Click to read the original article for details. The sturdy gold-and-red small can, the sweet and sour magical taste, whether you are a beverage enthusiast or not, you are probably familiar with the drink "Red Bull." As the "pioneer" of China's functional beverage market, according to public reports, as of early 2018, Red Bull had sold over 8 million tons of products nationwide, with cumulative sales exceeding 160 billion yuan and total tax payments of 30 billion yuan. On average, four out of every five functional beverages sold are Red Bull. While achieving great success in the beverage market, behind the "Red Bull" brand, the Huabin Group led by founder Yan Bin has become a well-known international and diversified multinational enterprise, with businesses covering FMCG, green health, general aviation, financial investment, and culture and sports. During the 2019 Two Sessions, this "father of China's functional beverages" came into the media spotlight. As a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), his proposals this year cover topics such as overseas Chinese affairs, ecological development, and the deep integration of big data with the real economy. Since Red Bull took root in China, this business magnate has been competing in the domestic beverage market for over twenty years. Yet, after all the glory, he says, "I am a participant, witness, and beneficiary of reform and opening-up. Without reform and opening-up, I could never have imagined being where I am today." At the Fourth Silk Road International Forum held in Paris at the end of 2018, Yan Bin said this in an interview with reporters. His words still reveal a sincere patriotic heart. If it weren't for Yan Bin, China's functional beverage market might still be a blank slate, or at least not have the scale and development prospects it has today. In the 1970s, with hopes for the future, young Yan Bin, carrying 92 yuan, went alone to Thailand to do business. Thanks to his hardworking nature, he saved his first pot of gold while residing in Thailand. In 1984, he founded Huabin Group in Thailand, with main businesses including property, tourism, and international trade. Besides trading with merchants from his motherland, he also kept a close eye on new developments in domestic reform and opening-up. With the successful conclusion of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, domestic social order became more stable, the investment environment improved, and people's living standards rose significantly. Yan Bin, who never forgot his homeland, finally had the opportunity to return to China to develop his career. Before that, he had brought a "gift" for his compatriots from abroad. In the 1960s, Thai-Chinese businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya developed a "tonic beverage" containing water, sugar, caffeine, and vitamins. He originally hoped to introduce the drink to China, but due to local conditions, he faced many difficulties and eventually had to give up. At that time, Yan Bin had already done many concrete things for economic and cultural exchanges between China and Thailand, so when the inventor of this drink approached Yan Bin, the two hit it off immediately. This drink was Red Bull, which later became popular nationwide. After extensive pre-launch preparations, including applying for market access documents and trademark registration, and overcoming numerous difficulties and obstacles, Yan Bin and his team completed negotiations, signing, production, and launch in just a few months, astonishing the industry with their speed. In 1997, Yan Bin built the China Red Bull production base in Beijing. In 1998, he moved the China Red Bull headquarters to Beijing. Afterwards, Yan Bin personally invested heavily in advertising and consumer cultivation. People who experienced that era recall: "At that time, Red Bull had no brand awareness at all. To let everyone taste Red Bull, he sincerely gave cans of Red Bull to every taxi driver who passed by." With Yan Bin's persistence and belief, Red Bull gradually gained a foothold. Its sales soared from less than 200 million cans in the previous decade to 5.5 billion cans in 2015, setting off a fierce "golden can whirlwind" in the domestic beverage market. It was during those years that the slogan "Tired and sleepy? Drink Red Bull" began to take root in the hearts of consumers. After a company grows bigger and stronger, how to "maintain the business" is a challenge almost all entrepreneurs face. On this issue, Andy Grove, president of Intel, a Fortune 500 company, once asserted: "For enterprises, innovation is the only way out. Eliminate yourself, or competition will eliminate us." In fact, after achieving great success in the beverage market, Yan Bin did not relax but maintained a forward-looking awareness of the market. As the founder of China's functional beverage market, Yan Bin is as energetic as if he had "drunk Red Bull" in work settings. He once revealed: "I am an entrepreneur in the real economy. Last year, I traveled on business for 195 days, flying 290,000 kilometers and 450 hours, equivalent to circling the earth 7 times. I saw and felt a lot in various countries and regions. We must have confidence in China's path and economic development, maintain strategic focus, and concentrate on doing our own things well." When building the Huabin International Building back then, he could go up and down 20 times a day, checking every floor to see what problems existed and why they occurred. In a 2012 interview, he joked that he slept standing up: "I get up at 5 a.m. My mind is clearer early in the morning. I was born in the Year of the Horse, and horses sleep standing up." However, unlike his almost "crazy" work enthusiasm, his insight into capital operations also amazed everyone. When Huabin Group was developing steadily, and China's stock market was rapidly expanding, some advised Yan Bin to go public to "make a quick buck," but he explicitly refused. In a media interview, he said, "Entrepreneurs have more responsibilities. It's better to do solid work in the real economy." At that time, he was also regarded as a "conservative" in the capital market, along with Ren Zhengfei of Huawei and later China's richest man, Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha Group. Facts have proven that these older-generation entrepreneurs who witnessed China's economic growth often have extraordinary strategic vision on long-term issues. During the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Thai baht depreciated nearly twofold, and many capital tycoons lost everything overnight. But Yan Bin had already transferred all his funds back to the mainland half a year earlier, not only successfully avoiding the crisis but also maintaining asset growth. After Red Bull's great success, while the company was still immersed in celebration, the far-sighted Yan Bin had already thought ahead about Huabin Group's subsequent business, establishing Huabin FMCG Group to continue to develop in the health beverage industry: In 2014, Yan Bin acquired a 25% stake in the American brand Vita Coco and established Vita Coco China, adding another piece to his FMCG map. In 2015, he introduced Capri-Sun, a healthy drink specially for children. In 2016, Yan Bin acquired and took control of the Norwegian premium water brand VOSS, and despite opposition, established a localized VOSS natural mineral water production base in Zhuxi, a national-level deeply impoverished county in Hubei. In 2016, Huabin Group officially launched War Horse energy vitamin drink, and in 2017 fully initiated market promotion. In April 2018, the China Functional Beverage Innovation and Development Conference was held in Beijing. Yan Bin, already in his sixties, personally led the heads and executives of various group divisions to attend, all to promote the launch of the red-can War Horse drink, because War Horse is not only Huabin's first self-developed energy drink but also carries high hopes: to make War Horse the first national energy beverage brand sold along the "Belt and Road" countries. Besides the beverage market, he also expanded into other industries. After 40 years of hard work, Yan Bin's business matrix now includes FMCG group, green health industry, aviation group, petrochemical company, green finance, and many other entities in different fields and levels. Currently, Huabin Group's assets exceed 100 billion yuan, with cumulative tax payments exceeding 30 billion yuan. Just the China Red Bull business alone has paid over 21 billion yuan in taxes. Yan Bin's subsidiaries are spread across Europe, America, and Southeast Asia, directly and indirectly creating over 100,000 jobs. Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, concluded after in-depth research on more than 100 famous global companies: "For enterprises, the truly win-win approach is to develop a socially responsible business model." However, dissatisfied with the negative and evasive sentiment prevailing in the capital market at the time, he wrote in his book "Corporate Social Responsibility": "Globally, corporate social responsibility is a widely practiced field, but the vast majority of social responsibility projects only stay at charity and donations... This has led to social responsibility becoming a burden for enterprises, turning an important development driver into a show." For modern enterprises, avoiding social responsibility being mere formality and internalizing it as their own development driver is a proposition every manager needs to study in depth. On this point, Yan Bin, with a sincere heart, has provided a perfect answer through practical actions. As a representative of patriotic overseas Chinese entrepreneurs, Yan Bin is highly reputable both at home and abroad. He holds positions in various official or non-governmental organizations, including Vice Chairman of the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, Vice President of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, Executive Vice President of the China Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Association, and co-founder and supervisor of the "Belt and Road" General Chamber of Commerce (Hong Kong). Through deep communication in economic, financial, and cultural fields, Yan Bin has helped promote friendly exchanges, economic cooperation, and cultural exchanges between China and Southeast Asia, Europe, America, and other countries and regions. In 2018, marking the fifth anniversary of the "Belt and Road" initiative, at the Fourth Silk Road International Forum in Paris, Yan Bin emotionally stated in his speech: "My 20 years overseas and 20 years at home have given me many old, good, and true friends at home and abroad. My biggest feeling is: cooperation builds bridges, win-win wins the world." Regarding the "Belt and Road" national strategy, Yan Bin not only sincerely agrees but also actively contributes through actions. As early as two years ago, Yan Bin, together with several well-known business figures, founded the "Belt and Road" General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and personally served as co-chairman. "Through this platform, while conveying the 'Belt and Road' initiative more widely, we can also better leverage Hong Kong's status as an international financial center, connect patriotic figures from all walks of life in Hong Kong, serve the country's needs, showcase Hong Kong's strengths, and promote the 'Belt and Road' construction process on more levels," Yan Bin said about his original intention. During the 2019 Two Sessions, the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" General Chamber of Commerce signed a data construction cooperation memorandum with the National Information Center at the Huabin Center. Lin Jian Yue, chairman of the council of the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" General Chamber of Commerce, said that the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan Outline" proposes building an important support zone for the "Belt and Road" construction, supporting Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao to strengthen cooperation and jointly participate in the "Belt and Road" construction. (The Hong Kong "Belt and Road" General Chamber of Commerce) works with the National Information Center to co-build and complement each other's advantages, build a big data innovation and entrepreneurship and industrial application base in the Greater Bay Area, construct a big data ecological environment in the Greater Bay Area, and help enterprises seize the opportunities of the "Belt and Road" construction. In addition, Yan Bin also learned by chance that Michael Yamashita, a famous photographer for National Geographic, had spent eight years retracing the historical routes of Marco Polo and Zheng He, photographing while walking and researching history while photographing, ultimately forming a database of over 300,000 precious images. This set of precious images has not only artistic value but also historical value, as many related image records have been destroyed. At that time, coinciding with the country's "Belt and Road" initiative, the Huabin Culture Foundation selected the best of these images and planned the "Silk Road Journey - 'Belt and Road' Photography Exhibition Global Tour," which has since toured 17 stops worldwide, greatly enhancing the understanding and attention of people in related countries to China's "Belt and Road" initiative. On the 2019 Lantern Festival, the "Silk Road Cultural Exchange Center," aimed at building a platform for cultural exchanges between China and Singapore, was officially inaugurated in Singapore. Que Xiaohua, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, said that traditional Chinese culture is conducive to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Singapore and other countries along the "Belt and Road," and plays a positive role in creating a good environment for the "Belt and Road" initiative. Yan Bin said, "We hope to introduce 'Beautiful China' and 'Green China' to more people, use traditional culture to enhance the 'people-to-people bonds and heart-to-heart connectivity' between China and 'Belt and Road' countries, promote common economic development, and make greater contributions to the Maritime Silk Road construction." As he said during his discussion at the 2019 Two Sessions, "With a strong country, there is a rich family. The vast number of overseas Chinese should keep pace with the pace of the nation's great rejuvenation, inherit the 'Jia Geng spirit,' and also have a heart for the country and the people, down-to-earth, doing the real economy well and solidly." The VOSS mineral water factory built by Huabin Group in Zhuxi, a national-level deeply impoverished county in Hubei, took more than two years to complete, overcoming unimaginable difficulties such as autumn floods, landslides, collapses, floods, and snow disasters. "As the old saying goes, 'When you drink water, think of the well digger.' We cannot let honest people suffer. Today, 70% of the drinking water for people in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei comes from Shiyan and Danjiangkou Reservoir. The local people have made sacrifices to protect the water source for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project," Yan Bin said. "At the same time, I hope to take green development as the core, making 'China's water' under ecological civilization construction become 'the world's water.'" It is also for this reason that he was determined to build the VOSS water production base in Zhuxi, no matter how great the difficulties or how much investment increased. "The highest good is like water, and great love knows no bounds. The 380,000 people of Zhuxi sincerely thank Chairman Yan Bin and Huabin Group. We will forever remember your deep dedication and selfless contribution." This is a thank-you letter sent to Yan Bin by the Zhuxi County Party Committee and County Government of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, at the end of 2018. In 2018, Yan Bin also received the honor of "Meritorious Entrepreneur in the 40 Years of Reform and Opening-up in China's Food Industry" awarded by the China National Food Industry Association. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, as the founder of China Red Bull, building the drink from scratch into a leading brand in China's functional beverage industry, Yan Bin has undoubtedly achieved great commercial success, but what he is most grateful for is this great era that allowed him to realize his ambitions. Currently, China Red Bull has 4 modern international standard production bases nationwide, over 40 business units, linked with 5 brand operating companies, expanding to over 4 million sales outlets, forming 600,000 core terminals, and creating a multi-level FMCG sales network system composed of distributors, sub-distributors, and terminal outlets, directly creating nearly 15,000 jobs, involving over 4.3 million jobs in the entire industry chain, and paying over 30 billion yuan in domestic taxes cumulatively. It is hard to imagine that such a huge sales network was built by early frontline salespeople using bicycles and tricycles, making hard visits. There is also the concept of "cutting through mountains and building bridges when encountering water" that was on their lips and empowered their actions. Speaking of the future, Yan Bin's excitement was palpable: "Next, I want to do my own business well, better integrate my personal career into the development of the motherland, and seize the beat of the times again." Finally, he added: "I am full of confidence in the future of the motherland." Source: Finance Without Taboo (ID: caijwj)