“Making decisions at the front line, letting people who hear the gunfire make decisions.”

Recently, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, gave a detailed interpretation of the evolution of Great Wall Motors’ organizational structure, and the thought-provoking quote quickly became popular on social media.

The 3.0 version of the organizational structure after evolution is an extremely flat, user-oriented and project-oriented management structure driven by processes and digital transformation.

Specifically, connecting the “combat units” means that through process and digital transformation, brand company management is strengthened, and brand company’s various combat units should be able to reach users.

Through these interpretations, the outside world can have a clearer understanding of why Great Wall Motors can achieve its current status, break through constraints time and time again, and timely refine and adjust its own operational theory.

In the global context, digital transformation and intelligent transformation have become inevitable, and this is also an important choice for traditional car companies represented by Great Wall Motors to “transform” into global intelligent technology companies.

Data shows that in 2021, Great Wall Motors’ revenue was 136.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.04%, net profit was 6.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.41%; the average sales price per vehicle was over 106,000 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.02%; sales volume in overseas markets reached 139,891 units, a year-on-year increase of 102.98%, and revenue reached 16.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 142.24%.

In just over 30 years, from Baoding to the world, Great Wall Motor’s success cannot be separated from the reform consciousness of its leader Wei Jianjun:

“We must transform or die. If we don’t transform, we will die. China’s automobile industry must go abroad even if it means dying there,” and “the biggest crisis is the lack of crisis awareness. Only with a thorough self-revolution can we have more possibilities to go further in the future’s even more cruel competition.” His remarks are related to enterprise crisis, hard fight, transformation, change, and other courageous vocabulary.

In the era of industrial change, if a company fails to take the lead, its strategic space will become very narrow, and it will face the dilemma of being locked in a particular field or even being eliminated. Great Wall Motor’s successful experience provides a valuable model for the automobile industry and even the rise of Chinese brands.

Seeking development through “innovation and change”

For the automobile industry, “intelligence” and “electrification” not only bring global companies to the same starting line but also provide an opportunity for Chinese brands to overtake. At the moment of opportunity, how to seize it is a key issue that Chinese automobile brands must consider.For this required question, some brands are still exploring, while others have already given the answer, such as Great Wall Motors.

In fact, from the micro-film “30 Years of Car-Making” released on July 13, 2020, we can see that Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, has thoughts about the future of the industry. As early as two years ago, Great Wall Motors foresaw the opportunity of “China’s car overtaking in change” and made arrangements in advance.

Looking back now, the answer that Great Wall Motors grasped can be summarized in two words: “innovation and change”. Moreover, the innovation and change of Great Wall Motors are not limited to any one aspect.

Ram Charan, a world-renowned management consultant, once said that today’s market environment and external environment have brought more and more uncertainties. To achieve sustainable growth, companies need to change their genes. Focusing on the automotive industry, under such a great change, automotive companies need to transform quickly and change or even overturn traditional organizational structures and management concepts.

In this regard, Great Wall Motors can be said to have a deep understanding. Under the guidance of the concept of innovation and change, Great Wall Motors has carried out organizational innovation since 2020, forming a 3.0 version of the organizational structure of “strong back-end, large/medium-middle-end, and small front-end”. Through the three “platforms”, a “one car, one brand, one company” organizational form is formed, with a management organizational structure focusing on users, projects and processes, so that each part of the organizational mechanism can be directly linked to users.

This transformation has also allowed Great Wall Motors to truly build a structurally solid golden iron triangle system, which, under a unified goal, can provide products and services to users more accurately and achieve 1+1+1>3 effect.

While adjusting the organizational structure, the concept of Great Wall Motors has also begun to shift from product-oriented to user-oriented, that is, always closely following market changes, accurately tapping user needs, and around users Opening up a new brand road of “category innovation”, insisting on a user-centric mindset to do “strong products, high quality and good service.”

Take category innovation as an example. Great Wall Motors has now created a brand matrix including “Haval + WEY + Great Wall Pickup + Euler + Tank + Salon”, which covers different sub-categories such as fuel and electric, female and male users, cars, pickups, and SUVs.Users are the best judges. In terms of market performance, data shows that Haval brand has accumulated global sales of over 7 million vehicles, and its pickup truck models have accumulated global sales of over 2 million vehicles. Ora brand sold 135,028 vehicles in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 140%; and Tank 300 has sparked a new wave of domestic hardcore off-road trend since its launch.

It can be said that comprehensive innovation in concepts, products, and organizational structure has enabled Great Wall Motors to achieve brand improvement while also pursuing a “high quality and high price” route.

Seizing the future competitive high ground with technology

Hermann Simon, the German management guru known as the “father of the hidden champions,” once said, “Focus, specialization, and innovation are the secrets of a company’s success.” At first glance, this sentence seems ordinary, but when combined with Great Wall Motors, the meaning behind it becomes clear.

In July 1990, the 26-year-old Wei Jianjun took over Great Wall Motors and used his own intelligence and ability to push it into the global market. Over the next 30 years, Great Wall Motors faced temptations from both the lucrative profits brought by short-term market fluctuations and the huge subsidies for new energy vehicles… But regardless of the outside world’s clamor, Great Wall Motors has always maintained its focus on technology and innovation.

The fact has proved that this choice is correct. Especially in 2018, as the dividend period of China’s automobile market gradually faded, and the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in 2020, causing great challenges for China’s automobile industry, Great Wall Motors was not greatly affected and successfully stood out with outstanding performance.

So, what kind of answer has Great Wall Motors given in core technology in the past two years? Let’s start from July 20, 2020. On this day, Great Wall Motors introduced three major technology brands: Lemon, Tank, and Coffee Intelligence.

Four months later, Great Wall Motors released a new powertrain-GW4N20 engine, the world’s first transversely mounted 9-speed wet dual-clutch transmission-9DCT, 9HDCT, and a three-in-one electric drive assembly. At the end of 2020, Great Wall Motors once again officially launched the “Lemon Hybrid DHT” technology that faces the full-speed domain and all scenarios globally. This technology is also praised by the industry as “a major weapon for Chinese brands to break through the technical barriers of joint ventures.”

After that, Great Wall Motors successively released industry-leading technological achievements, such as 70MPa high-pressure hydrogen storage tank valve and two-stage pressure reducing valve, 150kW platform fuel cell stack, 95kW fuel cell system engine, Dayu battery technology, 3.0T+9AT/9HAT P2 powertrain technology, intelligent line-controlled chassis, intelligent cockpit platform, and IDC3.0 high-computing automatic driving computing platform.In terms of smart ecosystem construction, Great Wall Motors has not only formally entered the chip industry and third-generation semiconductor core industry, but also established a software team for product digitization center, focusing on intelligent cockpit full-stack solutions…… It can be said that from fuel vehicles to hybrids, from pure electric to hydrogen energy, and to intelligence, Great Wall Motors has developed into an “all-round player” among Chinese car companies in just a few years.

It is worth mentioning that behind the further consolidation of the image of “Tech Great Wall” lies the precision investment of Great Wall Motors in research and development. According to data, in 2021, Great Wall Motors invested the most in fields of high-tech, such as pure electric, hydrogen energy, hybrid, chips, sensors, and artificial intelligence, with the investment amount reaching CNY 9.07 billion, a year-on-year increase of 76.05%. At the same time, according to the plan of Great Wall Motors, it will accumulate R&D expenses of CNY 100 billion by 2025.

In my opinion, continuous increase in R&D investment will not only strengthen the core technology autonomy of Great Wall Motors but also enable it to take the initiative and gain a commanding point in future market competition.

From Product Globalization to Brand Globalization

“The future belongs to global enterprises. If they remain national enterprises, they will likely face a difficult future,” said Al Ries, the father of positioning, regarding brand development.

Great minds think alike. Great Wall Motors believes that globalization is the inevitable way for Chinese car companies to make breakthroughs and further development regarding brand. At the same time, globalization also contains significant strategic opportunities for Chinese brands to achieve overtaking.

However, globalization is not easy for Chinese brands, especially under the current situation where the market environment is dynamic, changes are frequent, and the pandemic is rampant. However, as Beethoven once said: “Only through adversity, can we achieve excellence.” Facing the road of “going global” with many difficulties, Great Wall Motors has not retreated.

According to data, in 2021, Great Wall Motors achieved nearly 140,000 units of overseas sales and generated revenue of CNY 16.16 billion, with a revenue ratio of 11.85%. Among them, the pickup model exported 46,319 units throughout the year with a year-on-year increase of 146.23%, while the SUV model exported 92,895 units throughout the year, with a year-on-year increase of 91.79%.

Of course, as a car company committed to continuously improving its brand and dreaming of the world, Great Wall Motors not only focuses on pursuing product “going global” but also values global brand building.Therefore, in recent years, Great Wall Motors has been accelerating its global production layout. In June 2019, the Great Wall Motors Tula Factory in Russia was officially put into operation, which was the first full-process production factory of a Chinese brand in overseas markets. Although the completion and production of this factory is only a small step for Great Wall Motors in overseas markets, it is a big step for Chinese automakers going global.

In 2021, Great Wall Motors has established its second overseas full-process vehicle manufacturing factory in Thailand, and has successfully produced the Haval H6 HEV and Haval JOLION HEV models.

As of this year, Great Wall Motors has exported to more than 170 countries and regions, and has nearly 700 overseas sales channels. At the same time, R&D centers have been established in 10 cities in 7 countries including the United States, Japan, Germany, and Canada, forming a global R&D layout covering Europe, Asia, and North America with the Chinese headquarters as the core, comprehensively covering research and development in fields such as complete vehicles, core components, new energy, and intelligence.

In other words, after 32 years of development, Great Wall Motors has not only transformed into a leading Chinese automaker in various fields such as R&D, digitalization, marketing, and production technology, but its globalization process has also entered a good stage.

Brand, one end is connected to the market, the other end is connected to the enterprise. Strengthening and improving Chinese automakers is not only a “required course” for a national auto company to respond to the changes of the times and win a better future, but also a demonstration of bearing the responsibility of “Made in China”.

And Great Wall Motors has achieved this.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.