The essence of Shanxi merchants

Shanxi merchants even put forward the concept of honesty.

Chen Feng: Flying in the sky.

On the night when he was awarded the title of the best business leader in China, Chen Feng took the business wisdom he had always believed in and led China's financial industry for nearly 300 years as a real business philosophy and "taught" it to his domestic counterparts.

"Shanghai, a big city, is too expensive for us who come from small places." /kloc-On the evening of October/September, holding the 30kg sterling silver trophy specially awarded to him by China's Best Business Leader Award, facing the media, Chen Feng still hasn't changed his exaggerated modesty.

"Flying to Shanghai is money, and staying in a hotel is also money. Can the cost be low? " Chen Feng laughed and said.

Anyone who knows a little about Chen Feng and his HNA can immediately hear that this sentence is absolutely absurd, because he can choose any flight of his own airline to go to Shanghai without paying for business class or even first class; When you arrive in Shanghai, if you don't want to stay in the hotel arranged by the conference group, you can also choose any one of the four-star hotels located in the bustling business district at the intersection of Quyang Road and Neihuan Road in Hongkou District, Shanghai, because this hotel named Shanghai Tian Xiang is one of the top ten hotels under HNA Group.

1993, when Chen Feng was pregnant with the1000000 yuan allocated to him by the Hainan provincial government-Chen Feng often said that this "can't even afford to buy half an airplane wing"-who would have thought that he would build an airline that would attract the attention of international capital predators under the "monopoly sky" of China civil aviation. In fact, from that time on, Chen Feng began to become the most controversial figure in China civil aviation. Advocating Confucian culture and pursuing world-class corporate brands have always coexisted with Chen Feng.

Founder of capital player HNA

Chen Feng, Senior Economist, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HNA Group. The representative of the market-oriented power of China civil aviation industry.

Since 199 1 set sail, it has grown from a mere100000 yuan to the fourth largest force in China's civil aviation industry, with tens of billions of operating assets. Chen Feng, who was indifferent to Hainan's real estate bubble and never speculated in stocks, not only made full use of every opportunity in China's capital market, but also told the story of China ten times on Wall Street, fought side by side with Soros, obtained financing from Americans, and finally founded Hainan Airlines, which is famous for its smile and service.

He has worked in the Planning Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the State Air Traffic Control Administration for many years.

Together with HNA, he has always occupied the focus of China aviation market.

The domestic airline mentioned that he would say that HNA is a great market.

Domestic investment institutions will worry that they can't buy too many shares of HNA. This company is very risky.

China civil aviation insiders will have a high opinion of him: there is nothing he wants to do that he can't do.

And his employees will say that he is a persistent believer, impatient and fast.

Under his leadership, after eight years, HNA's total assets have grown from the initial 654.38+00 million yuan to the current 654.38+065.438+06 million yuan, achieving an expansion of 654.38+0000 times. Through large-scale merger and reorganization, Hainan Airlines now has more than 200 routes, forming a large enterprise group-HNA Group. The company was rated as the joint-stock company with the highest degree of marketization in China. In 2000, Chen Feng was elected as a national model worker and was awarded the title of "Meritorious Entrepreneur of Hainan Province" again.

The expansion of self-cultivation

Chen Feng wore a regular black suit and red tie at the awards party. Anyone familiar with Chen Feng will mention that he works in a road suit in the office, mainly because of his love for China traditional culture.

Reading, meditation and taking notes are his compulsory courses every night. No matter how busy he is, the essay of "Quiet Night" in fine print is uninterrupted every day.

Mr. Nan, who studied under the master of Chinese studies, has many connections with people in Putuo Mountain and Huokeji, which is one of the main characteristics that distinguishes Chen Feng from ordinary business people.

"Shanxi merchants in China opened banks, leading China's financial industry for 300 years and becoming the originator of the world banking industry. Today, the norms of the World Bank have not escaped from the system created by Shanxi merchants, and there were no fake bills of exchange at that time. In the absence of modern means of transportation and communication at that time, the strict system and strong cultural cohesion can not help but make us far behind today. They can succeed because of these three sentences: although they are in the field of wealth, they still take Xiu De's cultivation as the foundation, do not fall for the temptation of wealth, and have good moral cultivation; Doing business in good faith is the fundamental way; When there is a contradiction between justice and benefit, it is beneficial to society and all living beings to substitute justice for benefit, that is, the world is good. This is the real way of doing business in China. " Chen Feng further explained his three sentences.

Talking with Chen Feng, you can feel a kind of persistence and passion. And his temper is like the tropical weather in Hainan, sometimes stormy and sometimes sunny. "When swearing, it can be thunder and heavy rain, and it will be Mao Mao rain immediately after swearing, without any transition." HNA employees said this about Chen Feng.

At the same time, Chen Feng, which is confident and calm under the packaging of foreign suits and ties, has been carrying out bold capital expansion.

HNA has been living in a very bad environment. The integration of the three major domestic aviation groups is faster than expected. They have occupied 80% of China's air transport market share, while Hainan's air transport market share is only about 9%. "In this case, HNA has to be desperately bigger."

Therefore, it seems that acquisition and reorganization have always been the "theme song" of HNA. Changan Airlines, Xinhua Airlines, Shandong Airlines, meilan airport, Weifang Airport and Datong Airport, such state-owned enterprises and enterprises that have suffered losses for many years, were completely transformed after being acquired by HNA, turned losses into profits and grew rapidly.

Then hotels and tourism groups, and later even bought Beijing Yanjing Department Store, reorganized Xi An Minsheng, and brought the department store industry into the industrial chain of HNA.

12 years later, HNA became the fourth largest airline in China. By extending to the upstream and downstream industries of air transport, it formed a large enterprise group integrating air transport, airport management, hotel tourism and related industries.

However, the pace of Chen Feng's restructuring has not stopped, and the real fourth largest aviation group in China is brewing. Chen Feng revealed that HNA Group is reorganizing its six airlines in the name of "Greater China Airlines Group". Daxinhua Group will reintroduce strategic investors, and the private placement of strategic investors is coming to an end. A number of domestic and foreign enterprise groups, including Soros, the "financial tycoon", have expressed their interest in participating in Grand China Aviation Group.

"This will be another major development and reorganization of China's aviation industry, which should bring opportunities for the Chinese nation to establish a world-class brand." Chen Feng made no secret of his confidence.

Seize every opportunity

The development of HNA is a bit legendary. 1990, when Chen Feng, who resigned from the Planning Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Planning Department of the State Air Traffic Control Administration, was ordered to form Hainan Airlines, he only had100000 yuan invested by the Hainan provincial government. Later, he raised 250 million yuan of start-up capital through the shareholding system reform of enterprises, and then introduced four Boeing 737 aircraft in succession by means of financial leasing and operating leasing, which laid the foundation for the company's development. Later, he led the management to Wall Street and persuaded Soros to let American Airlines Limited, controlled by Quantum Fund, acquire a 25% stake in Hainan Airlines for $25 million and become the largest shareholder of Hainan Airlines. The company went on to list in B shares and A shares, issued bonds overseas, and bought a large number of aircraft with loans from domestic and foreign banks.

It is hard to imagine that the starting point of all this is only 10 million yuan, but now it has expanded to more than 20 billion yuan. Therefore, many people call Chen Feng a master of capital operation and HNA a group combining industry and finance, but Chen Feng does not agree with this statement.

"I'm not an expert in capital operation. I just make full use of the opportunity of the development and reform of China's capital market to provide a capital platform for the development of HNA. HNA is a typical industrial company. The plane is so expensive, and some financial work is purely to support industrial development. " Chen Feng said.

Chen Feng said that the development of HNA in the past decade, especially in the last five years, benefited from the accelerated development of reform and opening up. Therefore, at the Shanghai Business Leaders Awards Gala, Chen Feng always thanked this era. "Because the era of China has brought opportunities to our business people."

And Chen Feng's good luck actually comes from the fact that he seized almost every opportunity. In Chen Feng's words, "I seized almost all the opportunities in China's capital market. Legal person shares, STAQ, A shares, B shares, foreign shares, H shares, all China stock encyclopedia. " And why can it be seen by Soros? "Because I am kind and honest, I can turn the story into reality." Chen Feng said without thinking.

Chen Feng introduced that in fact, when lobbying on Wall Street at that time, HNA used three winning conditions: First, HNA established international accounting standards at the beginning. The second is to hire the largest law firm in the United States to be the legal document of HNA. The third is to use the evaluation made by the most authoritative evaluation company on Wall Street in the United States in private placement.

Indeed, Chen Feng, who likes to absorb China's traditional culture, has not accepted the backward things in traditional culture, but has been working hard for change and innovation. "Consolidating the foundation and seeking the new" is Chen Feng's own essence on the basis of Shanxi merchants' thought.

For the first time, HNA's aircraft fuselage was painted with beautiful paintings, which was unexpected by most domestic airlines. It also holds a ticket lottery in the plane cabin to make you feel that the journey is not so boring. ...

Some people commented that Chen Feng dared to think, dare to do and have courage. Chen Feng said that Shanxi people are timid and timid in their bones. "I have been walking on thin ice, trembling. But when history pushes you to a position, you must give up yourself and go where there is no way to go. "

On the night of the award, Chen Feng did not stay in the hotel arranged by the conference, nor did he stay in HNA's own hotel. Instead, I rushed to Weifang overnight to participate in the speech dialogue between the business giants on both sides of the strait, with the theme of "Confucian culture and world-class enterprises".