Li Ruihe’s personal experience

Born in 1935 in an ordinary tea farmer's family in Nantou, Taiwan, he has been cultivating tea for generations. Li Ruihe is already the seventh generation. Li Ruihe has been working in the tea gardens with his grandmother since he was a child. When he was young, during the tea-picking season, he would deliver tea to his father and uncles who were picking tea. When he staggered towards the tea garden, he would always shout: "Everyone, come and have tea!"

“What we drank at that time was actually ‘pork rib tea’ made from tea stems.” Li Ruihe recalled, “At that time, there were many people growing tea and few buying tea. Our family was as poor as ordinary farmers. , and even the family was reluctant to drink the tea leaves, so they kept them for sale. This was the so-called 'fired porcelain eating bowl'." What impressed him even more was that one time a tea merchant. When we went to his house to buy tea, it was getting dark and it was dinner time. Seeing that the tea merchant was hesitant, Li Ruihe's mother left the guests behind and tearfully slaughtered an old hen that had been staying here to lay eggs. After the tea merchant was full of wine and food, he purchased 400 kilograms of tea from the Li family. Li Ruihe still vividly remembers the scene of tea farmers having difficulty selling tea and his mother tearfully killing chickens.

When they grew up, the Li family abandoned farming and went into business to make a living, moved their family, and opened a small tea shop. As the eldest son, Li Ruihe took on the financial responsibility of the family and started running a business, traveling to Kaohsiung, Tainan and other places on a bicycle. Every time he goes to a strange village, Li Ruihe will "look at the people's opinions when entering, look at the mountains when entering the mountains, and talk to the farmers when they meet them." Sometimes when he sees the host's children doing homework, he will be concerned about how the children are studying. If the children don't understand something, he will also pick up paper and pen to provide guidance. "I am opposed to strong sales. Before selling things to others, you must first learn to care about others." Li Ruihe said.

Slowly, Li Ruihe opened up the local market with his hard work and sincerity. Of course, shopping malls are like battlefields. With the development of the market, Li Ruihe touched the interests of some peers and was even threatened, "Look for them again, there will be something good for you." In this regard, Li Ruihe's father has always taught him that peace is the most important thing.

At the age of 21, Li Ruihe joined the army. His military career taught Li Ruihe another lesson. The most difficult period was that he didn't take a shower for 21 days. But he regarded hardship as a tonic and "being managed" as "learning to manage others." He said, "Before you use others, you must first learn to use yourself." As an adult, Li Ruihe has a tall figure, regular facial features, and a talented person. However, he never found a partner. At the age of 25, three consecutive blind dates ended in failure. Both the ticket sales lady and the substitute teacher rejected him on the grounds that "tea sellers have no future" and "the family is not rich and the burden is heavy on the younger siblings". Li Ruihe explained that there were nine brothers and sisters at that time, and the whole family relied on a small tea shop for food. People were shocked when they asked about it. Of course, the failure of the blind date had nothing to do with the fact that he was immersed in work and did not actively pursue the other party.

When he was 26 years old, a comrade in arms couldn't stand it anymore and introduced him to a partner. At first, the girl's parents became embarrassed when they heard about his family's situation. However, this time Li Ruihe did not back down, but boldly proposed marriage: "Our family has been growing tea for generations. Although there are many brothers and sisters, I plan to let everyone open a tea shop in the future. Each of us 9 brothers and sisters will open a tea shop. Those nine tea shops You can form a big company and let your daughter be the boss..." The prospective father-in-law laughed loudly after hearing this: "Young man, you have courage!"

In this way, Li Ruihe made a lifelong decision. . After getting married, on November 10, 1961, 26-year-old Li Ruihe took the lead in opening the first tea shop - "Tianren Tea" on Ximen Road in Tainan City. Of the NT$40,000 cost to open the store, NT$12,000 was given by the father-in-law to his daughter and brought to the Li family, and the remaining NT$8,000 was money from the sale of jewelry by his wife. With that family affection and responsibility on his shoulders, Li Ruihe fought against all odds and vowed to "wash Tainan with sweat" and use the military spirit of "opening roads in the mountains and building bridges in the water" to fulfill his promise.

Fourteen years later, Li Ruihe really opened 9 "Tenren Tea" stores in Taiwan. Later, with the development of Taiwan's economy, his stores blossomed everywhere, and he founded Tenren Tea Factory, Tenren Tea Garden, Lu Yu Tea Art Center, etc. When competitors felt the threat from him, he was unstoppable and miraculously created Tianren Group with a capital of more than 4 billion yuan.

He is a successful businessman who came to Zhangpu from Taiwan to start a business more than ten years ago. He is now the president of two major groups, "Tianren" and "Tianfu"; Jiang Bingkun, many Taiwanese compatriots have been helped by him on their journey to find their roots; he is also a tea culture messenger who travels across the Taiwan Strait. From growing tea, selling tea to cultivating tea industry talents, he has never forgotten to promote tea culture. Now his wish It is to set up a tea culture "Whampoa Military Academy" in southern Fujian.

For Li Ruihe, the president of the Taiwanese businessman Tianfu Group, he is proud of the fact that during his ten years of entrepreneurship in mainland China, he successfully founded the Tianfu Group and has four sales offices in various provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country. With more than 100 tea shops, it is known as the "Tea King on both sides of the Taiwan Strait". In a recent interview with reporters, he said that there are unlimited business opportunities in mainland China.

Tenren Tea owns nearly 30% of the equity, as well as other related companies. After paying off all debts, he resigned as the chairman of Tenren Tea and handed it over to his cousin Li Shengzhi.

In a moment of panic and helplessness, Li Ruihe saw many Taiwanese businessmen investing in the motherland to regain their vitality, so he decided to go to the motherland to ask for advice. In 1993, he took NT$50 million collected by more than 100 relatives and friends to invest in the motherland. He originally planned to open 100 chain stores in mainland China within ten years. Within five years, he reached the goal, and his career was in full swing, reaching its peak again. To this end, he successively bought back 25% of Taiwan Tianren's equity and became the largest shareholder. In 2013, Tianren Company had 14 stores at home and abroad, and Tianfu had 400 stores. Tianfu and Tianren firmly occupied the leading positions in tea on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. For this reason, he is known as the "Two-Strait Tea King". Before Li Ruihe came to the mainland to start his own business, Li Ruihe was already the president of Taiwan Tianren Group. His related companies spanned 11 industries, including the tea industry, ginseng medicine industry, and tourism industry. However, something unexpected happened. In 1990, Taiwan's stock market crashed. The index fell from 12,600 points to 2,500 points, a drop of 80%. Tianren Securities suffered this huge change and lost nearly NT$3 billion. Faced with such a heavy blow, Li Ruihe did not evade or retreat. Instead, he bravely stood up and took responsibility with the spirit of "success is shared by everyone, and failure is solely on my shoulders." He sold all the stocks and properties in his name and paid off all debts. The securities crisis subsided, and Li Ruihe set out again to usher in the second spring of his career and life. As a tea person, Li Ruihe certainly knows that the roots of tea are in the motherland; as a tea merchant, of course he knows that the world's largest tea market is in the motherland. As early as 1988, before the cross-strait ban was lifted, he took the "adventure" to visit the mainland of the motherland for sightseeing and inspecting the tea market. When seeking to develop overseas, Mr. Li also visited Southeast Asian countries such as Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand. However, after comparison, the mainland had similar languages, blood connections, and was more convenient for doing things.

While he was dominating Taiwan’s tea industry and successfully entering overseas markets, Li Ruihe had always dreamed of coming to the mainland, visiting his hometown, and developing his own business in his hometown. Li Ruihe said: "It's not that I love Taiwan too little, but that I love the whole of China more." Li Ruihe's ancestral home is Zhangpu County, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province. Success is the accumulation of small advantages, failure is the negligence of small shortcomings

Tea is an ancient industry, and it once became a sunset industry in modern times. Many tea farmers and merchants are losing money. Li Ruihe, on the other hand, went against the current and dared to carve out his own world in the adverse market. This was partly due to the tea business philosophy he had developed over the past 40 years, and partly due to his accurate grasp of the market. Tianfu Group adopts the old industry and new management method to operate tea. Li Ruihe believes that the biggest feature of modern tea products is to break through the traditional tea sales method of tea houses, create their own brand, and provide refined graded packaging of products to facilitate marketing. Tianfu's business philosophy is based on the world's human nature and adopts a humanized management method so that every employee has full confidence in the company.

The brand concept of Tianfu Group run by Li Ruihe was largely created through standardized management. He often teaches employees, "Success is the accumulation of small advantages, and failure is the neglect of small shortcomings." Operating a brand is different from being an individual. Both product quality and service quality need to be very particular. Tianfu's tea leaves are all from the same year and are never mixed with old tea.

There are certain rules for the display of hardware cylinders in the store, the arrangement of the tea tasting table, and the orientation of the teapot spout. If the tea needle is broken or the edge of the tea cup is chipped, it cannot be used anymore. At the same time, Li Ruihe also attaches great importance to cultivating the personal temperament of employees. "Traditional culture workshops" are often held in teahouses, and teachers are hired to teach employees the "Three Character Classic" and "Disciple Rules." When you walk into Tianfu, you can see naturally smiling faces and hear polite words such as "good morning" and "welcome" at any time. Li Ruihe believes that tea is the most cultural beverage and a symbol of civilization. Tianfu Tea Shop should lead every customer to fully experience this tea culture. Cultivating talents is what Li Ruihe always wants to do. After graduating from junior high school, he worked as a substitute teacher in an elementary school and later became a successful entrepreneur. Therefore, he cherishes talents very much and selects talents regardless of their origin.

Tianfu Group attaches great importance to employee training. Every supervisor in the country must go to the Zhangpu headquarters to receive several weeks of training before taking office. An employee who was about to serve as the director of the Beijing Tea Culture Center was deeply impressed by Zhangpu’s training. "We live together in the staff dormitory, and the doors don't need to be locked." She said that Tianfu Group attaches great importance to character when recruiting people. At the same time, under the influence of the tea food factory and tea museum, we have a more intuitive understanding and understanding of corporate culture.

Li Ruihe's special assistant Shen Fujing pointed out that Tianfu Group's training for store clerks includes standardized training from dressing, treating customers, to walking postures. "After training, the clerk's temperament and service attitude have completely changed." He said that even how to clean the toilet is a training course.