*This article was reproduced from the official account of autocarweekly

Author: Jiang Xiaohua

On April 19th, at the Shanghai Auto Show, Geely Automobile Group’s newly appointed CEO Gan Jiayue made his first public appearance. Just one month ago, he took over the banner of Geely Automobile from An Conghui’s hands. Dressed in a blue sports vest and casual white shoes, as one of the few “80s” generation leaders in the automotive industry, Gan Jiayue’s youth and sincerity left a deep impression on those present.

At this auto show, Geely showcased its entire range of products, including SUVs, sedans, and MPVs, and the most eye-catching was the high-end product of the “Star” series under the CMA architecture – the Starature L. At the press conference, Gan Jiayue represented the “Gump who serves users” and wrote a letter to the Geely Starature L fans, and released the Starature L “SUV Rebel Action”. Gan Jiayue’s first appearance at the event was a pleasant surprise, and there is much anticipation for more.

The “Gump spirit” of this new force in Geely

Just as Gan Jiayue interacted with the Starature L fans in a down-to-earth manner, he also has a popular name – Gump. At Geely, everyone affectionately calls Gan Jiayue “Gump.” In the movie, Gump is a runner, but in Gan Jiayue’s view, this name is a motto of “keeping promises.”

One month ago, I interviewed Gan Jiayue in Hangzhou, and he mentioned: “I believe that Geely Automobile is China’s first new force in the car industry. From the day I joined Geely until now, it still is. This is both in terms of time and corporate culture.” As Gan Jiayue said, ignoring those dazzling contents, the two most fundamental points of this new force are breaking – breaking the unreasonable status quo that makes users dissatisfied, and establishing – establishing satisfied and surprised products and experiences for users.

Geely has been making cars for 24 years, and Gan Jiayue has been in the company for 18 years. Looking at Geely’s development from 1.0 to 4.0, it’s like “Gump” in the movie, running continuously on the road of car-making. Many of my friends study Geely in the capital market, and many of them often say that from Taizhou to Hangzhou, from an annual sales volume of 400,000 to 1.5 million, Geely’s rule of progress is to closely follow the market pulse and self-evolve.

Between breaking and establishing, Geely has indeed undergone earth-shaking changes. In the past few years, they learned from Toyota in manufacturing, learned from Huawei in management and user operations, and integrated Volvo’s most advanced technology to develop the CMA architecture, and have become a global enterprise, many fund managers said that Geely is the most promising listed vehicle company in the secondary market this year, without a doubt.

# Introduction
Like Huawei’s P series, Geely has also launched its “Star” series, which captures the pulse of consumer upgrade and national confidence. The Star Ruilin has become the first Chinese-brand car in the 120,000-150,000 yuan mid-size sedan market to break 10,000 units in a single month and has stabilized in the “1 Million Units Club” among Chinese-brands. This achievement is not only a testament to Geely’s tireless efforts but also the most confident achievement of Chinese brands.

Geely’s Success

Geely’s product quality and price are directly proportional, and its high-quality and cost-effective products have been recognized by consumers. In the first quarter of this year, Geely’s sales surpassed that of strong joint ventures such as SAIC Volkswagen and Dongfeng Nissan, and it has competed with joint venture brands on a level playing field. Capital markets have also reflected a certain trend: brokerages are most bullish on Geely in the internal combustion engine sector.

Geely’s Future

During the Spring Festival this year, Geely Holding Group President and Geely Automobile Group Chairman An Conghui delivered a New Year’s message: “In our youth, there are no limits.” This is a declaration of Geely’s entry into the 4.0 era of technological explosion, product upgrades, and business model fusion. In the future, Gan Jiayue will continue to lead Geely in implementing the “Forrest Gump” spirit, achieving collaborative success in technological Geely, innovative Geely, and user-centric Geely.

Doing Extraordinary Things as Ordinary People

According to the book “The Origin and Evolution of New Enterprises” by Amal Birhaid, a professor at the University of Chicago, entrepreneurs demonstrate three key abilities during the entrepreneurial process: first, they have a deep insight into the industry and seek key trends through continuous innovation; second, they have focused execution and use craftsmanship to do things to the extreme; and third, they adhere to user-centrism and engage in dialogue with users to benefit them. Gan Jiayue has worked at Geely for 18 years and has extensive experience in R&D, manufacturing, procurement, and other business modules, making him highly observant of industry trends. At the press conference, Gan Jiayue mentioned in his reply letter to the Star Yue L: “As you expect – Geely wants to become the ‘Toyota for China’, to follow in Huawei’s footsteps to go global, and to become China’s pride.” It is time for Geely to go global, not only based on Gan Jiayue’s judgment but also the voices of users.Although there are still many obstacles on the way to the rise of the Chinese automobile industry, the “Xing” series from Geely might be the Eastern wind that the industry needs to push forward to the high-end market. Geely has the strength of a world-class automobile group in areas such as vehicle architecture, intelligence, and electrification. It is a consensus that Geely, as the only Asian automobile group to join the IATF international automobile standard cooperation organization and become a “international standard” setter, has achieved a level comparable to that of giants such as Huawei and CATL in developing international 5G and power battery standards.

At the release conference, the Xing Yue L officially debuted before consumers. As users expected, the application of technologies such as whole-vehicle FOTA, 5G network connection, intelligent digital cockpit, and automatic driving redefines the intelligent SUV of the Xing Yue L and is tightly aligned with consumer demands in areas such as safety, health, intelligence, performance, and energy efficiency.

Some product managers of other brands that were present at the conference expressed that, in terms of product level, the Xing Yue L is indeed superior to mainstream SUVs such as the Volkswagen Touareg L, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4. In response to these comments, Ganya Yue expressed their view that “on the path of pursuing technological advancement, the Xing Yue L, as the SUV disruptor, is a luxurious gift from Geely’s Tech 4.0 era to users.”

Nature has shown us the laws of evolution, and technological progress, like nature, has its own laws of development. Over a decade ago, Chinese automobile companies did not have core technologies and relied on imitation to establish a national automobile industry on meager resources. Through this process, they accumulated valuable experience in technology accumulation and catching up to the present. Through the efforts of the industry colleagues, Chinese automobiles have constantly run towards the world, making time their friend, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things, as Ganya Yue has expressed.

Friends in the capital market often mention that to understand the underlying logic of business, the logic of capital investment is to find super-business species that can adapt to the changing industry ecosystem by creating long-term value for society and benefiting consumers continuously.# Geely: Creating Value for Users and Society

Geely has always been like a super species in the business world, creating value for users and society from Geely 1.0 to Geely 4.0, following this principle for 24 years. In a recent interview, Gan Jiayue said: “At the beginning, Geely’s original strategy was to make a good car that the common people could afford, handwritten by Chairman Li Shufu in front of the Ningbo factory gate.” In the era when Xiali cars cost over ten thousand, Geely’s initial promise was to allow Chinese people to buy a good car at a reasonable price.

The concept of accompanying users is constantly evolving with the times. In the past, users’ requirements for cars were affordability, then drivability, and now, with the increasing convenience of the internet, users have more demands on companies and brands: to get closer, to become partners.

At the launch event, Gan Jiayue wrote a letter to the fans of the Star Yue L and replied to their expectations. In order to write this letter, he and the “Star Answer Masters” went through more than 10,000 messages left by Star Yue L fans and interacted with them one by one. As one of the few “80s” leaders in the automotive industry, Gan Jiayue is the same age as many users and naturally has the thinking of the internet age. He knows how to communicate and interact with users frankly. In his speech to the fans of Star Yue L, he mentioned users 58 times.

To get closer to users, we also need to share common values with them, take “user experience” as the cornerstone and “platform openness, user co-creation” as the corporate philosophy. At the launch event, Gan Jiayue announced that Geely will soon release a user brand, and Geely’s unique technologies will be named after users’ names in the future. In fact, before the launch event, many Geely users had already participated deeply in the co-creation of Star Yue L. Some users participated in the digital debut of Star Yue L and became “Star Yue L Star Experience Officers,” and some participated in the “Longwan Technology ・ World Car Dream Factory” experience tour and became “Geely Brand Promotion Officers.”

A group of people with different values gathering in a square is called a walk, while a group of people with the same values gathering in a square is called a party. Geely’s user brand is like a community, where a group of car owners with common values co-build, co-create, and share life with Geely. Excellent user enterprises will establish a transparent set of rules, advocate honest communication and interaction based on the same values and language system, establish the most direct and efficient feedback mechanism with users, maintain information alignment, and Geely’s user brand may be this strategy.Innovation in any field, any enterprise, or any project requires a strong leader to drive a powerful team. Inspired by “Forrest Gump”, Geely has adopted a bold and enterprising spirit of change. During this critical period of transformation in the automotive industry, they dared to challenge the impossible. The debut of the Geely Preface gave us more room for imagination. Together, let’s look forward to and focus on what the 4.0 era of Geely Motors will bring to the Chinese automotive industry and what changes it will bring to Chinese-branded vehicles.

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.