"Let the world know the taste of Hunan." The slogan of Maojia Hotel gives people a feeling of shock as well as shock. However, from Chen Ping’s purchase of Maojiawan in 2007 to Shen Wenzhi’s creation of Maoapo in March this year, Maojia Hotel stepped into the same ditch twice and parted ways with its senior professional managers again and again, showing us the shadow behind its glory.
In fact, this Hunan enterprise with more than 300 franchise stores in the country is not as beautiful as it seems: there are only four stores all over the country, but only four are directly operated; Since its establishment 25 years ago, its main business is still the simplest brand joining; Tang Ruiren, the head of the company, is over eighty years old. Who can shoulder the heavy responsibility of strengthening the brand and hold the golden signboard? How far can the descendants of the Mao family go?
After five years’ absence, Maojia Hotel took a detour.
Maojia Hotel was once the pride of Hunan people. From a small restaurant opposite Mao Zedong’s former residence, it has developed into a catering "giant" all over the country. To outsiders, Maojia Hotel can be described as "brilliant".
"It’s a big company, right? They have stores all over the country." Zhang Tongxue, who came to Changsha from Hebei to study at a university, said that in addition to KFC and McDonald’s, Maojia Hotel was one of the few restaurants where he felt "intimate" with Changsha. In his hometown of Shijiazhuang, the business of Maojia Hotel is very hot.
This is not the case. Today, Maojia Hotel can hardly be called an enterprise with "standardized operation".
In 1987, Tang Ruiren, a neighbor whom President Mao Zedong met in Shaoshan, opened a small restaurant opposite the former residence of the President. With its unique Maojia cuisine, warm service and strong chairman culture, Maojia Hotel became famous in Shaoshan and received many party and state leaders. In 1992, the first franchise store opened in Beijing. Subsequently, I embarked on the road of joining the chain.
During this period, the Maos were left unattended. Tang Ruiren’s youngest son, Mao Jun, died prematurely in a traffic accident, and his eldest son, Mao Mingjun, was obsessed with music. Although he assumed the position of vice chairman and general manager, he was investing in Shaole.
On November 29th, Mao Yu, grandson of Tang Ruiren and general manager of Maojia Hotel, admitted to the reporter that his father loved music. Since 2005, Maojia Hotel has been contracted to Jiangxi franchisee Chen Ping. In the following five years, the Mao family hardly intervened in management, and the headquarters of the Mao family hotel was also moved from Shaoshan to Pingxiang, Jiangxi.
In the past five years, with the rapid expansion, Chen Ping paid attention to numbers, but neglected quality. An Anhui franchisee told reporters that he had not received a phone call from the headquarters for two or three years, and the headquarters of Maojia Hotel had not given any management and supervision. Complaints from franchisees have also increased rapidly.
In Beijing, Guangzhou and other places, franchisees even removed the signboard of Maojia Hotel and changed it to "Maojiawan". A person who once worked in Maojia Hotel told reporters that Maojia Hotel can be described as an "empty shell", which seems brilliant, but in fact it is full of crises, and Maojia, at present, no one can shoulder the heavy responsibility.
It runs in the family, how to steer is still in the air.
On September 14th this year, Mao Mingjun passed away and Tang Ruiren was 83 years old. Who will be the future head of Maojia Hotel?
A person close to Maojia Hotel said that after the death of Mao Mingjun, Tang Ruiren’s daughter Mao Taozhi served as the vice chairman, monopolizing power, and Mao Yu, the son of Mao Mingjun and the current general manager, had no real power.
"It doesn’t matter who takes over." Mao Yu said that it may be his aunt, uncle, or he, and it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to make Maojia Hotel develop.
Culture sets the stage and economy sings opera. This sentence should be very appropriate in the history of the development of Maojia Hotel. At first, relying on the strong chairman culture, it became the "head of Hunan cuisine" and spread all over the country, but the management could not keep up with the pace of expansion.
Mao Yu said that Maojia Hotel has a distinctive storefront culture, but it lacks a corporate management culture, and he has already started to promote it. In addition, it is also necessary for them to increase the proportion of direct stores. Next year, he is going to open two or three direct stores in Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan.
Mr. Zhang, a citizen of Changsha, said that at the moment when people entered the Maojia Hotel for consumption, people were full of curiosity, but walking by catering was the lasting king. The food was not delicious, and the catering enterprises were zero.
The above-mentioned insiders prescribed a prescription: Although the signature dishes of Maojia Hotel, such as Mao Shi Braised Pork, Long March Chicken and General Duck, have a good reputation, there is a big difference in taste among the franchisees, and there are fewer stable repeat customers. Only by the unified management of ingredients and technology at the headquarters can the stability of catering be maintained.
A signboard will be eaten up if it cannot be polished.
Any family business holding a golden rice bowl will rarely contract in China. Yin Yuanyuan, a professor at Hunan University of Commerce, said that the reason for contracting operations soon after starting is that there are no follow-up management talents and their own management ability is lacking.
In the face of reporters’ doubts, Mao Yu did not shy away. He said that since 2009, Maojia Hotel has just stabilized, and the gap from an enterprise with standardized operation is not small.
According to him, in February 2009, when Chen Ping’s contract expired and the operation right of Maojia Hotel returned to Maojia, she still owed 3.88 million yuan in debt. Mao Mingjun invested in Shaole and lost 14 million yuan before and after. Mao Yu said that it was the most difficult time for his family. At that time, they didn’t even know where their franchise stores were.
Since March 2009, the number of franchisees in Maojia Hotel has grown from more than 180 to more than 300, which is expanding rapidly. An insider said that the franchisees of Maojia Hotel are now located in prefecture-level cities and even towns and villages. "The golden signboard seems to be less and less valuable."
Indeed, the core business of Maojia Hotel is still joining. However, apart from charging franchise fees and recommending chefs, it has not achieved the goal of selling its own ingredients and food by joining in and extending the industrial chain. In 2008, Maojia Food was founded, and they had this consideration, but the departure of professional manager Shen Wenzhi made the prospect bleak.
In addition, the lack of direct stores is also the crux of Maojia Hotel. Of the more than 300 stores in the country, only four are completely directly operated stores, among which, Changsha Xiangfu West Store and Yuhua District Government Store, as well as one in Xiangtan, have only opened in the last three years.
The reporter noticed that today, Mao Yu is responsible for the joining, direct business and distribution company of Maojia Hotel. In 2008, Maojia Food Factory opened, with Maotaozhi as the chairman. In 2011, Maojia Winery was founded, and Mao Taozhi’s daughter Mao Mao was in charge. However, these two businesses are still marginal compared with Maojia Hotel.
Reporter’s notes
The inevitable pain from family-run enterprises to manager-run enterprises
The theory of "three generations dying out" of China’s family business has been circulated in history, that is, "one generation started business, the second generation stayed in business, and the third generation declined". For example, the New Hope Group of the Liu Yonghao family, the Xinjiang Delong of the Tang family, and the wife pharmaceutical industry of the Zhu family have the longest history of more than 20 years.
Although it is biased to define the family business as "rich but not rich for three generations", most different types of enterprises in the world have closed down within 20 years after their establishment. Just imagine, if Maojia Hotel is spread all over villages and towns, if it is replaced by "Maojiawan" or other brands, if Mao Shi’s descendants do nothing … Maojia Hotel will only become two lines in the history of China catering.
Under the market economy, the general law of enterprise development, growth and maturity is generally from a small, classical family enterprise to an entrepreneur enterprise and then to a manager enterprise. These three stages, one is more mature and the other is more stable.
Therefore, the most ideal state of Maojia Hotel may be that family members exist as shareholders, retain the decision-making power in personnel, finance and resource allocation, hire managers with professional ethics to operate traders, and make a steady transition to a more stable manager-style enterprise.
However, in today’s society that lacks professional ethics, this road seems to be difficult to walk. Family-owned enterprises can only trudge, just as Mao Yu said, he was forced to take over the Maojia Hotel.
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