Questioning Vanke (Multiple Deconstructions of Wang Shiq's 20-Year Entrepreneurial Career)

Author: Li Yongtao, Wang Kaicheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: It is obviously not an easy task to take two years to sort out a company's 20-year development, let alone a company and the society it belongs to that spans two entirely different commercial systems. The conflict between the company's development models, the influence of the old and new business environments, and the painful choices between diversification and specialization have formed a dramatic picture. Like Vanke, many Chinese companies celebrated their 20th anniversary this year. As Mr. Wu Xiaobo said, the 20-year-old companies in China can only be superficial victories, because whether they succeed or not, 20 years is far from the time to cheer and celebrate for a company. During the process of preparing this book, the authors also found that Vanke's 20-year development was merely a "superficial victory" and could not even be called a "victory." Why? At most, Vanke's 20-year development could only be said to have found a direction for itself! Perhaps for this direction, Vanke still needs to spend several more, or even dozens of 20-year periods to prove that its victory is not "superficial." Frankly speaking, when the authors began to outline this book at the end of 2002, they had no excuses related to "20 years." Their identity at that time was complex—on one hand, they were real estate reporters who had been tracking Vanke for many years, and on the other hand, they were potential owners and actual owners of Vanke. In 2002, the Chinese real estate industry was suffering from a widespread crisis of trust, and Vanke was one of the few companies we could trust. A book about Vanke might be something our society and market desperately needed. At that time, the ideas we designed and the structure of this book were very different from the final version. The initial plan was to observe from three perspectives: one was from the perspective of a company and a system; two was from the perspective of a company and a person; and three was from the perspective of a company and a magazine. In this plan, we attempted to explain Vanke from three angles: the trajectory of Vanke and the construction of Chinese corporate systems, how Wang Shi influenced the development of a company, and how a magazine became the spiritual bastion of China's most traditional corporate culture. Later, as we delved deeper, we found that Wang Shi and Vanke were too closely linked. The propositions of a system and a company, and a magazine and a company were all contained within the proposition of a company and a person! As the founder of Vanke, Wang Shi, a successful entrepreneur with a distinct personality, his character traits and management style had deeply embedded themselves in the veins of Vanke over the past 20 years. His greatest contribution to Vanke and the entire Chinese corporate world was: establishing a corporate system and a corporate culture without any prior experience. Therefore, it was actually a difficult task to initially attempt to explain from three aspects. After repeated revisions, we finally decided to use the three events that occurred in 1994 to drive the entire book's plan. Vanke was founded in 1984, and 1994 happened to be the end of the first decade and the beginning of the second decade. Coincidentally, the Juntian-Vanke conflict, the Wanjia incident, and the Haishen Plaza event around 1994 became three of the most important events in Wang Shi's memory, and the occurrence and subsequent handling of these three events directly laid the foundation for Vanke's current development model. The Juntian-Vanke conflict made Vanke highly sensitive to the capital market in the following decade and also gradually realized how important it was to have the support of a major shareholder. Wanjia Department Store, as one of the most successful projects in Vanke's diversification efforts, was highly valued by Wang Shi. The adjustments made to Wanjia in 1994 and the occurrence of the "Two Wu" incident brought Vanke's diversification to a height, while also reminding Wang Shi of the hardships ahead. The difficult adjustments made to Haishen Plaza led to reflections that became the driving force for Vanke's subsequent development in the real estate sector. In this narrative structure, Wang Shi's personal influence on the company runs through the entire book. The book was later titled "Questioning Vanke," but attentive readers will notice that the authors often praise Vanke without realizing it. Even in chapters intended to "criticize" Vanke, we asked ourselves countless times: Is there anyone who has done better than Vanke? Moreover, because of Wang Shi's magical influence on Vanke employees and the strong and superior corporate culture of Vanke, we tried to find some former Vanke employees to speak negatively about Vanke to support our arguments, but we quickly found that this was an extremely difficult task! Whether they were still working at Vanke or had already left, the employees always saw Vanke as perfect and unbelievable in their eyes. Even when we "coaxed" them to point out a few shortcomings of Vanke, if you tried to "follow the clues," it quickly proved to be futile. They could speak negatively about Vanke's shortcomings themselves, but if outsiders did so, they would surely get angry! Writing this, the authors had to be cautious, not knowing how many Vanke employees would get angry with them under the title "Questioning Vanke"! In the final revision stage of the manuscript, we vividly remember the scene of arguing with Xiao Li, the Director of the Board Office, in the second-floor meeting room of Vanke's headquarters. In fact, no matter what, at least on the surface, we could not win this argument. A company that has developed through 20 years of trial and error has the deep understanding of its employees about its development that outsiders or third parties cannot easily discern through just two years of effort. Fortunately, Vanke itself believes that 20 years is just a starting point, and all our "easy" conclusions and thoughts cannot yet be proven to be completely wrong. Time has given us the courage to "question." It must also be pointed out that, out of love for Vanke, the authors' tone is somewhat reserved in many chapters. Without accurate facts as a basis, the authors have strived to avoid hasty conclusions. We know this is out of respect and love for Vanke. We would rather this book inspires reflection on corporate development than criticism. During the preparation of this book, a series of critiques of Lenovo, Haier, and Changhong broke out in the Chinese corporate world. Perhaps with a little reflection, we could ask more questions about Vanke, but these questions might belong to the wise readers. The door to reflection has been opened, and we believe this is not the last book about Vanke, nor is it the best book about Vanke—we believe Vanke's next two or three decades are even more promising. When it comes to gratitude, the first person to thank is Ms. Xiao Li, Director of the Vanke Group and the Board Office. It was she who, amidst her busy schedule, spent several hours discussing details with us and bluntly pointed out the weaknesses of this book. The long-time former employees of Vanke—General Manager Guo Zhaobin of the Haishen Plaza project and Quan Zhong, the fourth editor-in-chief of "Vanke Weekly"—their love for Vanke was our greatest encouragement. Without their support, this book would have more regrets.