Entrepreneurial Story From Driver To Richest Man

On 09 November, Ma Mingzhe, who had only junior high school education background, first worked in the eight Jia hydropower plant in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

In the summer of 1983, Ma Mingzhe was pferred to Shekou Industrial District, Shenzhen, where he worked for the labor and personnel department.

In those days, cars were rare tools for leaders to travel in China.

Because of driving, Ma Mingzhe was selected as the full-time driver of Yuan Geng, general manager of Shekou Industrial Zone, and served as captain of the team of the labor and personnel department of Shekou industrial zone.

Ma Mingzhe was raised by a widowed surname mother because of his father's death in early years.

The single parent family cultivated his patience and a few words.

As a leading driver, this character is the most appropriate.

Not long after, Ma Mingzhe won the recognition and trust of Yuan Geng.

After working for two years around Yuan Geng, he was assigned to the social insurance company in Shekou industrial district because of his ability to do well.

At that time, a total of 35 companies, mainly responsible for the industrial area employees some welfare labor insurance business, the scale is very small.

In the twinkling of an eye, in 1988, Yuan Geng appointed Ma Mingzhe to participate in peace.

In the financial world, Ma Mingzhe fought from a driver to China Ping An insurance (Group) Limited by Share Ltd.

Peace at first hand

In September 1987, Ma Mingzhe, deputy manager of Shekou social insurance company, was appointed to be responsible for the preparation of Ping An insurance company. At that time, his experience was confined to the social insurance company in Shekou industrial district for several years.

In March 1988, Ping An insurance, which invested 51% and 49% respectively from ICBC and Shenzhen Shekou Industrial Zone, was formally established in Shenzhen.

Ma Mingzhe, who was only 32 years old, was in the prime of life. He acted as the shareholder representative of China Merchants Bureau as the managing director of Ping An insurance and was appointed vice chairman.

In the early days of peace, the development of the stock market, the eastern part of the stock market, was supported by ICBC and China Merchants Bank.

For example, from the first day of safe operation, ICBC announced in the whole system that only one safe company should be selected when providing insurance agency business for loan enterprises.

China Merchants did not help the early business development of Ping'an, but the insurance business of Shekou and China merchants business almost all gave peace, mainly in the aspect of logistics personnel. In addition to the talents needed to deploy, the merchants managed to solve the household registration problem with the help of a certain Shenzhen account size at that time.

With highly concentrated stock rights and strong support from shareholders, Ma Mingzhe's influence on the company was still limited.

Moreover, as a director sent by the China Merchants Bureau, Ma Mingzhe's personnel relations depend on China Merchants Bank.

At that time, in order to carry out the work smoothly, the visionary Ma Mingzhe began to design the strategy of "golden cicada".

In 1989, Ping An, in the name of setting up a staff risk fund, held some shares in the name of employees.

Due to the change of national policies, the joint venture fund company was registered with the fund in 1992.

Naturally, Ma Mingzhe has a better name in the board.

He began to serve as the chairman of the Ping An board as a director of the joint stock fund of the employees, and has since got rid of the control of the investment office on his personnel appointment and removal.

Act arbitrarily

Ping An insurance in 1993 is an insurance company that has only been established for 5 years.

In fact, by 1994, Ping An's premium income was only 2.6 billion.

But the company's development vision, path choice and temperament have been particularly prominent in China's insurance companies.

Since its establishment in 1988, Ping An has entered the national business successively from the regional insurance companies, and has launched the personal life insurance marketing in the whole country from the birth insurance to the life insurance field.

Ma Mingzhe, executive director and deputy chief executive officer of the more than 10 years' joint venture, Ping An insurance, Sun Jianyi, admitted that in the early 1990s, Ping An was involved in some irregular and unhealthy competition at that time.

"Without these means, it means giving up the market, but it is very painful for us," he said. "We always feel that this can only be an expedient measure, and we must find a way that can be more firmly based on this market and seek greater development."

He recalled that the idea of "integrated financial group" was raised under such a background.

In fact, a larger background is that by the end of 1993, two foreign shareholders, Goldman Sachs and Morgan, had opened the door to peace, and greatly opened up an international view of Ping An.

In 1993, the State Council promulgated the decision on the reform of the financial system. It clearly defined the principle of "separate operation and separate management" in banking, securities, trust and insurance industries, so as to save the situation of financial disorder and financial market failure which appeared in the second half of 1992.

Ma Mingzhe, who has a strategic vision, put forward the idea of developing the financial collectivization safely in the upper level. He saw that the trend of the international financial industry was from the former separation to the mixed operation. Under the pressure of reducing costs, improving efficiency and enhancing international competitiveness, financial and insurance industries in different countries adopted separate and professional management through group holding mode.

But at that time, under the supervision of "separate operation and management", Ping An did not dare to put the idea of "integrated financial services group" directly on the table. "If you put it so clearly, you can't exist with the main tune, let alone reach your goal."

(Sun Jian) "so the plan for Ping An to report to the regulatory authorities is group holding mode, that is, a wholly owned (or holding) company, a subsidiary company and an investment subsidiary of a group company (or holding company), which is managed by Group Holding Companies in a unified management mode of major decisions such as business, finance, investment, personnel, planning and risk control.

Even when the wind of financial consolidation is tight, Ma Mingzhe is still very determined. In addition to the two main business of life insurance, the financial license that he wants will never be released: after two years of preliminary work, Ping An completed the acquisition of the financial trust of the Pearl River Delta in 1996 and renamed it as Ping'an trust. He started operating securities in the name of securities business in August 1991 and established Ping'an securities in trust company in 1996.

Ma Mingzhe's strategy against regulators is "drag".

According to Sun Jian, "if the regulatory authorities do not follow our ideas, we will drag on."

The cost of "dragging" is very high, and Ma Mingzhe can't put himself into the dilemma of internal and external difficulties.

He asked the head of the supervisory department and met with embarrassment that he had refused to talk for five minutes.

The regulatory authorities clearly stipulate that the ping an new branch will not be approved until the safe operation is completed.

Looking at other competitors' development of new branches in the past few years, Ping An has been able to keep up with those hills. The company's management team and middle-level cadres are beginning to waver.

Some people chose to leave, and others advised him to give up financial holding and go separate business.

Even the members of the leading group held grievances for him, and his heart was hard to beat. "You kowtow all day outside, waiting for a leader to say a few words, standing on the street for a few hours, waiting until midnight, or not worth it." in response to the management team's face, Ma Mingzhe's reply and statement was: "for the long-term development of the company, I would rather kneel to others."

At the beginning of the annual conference of Ping An Group, Ma Mingzhe basically made three or four hours' speeches at the beginning of each year.

Every year, he clearly warned the company that he should be a "hundred year old shop" and that he must go towards the road of financial holding.

"We have no choice." "we have no second roads to go."

It must be pointed out that after 10 years of planning and action, the structure of Ping An shareholders has been fairly diversified by Ma Mingzhe.

In addition to Goldman Sachs and Morgan's two largest foreign shareholders, China Merchants Group, COSCO Group, Shenzhen Municipal Finance Bureau and internal staff joint stock funds hold different sizes of shares. From the prospectus in 2004, we can see that even after the listing, shares belonging to employee stock ownership account for more than 11% of the total share capital.

Ownership structure has ensured that Ping An has become a "strong insider" company.

This is an important reason for peace under the pressure of policy.

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The second 10 year strategy

Zhang Zixin, who joined COO in 2000, is a career background of McKinsey consultant. He knows Ma Mingzhe's acquaintance with McKinsey at the end of 1996.

When the project was done almost the same time, Ma Mingzhe asked Zhang Zixin: "what do you think of the future development of the whole security system? What opportunities will there be in the future?" this inquiry launched the second project McKinsey did for peace, which is a 10 year plan with far-reaching implications for peace.

At the 1998 National Working Conference of Ping An Group, Ma Mingzhe made the keynote speech of "second years of vision and strategy for peace in the ten years," and put forward the question of "where are we going? Where are we going? Which way shall we go? How do we get there?" 4 questions.

"World-class comprehensive financial services group" appeared in the center of the slide screen.

At the same time, Ma Mingzhe believes that internationalization is the only correct path.

Ma Mingzhe said, "now many people are still discussing whether or not to take the road of internationalization safely or not. I don't think it is necessary to explore and do it first."

Morgan and Goldman Sachs entered peace and played an important role in the internationalization of peace. They brought the concept of International Accountants and actuaries. At the same time, they also exerted a great influence on peace in the following 10 years, such as corporate governance and internal control system.

Ping an early hired a large number of international talents to enter the insurance business at the top.

In the building of Ping An headquarters in Shenzhen, the number of overseas staff of senior and senior managers reached more than 20 after that, and in the marketing management level of the front-line institutions, the number reached more than 350.

At the system meeting held in January 1999, Ma Mingzhe used the three fallen plants to compare the safety and safety of the assets and personnel quickly and three dangerous ones, and how to avoid the outcome of the latter.

He quotes a professor at Walton business school to stress again the strategic direction of peace: "the insurance industry in the future will undergo a major restructuring, and the erosion and competition between businesses in the financial services industry will make the insurance industry more deeply involved in other financial services.

The large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry can reduce the overall cost of the industry by increasing market concentration, and the merger of insurance and banking strategies, such as the merger of travelers and Citibank, is the external embodiment of this development trend.

This speech is the first complete exposition of Ma Mingzhe's model of Ping An financial holdings after five or six years of thinking.

He pointed out that one of the three priorities of the company is to explore the group mode.

He introduced the McKinsey plan to him. In this plan, group mode reconstruction covers 6 aspects: capital reorganization, organization structure, function orientation, management orientation, investment management and internal control audit.

In the McKinsey design, Ping An will set up a group company as a Asset Management Co representative shareholder of non-financial institutions to manage assets, and absolutely control life insurance, property insurance, securities and trust companies. The pfer of investment business to specialized investment institutions, the functions of group headquarters and professional subsidiaries will be redefined and positioned.

All professional subsidiaries will eventually integrate with each other to achieve cross selling and market information sharing.

The group headquarters strengthens the guidance from the top to bottom for the subsidiary companies, including giving strategic guidance, setting key performance indicators and resource allocation.

Part of the "power" of subsidiaries has gradually moved upward, and funds have been concentrated on investment. Human resources are also managed centrally by the group.

In addition, some functions such as auditing and IT are shared to create economies of scale.

The head of a professional subsidiary and the heads of departments should be responsible to the senior decision making team of the group. The subsidiary will regularly submit business, financial plans and plans to the headquarters to carry out the results and submit personnel information to the headquarters.

These highly "confidential" companies that have been regarded by the company have now become the organizational pattern of Ping An group.

The quasi MBO legend of the richest man

Wang Xuebing, President of the former Bank of China and China Construction Bank, declared to the media before many bosses of state-owned enterprises: "when I was 42 years old, I became president. What about you?"

Ma Mingzhe mocked Wang Xuebing, "I became the general manager of the second largest insurance companies in the country when I was 28 years old. It's not easy for you to be a governor at 42 years old."

But to Ma Mingzhe's surprise, Wang Xuebing is, after all, the governor of a state-owned commercial bank.

What Ma Mingzhe pursued was to stabilize his position and pform the state-owned financial institution into a Private Companies.

In 2003, Ping An successfully implemented the quasi Management Buyout (MBO), which made the safety of assets scale 180 billion reborn. The former state-owned enterprises gradually pformed into a public company with dispersed ownership and good governance structure.

In 1999, ICBC withdrew from the financial sector because of its national policy.

A former senior security official said that all the shares of ICBC would be pferred to Shenzhen investment management company.

Around 2002, COSCO and China Merchants also sold 9.9% and 14% of their shares respectively.

So far, all the three sponsors have quit Ping An insurance, and the parties concerned have closed their lips about the ownership of COSCO and China Merchants.

In October 2002, Hongkong HSBC invested $600 million to participate in Ping An 10%, becoming its second largest shareholder.

At this point, the third largest shareholder of Ping An insurance has been replaced by Jiangnan industry.

Ping An explained that Jiangnan Industrial and new ho time belong to ESOP, ESOP holds 69.11% and 98.15% of the shares respectively.

In 2003, the largest shareholder and 16.09% Shenzhen investment management company, out of the policies and regulations that were not more than 10% of the single shareholder holding of the insurance industry and the needs of the strategic restructuring of the state-owned enterprises in Shenzhen, sold 88 million shares of the Shenzhen property exchange, and the buyer of the total shares of peace shares was the Shenzhen industry investment development limited company. From the disclosure of the safe stock market, this part of the stock has been pferred, and the shares of the Shenzhen investment management company fell to the needs of the strategic reorganization of the state-owned enterprises in Shenzhen before the market, and the Shenzhen Municipal Finance Bureau of the 6.93% shares of the Shenzhen Municipal Finance Bureau also pferred all the shares to the deep investment development limited company of Shenzhen city with the background of the state-owned capital.

In 2003, the number of shares sold globally in accordance with the plan was 1 billion 388 million shares, which accounted for two shareholders of the 22.4%. main stock holders of the extended share capital of the company as the background of the Shenzhen municipal government.

Shenzhen investment management company sold 73 million shares, holding 12.49% from 8.77% to second largest shareholder. Shenzhen investment management company will sell 40 million 500 thousand shares and reduce its shareholding from 6.93% to 4.87%.

Among the other top 9 shareholders, except for HSBC's holdings of Ping An equity to HK $1 billion 200 million to 9.9%, it continued to be the largest shareholder.

At this time, Ping An employee stock ownership plan - Jiangnan Industrial and new ho time separation of the third, fourth largest shareholders, a total of 14.02% stake.

But from the relative value, the proportion of the share of the former nine major shareholders has increased to 23.7%, and the influence has been greatly enhanced.

At this point, Ma Mingzhe finally grasped the power of "peace master".

The reason why Ping An's ESOP is MBO, or sub MBO, is that Ping An's management does not hold an absolute position in theory. Even in Jiangnan industry and new ho Shi, there is no controlling position.

But it is obvious that management has a lot of management power and prestige in the company, even though they are not on the surface of the ESOP decision making, they still have a great say in the employee stock ownership plan.

And this kind of management power and prestige certainly can not be separated from the construction and maintenance of Ma Mingzhe and his team. From 1988 to 2004, Ma Mingzhe worked hard for 16 years and waited for 16 years to achieve this plan.

China's richest person in 2004

In February 2003, under the command of Ma Mingzhe, Ping An Group reorganized and reorganized, officially renamed "China Ping An insurance (Group) Limited by Share Ltd", and the "one dragged four" framework completely appeared.

Group holding has established China Ping An Life Insurance Limited by Share Ltd, China Ping An Property Insurance Limited by Share Ltd, China Ping An Insurance Overseas (holding) Company and Ping An Trust investment company.

Ping An Trust and investment company shares shares in Ping An Securities Limited liability company in accordance with the law, making it safe, forming a close, efficient and diversified group management structure with insurance as the main body, and securities, trust, investment and overseas business as one.

In June 2004, China Ping An insurance (Group) Limited by Share Ltd's stock was listed on the stock exchange of Hongkong.

Ping An insurance H shares landed on the Hongkong stock market, raising a total of HK $14 billion 300 million in 2004, which is clearly the largest IPO (InitialPublicOffering) case in the Asian region of the year.

The success of listing also brought Ma Mingzhe rich personal benefits.

According to the Ping An prospectus, by April 24, 2004, Ma Mingzhe himself had about 1.10% of the employee stock ownership plan, equivalent to 0.16% of the company's issued share capital, and the largest number of individuals holding shares in Ping An company.

This is a shareholding plan that was born in 1992, which gave birth to 20 thousand listed beneficiaries in peace and large scale. Directors, supervisors and senior managers will share a total of 420 million yuan investment feast. The biggest beneficiaries are of course their initiator Ma Mingzhe.

It is precisely because of this shareholding plan, Ping An after 12 years of IPO, Ma Mingzhe's Jiangnan industry and new ho time together hold 14.02% of the shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Ping An.

Becoming the most expensive boss of Chinese Listed Companies

In July 2007, the Chinese version of Forbes launched the list of the most expensive boss of Chinese listed companies for the first time, that is, the highest paid executives of non-state-owned listed companies.

China Ping An insurance chairman and CEO Ma Mingzhe won the championship.

He spent $13 million 380 thousand in salary and Sun Weimin, general manager of Suning Appliance.