Since 2020, entrepreneurs in China, especially the Internet industry, have ushered in a wave of intensive "retirement tide" of founders: a group of founders such as Ma Yun, Huang Zheng and Zhang Yiming resolutely bid farewell to the public eye.
But at the same time, they all chose people who know the company's business very well to take charge of the overall situation. This group of professional managers with China characteristics have finally stepped onto the stage of the times through the training of enterprises.
The founders of conservative traditional enterprises, with the children brought up from childhood gradually maturing, this group of young figures began to emerge in front of the field of vision: Yang Guoqiang's daughter Yang, Zhang's son Zhang, or Sun Hongbin's son Sun, who was gradually exposed recently.
A group of younger and more dynamic "second-generation enterprises" are gearing up and gradually taking the helm of their parents' business giant.
But what remains unchanged is that from "fighting the country" to "governing the country", the test of the times to this group of successors has not disappeared. On the contrary, more complex and precipitous challenges inevitably face them.
Compared with the breakthrough from 0 to 1, from 1 to 100 is a more tortuous and difficult road.
A year ago, the same problem was left to Sun Piaoyang and his Hengrui Pharmaceutical Company.
On June 6th, 2020, at 65438, Sun Piaoyang, the first brother of R&D, announced his resignation as chairman of Hengrui Pharma. At that time, Zhou, his apprentice, was invited to take the stage. Zhou was the general manager of 17 working in Hengrui.
However, Sun Piaoyang's choice may become a big knot for him.
Only one and a half years later, 48-year-old Zhou Shuguang walked out. Last month, Hengrui Pharma announced that Mr. Zhou had applied to resign as chairman, general manager and special committees of the board of directors due to physical reasons.
During the time when my lover was in charge of Hengrui, its overall performance was unacceptable to shareholders-the market value of Hengrui Pharma dropped by nearly 200 billion from the high point of 202/kloc-0 at the beginning of the year, and Hengrui led by Zhou only took half a year. On the other hand, investors are puzzled by Hengrui Pharma's 35% marketing investment.
At the critical moment, 63-year-old Sun Piaoyang came out again. Can he turn things around?
All the answers need to be found in history.
1990, Sun Piaoyang made a major decision.
That year, Sun Piaoyang, who had just become the factory director, took over Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory: it was a factory where income plummeted and even workers could hardly support themselves. Subsequently, he decided to concentrate all material resources and manpower on developing anticancer drugs.
Limited by technology and investment, few pharmaceutical companies were willing to develop innovative drugs themselves. From the public's point of view, Sun Piaoyang is faced with a "gambling" in which the probability of failure is far greater than the probability of success, and it is a "narrow escape" battle.
The incomprehension of workers and management is like a mountain in front of Sun Piaoyang: as a decision-maker, he needs to be responsible for the future and livelihood of a group of people, and he is under great pressure.
On the other hand, Sun Piaoyang also understands that it is only a matter of time before such a low-profit pharmaceutical factory closes down and is eliminated.
"The development cycle of innovative drugs is long. Many drugs take more than ten years from research and development to clinical production. Once put into production, its life cycle is decades. This is an industry with high investment, high risk and high return. " After weighing the pros and cons repeatedly, high risks and high returns coexist, and Sun Piaoyang finally decided to give it a try.
"You don't have a skill, your fate is in the hands of others!"
One day in the 1990s, Sun Piaoyang, who was in his thirties, spent all his savings with a wave of his hand, and successively bought the patent rights of VP 16 anti-cancer injection technology and ifosfamide, a new anti-cancer drug developed by the Institute of Pharmacology of China Academy of Medical Sciences.
It can be said that taking over two "three high" projects at this time, once it fails, Sun Piaoyang and Lianyungang pharmaceutical factories will be doomed.
However, Sun Piaoyang showed extraordinary determination: operators must be tolerant and bear the failure.
The subsequent development also confirmed Sun Piaoyang's judgment that these two drugs will become explosive in the future, making Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory invincible in the field of anticancer drugs in China.
Since then, Sun Piaoyang became famous in World War I, and his personal wealth accumulated rapidly. Once sat firmly in the fourth place on the Forbes China Rich List in 2020.
It can be said that Sun Piaoyang's extraordinary courage and courage is the most obvious label as an entrepreneur. He is not afraid of failure, knows all the risks, and if he has the chance, he will enthusiastically throw himself into it and gamble unswervingly.
But that's not all.
Putting all your eggs in one basket and taking risks are the external characteristics of Sun Piao.
However, this does not mean that Sun Piaoyang is foolhardy and likes to make decisions by patting his head. In fact, Sun Piaoyang's rich industry knowledge, unique strategic vision and continuous investment in innovative drugs are the real emboldened to "gamble" several times.
In the 1990s, Sun Piaoyang learned a lot of professional knowledge and studied the policy situation, and realized that innovative drugs would become the explosion point of the pharmaceutical industry.
In fact, in addition to purchasing the technology of anticancer drugs twice, in 1997 and 2000, Sun Piaoyang invested a lot of money to set up two research centers in Lianyungang and Shanghai, and began to build independent innovation platforms for enterprises.
However, from investment to return, the large-scale production of innovative drugs takes a long period.
"From the perspective of enterprise innovation strategy and development, enterprises certainly hope to have new drugs, but the current situation is still to use the small money earned by buying generic drugs as innovative drugs. Without the support of continuous innovation, the prosperity of enterprises will not go far. "
In the face of many doubts, Sun Piaoyang still insists on his choice. As a strategist, Sun Piaoyang never fights unprepared. He keeps his bottom line thinking, and he will arrange everything in advance.
On the other hand, Sun Piaoyang is different from those entrepreneurs who wear suits and ties and shoot at random.
In 2007, Sun Piaoyang made the Forbes China Rich List with a net worth of $3.9 billion. However, whether it is an employee, a factory director or even a billionaire, he always wears a pair of glasses and stays in the laboratory for ten years.
Once, when an employee envied the prosperity of Tianqing Pharmaceutical, he would turn to those people and say, "In three years, Hengrui will surpass sunny days, and I will come to see you."
"Only innovation that dares to participate in international competition is the real innovation." Sun Piaoyang has been secretly competing with foreign markets. As early as 2005, Hengrui established the goal of "world-famous innovative pharmaceutical enterprise", trying to make China get rid of the title of "big generic drug country" and let China Pharmaceutical go global.
An employee of Hengrui Pharmaceutical said that Sun Piaoyang would attend any meeting on scientific research, and he would sit by and listen to the meeting.
Even Hengrui has a special department to provide Sun Piaoyang with the latest research and development progress of the international pharmaceutical industry every day. Sun Piaoyang always has a scientific research journal in his hand, often leafs through it, and picks out the research and development progress he has obtained through various channels and sends it to relevant personnel. "Sometimes his information is even more cutting-edge than that of us researchers."
Starting from 200 1, Sun Piaoyang participated in the research of four "863" projects; Dozens of new drugs have been developed, among which 7 products are exclusively produced in China, 5 products are listed in the "National Torch Plan", 2 products are listed in the "National Spark Plan", and 10 products have been rated as national key new products, and 24 national invention patents and 5 world patents have been applied for.
Apart from participating in scientific research and development, Sun Piaoyang has never been stingy in scientific research investment. He invested hundreds of millions of yuan in research funds, personally led the team to establish research projects, and took out most of the sales as research funds. In the first three quarters of 20 19, the company's R&D expenditure was close to 2.8 billion yuan, accounting for 17% of the company's operating income.
After retiring in 2020, he personally invested 40 million yuan to establish Ruili Di Biomedical Co., Ltd. with Hengrui, focusing on the research and development of antiviral drugs.
From this perspective, Sun Piaoyang, the "drug god", really lives up to its reputation.
However, Sun Piaoyang is facing unprecedented challenges on 202 1.
Faced with the problem of succession, the 63-year-old man had to come back to take charge of the overall situation after a year of fading out of public view.
In the year and a half when beloved Zhou took over the company, the market value of Hengrui has evaporated by more than 200 billion yuan, and the former "medical brother" has gradually faded.
According to informed sources, after the return of Sun Piaoyang, it will continue to consolidate its leading position in the research and development of new drugs in China, and at the same time increase investment in the two strategies of scientific and technological innovation and internationalization.
This may be a way to return to the values of Hengrui and Sun Piaoyang. After all, Hengrui Pharma's marketing investment of up to 35% in recent years has not only made investors question the profit distribution of the company greatly, but also made the company that has been paying attention to R&D go astray.
The test is multifaceted, and the problem needs to be solved step by step.
In many public occasions, Sun Piaoyang often stressed in interviews that innovation is the lifeline of Hengrui. However, the investment in innovative drugs and the development of new drug market need a lot of financial support.
For example, Hengrui Pharma's heavyweight product PD- 1 monoclonal antibody will be sold through hospital channels in 2020, and most of them will be sold in pharmacies and other levels. This means that how to make innovative drugs directly delivered to patients through hospital channels and make innovative drugs become the main income source of Hengrui is an urgent problem in Sun Piaoyang.
In addition, the government's raising the threshold of innovative drugs for cancer and related policy factors have also become another big test after Sun Piaoyang's return to China. In fact, on the day when the country issued the Guiding Principles for Clinical Research and Development of Anti-tumor Drugs Oriented by Clinical Value, Hengrui's share price fell by 4%.
In the face of many tests, Sun Piaoyang has made a strong return in the public eye: Can he continue this legend?