1988 In the autumn, when Zhengzhou's "commercial aircraft carrier" sank, Wang Suizhou, a 32-year-old retired political cadre of the Air Force, made the most important choice in his life: going to the sea to be the general manager of a department store under construction. Wang Suizhou, who is in the prime of life and has a higher heart than the sky, only received a start-up fee of 400,000 and resolutely took office. On May 6th, 1989, Zhengzhou Asia Mall with a business area of 12000 square meters officially opened. It is said that Wang Suizhou completed the whole preparatory period in only 198 days, setting a historical record for shopping malls in Henan at that time. From the first day of opening, Asia has made people shine with a brand-new extraordinary image. Walking into Asia, people seem to have entered a bright and luxurious star-rated hotel, with flowers and green grass everywhere. Everything is so orderly, so fresh and spacious Wang Suizhou also led the artificial waterfall to the business hall, and the clear water tinkled, adding infinite fun. There are not only salespeople in the mall, but also unheard-of waitresses, public relations ladies and singers and dancers. There is a piano stand in the middle hall, and musicians perform on the stage every half hour. The most creative thing is that every morning, a guard of honor raises the national flag at the gate of the shopping mall, plays the national anthem and performs a queue performance for the onlookers. This scene once became the most famous scenic spot in Zhengzhou. On the eve of the opening, Wang Suizhou put an advertisement of several hundred thousand yuan in Zhengzhou newspaper, which was the sum of the annual advertising expenses of all Zhengzhou shopping malls at that time. The phrase "Where to go on Sunday-Asia" (later, when Wang Suizhou put an advertisement on CCTV, it was changed to "Where to go on a trip to the Central Plains-Zhengzhou Asia") spread all over the streets. Therefore, almost overnight, Asia gained high recognition from consumers. On the opening day of the mall, Zhengzhou city was deserted and customers flooded in. The security guards released people in batches, and * * * released a dozen batches. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the business hall closed early, and more than 90% of the goods at the counter were sold out. 1990 The turnover in Asia reached1860,000 yuan, ranking 35th among large shopping malls in China and becoming a dark horse with the fastest rising speed. In the following three years, Asia's turnover increased by more than 30% every year, ranking first in Henan. 1992 10 in June, Wang Suizhou was elected as "the top ten outstanding young people in the three sessions of the country". Later, Wang Suizhou was elected as the representative of the Eighth National People's Congress. 1In February, 1993, the People's Government of Henan Province issued a commendation order to commend Zhengzhou Asia Mall and Wang Suizhou. It was also at this time that some unknown crises had begun to sprout. Wang Suizhou is an expert in the image building and business activity planning of shopping malls, but he has never been interested in management. Under the gorgeous and noble cloak, the management in Asia is obviously quite chaotic and lacks supervision and restraint mechanisms. In the future, Asian veterans have admitted that Asia, which has been in business for nine years, has not conducted a comprehensive and thorough audit. In the past nine years, there have been four bosses in Asia, but there has not been an audit or a handover. The manager of the commodity department changed like a merry-go-round, without review and handover. One thing is typical. 1993 someone borrowed 8 million yuan from Asia, but only verbally greeted Wang Suizhou. In the following years, he finally paid back 3 million bit by bit, and the rest went away. At its peak, the annual turnover in Asia increased by 1 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan, but the net profit of enterprises never exceeded 65.438+million yuan. Wang Suizhou enjoys this excitement and publicity, but it doesn't matter how much money he can earn every year. When things were smooth sailing, some people said that he was a "strategist" and didn't care about small profits, but at the end of the road, this undoubtedly became the most fatal defect. 1In September, 1993, Wang Suizhou established Zhengzhou Asia Group Co., Ltd. on the basis of Zhengzhou Asia Mall. The number of shareholders has expanded from two to five (later to six), and the new shareholders are all financial companies and real estate developers who made their fortune in Hainan before. They almost surrounded Wang Suizhou and embarked on the road of "chain operation". In just four years, Asia has opened 15 large chain department stores, among which six in the province are named after "Asia" and nine outside the province are named after "Qiancun Department Store". This enterprise with its own capital of only 40 million yuan is carrying out a super expansion with an investment of nearly 2 billion yuan. With the opening of Beijing store, Shanghai store and Guangzhou store, on the surface, the territory of the Asian empire seems to be extending day by day. However, no one expected that Wang Suizhou's road to "China retail chain empire" was actually a road of failure. A very shocking fact is that all chain stores in Asia suffered losses on the opening day, without exception. 1996 June 14, Zhengzhou Asia Group held the most boring board meeting in history. Wang Suizhou introduced the operation of chain stores one by one; Beijing only sells 700,000 to 800,000 a day, and Shanghai only sells 300,000 to 400,000; Several stores in the province lost 4 million yuan a month, and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou lost 20 million yuan a month. He commented that we were young and didn't consider so many difficulties. At that time, the payment of each branch was extremely scarce, which could not satisfy the suppliers at all. In the words of the general manager of "Qiancun Department Store" in Shanghai, "the general manager of commercial buildings learned to cheat money, and the general manager of distribution learned to cheat goods." Shanghai branch has been in business for half a year, and it is in arrears with payment of 38 million yuan. "What did you think at that time-get the goods first! Most of the sales of these goods are spent by ourselves, and the return is even less than 45%. " Once this not-so-clever deception is discovered by the supplier, the consequences will certainly not be too good. A year later, the "Thousand Villages Department Store" in Shanghai closed, and the general manager was placed under house arrest for several days by the manufacturer, and did not show up for a long time after he got away. A cadre left behind in Zhengzhou was beaten by an angry supplier until he vomited blood and became unconscious. Colleagues in Shanghai sent him to the hospital. Just as the infusion was in progress, another supplier heard the news, pulled out the needle in front of the hospital bed, put him by the Huangpu River, killed him, abandoned him and left swearing. At the end of 1996, the storm finally poured down. On June 5438+0 1 this year, Tianjin Asia Commercial Building closed down and its goods were looted. At this time, the Asian Henan Company still relies on strong inertia to operate: the etiquette team members of each branch raise the flag on time every day, and the managers still line up at the door to meet the first customers who enter the market every day. Zhengzhou Central Store advertises on the loudspeakers in downtown every day: "Asia, the pride of Henan people! The glory of Zhengzhou people! " The tone is loud and harsh. 1October 26th 10, Asia Colorful Shopping Plaza opened. The sales of that day was only 6.5438+0 million yuan, which made the shopping plaza afraid to announce this figure. Wang Suizhou left Zhengzhou after attending the colorful opening ceremony with a heavy heart. According to local media records, the day he left was cloudy in Zhengzhou in late autumn, with biting wind and chilly drizzle. On March 5th, 1997, Wang Suizhou called some senior cadres in Asia and formally announced his resignation decision to them. He said: "We encountered some temporary difficulties, but it paved the way for Henan Province and even the whole country, and it was not in vain. I have also learned many, many lessons-each of us has gained experience and lessons. " After Wang Suizhou left office, several general managers in Asia took office, trying to save the defeat. However, the defeat has been decided, and the "Asia", Zhengzhou's "commercial aircraft carrier", finally sank.