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in the office where zhong shanshan stayed the longest, there was a statue of don quixote on the table.

recently, when zhong shanshan was interviewed by cctv's "dialogue", he took the initiative to mention this inconspicuous ornament. "many people told me that swords cannot be placed in the office, but i said that my sword should be placed there, because it is the sword of ideals."

this phrase, "ideal", seems to describe zhong shanshan's life: he is stubborn, persistent, and abides by the principles he believes in. this is true for both life and business.

this one-hour long super-standard program allowed the outside world to get a close look at the other side of zhong shanshan, who was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion. by learning in detail how zhong shanshan views the richest man, traffic, internal circulation, and cyber violence, his image in front of the public has gradually become clearer, but at the same time it seems to be more blurred.

the market in 2024 is more cautious. people no longer believe in short-term rapid growth. instead, they start to think about the core driving force that drives a company to stand firm and even repeatedly create new products. attention has shifted from companies to founders. entrepreneurs such as zhong shanshan, zong qinghou, chu shijian, and musk have been put on the stage for re-examination.

zhong shanshan and zong qinghou are both in the bottled water business, which has a strong demand but also has slim profits. exploring their similarities and differences may explain what a truly sustainable business model is.

it is unknown whether zhong shanshan and chu shijian know each other. zhong shanshan revealed in the program that he started his own business by building a juice factory to grow ganzhou navel oranges, which is hard not to associate with chu shijian, the founder of chu orange. they both grow oranges, so why do they take different paths?

the water seller grows oranges?

among chinese entrepreneurs, zhong shanshan is a well-known name.

he became the richest man in china by selling water. the title of china's richest man as ranked by forbes china rich list has been monopolized by zhong shanshan since 2021, and he has been ranked first on the asian rich list in 2021 and 2022. his wealth has grown from us$57.8 billion to us$68 billion, and his business territory covers food, medicine and biotechnology.

why does nongfu spring, which costs only two yuan a bottle, have such a huge impact? i think we have to start with its entrepreneurial history.

according to zhong shanshan’s introduction in the program, nongfu spring’s business can be divided into two parts: nongfu and shanquan.

the springs mentioned naturally refer to mineral water and natural water, as well as a series of packaged waters derived from them, such as tea drinks, juices, sparkling water, etc. this sector is nongfu spring's "cash cow" business. in 2023, nongfu spring's revenue from packaged drinking water products alone exceeded 20 billion yuan, an increase of 11% from 2022.

in the nongfu sector, zhong shanshan's requirement for nongfu spring is to directly reach the upstream raw material collection and supply. the most prominent example is ganzhou navel orange. it took nearly 20 years to promote the development of nongfu spring's juice line from the local factory with an annual loss of more than 20 million. in 2023, nongfu spring's juice beverage products recorded revenue of 3.533 billion yuan, accounting for 8.3% of the total revenue in 2023.

all of this is related to zhong shanshan’s inspection in 2007. that year, zhong shanshan was invited to anyuan, ganzhou to inspect the navel orange harvest.after two bites, the juice was so juicy and tender that zhong shanshan made a prompt decision to build a juice factory in ganzhou.

his decision was not an accidental impulse. in fact, at that time, various capitals and non-agricultural enterprises were trying to enter the agricultural industry. netease raised pigs, lenovo planted peaches, evergrande invested heavily in grain, oil and animal husbandry, and huiyuan, which was in direct competition with nongfu spring in the juice line, also invested in upstream orchards all over the world under the promotion of zhu xinli.

looking back from 2024, huiyuan is now doomed. zhu xinli went from being a billionaire to being in debt in just over a decade. analyzing the reasons for the decline, excessive investment in agriculture and heavy assets are important factors. after all, for cross-border players, breeding, planting, care, quality control...all of these are headaches, and nongfu spring may also encounter them.

the first factory built by zhong shanshan in southern jiangxi was a juice factory. after it was completed, they realized that although the navel oranges in southern jiangxi were good, there were no unified standards for how to grow, harvest and sell them.

the simplest question is, should farmers plant navel oranges, and how many navel oranges should each family plant?

in the early years of ganzhou's economic development, village cadres could only take the lead in planting a few acres of land to persuade farmers to learn. in the first one or two years, fruit farmers were reluctant to plant according to nongfu spring's standards, thinking it was too complicated and demanding. zhong shanshan could only lead the team to summarize again and again, set up an orchard responsibility system, and establish fruit assessment criteria, trying to get farmers to learn to "see the numbers."

for example, how to sell oranges. in the past, fruit farmers purchased oranges based on the profit-making method of volume. good oranges were mixed with bad ones, and big ones were mixed with small ones. farmers just cared about selling them, regardless of how much usable value the buyers could get.

"we can only change their mindset little by little, guide them to establish brand and quality awareness, and ensure that the navel oranges and juice produced by nongfu spring meet sales standards."

during this period, nongfu spring also solved countless other problems. gannan navel oranges belong to the newhall variety, and the fresh fruit contains a large amount of limonin precursors, which will be converted into limonin after processing, making the orange juice bitter and astringent. the expensive juice extraction equipment was purchased just as they learned how to use it, but it was discovered that it was not suitable for extracting orange juice, and finally had to be treated as waste.

zhong shanshan's attitude is very firm. if there is a problem, he will spend a lot of effort to study it. it took nongfu spring 7 years to finally solve the problem of juicing.

at the same time, the orchard was also experiencing an outbreak of huanglongbing, a "terminal disease" in fruit tree cultivation. it is highly contagious and has no symptomatic solution. after zhong shanshan understood the situation clearly, he decisively ordered "immediate execution."

as soon as the leaves show symptoms of huanglongbing, the trees will be cut down immediately without any discussion. nongfu spring will compensate the farmers for their losses by significantly raising the purchase price. although there is no antidote for this "incurable" disease yet, at leastnongfu spring and the fruit farmers reached a consensus and achieved a win-win situation.

this strategy enabled nongfu spring's contracted farmers to expand their orchard area from 1.5 million mu to 2 million mu, and nongfu spring thus embarked on a long road of farming.

chu shijian made a comeback with oranges

the move of going deep into the upstream and investing heavily in agriculture will remind many people of chu shijian. in 2002, when chu shijian was on medical parole, he chose to "grow oranges" as a way to turn things around. of course, it was partly due to his personal love for land and agricultural products, but more importantly, china's agricultural standardization and modernization construction were not yet complete at that time.

engaging in agriculture is a "difficult thing to do", but from another perspective, it can also be understood as a profitable thing in the business world.

chu shijian was born in 1928 into a peasant family. his hometown of yunnan was very poor. people worked in the fields every day, but the income they earned was barely enough to make a living. when he was 14 years old, chu shijian's father was bombed by a japanese plane. the financial burden of the family fell on the boy. he could only chop wood for the family during the day and make liquor for the store at night.

working two jobs a day, he endured twice the workload of an adult. chu shijian, who had a clear business mind, found his dream from then on - to get out of the mountains, accumulate connections, and use resources skillfully to achieve financial freedom.

this line of thinking led him to take some detours. after being imprisoned at the age of 71, chu shijian corrected some of his ideas, such as returning to the value orientation of making slow money and making long-term money.

regardless of his own illness, chu shijian insisted on taking two injections of insulin every day and taking a handful of pills of various colors. he did something unfamiliar in the most familiar place and started growing oranges.

once, wang shi went to ailao mountain to see him. he saw this once high-spirited old man now wearing a worn-out t-shirt, bargaining with the worker who was repairing the water pump for 80 or 60 yuan. wang shi felt very upset, but chu shijian said, "i have only one thing in my life, and that is i will make a difference under any circumstances."

chu shijian's long experience of ups and downs in the business world gave him countless ideas and the courage to innovate.

he changed the simple transaction between the purchasing team and farmers, and adopted a model of cooperation between farmers and the company, where farmers serve as labor and the company is responsible for planting and picking. each farmer is responsible for 25 mu of land, managing an average of 1,800 to 2,000 orange trees, and can earn at least 80,000 yuan a year.in a sense, zhong shanshan's way of playing may be inherited from chu orange.

in terms of age, chu shijian is zhong shanshan's predecessor, but in terms of identity and style of doing things, the two are "atypical partners" who are working hand in hand to push china's agriculture from weak to strong.

in yunnan, chu shijian and his wife taught themselves agricultural knowledge to improve orange varieties. in yunnan, where conditions and experts were scarce, they went to the experimental fields to conduct grafting experiments. chu shijian planted hundreds of research results in three years, and the survival rate of each experiment reached more than 80%, turning the barren hills into high-quality orange orchards.

zhong shanshan's persistence in establishing a modern agricultural system and figuring out the basic principles before taking action is also admirable. in order to solve the problem of sterilization and storage of orange juice, zhong shanshan led his technical team to work in southern jiangxi for six or seven years.

at the launch of nongfu spring 17.5° orange, zhong shanshan choked up and took out a tissue to wipe his tears when talking about the difficulties that generations of orange farmers in southern jiangxi had encountered in growing oranges.children of farmers can best understand all the complex emotions brought by the land.

after repeated demonstrations and tests, nongfu spring has also formed its own inspection system. before picking, nongfu spring will randomly sample orchards, taking more than 20 samples from each orchard, one inner and one outer fruit from each tree, and send them to the laboratory for testing of the sugar-acid ratio before harvesting. after picking, the navel oranges are transported to the xinfeng factory and sorting can be completed within 24 hours.

the same is true for chu shijian. chu oranges are currently sorted using automated equipment, and fruits with a diameter of less than 55mm are directly eliminated. three-dimensional imaging technology can be used to perform detailed sorting of orange color, shape, volume, density, dry water, etc.

someone once asked chu shijian whether being too strict would affect farmers’ harvests. chu shijian replied that only by continuously exporting good products and good fruits to the outside world could the brand be established and bring in more and longer-term benefits.

his and zhong shanshan's strict control not only changed the situation of orange cultivation in china, but also epitomized the transformation of chinese agriculture and farmers from small peasant economy to economies of scale.

what exactly is entrepreneurship?

some people believe that it is interesting that many entrepreneurs no longer believe in economic benefits in the end, but instead want to pursue their inner meaning and find the anchor that can truly sustain them for a hundred years. in this respect, running a business is just like being a farmer, but this state of mind is most in line with the entrepreneurial spirit in the hearts of chinese consumers.

after all, no matter how advanced agriculture is, it is still a slow business. it requires a long period of preparation, care and strict quality control before it can finally make a profit of a few cents or even a few cents per kilogram of fruit.

zhong shanshan has an exceptionally deep understanding of this business. on the one hand, it is because he has a connection with agriculture. when he was young, he worked in the fields and worked as a mason, bricklayer, and carpenter. when he was a reporter for zhejiang daily, the area he covered was agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

on the other hand, the money earned in the packaged drinking water industry is hard-earned money. a package of 24 bottles of mineral water has a retail price of 48 yuan, and the profit margin left for nongfu spring is probably only around 15 yuan, and this has not yet deducted the 2-3 yuan in shipping costs and taxes.

but in the same way, the rewards of “slow business” are not deceiving.

if the planting is carried out according to the standards, one acre of land can yield 4,500 kilograms of navel oranges. among the 130,000 tons of fruit, 40,000 tons are commercial fruits. the high-quality and low-priced navel oranges provide the company with sufficient ammunition for defeating its competitors.

in 2023, nongfu spring's revenue reached 42.667 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.36%, and its net profit margin was 28.15%. last year, the beverage business exceeded the drinking water business for the first time, accounting for 49.5% of the total revenue. the healthy and clean juice suitable for all ages has seen a harvest moment.

but for zhong shanshan, this is not the end.

when chu shijian passed away in 2019, many people questioned the ability of his successor, chu yibin. there is a story that is often mentioned as a manifestation of chu shijian's personal charm. at that time, chu orange was going to develop a new piece of land, and the person in charge reported to chu shijian a three-month water pipe laying period. considering the demand for water and quality requirements of the orange base, this time was not excessive.

unfortunately, mr. chu was not satisfied. chu shijian only said one sentence after hearing it: "3 days, i will come to plant the seedlings in 3 days." the person in charge was anxious, but mr. chu had accumulated power for a long time, and the person in charge did not dare to resist too much. the 3-month construction period was compressed to 3 days. on the day when the more than 10-kilometer water pipeline was completed, chu shijian patted the person in charge on the shoulder and said: "it's not that difficult to lay a water pipe."

this high-pressure, tough, and uncompromising character is chu shijian's underlying character. people may not be able to fully accept it, but they will ultimately be impressed by the results.before chu yibin took office, bystanders felt that he would be difficult to convince the public, and chu shijian also had this concern.

in order to achieve a virtuous cycle for chu orange, chu shijian started preparing very early. chu yibin later recalled that when he was called back from singapore, the old man had already thought of countless steps to follow. first, he learned the most basic selection and pruning of fruit seedlings at the base, and mastered the essentials of planting step by step; then he encouraged chu yibin to gather his own team to grow "yunguan orange" at the longling base; then he brought it to the public, and nurtured and taught it bit by bit without saying anything.

there is an example that proves that chu yibin and chu shijian have the same style. it was the autumn shoot pruning season of chu orange. one year, the number of flowers was too large, so chu yibin called all the operation supervisors and asked them to prune hundreds of thousands of trees in the 10,000-acre orchard within 10 days. everyone thought it was impossible, so chu yibin called all the workers to ask, and finally only one person said he could do it, so chu yibin gave it to him.

in the end, the entire base completed all the tasks in less than 9 days, and the person who said he could do it at the beginning was promoted.this is what chu yibin learned from chu shijian: to understand agriculture, to understand the profession, and more importantly, to understand human nature.

public data shows that chu orange's current profit margin remains at around 40%, and it is still one of china's most well-known high-end fruits. this is how agriculture works. the huge initial investment will continue to pay off in the long future.

as for nongfu spring, zhong shanshan is still one step away from having a good successor to chu shijian. the long-term success of the business not only requires finding a good business model now, but also requires the founder to do a good job in team building, manage performance with a modern organizational structure, and manage investor expectations.

entrepreneurship can pursue poetry and distant places, and devoting one's life to china's agricultural and sideline products is romantic and worthy of praise, but never forget that the premise of this word is to be a good entrepreneur.

the most basic job of an entrepreneur is to make profits for the company and create value for society. zhong shanshan is only halfway through his don quixote journey.

author | you li