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The industry is still like this. Today I’m going to share some inspirational stories about salary.
At this time of severe internal competition, the most difficult thing for companies is to maintain cash flow, and for photovoltaic people, the most difficult thing is to keep their jobs.
However, we must have dreams at all times, otherwise what is the difference between us and salted fish? In times of crisis, when life and death are at stake, it is precisely the time for photovoltaic people to show their abilities. People with abilities will never lack opportunities.
In the hurricane of the cycle, the efforts of each individual often seem insignificant most of the time - so much so that the so-called "historical garbage time" argument prevailed some time ago. In addition, some cases of survivor bias around us also suggest that luck is more important than ability, and cognition is more important than effort.
These are just illusions, because opportunities always favor those who work harder. Over the years, Gantanhao, who has worked for many leading companies, only believes that God rewards hard work, even if it seems useless in the short term. Starlight will not let down those who are on the road. If you read every piece of history carefully, you will find that there has never been a period of time that is called garbage time.

01Some people’s salary doubles, while others’ wisdom is ruined

It's the same in any industry. When the market is good, talent is in short supply and employees frequently change jobs.

The same is true for the photovoltaic industry. In this round of upswing a year or two ago, the turnover rate of senior executives in the photovoltaic industry was unprecedentedly high. Of course, some senior executives also chose to start their own businesses under the instigation of capital.

Facts have proved that job-hopping is a profound science. Today, when the dust has settled, let's take a look at those executives who have changed jobs in a sensational way.

(1) Guo Junhua, a frustrated photovoltaic worker whose annual salary doubled.

In addition to entrepreneurs such as Duan Yong, Liu Yong, Xu Zhiqun, and Zhang Longgen, the most experienced photovoltaic executive is probably Guo Junhua, the former deputy general manager of JinkoSolar.

On October 8, 2021, Guo Junhua gave up his shares in JinkoSolar, which was about to be listed, and chose to resign and join Mubang Hi-Tech, a toy-making, cross-border photovoltaic newcomer.

Public data shows that in 2020, Guo Junhua's annual salary at JinkoSolar was 3.9391 million yuan. In the past 2023, Mubang Hi-Tech disclosed that Guo Junhua's salary was 8.7748 million yuan, an increase of 122%.

Annual salary alone is not enough. For executives at Guo Junhua's level, personal remuneration is usually closely linked to the company's performance, and equity incentives and the company's development prospects are more important.

Judging from the results, in this round of cross-border and expansion trend, Yida, Gaojing and Lihao have emerged, but Mubang Hi-Tech has not achieved its ambitions. Should we blame Guo Junhua for his incompetence or for his bad luck? Can a good cook without rice cook?

Rumor has it that Guo Junhua has long stopped participating in the daily management of Mubang and has been unemployed for at least a year. However, public information shows that Guo Junhua is still the general manager of Mubang, but there is no news about Guo Junhua fulfilling his duties as general manager.

(2) Zhou Dan, whose career suffered a setback.

Zhou Dan joined Tongwei in 2011 and served as the head of photovoltaic investment of Tongwei Group and the financial director of Tongwei Solar. On August 2, 2021, Zhou Dan became the chairman and general manager of Tongwei Solar.

In May 2022, Zhou Dan joined Huasheng New Energy as CEO.

Neither Tongwei Co., Ltd. nor Huasheng New Energy has disclosed Zhou Dan’s salary.

But one thing is certain, Zhou Dan went to the photovoltaic dark horse Huasheng because of not only the annual salary, but also the expected equity returns.

In August 2023, news broke in the market: Zhou Dan resigned from Huasheng after only 15 months in office. It was also a rumor that Zhou Dan's resignation was so sudden that he was a little confused when he received the news. Now, there is no further news about Zhou Dan in the photovoltaic circle. Some people say that Zhou Dan went to Sany Silicon Energy as vice president and partnered with Liu Ruipu, the marketing general manager from Longi.

(3) Zhu Zhiguo, the lucky man in photovoltaic industry.

Zhu Zhiguo, who has a background in finance, joined Trina Solar in 2011 and entered the photovoltaic industry for the first time. Since 2015, he has served as the executive director of Trina Solar, the company's chief operating officer and president of the module business unit, responsible for the company's production, supply and marketing and module business until he left Trina Solar in 2017. After that, Zhu Zhiguo served as the president of Talesun Photovoltaic. On October 18, 2022, Zhu Zhiguo joined Akcome Technology. According to the annual report, Zhu Zhiguo's annual salary at Akcome is 3.0966 million yuan.

Half a year later, on April 25, 2023, Zhu Zhiguo resigned from Aikon and quickly joined East China Solar (a subsidiary of East China Heavy Machinery).

The annual report of East China Heavy Machinery shows that Zhu Zhiguo received a salary of 1.82 million yuan for working for East China Solar for 7 months in 2023 (there are also other equity cooperation).

Although the income seems to be less on the surface, Zhu Zhiguo was very lucky in his ability to judge the situation!

4. Wealth on paper is hard to realize, and job-hopping results in tears of sorrow.

There are also those old subordinates who were brought out by Xu Zhiqun, Duan Yong and Liu Yong from JinkoSolar, Tongwei and Zhonglai. They initially obtained the equity (or options) of these photovoltaic dark horses and their wealth soared. However, with the photovoltaic dark horses' round after round of financing, their equity was diluted and the listing plans were interrupted, and their paper wealth was not realized.

There are too many examples to list here.

Listed companies only publish the salary and equity information of directors, supervisors and senior executives, and there are many mid-level and senior executives who have not disclosed publicly: if they choose the right new employer, their net worth will double; if they choose the wrong new employer, they will fall into a pit and feel full of regret. However, for professional managers, meeting a good company is their own luck, a test of their vision for the photovoltaic industry and corporate prospects, and also a kind of ability.

Just recently, Gantanhao heard a piece of gossip from Jingyuntong. A professional manager joined from the top 2 silicon wafer company, had a car accident during a business trip, and was later fired by the company without a legitimate reason. He is now suing Jingyuntong in court for severance pay and work injury compensation.

02 Which company is the most generous?

Finding a job is sometimes like falling in love. Salary (appearance) is not the most important thing. What is most important is to be able to play your own value and be happy at work (looking good and having a similar temperament). When sorting out the salaries in the photovoltaic industry, Gantanhao made some interesting discoveries:

(1) In terms of remuneration, if front-line employees are included, the average annual salary of the entire photovoltaic industry does not exceed 200,000 yuan, and power stations > inverters > photovoltaic manufacturing > photovoltaic auxiliary materials.

The reason for this phenomenon may be that there are many front-line workers in photovoltaic main and auxiliary materials enterprises.

From WIND; Unit: 10,000 yuan

(2) Salaries in some companies are obviously too high.

Polyhe Materials, which has a lot of money in its pocket, is a typical representative. Its main business is slurry, which is similar to the business of Dico and Suzhou Gotech. Financial data in the past three years show that the per capita salary of Polyhe Materials is much higher than that of its peers.

From WIND; Unit: 10,000 yuan

For ordinary employees, Sungrow can be considered a good company. Although Sungrow is not as good as the micro-inverter company AP Technologies in terms of per capita salary, Sungrow pays wages to 13,697 people, most of whom are front-line workers, while AP Technologies only pays wages to 404 people.

AP Energy Technology. Although it claims to be a leading inverter company with scientific and technological innovation, it explained when it went public that its production model was "contract processing, and the company's production capacity was provided by the consigned processing enterprises", which means it does not have its own factory and does not have front-line workers. How did the overseas returnee doctor Ling Zhimin achieve this? I will explain it in depth another day.

From WIND; Salary unit: 10,000 yuan; Market value unit: 100 million yuan

03 The biggest fear is being averaged

When it comes to income, frontline employees are most afraid of being “averaged”. So, which company’s executives earn the highest income?

Through summarizing and sorting, Gantanhao also made some interesting discoveries:

First, Juhe Materials, Sungrow Power Supply, and TBEA are three companies that are generous to Puneng employees, and their chairmen are also paid very high salaries.

The photovoltaic leader Longi Green Energy and the inverter leader Deye Power have high salaries for the chairman’s family members, while employee salaries are mediocre.

The salaries of Longi Green Energy employees in the past three years were RMB 126,300, RMB 139,000, and RMB 177,900, respectively; the salary of Chairman Zhong Baoshen in the past three years was RMB 3.15 million, RMB 14.87 million, and RMB 8.80 million, respectively.

The salaries of Deye Co., Ltd. employees in the past three years were RMB 130,900, RMB 157,900, and RMB 167,800, respectively; the salaries of Chairman and actual controller Zhang Hejun in the past three years were RMB 4.96 million, RMB 13.46 million, and RMB 8.8 million, respectively.

From WIND

Second, whether it is the chairman alone who gets the high salary, or a group of people who get the high salary, is also a topic worth discussing.

Based on the ranking of the total compensation of the top three directors in 2023, Gantanhao has compiled the following table.

In 2023, the top five companies in terms of "total directors' compensation of the top three amounts" are LONGi Green Energy, Sungrow Power Supply, Juhe Materials, Deye Holdings, and Canadian Solar.

Here we have to give a special "praise" to Deye Shares. The three highest-paid directors are all father and son (Zhang Hejun is the father of Zhang Dongye and Zhang Dongbin). Not only do they have to be bosses, but they also have to set an example for employees that as long as they make great contributions, they can get high salaries. The Zhang father and son set an example.

From WIND

Who is the “working emperor” in the photovoltaic industry?

There are always brave men when there is a big reward, and companies that make a lot of money always have many talented generals under their command.

The person with the highest income in Tongwei Co., Ltd. is not the chairman, but the vice president Li Bin. His annual salary in 2023 was 26.28 million yuan, which is likely to be the person with the highest annual salary in the photovoltaic company.

26.28 million yuan is actually nothing for Li Bin. His salary in 2022 is as high as 86.5291 million yuan!

Yes, an annual salary of 86,529,100 yuan! You read it right, and Gan Tanhao was not written wrong.

According to the information: Vice President Li Bin, formerly the general manager of Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon Co., Ltd. and the general manager of Yongxiang Silicon Materials, is currently the chairman and general manager of Sichuan Yongxiang Co., Ltd. and the general manager of Yongxiang New Energy.

Gantanhao inferred that Li Bin should have replaced Duan Yong who left. 2022 was a year of explosive performance for Tongwei Co., Ltd., with annual operating income of 142.423 billion yuan and net profit of 25.726 billion yuan. Among them, the high-purity silicon and chemical business in charge of Li Bin achieved revenue of 61.86 billion yuan and a gross profit margin of 75.13%.

Duan Yong’s founding of Qinghai Lihao was a choice; Li Bin’s being a working emperor in Tongwei was also a choice.

In fact, Li Bin is not an exception. The salaries of directors, supervisors and senior executives in listed companies are not necessarily the highest. The highest paid may be those who have made outstanding contributions, such as sales champions.

(2) In some companies, all executives have high incomes, while in some companies, only one person has high incomes. Mubang Hi-Tech has taken the gap to the extreme. Guo Junhua's income is at the top of the pyramid, while everyone else's income is at the bottom. In such companies, the confrontation between the old and new executives is probably unavoidable, especially when encountering a photovoltaic cycle. Old employees will definitely say that the invited experts are not that good.

Mubang Hi-Tech's executive compensation in 2023

The photovoltaic industry is doing well and companies are performing well, whether it is due to market conditions or ability, it is normal for mid-level and senior executives to receive more performance bonuses and equity incentives. Now that the market environment is not good, if senior executives continue to receive high salaries, it will definitely incur public anger.

Brother Ji is ahead of the curve. Longi Green Energy Chairman Zhong Baoshen and Director and General Manager Li Zhenguo have promised that they will not receive salary from the company this year starting from the second quarter of 2024. This is an approach that photovoltaic giants can actually follow.END