How China's Richest Man Succeeds中国首富缘何成功Outside of Internet success stories such as Alibaba’s Jack Ma or Baidu’s Robin Li, China has few if any widely internationally known business leaders. Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin is relatively unknown even though Forbes estimated last month that he had surpassed beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou to become the country’s richest man with a fortune worth $14 billion. I exchanged this week with Ming-Jer Chen, a management and China expert at the University of Virginia, about what’s behind Wang’s business success. Excerpts follow.
除了成功创业的互联网企业家，比如阿里巴巴的马云和百度的李彦宏，中国在其他领域很少出现国际知名的商业领袖。连大连万达集团董事长王健林也相对不为人知。《福布斯》上个月预计，王健林已经超越了中国饮料界的大亨宗庆后，以140亿美元的个人资产成为了新的中国首富。本周我与美国弗吉尼亚大学的管理学知名学者、研究中国问题的专家陈明哲就王健林为何能取得商业成功交流了看法。以下是节选的采访内容。
Q. Chairman Wang has built up one of the world’s largest real estate businesses, becoming China’s wealthiest businessman. What accounts for his success?
问：王健林董事长已经建立起了全球最大的房地产企业，而他个人成为了中国的商界首富，他的成功归功于哪些方面？
A. To reach the global scale that Wanda has achieved requires, at the highest level, a combination of culture, strategy, and execution over a sustainable period of time. It took Wang Jianlin took him two decades to build the company into a global enterprise.
答：为了达到万达集团如今的这种全球规模，这要求在文化、战略和执行方面达到最高的综合水平并持续一段时间。王健林花了20年将这家公司打造为一家全球企业。
From a cultural point of view, he has the right values and long-term vision to attract the right team for sustainable success. Wanda’s corporate culture has three key components: a comprehensive organizational structure that allows it to scale up globally; in-depth corporate cultural content; and very rich corporate cultural activities. Its corporate slogan is “International Wanda, Century Enterprise.” Its core value emphasizes “society value” over “enterprise value” or personal value.
从文化的角度看，他具有正确的价值观与长期的愿景，能吸引可以取得持久成功的合适团队。万达的企业文化有三个关键部分：一个全面的组织架构，能使公司在全球范围扩大规模；深厚的企业文化内涵；极为丰富的企业文化活动。万达的企业口号是“国际万达，百年企业”。它的核心价值强调“社会价值”，认为这种价值更胜于“企业价值”和个人价值。
In other words, Mr. Wang rooted the company in Confucian values, which are lacking in Western society and business. In so doing, he is trying to balance the needs of different stakeholders in his business.
换句话说，王健林将儒家价值根植于企业中，那正是西方社会和企业所缺乏的价值。这样一来，他就要努力平衡各类股东的不同需求。
Strategically, Mr. Wang transformed his business model from residential real estate development to commercial development in shopping malls and hotels, movie theaters and department stores, and from there to exporting Chinese culture and tourism globally, starting in 2012. This type of transformation requires deep strategic vision and considerable ambition as well as long-term strategic planning, of course. Geographically, he expanded from the small city market of Dalian (25% market share) to Guangzhou Province and throughout China. After succeeding in China, he is now expanding Wanda into the U.S. and Europe. In September 2012, Mr. Wang acquired the American firm AMC for US$2.6 billion. In June 2013, he announced two investments in the UK totaling 1 billion pounds.
从战略方面看，王健林转变了万达的商业模式，从开发住宅房地产转为开发商业房地产，如 购物中心和酒店、电影院和百货公司。从2012年起，他还走出国门，将中国的文化与旅游业输送到世界各地。这类转型需要深入的战略观和极大的雄心，当然也要有长期的战略规划。从地域方面看，王健林冲出了大连这个小城市的市场（占当地市场份额的25%），南下杀向广东，并在全国铺开战场。征战中国赢得胜利之后，他正在将万达的触角伸向欧美。2012年9月，王健林以26亿美元收购了美国影院公司AMC。2013年6月，他宣布在英国进行了两项投资，规模合计10亿英镑。
Strategically, then, he first built home-town advantages and expanded only after being successful in the local market. (To go from) a 500, 000 yuan loan as registered capital in 1992 to 300 billion yuan in assets in 2012 is remarkable by any standard.
王健林在战略上还有一个特点。他先形成了本土城市的优势，直到在当地市场获得成功之后才开始四面出击。1992年，万达的注册资本是一笔50万元人民币的贷款。到2012年，这家企业的总资产高达3,000亿元。无论以哪种标准衡量，都堪称成就斐然。
From an execution point of view, Mr. Wang leverages his military training and discipline to participate personally in all key projects. He attracts very good talent, trains personnel, and holds them accountable for project execution. Employee compensation is commensurate to other Fortune 500 companies globally, which of course is very generous given that China’s GDP per capita is about 20% of its US counterpart. Retirement benefits for employees is the total compensation of the last five years before retiring.
从执行的角度看，王健林利用自己曾经的部队训练经验和组织纪律观念亲身参与到所有关键项目中去。他吸引了杰出的人才，对这类员工进行培训，明确了这些他们在推行项目时所肩负的责任。万达员工的薪酬与其他全球财富500强企业的薪资水平不相上下。考虑到中国的人均GDP大约只有美国的20%，万达给予员工的回报无疑非常慷慨。而且，万达员工的退休金是退休前最后五年的收入总和。
This means that if an employee is earning $100, 000 a year before retiring, he or she will receive a $500, 000 retirement benefit.
这意味着，如果某位万达的员工退休前一年年的收入为10万美元，就会得到50万美元的退休金。
Therefore, Mr. Wang is able to combine culture, strategy, and execution into action plans because employees are motivated to work for the company for the benefit of society, the company, Mr. Wang, and themselves. It is a win-win strategy for all.
因此，王健林得以将文化、战略与执行转化为行动方案，因为员工有动力为公司工作，为社会、企业、王健林本人和他们自己谋福利。这是利在各方的多赢战略。
Q. In what ways does Chairman Wang in your mind stand out from other Chinese private-sector executives?
问：依您所见，王健林在哪些方面有别于中国其他私营企业的高管们？
A. It’s this complete integration of culture-strategy-execution under one roof that sets Mr. Wang apart and has led to his and Wanda’s success. Some of the employees are good at one or two pieces but he excels at all three. And that is why he is one of the wealthiest people in China and in fact in the world. Though he is perhaps not as well-known globally as other Chinese business leaders, such as Zhang Ruimin of Haier, this may change soon. Q. What are some of the challenges and risks that mainland companies who have been successful at home face when they try to expand overseas, as Wanda is now doing?
答：让王健林与众不同的正是这种文化、战略与执行融于一体的经营方式，他和万达也正是因此收获了成功。一些万达的员工擅长其中的一两个方面，可王健林精于三方面。这就是他跻身中国富豪排行榜的原因，实际上，他也是全球巨富之一。也许，王健林不像海尔的张瑞敏等其他中国企业家那样拥有很高的国际知名度，但这一情况很快就会改变。
A. The key challenges for China companies expanding overseas are: talent, brand, politics, culture, and funding. U.S. multinational corporations have over 70-80 years of experience in going global. The most successful Chinese companies, like Lenovo, have fewer than 10 years’ experience in global expansion, and Wanda has all of two years of experience. These companies are going to make mistakes along the way. It’s part of the learning curve and “tuition” that everyone must pay to get into the “Global Club” of MNCs.
答：对走向海外的中国企业而言，关键挑战在于：人才、品牌、政治、文化和融资。在全球扩张方面，美国的跨国企业有超过七八十年的经验。而像联想等最成功的中国企业在这方面也只有不到十年的经验。开拓国际市场期间，这些中国企业会犯错。这也是学习的一个历程，是每位要加入“全球俱乐部”的跨国企业所必须交的“学费”。
Q. When you look at Chinese investment in the U.S. to date, including Wanda’s in the movie business, how does it differ from Japan’s in an earlier era? Are the Chinese smarter at it?
问：纵观包括万达的电影生意在内的中国在美投资，，您认为它们与日本企业在美国早期的投资有何区别？中国企业在这方面是否更高明？
A. On the surface, they are very similar but if you look under the cover, there are stark differences between the Chinese in 2013 and Japanese in 1980s.
答：表面上看，两者非常相似，但如果你揭开面纱深入了解就会发现， 2013年的中国投资与上世纪80年代的日本投资存在显著差异。
* Japanese companies bought “USA Inc.” and assets at the top of the cycle in the 1980s while the Chinese are buying them now at the bottom of the cycle, thanks to the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
* 20世纪80年代，日本的企业收购处于周期巅峰时刻的“美国公司”和资产，而如今中国人是在抄底，这要感谢2008-2009年的全球金融危机。
*Most of the decision makers in Japan were “salary men.” By contrast, most of the Chinese buyers today are entrepreneurs who have tremendous incentives—success or failure—in their acquisition and expansion in the West.
*日本的大部分决策者是“工薪阶层”。今天的大多数中国买家是企业家，无论成功与否，他们在西方进行收购和扩展业务有着极大的激励因素。
* Chinese companies can depend on a huge domestic market for their profits and source of funding while the Japanese had to rely on foreign markets to finance their deals.
*中国的企业可以依赖广大的国内市场作为自身的盈利和融资来源，而日本企业不得不依靠国外市场为自己的交易融资。
发表于 2013-10-10 12:03:45