Sunrise Celebration

Author: Shen Lifeng, Liu Xindong, Hu Shengliang / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Prioritize being a good person before doing business, uphold honesty and trustworthiness as the guiding principle of life, and maintain a low-key demeanor. – The spirit of Yongda.
Yongda is a company primarily engaged in automotive sales and services. However, the first principle of the Yongda spirit emphasizes being a good person. I found this idea quite fresh. During an interview with Yongda President Zhang De'an, he discussed business straightforwardly, saying, "In business, one must first be a good person." For him, being a good person was particularly important. In the nearly two hours of our conversation, he spoke in a well-organized and meticulous manner. The only time he smiled was when he talked about his children. He said his son was only eleven years old, and while he didn’t place much emphasis on his academic performance, he highly valued his character, how he conducted himself, and how he made friends. He even required his son to make friends with 50 classmates in university, and then 100 more in middle school and university. Among the 250 friends, as long as half of them maintained contact in the future, the over 100 people in that half would become a treasure in his life. I believe Zhang De'an is using simple language to impart profound lessons about networking resources to his children. He gave me an example: although his son was only eleven, he always had a cheerful expression and would greet people with, "Are you doing well? Do you need anything?" Even when talking on the phone with his father, he would first ask, "Are you busy? Have a hard day!" Then he would say, "Our school’s principal asked you to help us distribute some recruitment materials to customers." I thought to myself, his education must have already taken effect in his son. And as for himself, he must have deeply realized the importance of friends and networking resources in the development of Yongda’s business. In fact, he didn’t just recognize the importance of this—it had reached a level where he cherished networking resources.
Yongda’s senior advisor Tang Yuetao, a sincere and experienced elder, shared a small anecdote about Zhang De'an from the past. He said that during a casual chat during a break, people discussed how many phone numbers they could remember. Some could recall a few, others a dozen or so, and the most impressive could remember dozens. But Zhang De'an claimed he could remember over 300 phone numbers. The group was skeptical, so he wrote down a series of numbers and explained who each number belonged to and which department or organization it was for. Skeptical but curious, the group picked up the phones and called the numbers one by one. To everyone’s astonishment, every number Zhang De'an had mentioned was correct. They were amazed. I also admired Zhang De'an’s memory, but upon reflection, could one truly remember phone numbers if one didn’t hold the other person in high regard? Connecting this to his teaching about making friends, it seems we can derive even deeper life philosophies from this small story.
When reviewing Yongda’s internal management system, one can see strict rules about prioritizing being a good person before doing business everywhere. For example: "Strictly prohibit dishonesty, falsification, or deception in business activities," and "Colleagues should treat each other with sincerity, strictly prohibit gossip, spreading rumors, or undermining others."
During the interview, I asked whether emphasizing being a good person wasn’t difficult, but in the business world, truly being a good person sometimes comes at a cost. He replied that being a good person indeed requires a cost, but not being a good person would incur a greater cost. Whether one can be a good person not only affects the future development of the company but also directly impacts internal unity and stability. A company’s growth relies on the trust and support of customers and society at large, and this trust is rooted in the character of its management. If the management team cannot be good people, making others feel unreliable, then trust and support will be impossible to gain. Internal management is even more so. If people cannot be sincere with each other, resorting to behind-the-scenes gossip and intrigue, the organization will inevitably fall apart. How can one work with a disorganized and disharmonious atmosphere?
It seems that "prioritize being a good person before doing business" is not just a hollow slogan for Yongda but the core philosophy of President Zhang De'an’s corporate governance and a unique strategy for enterprise management. P3-4