Zong Qinghou's will has penetrated every fiber of Wahaha. Zong Qinghou once reflected on why Wahaha was declining in an interview with CCTV's "Dialogue," where the lack of new blockbuster products was an important point. Is the root of Wahaha's fall the lack of new blockbuster products? In my view, this answer is specious. For example, Coca-Cola, which is just sugar plus water, has not been successfully operating for over a hundred years? Why have we never heard Coca-Cola say it lacks a single new product? Because the problem is not clearly identified, there can be no targeted remedy, and this actually reveals the issue that Wahaha is in great risk. As the founder, Zong Qinghou has actually become the most important part of Wahaha's problem. To understand the root of Wahaha's fall, we must understand the history of Wahaha's success. As a late-developing country, reform and opening-up provided the best opportunity for China and Chinese enterprises to catch up with the world and world-class enterprises. There are two basic ways to catch up: one is to imitate institutions; the other is to imitate technology and industrialization models. In the 1980s, China was in a state of barbaric growth everywhere. Wahaha, founded in this era, which approach did it take to surpass its global peers? Wahaha adopted the approach of imitating technology and industrialization models. For example, in 1987, Zong Qinghou founded Wahaha's "Children's Nutritional Liquid," targeting Guangzhou Apollo. In just two years, sales of this beverage approached 100 million yuan. In 1991, Wahaha targeted Robust again, launching its second product, "Fruit Milk," which exceeded 100 million in sales within a year. By 1996, Wahaha directly launched an upgraded product, AD Calcium Milk, targeting Robust's calcium milk. What are the benefits of taking this approach? It can achieve very good development in the short term, successfully avoiding the risks of market exploration for the enterprise, but it leaves many hidden dangers for long-term development, and may even lead to failure in the long run. Why? The reason is simple: technology and industrial models are actually products combined with specific cultures, and culture is embodied through specific institutions. If we only imitate successful technology and industrial models without introducing the core part—institutions—this will inevitably lead to incompatibility between institutions and technology/industrial models, resulting in irreconcilable contradictions, directly affecting sustainable and healthy development. At the same time, we should see that imitating technology and industrial models is actually a superficial approach, which imitators have not considered at all. What does Wahaha's adoption of imitating technology and industrial models to surpass global peers indicate? It indicates that Wahaha's development history is actually a history of opportunism, revealing that it actively gave up personality independence and intellectual freedom during its development, resulting in superficiality and impetuousness. These are facts presented to us through Wahaha's development history. What is the essence of opportunism? I believe it is deception and fraud. Revealing the essence of the problem can be understood as slapping Wahaha and Zong Qinghou in the face, which is the most taboo in China. So Wahaha and Zong Qinghou certainly do not like to hear it. The problem is that whether you say it or not, the substantive issue remains unchanged. At the same time, anyone with intellectual freedom and personality independence can draw this conclusion by analyzing Wahaha's appearance. The essential issue of the emperor's new clothes always needs to be pointed out bravely, so there is no need to care about gains or losses. Only by revealing the truth of the problem can we clearly understand where the problem lies, find solutions to the fundamental issues, point out the future development direction for the enterprise, and play a role in uniting people, such as giving middle-level employees a sense of security and giving bottom-level employees hope for promotion. How to solve Wahaha's current predicament? First, we must break Wahaha's opportunism. The question arises: where is the breakthrough? Only by finding the breakthrough can we disintegrate opportunism and the thinking inertia and behavioral habits formed under opportunism, and at the same time regain the trust and support of conscientious employees, so that the enterprise organization can unite again to overcome difficulties. I believe the breakthrough lies with Zong Qinghou. He should take responsibility for his actions and bravely step down from Wahaha, because he has already become the most important part of Wahaha's problem. Only by bravely assuming his leadership responsibility can those who have been eliminated by the market smoothly exit the enterprise organization, which actually follows the principle of fairness and justice. Then Wahaha can promote a thorough cleanup of the culture and institutions under Zong Qinghou's governance, establish a culture and institutions that conform to human nature, and bring the enterprise's operations back to the track of human civilization development. Without this procedure, I believe Wahaha's rebirth has almost no hope. Whether this is the case, we can wait and see. Source: Borui Management Online -END-