during 25 years of development, dongyue has experienced lots of difficulties. at the critical moment, dongyue people, especially leaders, are ready to make sacrifices, to overcome difficulties and to see the company through crises.
at the end of 1987, chief of finance, rong zhenjiang saw hu qingmin (head of the office) in front of the office building, and said, ‘mr. hu, director liu and you have not got the salary for half a year. do you still want it or not?’ hu qingmin smiled and said, ‘i forgot.’ director liu was also the sales manager at that time, and became ceo of the company. during the early years of the company, lots of staff not only got no money form the company, but also advanced their money for the company due to poor sales and financial difficulties. president zhang jianhong always said that general manager liu did not get salary, and he used his own money for the company at the early stage of the company. since general manager liu was in charge of sales business, he travelled a lot and accordingly the expenditure was high; when the company could not lend money due to financial difficulties, he used his own money for the business trips. for the first few years, he did not get any money from the company, but the travelling expense he paid for was almost equal to his annual salary. meanwhile, all the older employees did not make any complaints about this then.
in 2000, the refrigerant market of the company underwent great changes. the gross profit margin was only several percentage points. especially in the second half of the year, during the first ten days of august, no products were sold. leaders of the company could not stand idly by, and they took a series measures. president and ceo took lead in riding a bike to work instead of using cars from the company. one morning in december, 50-year-old ceo liu went to work by bike. on his way, there was a truck coming from his back, and ceo liu fell off the bike because the wind carried by the truck and the wet road surface. seeing this scene, lots of staff shed tears. in this year, the company struggled to make a profit of over 10 million yuan by the means of exploiting potentialities and reducing consumption, increasing revenue and cutting down expenses.
from september 2008, influenced by the financial crisis, the domestic market stagnated. although the sales department made great efforts, there were few orders at home and abroad. most products of the company was not in production or was reduced in production, and staff were laid off or were asked to take days off. at the critical moment, the company decided that leaders set the example of lowering salary and cancelling subsidies. staff who ranked as director of one department, or higher than that, would face a 20% reduction in their salary, and the fees for a department would be reduced by 20%. also, subsidies for transportation and telephone bills were cancelled (these two subsidies did not resume after the crisis). some leaders undertook environmental sanitation, landscape engineering and other work that used to be done by temporary workers or be outsourced. nevertheless, the salary for the staff increased by 15.8% compared to that in 2007.
it is this self-sacrifice spirit at the critical time that brings the great accomplishment for dongyue.