揭祕中國首富宗慶後的"娃哈哈"生活
Despite being one of China's most prominent businessmen, Zong Qinghou still uses the gritty metaphors that bear the mark of a youth spent tilling rural fields during the Cultural Revolution.
身爲中國最知名的商人之一，宗慶後仍然會使用一些粗俗的比喻。這是青年時期的宗慶後在文化大革命期間下鄉耕田的經歷在他身上留下的印記。When discussing the succession plans at his multibillion-dollar Wahaha empire, he notes that Kelly Zong, his 31-year-old daughter, has already taken over some of the corporate responsibilities, before adding: “If she has any problems, I'll go and wipe her butt.”
他的娃哈哈(Wahaha)帝國價值數十億美元。在討論接班計劃時，他提到31歲的女兒宗馥莉已經接手企業的部分職責，隨後補充道：“如果她出了問題，我會去幫她擦屁股。”However, with or without the earthy Chinese phrase, talk of succession is much too premature for the 67-year-old beverage tycoon. Ranked as China's wealthiest man, with an estimated fortune of $13bn according to the Hurun Rich List, Mr Zong has no desire to let go of the company he founded in the near future. Outside of work, he says with a raspy laugh, his only hobbies are drinking tea and smoking cigarettes.
不過，無論用不用這類粗俗的中文表達，討論接班計劃對這位67歲的飲料大亨還爲時尚早。在胡潤百富榜(Hurun Rich List)上，宗慶後以130億美元的財富位居中國首富，而他還無意在短期內放手自己創立的公司。他以粗嘎的嗓音大笑着說道，工作之餘，喝茶和抽菸是他僅有的愛好。
Yet it has been a tough six months for Mr Zong. In November he began a strategic shift in his business, branching into retail operations with the opening of WAOW Plaza, a boutique shopping mall in his home town of Hangzhou, near Shanghai. He plans to open 100 malls over the next five years, with a view to bringing affordable luxury to middle-class Chinese in the form of less well-known European brands such as Groc from Spain and Gregory from Italy.
但過去六個月，宗慶後過得並不輕鬆。去年11月，他開始實施業務的戰略轉型，進軍零售業務，在位於上海附近的家鄉杭州開設了精品商城——娃歐商場(WAOW Plaza)。他計劃在未來5年開設100家商場，銷售西班牙Groc、意大利Gregory等知名度較低的歐洲品牌，旨在爲中國中產階級提供“買得起的奢侈品”。But WAOW has had a bad start. The name, which is short for Wahaha Europe, has been mocked, few customers have passed through the mall's doors and analysts have questioned the wisdom of entering bricks-and-mortar retail when online shopping is booming.
但娃歐商場開局不佳。寓意爲“娃哈哈歐洲”的商場名稱遭到外界嘲笑，生意門可羅雀，分析人士則質疑：在網絡購物蓬勃發展的背景下，進軍實體店零售是否明智？If Mr Zong is worried, he is not showing it. “It's no problem,” he smiles. “It just takes time to build a brand. I like this kind of thing. After all, I got my start selling ice cream and I built a brand through the hard work of selling my product.”
即便宗慶後擔心，他也沒有將擔心流露出來。“這不是問題，”他笑道，“打造品牌需要時間。我喜歡這種過程。畢竟，我靠賣冰激凌發家，通過努力銷售產品打出了品牌。”The start of his career in commerce came after enduring Mao's Cultural Revolution. In 1966, Mr Zong's high school closed its doors and he, like millions of students, was sent to the countryside to work alongside peasants.
熬過毛澤東文化大革命的苦難後，他開始了從商生涯。1966年，宗慶後就讀的高中關門停課，他同其他數百萬學生一樣被下放農村，與農民一起勞動。When he returned to Hangzhou 15 years later, it was in the throes of a very different kind of revolution: China had begun to roll back the powers of the state in the 1980s and the city was a hotbed for private enterprise. He began in business in 1987 with a licence to sell snacks at schools. Mr Zong sold ice cream and soft drinks, and nearly a decade later hit upon mineral water as his prized offering when many Chinese still lacked running water in their homes.
當他15年後回到杭州時，這座城市正在經歷一場截然不同的劇變：上世紀80年代，中國開始削減國家權力，杭州成爲私營企業的溫牀。1987年，他獲准在學校售賣零食，開始做生意。宗慶後賣冰激凌和軟飲料，將近10年後，他開始主打礦泉水產品——當時很多中國家庭還享受不到自來水。The experience of going from survival mode to richest man in China perhaps explains Mr Zong's supreme self-assurance. It has also coloured his views of the world.
從勉強餬口到中國首富的經歷，或許能解釋宗慶後爲何具有超人的自信。這段經歷也豐富了他的世界觀。For 11 consecutive years he has attended the annual session of China's parliament as a delegate. Within the parameters for free speech that exist, he relishes the opportunity to make his voice heard. “You've got to cut taxes to make room for ordinary people,” he says between drags of cigarettes in a hotel suite that doubles as his office during the two weeks of this year's parliament in mid-March. “The government is taking too much money and leaving too little for the ordinary people.”
宗慶後連續11年以代表身份出席中國一年一度的全國人大會議。在允許的言論自由範圍內，他十分珍惜發言的機會。今年3月中旬左右爲期兩週的人大會議期間，他在足有自己辦公室兩倍大的酒店套房內，邊抽菸邊說道：“爲了減輕老百姓的負擔，一定要減稅。政府拿走了太多錢，老百姓得到的太少。”As much as a multibillionaire can, Mr Zong tries to maintain a modest image. In the past, he has worn a $48,000 Vacheron Constantin watch, but when we meet he is not wearing it. After a series of scandals in which government officials were exposed as corrupt simply because of their expensive watches, bare wrists are suddenly de rigueur in Beijing.
儘管身爲億萬富翁，宗慶後卻盡力保持低調。過去，他一直佩戴着一塊價值4.8萬美元的江詩丹頓(Vacheron Constantin)手錶，但與我見面時他並未將表戴在手腕上。之前接連有政府官員因爲戴高價手錶被揭出腐敗醜聞，於是不戴手錶突然成了中國官場的規矩。His hotel is comfortable but hardly luxurious, he wears a simple jacket with a zipper front and he chain-smokes Davidoff cigarettes – a midrange brand in China.
他下榻的酒店舒適但不豪華。他穿着樸素的拉鍊夾克，不停地抽着大衛杜夫(Davidoff)的香菸——這在中國屬於中端品牌。He wags his finger disapprovingly as he extols his view of the state's role in business. “Europe has high social benefits and high tax, and this has led to no one working, it has created your economic problem,” he says. “We need to maintain equality of opportunity here, to let people pay their way through their own hard work.”
他一邊讚揚着國家對商業的作用，一邊不以爲然地搖搖手指。“歐洲社會福利高、稅收高，所以沒人工作。這導致了你們的經濟問題，”他說，“在中國我們需要維持機會平等，讓人們通過辛勤的勞動掙錢。”Wahaha, which means “laughing baby”, established itself as China's top drinks company after it formed a joint venture with Danone of France in 1996. Their partnership soured in 2007 when Danone accused Mr Zong of running parallel companies that competed directly with the joint venture, in which Danone had a 51 per cent stake, under the same trademark. Mr Zong denied all of Danone's allegations and said Wahaha's success was thanks to his understanding of the market.
娃哈哈名字的寓意是“笑哈哈的孩童”。在1996年與法國達能(Danone)組成合資企業後，娃哈哈確立了中國頭號飲料公司的地位。2007年，雙方合作關係惡化：達能指責宗慶後同時經營平行企業，使用相同的商標與合資企業（達能持有51%股份）直接展開競爭。宗慶後否認了達能的所有指控，並表示娃哈哈的成功得益於他對市場的瞭解。Some of the rhetoric used by Mr Zong and his supporters during the dispute brought to mind his formative years in the tea fields and rice paddies during the Cultural Revolution. In one public letter to Danone, employees calling themselves “Chairman Zong's army” said the French directors were “rascals”, and Chinese who co-operated with them were “traitors”.
在糾紛中，宗慶後及支持者的言論令人想起文革時他在茶園和稻田的成長經歷。在致達能的一封公開信中，員工自稱爲“宗總的子弟兵”，將法方董事稱爲“無賴”，將與法方合作的中國人稱爲“漢奸”。A settlement was reached in 2009 after a partial award in Danone's favour. Under the terms of the deal, Mr Zong bought Danone's stake for about 300m ($440m at the time).
2009年仲裁機構發佈了有利於達能的“部分判決”，雙方達成和解。根據和解條款，宗慶後支付3億歐元（當時合4.4億美元）收購達能在合資企業中的股份。The fight with Danone appears to have put one lasting dent in his otherwise formidable confidence. Wahaha has plenty of cash – its net profits last year were Rmb8bn ($1.3bn) – and Mr Zong says he has asked advisers to recommend overseas acquisition targets. But he is wary of trying to sell into foreign markets.
與達能的糾紛似乎對宗慶後本來無與倫比的自信造成了持久的傷害。娃哈哈現金充足——公司去年淨利潤爲80億元人民幣（13億美元），宗慶後亦表示已請顧問推薦海外收購目標。但他似乎不願將產品銷往國外。“I've told them to find me companies making products that China is unable to produce,” he says. “I'll buy the companies and then bring the products into China. Otherwise I'd be buying companies that are still just competing in their own countries, and sooner or later others will catch up.”
“我讓他們幫我尋找其產品中國無法生產的公司，”他說，“我要收購這些公司，再將產品引進中國。不然的話，我買的就會是些還在本國市場競爭的公司，它們遲早會被別人追上。”Wahaha did make a foray of a kind into Britain this year. In January it signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Manchester United, paying for the right to use the football club's name and images in its soft-drink advertisements in China. Wahaha's adverts now feature pictures of Wayne Rooney next to cans of Qili, an energy drink. “Chinese people love football, but the quality of Chinese football itself is very poor, so the deal made sense,” Mr Zong says.
娃哈哈今年確實做出了進軍海外的努力，在英國進行了一筆投資。今年1月，它與曼聯(Manchester United)足球俱樂部簽署三年贊助合同，根據交易，娃哈哈出資贊助，換取在中國的軟飲料廣告中使用曼聯名稱和肖像的權利。在娃哈哈現在的廣告中，韋恩??魯尼(Wayne Rooney)的形象出現在功能飲料啓力的一側。宗慶後說：“中國人熱愛足球，但中國足球本身水平很低，因此這筆交易是有意義的。”For the super-rich in China, gaining the government's blessing is essential for continued success. Academic studies have found that those who make it on to China's rich lists are more likely than ordinary entrepreneurs to face investigations and arrests because their high profile attracts greater scrutiny. Mr Zong, however, has been spared any such trouble.
對中國的富豪而言，獲得政府撐腰是不斷取得成功的關鍵因素。學術研究發現，躋身中國富豪榜的人比普通企業家更容易遭到調查和逮捕，因爲他們“樹大招風”。但宗慶後卻完全沒有惹上這樣的麻煩。A sign of his established position within the country's corridors of power came during China's parliament: Wahaha beverages, from milk drinks to mineral water, were being dispensed for free on the sidelines of the meetings.
他在中國權力走廊的牢固地位，在人大會議中得到了印證：在會議間歇，娃哈哈的牛奶飲品和礦泉水等飲料向代表們免費發放。Mr Zong also knows how to flatter those in power, another essential survival skill. So it is hardly surprising to hear him heap praise on Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, China's new leaders. But his choice of compliments is telling – he brings it back to their hard-working youths as students who, like him, were sent to toil on farms.
宗慶後還懂得如何討好當權者，這是另一項基本生存技能。因此，他對中國新任領導人習近平和李克強的盛讚並不出人意料。但宗慶後的措辭很有他的特點——他將時光拉回習李艱苦的學生時代，二人也曾像宗慶後一樣被下放農村幹活。“These are guys who have been up mountains and down to the countryside,” he says. “They have also eaten bitterness.”
他說：“他們是上過山下過鄉的人。他們也吃過苦。”
