As one of the most powerful businesspeople in China, Dong Mingzhu is revered as a mixture of Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher. CLIFFORD COONANmeets the woman who hasn't taken a holiday in almost 20 years
DONG MINGZHU is one of China's most influential businesspeople, but appears a slight, reticent figure as she sits in the vast concourse of Gree Electric's headquarters
in southern China.
But appearances are deceiving. This woman runs the world’s biggest maker of home air conditioners. She is quite tall – only the cavernous hall making her look slight – and is by no means reticent.
This is a woman who has managed to sell air conditioners in the depths of winter. Who never takes holidays. Whose most famous dictum is: "I never miss. I never admit mistakes and
I am always correct."
The force of her personality is so strong that she is soon commanding even this huge space as she outlines her fiercely held beliefs on her company’s future, the role of women in China, and the rise of China as an economic power.
“Sister Dong”, as she is known by her employees (who all appear to adore her), is a famously robust woman, as you would expect the vicechairperson and president of a major company such as the state-owned Gree Electric to be.
The youngest of seven in a family of ordinary workers in Nanjing, she is a legend in China, a cross between Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher. Her book, Regretless Pursuit, about her phenomenal success in running Gree Electric, is a bestseller. In 2002, a TV drama about her life was a big hit. Last year she was named one of Business Week’s 40 most influential people
in China, and Fortune listed her as one of the world's most powerful businesswomen. "I love a challenge. I stick to my principles. In my view, doing the best job is very important,
which has also helped me to work my way from the basic level to a leadership position," she says. Her voice picks up in volume as she talks and, when in full flow, she is impossible to interrupt. We have just toured the manufacturing plant
in the Pearl River Delta city of Zhuhai, a model plant – clean and efficient, the facility seems more like a university campus than a factory.
About 24,000 of the group’s workforce of 40,000 are based here. There are some astounding tales doing the rounds in China about Dong, mostly celebrating her flintiness. Once, when her 12-year-old son visited her in Zhuhai, she allegedly put him on a bus home as she didn’t have time to take him to the airport, and forbade anyone else from taking him. So strict is her line on business ethics that, rather than open herself to accusations of nepotism, her son was forced to find a job with another company, and she fell out with her brother after she refused to give him preferential treatment when he wanted to open a Gree franchise.
This rigorous style has earned her critics. "On the road Sister Dong has walked across, no grass will grow," one rival is reported to have said. Since arriving in Zhuhai in 1990, Dong
stopped the practice of allowing suppliers to pay for the company's products later. In the Dong era, there is no delivery without cash up front. Wearing a soft black sweater offset by a bold pink scarf, she smiles a lot more often than her
reputation would lead you to expect. You can see how this combination of charm and severity has turned her into one of China's most powerful women.
She believes you have to make choices in order to be a success. China's emergence offers a lot of opportunities, but they come at a cost. In her case, it has meant that she has taken no holidays for nearly 20 years. After her husband died
of an illness when she was about 30, she left her then three-year-old son with his grandparents in Nanjing while she went to Zhuhai to focus on becoming a success. This is a woman with a steely resolve.
“China and foreign countries have different backgrounds. In foreign countries, there is a tradition of people taking holidays, having a peaceful life with not too much pressure. But China is reforming, and provides many challenges, and people have the opportunity to display their talents.
So, sometimes, they have to sacrifice some of their hobbies,” she says. “For instance, I like to climb mountains, and I like singing, but these are not going to help solve the company’s problems. The higher I rose in the company, the more responsibility I had to carry.
But if sacrificing one’s personal interests benefits all the people in my company, then that’s what I do. If I did not pay much attention to my work, and did not make sacrifices, Gree would not be doing as brilliantly as it is now. Many people in my company are deeply moved by my deeds, and they are willing to make concerted efforts with me.”
Dong is extremely proud of China's growth and the contribution of the Communist Party to this success during 30 years of reform, and she is an active delegate on the consultative body of China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress. She is not afraid to make bold statements
about her responsibility as a leader.
The climb up the corporate ladder is a slow one for women in China, but it's gradually becoming an easier ascent as women look to people such as Dong for inspiration. She is one of a
handful of women in a senior executive position in China – the country's top chief executives are predominantly males, and there is only a handful of female chief executives on the list of the top 100 companies.
Chairman Mao Zedong once famously quoted an ancient Chinese saying: "Women hold up half the sky." In the country he took over after the 1949 revolution, you could still find isolated examples of foot binding and women were often not given names, but instead referred to by number – daughter number one, daughter number two . . . Modern China is more focused on pushing the rights of women, and a big reason for this is the fact that women are an increasingly powerful
economic presence, as the shift from rural economies to industrial production has led to much greater participation in the workforce.
But there is a lot of work to be done – women’s salaries are generally a lot lower than men’s, even at senior level. In government, women make up just 1.7 per cent of the senior ministerial jobs or provincial leadership posts.
"China had 5,000 years of feudal tradition and, during that period, women usually stayed at home, helped their husbands and taught the children – fulfilling their duties as wives and never entering society," says Dong. "However, after the Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China, they advocated the liberation of women and this has been implemented fully in the past 30 years. I believe, if a woman has the determination and has the spirit of persistence, she
can find her own place in this country to truly demonstrate her ability.
"Another part of the reform process has been the international community getting to know China and to understand that China is a big country with kind intentions. Previously, many people didn't know China and occasionally misunderstood
the country. The last three decades has seen China mature. The 'child' has grown up and can make a contribution to the world."
The name Gree was conceived to convey “joy”, as in glee, “great”, and “green” as in environmentally friendly. In 2008, sales rose by more than 10 per cent, while profits rose 50 per cent, and the company hired 7,000 new employees. Dong’s toughness appears contagious. “Many of our employees work overtime – some don’t leave their offices until 1am or 2am. They have a spirit of persistence. Sometimes you have to make a choice: is health more important to you, or career? That’s also why you feel the different atmosphere when you enter Gree’s gate,” she says.
“Many of the young people born after the 1980s don’t know that things don’t come easily; they have strong egos and simple aims. But their education is lacking in one part, and that is the ability to show an interest in the wellbeing of others. In the old days, it was all about ‘us’, but now it’s all about ‘me’ and I think that needs to be changed,” she says, before handing over a copy of her latest DVD and bidding a graceful farewell from the perfectly chilled company headquarters.
