NW
On the evening of April 27, 2020, Zhang Yong, founder of Haidilao, sent an internal email to announce the adoption of the leadership talent selection plan for the next 10 to 15 years, aiming to strengthen the effective internal promotion mechanism and reserve talents in advance for the sustainable development of the company and the long-term retirement plan of the senior management team.
After the release of the open letter, according to incomplete statistics of「readCEO」, hundreds of first-line founders and entrepreneurs forwarded the full-text letter in the circle of friends, or referred to the succession plan when they were interviewed by the media. Mr. Kou Yuanjun, the founder of Chengdu COACHYARD, said in an interview with the「readCEO」 that this is a retirement plan that makes my eyes filled with tears. I hope that one day Mr. Zhang Yong’s retirement dinner will be held in the “mushroom banquet · Sichuan restaurant”. I have opened a restaurant for 20 years and have never served any guests completely. I would like to dedicate my first service to Zhang Yong.
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I
Elder brother fool said that Zhang Yong is a great founder. The success of Haidilao has made all walks of life study and learn the entrepreneurship and service spirit of the new era. After more than 20 years of development and creation, Haidilao has entered the industry-abiding stage. This succession plan fully demonstrates his dedication to long-term doctrine. I firmly believe that a good market environment is the cornerstone of talent reserve. For Haidilao, a brand that takes “service driven development” as its core strategy for the future, Mr. Zhang Yong clearly expresses Haidilao’s thirst for talents in talent introduction. In fact, the inexhaustible power of development, no matter in the city or in the enterprise, lies in talents.
II
At present, the national catering industry is in the recovery period under the cold winter of the epidemic. The media still doubt whether the new catering forces relying on financing can survive tenaciously. Kou Yuanjun, who was born in a traditional catering enterprise, has rich practical and innovative experience in the aspects of cost reduction, revenue increase, effectiveness upload, franchise management, etc. in his more than 20 years of entrepreneurial career, which is also the biggest advantage of his brand compared with other new catering.
“As an experienced founder and CEO of catering, first of all, we should consider the health of cash flow, second, the gross profit rate should be positive, so as to truly achieve a positive net profit, so that the company will have the ability to continue to operate,” said the elder brother , the core of sustainable operation is refined operation, that is, whether the team objectives are consistent, whether the financial situation is healthy, and whether the dining experience is excellent. Yudao has accumulated rich experience in long-term operation and practice, so we continue to maintain confidence in the market.
III
The following is the full text of Zhang Yong’s internal letter shared by President Kou with tears dipped in materials. All members of readCEO sincerely wish Mr. Zhang Yong’s successor plan a smooth implementation and sincerely hope that Mr. Kou’s dream will come true.
Dear colleagues,
I want to share good news and bad news with everyone. The good news is, I’m going to retire. After retirement, you don’t have to worry about receiving my furious phone call any more. The bad news is that my retirement is just a plan. It will take at least ten years to complete this plan, but not more than fifteen years at most.
IV
All people have the opportunity to participate in the leadership succession plan. Only three people are not allowed. They are respectively: Mr. Shi Yonghong, who is older and fatter than me, I am very happy to think of this; besides him, Mr. Gou Yiqun, who has big eyes and is more handsome than me, has no chance; of course, the beautiful and capable Yang Xiaoli cannot participate in it. The three of them have no obvious shortcomings. The only reason is that they are too expensive. For the future board of directors, the cost performance ratio is really not high.
Think about the age when they just met me. In 1985, Shi Yonghong was 15; in 1995, Yang Xiaoli was 17; in 1999, Gou Yiqun was 27. Every day we spent together is busy and full, every tomorrow we ushered in together is wonderful and incredibly beautiful, and the scene of our first meeting is still vivid.
Today, we are still clear headed and full of vitality. It seems a little early to discuss retirement at this time. But if you plan ahead, you will be more calm. No matter how ten years later, I will be 60 years old. In the past two years, all four of us are worried about our learning ability. The four of us are also particularly afraid that we will become a stumbling block for the development of the enterprise. Therefore, we have made this plan together. We hope to find a leader who loves Haidilao, is skilled in business and has insight into human nature through this plan.
V
In fact, there are often people who ask me a repeated question: “how do you make every waiter work so hard?” I usually answer like this: “yes, would the waiter you happen to meet just happens to be the excellent one?” This standard answer fully reflects my wife, Shu Ping, and my grandmother, who has been dead for many years, have asked me to be a low-key person. I still don’t understand. When Shu Ping married me, my grandmother had passed away. They had never met each other, but their strict requirements for me were surprisingly the same.
But today, I want to be honest: I enjoy being asked questions like this. I am so proud, just like drinking honey. Because I know that behind every hard-working waiter there must be a hard-working store manager, behind the hard-working store manager there must be a hard-working family manager, behind the hard-working family manager there must be a group of excellent and hard-working coaches. These excellent and hard-working coaches must have an effective promotion system behind them.
VI
Dear colleagues, in October last year or so, we implemented a “high limit order” on the income of cadres above the head of the family. This means that no matter how hard these excellent cadres work, their income will be controlled within a fixed number. If you want to get a higher income, you have only two choices: first, to do work that you are not familiar with before and have never done before, such as: finance, new technology, procurement, etc.; second, you can start a business internally, only these new jobs It will bring you extra income.
At the same time, we will give you corresponding points for every new job you do. When we need to promote a cadre, we will find those with the highest score and let the superior leaders choose the best. So if you don’t have points, you can’t get higher income, and of course, you can’t get promotion. On the contrary, when you have a lot of points, you not only have a higher income, but also show that you are more proficient in all businesses than others. Of course, it proves that you are smarter and more capable than others.
VII
What I want to remind you in particular here is that if I don’t say who has high points, I will definitely promote who. What I’m talking about is that we should find out the group with the highest score and observe for a long time to choose the best candidates. “Choosing” is your kindness in life and work. Shi Yonghong, Yang Xiaoli and Gou Yiqun and I will spend ten years to observe and judge. I hope God will visit us again, so that we can choose a leader who loves underwater fishing, is proficient in business and has insight into human nature.
If you are a financial director, a new technology engineer, or an ordinary employee of a branch company, please don’t worry. This plan covers everyone, but the details are different.
VIII
If ten years later, Haidilao is lucky enough to still exist. If we have the chance to choose an excellent successor, I will apply to my wife for a high-profile opportunity: I will praise each other and flatter each other at the retirement dinner party of four of us. I will never say shortcomings.
I will not put my retirement dinner in Haidilao. I will eat Sichuan food and stir fry. In the process of eating, I will seriously say to the waiter: how can I feel that the dishes and services are not as good as the first two times? Then, I would close my eyes and imagine that the next morning, the chef and the lobby manager were desperate. Of course, in two days, I would go to the door and apologize.
Then I’ll drink, drunk. I will cry and laugh when I am drunk. I will shout to my grandma in the sky, “grandma, I also want to keep a low profile, but my strength is not allowed! At the end of the dinner, I will not say “the dinner is over”. I will definitely say “the meeting is over”
