The young boss of Suning passed away a few years ago.

Zhang, who was in charge of Suning for 30 years, resigned.

On the evening of July 12, it was announced that the founder Zhang submitted his resignation to the board of directors and resigned as chairman. At the same time, Vice Chairman Sun Weimin and Director Meng Xiangsheng resigned. Sun Weimin was once called "No.2" in Suning. Since 1998 joined Suning as assistant to the general manager, he has witnessed the ups and downs of this company for more than 20 years.

In recent years, most founders have resigned. For example, Huang Zheng, who led Pinduoduo to retire after ringing the bell, or Zhang Yiming, who resigned before listing in ByteDance, chose to hide his fame. And Zhang may be even more helpless about the current situation.

"Every adjustment and change made now is to make Suning.cn develop better." Zhang said in an open letter to employees. In the predicament, he chose to give up control to save Suning. It is difficult to judge whether he left early or late.

Back in the winter of 1990, 27-year-old Zhang decided to quit his job and start a business. He rented a facade room of about 200 square meters in Ninghai Road, Nanjing, and began to sell air conditioners. This store named "Suning Focus" is the prototype of Suning, a giant in the retail field in the future.

199 1 year1month, Suning's revenue has exceeded 20 million yuan. In July 2004, Suning landed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. At that time, a widely circulated detail was that at the moment when the market rang the bell, Zhang struck hard and the hammer in his hand cracked. This seems to be some kind of omen: Zhang has been seeking change, but he has pushed it too hard. The radical expansion plan eventually led to Suning's debt and cracks.

2015 August 10, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Alibaba and Suning Shang Yun announced a strategic cooperation map/vision china.

Three years earlier than Zhang, Huang Guangyu also started an electrical appliance business in Beijing. Gome, which he founded, once became Zhang's biggest competitor. From 2000 to 2008, Suning confronted Gome for eight years. Then, with the advent of the e-commerce era, Suning's new rival became JD.COM, and even established the "Fighting Suning Command" in JD.COM. Liu Zeng said JD.COM in Weibo. COM's home appliances have zero gross profit within three years, and a new round of price war has begun.

Under the impact of the Internet wave, the pattern of home appliance retailing has changed dramatically, and Ali and JD.COM have made rapid progress, while Suning and Gome have gradually lost their central position. In fact, Zhang, who entered the Internet age, was never satisfied with the status quo.

As early as 20 14, Zhang proposed "returning to the wolf culture" internally. He paid attention to cultivating young backbone, and started the "1200 project" from 1993, which has continued to this day, that is, recruiting 1200 outstanding graduates every year, and growing into the core backbone of the middle management team of the group within two to three years through comprehensive, systematic and professional training.

In recent years, Zhang's investment expansion plan has also been carried out drastically: Suning Finance, Suning Logistics and Suning Store were established, Carrefour China was acquired, and 37 Wanda stores were merged. Later, the slogan "20 19, 15000 store" was shouted.

20 17 12 19, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Zhang (left), Chairman of Suning Group, and Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda Group. Exchange chart/vision china

However, the counterattack against the e-commerce giant brought about the liabilities on Suning's financial statements. Since the second half of 2020, problems such as the maturity of Suning bonds and tight cash flow have become prominent. According to the 2020 annual report, as of June 65438+February 3 1 2020, Suning.cn's short-term loans amounted to 23.75 billion yuan, and its current liabilities totaled124.6 billion yuan.

In terms of management, although the "1200 Project" was launched, most of the senior executives are old people who have followed Zhang for many years. The oldest current president, Hou Enlong, is 53 years old.

"This year's problems all broke out. Now many projects have stopped, and some departments only have S-level (highest priority) projects. I heard that a group of middle-level cadres also resigned. " An on-the-job employee of Suning told Southern People Weekly that the "1200 Project" has indeed trained a number of outstanding employees, but few of them have really entered the management.

In an interview with the 265438+20th Century Business Herald and other media, Sun Weimin once concluded: "In the final analysis, the problem of Suning since the end of last year is one thing, and the liquidity of enterprises has become difficult. Many things are not accidental, they are appearances and representations of many things, and there are also the superposition of realistic factors in a specific historical period. "

On February 28th, 20021,it was announced that the actual controller Zhang and his concerted actions planned to transfer 23% of the shares to SZSE. On July 5th, Suning.cn announced the latest share transfer plan, introducing joint strategic investment of Jiangsu state-owned assets and industrial capital, and withdrawing from Shenzhen state-owned assets.

After the agreement transfer is completed, there will be no controlling shareholder and actual controller in Suning.cn. At the same time, in the new board of directors, it is his son Zhang who will be nominated to replace Zhang. According to the announcement, Zhang will remain in Suning as honorary chairman after his resignation.

"Fireflies lead the way with lanterns, followed by thousands of troops." At the mobilization meeting of "8 18" in Suning in 2020, Zhang was very excited, but now, he seems to be losing the company he founded step by step.