“Slow is fast.”
In an interview with the X-MAN accelerator, Lin Guodong repeatedly emphasized this sentence. Practice has proved that it is with this simple belief that he has made a small steel belt enterprise highly well-known in this field in the world.
Mingke Transmission, led by Lin Guodong, is known for its stability in the industry. Whether in terms of internal management or external market development, he firmly believes that the core vitality of the manufacturing industry is “stable” – stable people’s hearts, stable markets and products.
Just like his stable career trajectory: he has been immersed in the steel strip industry for 18 years. “Fate is arranged. I have no choice. That’s all I can do.” He laughed and teased himself.
Lin Guodong graduated from Xiamen University with a major in aircraft power engineering. After graduation, he worked for Sandvik, a world-renowned steel belt enterprise, for 7 years. In 2012, he founded the “Mingke Steel Belt” brand in Shanghai. In 2018, he invested in Nanjing and built a production base. Now the company has become a leading brand in the global high-strength precision steel strip industry, with an average annual growth of 20% in the past 11 years, and the international market share of products has climbed to the industry leader. In the next 10 years, he is committed to building the first brand with the market share of the invisible champion.
“This year’s revenue is expected to reach 150 million yuan, and the per capita output value is about 1.3 million yuan, which is nearly twice the average of the same industry.” Lin Guodong said.
In the face of such a gratifying performance and strong momentum, what is the magic weapon behind Mingke? He gave detailed answers from three aspects: product, market and management.
According to him, Mingke’s core products are steel belts used in different scenarios. Compared with traditional products, Mingke’s steel strip can be said to be a nobleman in steel. It not only has ultra-high strength and good flexibility, but also has a wide range of applicability. In the production workshop, we also saw that high-strength precision steel strips become transparent and reflective of mirror-like silver luster after going through the drawing machine, heat treatment, surface treatment and other processes. “The raw materials are carefully selected high-quality steel, and the production process introduces the world’s advanced processing technology. At the same time, global cutting-edge technology is also introduced to inject stable core performance parameters into the product. In a word, all elements are aligned to the world’s first-class level.” Lin Guodong said.
The unit price of Mingke’s steel belt can be sold for more than 300,000 yuan. “Each order is highly customized, and we will customize it according to the customer’s needs, which is irreplaceable. It has been recognized by many customers, and the order is currently saturated.”
Why are high-priced steel strips so popular in the market? Lin Guodong took the wood-based panel as an example to explain the importance of the steel strip in production: the steel strip plays the role of the core component in the continuous press. Due to the direct contact between the steel strip and the plate in the production process, the quality of the steel strip largely determines the surface quality of the final plate. There is a seamless splicing process of longitudinal welding in the eight-foot steel strip, and the thickness tolerance and welding deformation should be controlled at a very precise level. Another focus of the steel strip is the fatigue strength, which directly determines the service life of the steel strip. The bending test of the simulated steel strip on the press before leaving the factory of the Mingke steel strip ensures the stability of the steel strip quality control.
Thanks to excellent products and the advantages brought by large-scale benefits, Mingke steel belt is involved in more and more industries, such as fuel cells, automobile lightweight, baking, chemical flake granulation, artificial board, ceramic large rock slab, rubber plate, etc.
It is not enough to rely on product advantages to enter the leading position in the industry, and enterprise management is also crucial.
In terms of organizational management, Lin Guodong has been pursuing a sense of relaxation. “I almost never work overtime, and I don’t create an atmosphere of overtime. I don’t want employees to be too anxious. I hope everyone can feel the inner happiness after work.” Lin Guodong added: No anxiety does not mean contempt for efficiency. On the contrary, it is to ensure that employees are in a better state and achieve twice the result with half the effort. “Project efficiency must be pursued by any company, and the pursuit of efficiency does not conflict with our cultural purpose.”
Secondly, it is also very important to unite people’s hearts. “Mingke has been in a state of continuous profitability, which has a lot to do with my business philosophy. I am very simple in my life. I don’t have luxury consumption, and I only drive a car for more than 300,000 yuan. Because I prefer to establish a risk system so that everyone has stable expectations. In addition, a money-sharing system has also been formulated. When it is promoted, the inner cohesion of employees will be easy. Because everyone knows that there are stable expectations for taking money.”
Lin Guodong further explained that Mingke products are very dependent on people. In fact, they are also dependent on the spirit of craftsmen. They need to work for many years to obtain a good professional skill state, and the product quality can be stable. On the contrary, their stability also depends on the organization of the enterprise, and the enterprise must bring them a stable sense of security. The two complement each other and complete each other.
“The European invisible champion model is the driving force and benchmark for my entrepreneurship. Unlike the outlet industry that grasps traffic, the underlying logic of precision manufacturing is a slow variable. Insist on doing difficult and right things for a long time. Today’s main action is to empower the long-term goal in at least three years.” Three years ago, Lin Guodong used a lot of money to create a learning organization. Through a set of training and screening mechanism, he cultivated talents suitable for their own characteristics for enterprises and solved the problem of temporary shortage of people and relying on the external market to obtain instability.
The arrow issued three years ago hit the bull’s eye today.
At a time when many entrepreneurs are still exploring to go abroad, Lin Guodong’s early overseas business has carried the flag for the enterprise.
Relying on the talent training mechanism established by himself, Mingke set up an overseas business department many years ago and intends to cultivate a group of talents serving overseas business.
Take sales channels as an example. After finding foreign agents, Mingke took them to China for unified sales service training. After years of continuous efforts, it currently has more than 10 overseas agent channels and customers in more than 10 countries and regions around the world.
“Overseas revenue has accounted for 40% of the total revenue, and the growth momentum is still very good. We have been to sea for almost 10 years and have been growing steadily. The business scenario is very balanced. It does not rely on a single business scenario or a single market. For example, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Russia, etc. have our business. Moreover, grasp the overseas and domestic markets at the same time and strive to achieve balance.”
Speaking of the future, Lin Guodong said that his vision for this enterprise is very simple: In the next few decades, Mingke can maintain healthy development and become a benchmark enterprise in the sub-field of steel strip.
Post time: May-29-2024