserving coconut juice. Coconut juice is easily contaminated during transportation and goes bad if stored for a while. So, at that time, all coconut juices on the market were made with flavorings. As they say, Wang Guangxing dared to chew hard bones. He decided to transform the canned food factory from making pineapple cans to making coconut juice. But coconut juice had a worldwide problem that hadn't been solved for decades: oil-water separation technology. At this moment, the stingy Wang Guangxing suddenly became generous. He waved his hand and said, 'If you want the horse to run, you have to let it eat grass. If the coconut juice is successfully developed, the reward will be 3% to 5% of net profit.' What does that mean? If the profit is 1 million, the reward is at least 30,000 yuan. Remember, the national reward for major inventors was only 10,000 yuan. Under heavy reward, there must be brave men. More than 20 technical talents emerged. The old man with only a middle school diploma, leading a group of technical workers with secondary education, took 8 months and 383 experiments to finally break through the oil-water separation technology and successfully develop Coconut Palm fresh-squeezed coconut juice. In 1988, natural coconut juice without any preservatives was born. The coconut juice sold like hotcakes. How popular was it? Scalpers reselling purchase vouchers could earn over 500 yuan a day. Many people from Sanya even queued all night in Haikou to buy it. In 1989, Haikou Canned Food Factory made a profit of 1.5 million.
By 1994, Coconut Palm coconut juice ranked first in sales among beverage companies nationwide, with orders booked three years in advance.
In 2014, Coconut Palm Group's output value exceeded 4.4 billion. Coconut Palm coconut juice has led the market for 28 years. Final Thoughts:****
Chuang Ge has written many entrepreneurial stories, and Coconut Palm's success may seem clichéd. A failing state-owned enterprise, a tough leader, a series of desperate reforms, and finally, with first-mover advantage, it became the leading enterprise in the coconut juice industry. This time, I write about Coconut Palm again because it has been criticized a lot recently. It has witnessed the entire process of reform and opening up, but like many old state-owned enterprises, it still retains the imprint of personality cult and struggle traditions. Some advertisements are even vulgar and not elegant, and the packaging is criticized, with jokes that the designer must have blocked an atomic bomb for the boss... However, every year at the opening ceremony, Coconut Palm still invites veteran workers to the rustic factory gate to witness the prosperity of the enterprise. The outdated national brand Feiyue shoes became trendy after being acquired by a French company, developing into a culture. The designs we mock and criticize might be seen as unique by others. Just because it doesn't add flavorings or preservatives, and the ingredients have been water and sugar for so many years, I'm willing to take another sip despite the psoriasis-like, rustic packaging. — You're in your 70s or 80s. Do you know what young people are thinking? — I'm old. If I did it for money, I would have done it long ago and been rich. But I didn't. My only wish is to let the enterprise develop for a hundred years. Under the vulgar and simple packaging, in this coconut juice that has kept its taste for decades, lies the effort of an old man's half-life. The 2017 (3rd) FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme 'New Forces, New Ecology' and invite 1,000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment institutions to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! Click the link below to review the highlights of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: 2016 'FMCG + Internet' Summit Forum -END-