What is a Chinese entrepreneur?
Literature | Chinese merchants' strategy Dongmu Chu
Twenty years ago, Li Shufu was known as a "car maniac". If there was a microblog at that time, every time he uttered his voice, he should be able to be searched.
In recent years, Li Shufu has gradually faded out of his daily business, and he seldom shows his true feelings. In the words of "Flowers", he is:
No sound.
In addition to personal silence, Geely has quietly set foot in many industries, including satellites, power batteries, flying cars and power semiconductors. People who know the situation even think that——
Li Shufu is the entrepreneur closest to Musk in China.
[Satellites in the sky]
On March 28, 2024, in Taizhou, Zhejiang, Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding, invited Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, into a satellite super factory.
Yes, you are right. In the birthplace of Geely, Li Shufu, the car maker, has started mass production of satellites.
The factory code is "Taizhou Xingkong Zhilian Satellite Factory". It is located in Taizhou Bay New Area, with a floor area of about 55000 square meters. It has an AIT (satellite assembly, integration and testing) center, a component manufacturing center and a scientific research building.
At present, Geely's satellite factory has an annual production capacity of 500 satellites. The company standing behind the factory is Geely's scientific innovation unicorn, which was founded in 2018.
Public information shows that Wang Yang, CEO and chief system engineering expert of Space Time Daoyu, once worked for Huawei and the Micro Satellite Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has many years of experience in national satellite engineering projects.
Wang Yang said, "The name of Shijingdaoyu was given by Dong Li himself. His view of the universe is huge."
In 2010, Li Shufu first mentioned his "cosmology" at the China EU Business Summit. He said:
"We will continue to promote the automotive industry to make breakthroughs in safety and environmental protection. While taking root in the earth, we should also look at the vast universe, where there are countless stars and planets waiting for human development and utilization."
▲ Yu Minhong, Li Shufu, Wang Yang
At the beginning of the company's establishment, Li Shufu told Wang Yang that China's aerospace industry has already taken the lead in the world, so the disruptive innovation of commercial aerospace should come from the next generation of technology or another industry.
"Taizhou Satellite Factory is the spark from the collision between aerospace manufacturing and automobile manufacturing."
Li Shufu's goal is to create a future travel ecology for human beings. What bears this goal is the Geely Future Travel Constellation built and operated by Space Time Daoyu.
According to the official website of Shijingdaoyu, Geely Future Travel Constellation is the world's first commercial communication, navigation and remote sensing integrated constellation, which comprehensively covers low altitude travel, air transportation, intelligent networking, automatic driving, consumer electronics and ocean transportation.
Up to now, Geely Future Travel Constellation has carried out two satellite launches in June 2022 and February 2024, respectively, "One Arrow Nine Stars" and "One Arrow 11 Stars", and completed the network deployment of 20 satellites in two orbital planes.
Wang Yang said that the two successful launches of Geely Travel Constellation were one of the few orbital level launch deployments in the world. Therefore, Space Time Daoyu has become the sixth company in the world that has the independent ability to design satellite constellations, build satellite constellations, and conduct long-term on orbit management after the star chains of Iridium, Globalstar, Orbcomm, OneWeb, and SpaceX.
When visiting the factory, Wang Yang also introduced the future plan of the company to Yu Minhong:
"It is expected to complete the deployment of 72 satellites and eight orbital planes in Phase I within two years. At that time, two Geely satellites will transit anywhere on the earth except the North and South Poles, which will meet the requirements of seamless global data communication, including the direct connection of satellites, cars and mobile phones. By the time 168 satellites in the second phase of the project are deployed, all the ground positions on the earth can reach a convergence rate of ten centimeters and three minutes, that is, centimeter level high-precision position navigation services will be provided. "
Yu Minhong also visited the upcoming "Oriental Selection" satellite in Geely Satellite Factory. In the second half of this year, this satellite will be launched into space as the third orbital plane of Geely Future Travel Constellation, "one arrow and ten stars".
Li Shufu said to Yu Minhong, "This satellite will select and monitor the growth of crops for your East."
At the end of the visit, Li Shufu asked Yu Minhong with a smile, "Do you like commercial aerospace?" Then he gave him a set of Introduction to Commercial Aerospace Engineering edited by Wang Yang.
The last time they visited the factory together was more than a decade ago when they visited the BMW headquarters in Munich with a group of entrepreneurs.
At that time, Yu Minhong's speech "We come, we observe, we learn" was applauded by everyone, while Li Shufu, who just bought Volvo, calmly "smashed" the market:
"We will compete with Mercedes Benz and BMW in the future".
[Industrial closed-loop]
Li Shufu quietly began the layout of "heaven and earth integration" after he published the "cosmology" in 2010.
In addition to satellites, its landmark actions include: the wholly-owned acquisition of Terrafugia, an American flying car company, in 2017, and the joint investment of Volocopter, a low altitude travel enterprise operating point-to-point in the city, with Durham; In 2022, Meizu Technology will be acquired.
After a series of actions, Geely has gradually become clear in creating a future intelligent travel mode that integrates heaven and earth.
In Geely's core automotive field, Li Shufu's layout is also larger than the outside world's imagination.
2023 is the year of the outbreak of new energy vehicles in China. Geely has also set a record annual sales of 1686516 vehicles, of which 487461 are new energy vehicles, up 48% year on year.
During this period, the sales of Geely's Polar Krypton, Galaxy and Geometry achieved double-digit year-on-year growth.
In addition to visible new energy vehicles, Li Shufu, who has built cars for nearly 30 years, has also made a deep and wide layout around building a sustainable new energy industry supply chain.
New energy vehicles cannot be separated from power batteries. Geely's layout of power battery industry is a closed loop from materials, research and development to recycling. It has 60 million tons of manganese carbonate ore resources, 400000 tons of manganese carbonate ore and 100000 tons of electrolytic manganese, which is an important raw material for new energy batteries, through investment, production and research.
Battery recycling is a major pain point in the new energy industry, and also a problem that restricts the transformation of many traditional automobile brands in Europe and the United States. With the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, the stock of power batteries has been very considerable, known as the "mine on wheels".
Li Shufu also took an early step in recycling power batteries.
In 2018, Geely, together with BASF Shanshan and Zijin Mining, invested in the establishment of Evergreen New Energy, which is mainly engaged in the recycling of waste lithium batteries and the R&D, production, sales, import and export trade of lithium battery three-way precursors, creating an ecological closed-loop industrial chain of lithium battery resources.
The total investment of Changqing New Energy in the five-year plan is 6.589 billion yuan, and 150000 t/a waste lithium battery resource utilization and 100000 t/a ternary precursor production line will be constructed in three phases.
The first phase project has been completed and put into operation in 2019. In February 2023, the second phase project of Changqing New Energy officially started in Longyan, Fujian, with a total investment of 2.308 billion yuan. After the project is put into operation, 40000 t/a of waste lithium batteries and 30000 t/a of high nickel ternary precursors can be added for resource utilization, which will create 550 new jobs in the local area.
The cooperation mode of the three enterprises is that more than 10 Geely automobile brands provide stable battery material recycling resources, which are processed by the other two companies and finally supplied back to the power battery factory under Geely to truly create a closed-loop resource recycling.
Li Shufu once talked about his entrepreneurial experience in the 1980s when he was interviewed by the media in 2008.
"When I graduated from middle school at the age of 18, I began to take photos and open a photo studio. Later, I came up with a new idea: to select gold from the garbage heap in the waste market and extract silver and gold from the waste. People didn't find any business opportunities in this area, so I had the technology to separate it. Silver is silver and copper is copper."
"Alchemy" is well done. Why build a car? The reason is also very similar to the style of "Li Shufu":
"Everyone learns what I do, so I want to do car business. Now you don't want to learn anything."
[Before dawn]
After Geely started building satellites, some people said that Li Shufu wanted to be a "Chinese Musk".
This kind of statement neither understands Mask nor Li Shufu.
To understand the business ecological layout of Geely's simultaneous development of going to heaven and mining, it is advisable to go back 23 years to 2001, a few months before Geely got the right to produce cars, and look at Li Shufu who was in the twilight to dark hours.
Wu Xiaobo, a financial writer, once described Li Shufu's persistence in making cars in his book. "When others make cars, they leave a way for themselves. On the basis of not giving up the original industry, they regard making cars as a 'big bait' to gain government support and the favor of banks. Only Li Shufu is the most 'crazy' and" stupid ". When it comes to making cars, he gambles his life and life."
In July 2001, Geely again "lost" the "Announcement of Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement") issued by the State Economic and Trade Commission. If Geely does not enter the Announcement, it will not be qualified to produce cars.
At that time, Geely could only produce "American Japanese" and "heroic" two "passenger cars", and the car design could not "long tail", because the long tail became a "car".
▲ Li Shufu and "American Japanese minibus"
On the day when the Bulletin was published, Li Shufu didn't even have the courage to open the newspaper because he could not return. Since 1998, Li Shufu has invested more than 10 billion yuan to build a factory. He said:
"At this stage, if you don't do it, the consequences will be unimaginable."
At that time, there were more than one hundred automobile enterprises in China, and Geely was the only private enterprise, which was similar to others.
Some private enterprises "took the initiative to join" the state-owned automobile group, thus entering the Announcement, but Li Shufu always "proudly" raised his head. When he met the leaders of the state-owned automobile enterprises, they had nothing to say but smile, and he returned with "hehe" self mocking laughter.
The reporter asked him if he had to carry the brand of Geely on his own?
Li Shufu excitedly patted the table and said:
Yes
There was a magazine named "Chinese Entrepreneur" on the desk. He knocked five words on the cover one by one with his hand:
"What is an entrepreneur? What is a Chinese entrepreneur? You can't always walk behind others."
At that time, only the final signature was left before China's formal accession to the WTO. Several state-owned car enterprises were worried about their own situation. Ford, GM, Volkswagen and Toyota, which were eyeing the Chinese market, were about to hit.
Under the pressure of dark clouds, Li Shufu is the most expectant for the future.
He said, "From the perspective of politics and economy of the world and China, I think it is positive to get the production right, but it is just a matter of time and way, because it is in line with the direction of reform and opening up. As long as private car enterprises are involved, China's auto industry will grow rapidly Chinese made cars will not only resist the influx of foreign cars, but will also be exported in large quantities, which I am confident. ”
On October 31, 2001, the State Economic and Trade Commission issued a new batch of announcements on the products of automobile manufacturers. Geely finally ranked among them, becoming the only private automobile enterprise in China. However, Li Shufu reacted calmly, saying only:
"I got the right to production".
A month later, on December 11, in Doha, Qatar, Shi Guangsheng, then Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, signed the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO.
In the 23 years since then, the economy has developed rapidly, and Geely's business scope has also changed from "four wheels, two sofas" to "everything from heaven to earth" business ecology. Li Shufu has also been cautiously and aggressively looking forward to and laying out the next future amid the turbulence and changes in the world situation and the ever-changing changes in science and technology.
From the perspective of innovation enthusiasm and courage, including today's business layout, Li Shufu and Musk are indeed very similar, but from the perspective of innovation starting point and path, there is no doubt that there are huge differences between them, just like the difference between Wandering Earth and Star Trek:
Musk's dream is to immigrate to Mars by spaceship; Li Shufu's insistence is to carry the earth and develop the universe.
Reference
[1] Yu Minhong, Li Shufu and Wang Yang Take You Into the Most Advanced Satellite Super Factory in China
[2] "Li Shufu and Yu Minhong Explore Geely's New Quality Productivity Super Satellite Factory" Geely Holding Group
[3] Life and Death: Li Shufu Tian Weihua, Li Min, Chinese entrepreneur
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