The era of Vanke under Yu Liang has come to an end.

"After the concentration of leading companies, Vanke is expected to account for 8% - 10% of the total market share in the future, and the entire market with a scale of about 15 trillion yuan should persist for a period of time." 

This was Yu Liang's judgment before the Spring Festival in 2021. 

In fact, the transaction scale of the national real estate market dropped below 10 trillion yuan in 2024. 

Three years ago, when Yu Liang said this, "high-leverage" real estate enterprises such as Evergrande were in a precarious situation, while Vanke was still regarded as the representative of the "conservative faction", guarding the bottom line of industry safety. 

But three years later, everything has changed. It is no longer the case. 

Vanke's 2024 annual performance forecast predicts a loss of approximately 45 billion yuan attributable to shareholders of the listed company, ushering in the largest annual loss in history. 

As a result, Vanke has entered a moment of being taken over by the state-owned capital. 

Xin Jie (Chairman of the Group Board), Li Feng (Executive Vice President of the Group), Hua Cui (Executive Vice President of the Group), Li Gang (Executive Vice President of the Group), Han Huihua (Executive Vice President and Financial Officer of the Group), and others have taken over the board of directors. Zhao Zhengyang, Xiao Jinghua, Shang Deliang, Wang Zhiyu, Chen Wu, Wan Mei, Yan Botong, and others have taken over Vanke's core business - they all have a background in the Shenzhen State-owned Assets System. 

According to a source close to Vanke, while being taken over, Vanke's internal investigation has also simultaneously started. The executive compensation after 2021 will be investigated and recovered, including that obtained from the partner channel. 

There are changes in Vanke. This year, Yu Liang will celebrate his 60th birthday - sixty years old and knowing the will of heaven. 

01

Yu Liang was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu in 1965 and joined Vanke at the age of 25 in 1990. 

This year, Vanke was intensively preparing for its listing. Yu Liang became an outstanding young person in the securities and investment positions, and with the successful listing of Vanke, he quickly entered the company's core management. 

In 1993, Yu Liang was promoted to the General Manager of Shenzhen Vanke Financial Consulting Co., Ltd. and began to play an important role. Three years later, Yu Liang was promoted to the Deputy General Manager of the Group and began to build a mature financial system for Vanke. This move directly allowed Vanke to quickly rise to the top in the 20-year wild stage of the real estate industry. 

Subsequently, Vanke accelerated the professionalization process of the management system. 

In 1999, Wang Shi resigned as the General Manager of Vanke and was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Vanke.

In 2000, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Development Company, the largest shareholder of Vanke, sold its shares to China Resources Group, making China Resources Group hold a total of 10.82% of Vanke's shares and becoming the largest shareholder of Vanke.

In 2001, Yu Liang succeeded Wang Shi as the General Manager (President) of Vanke, marking the full implementation of the professional manager system in Vanke. It also means that Yu Liang became Wang Shi's successor and the No. 2 figure in the company.

This year, Yu Liang was 36 years old. The cooperation between Wang Shi and Yu Liang has exceeded 10 years. 

However, in the public's view, it is Wang Shi who leads the Vanke team, while Yu Liang, who actually manages the internal operations of Vanke, is "vaguely recognizable". 

Wang Shi and Yu Liang, although one is as fast as the wind and the other is as steady as the earth, during their partnership, Wang Shi created values, and Yu Liang explored methodologies, jointly shaping an ideal Vanke. 

Yu Liang's latest post on Moments

02

The next stage of Vanke starts from 100 billion. 

In 2010, driven by the overall booming real estate market, Vanke's sales exceeded 100 billion yuan, becoming the first 100-billion-yuan real estate enterprise in China. 

At the same time, Yu Liang has increasingly appeared in the public eye. 

Outside the company, Yu Liang has made more statements in the media. His remarks such as "The transition between the first and second halves of the real estate market" and "China's real estate market has entered the 'Silver Age'" have once caused a sensation in the industry. 

After Vanke entered the first camp of private enterprises, Yu Liang also won the title of the 13th "China Economic Person of the Year" of CCTV in 2012. 

Inside the company, Wang Shi began to let go, go mountain climbing, and even was questioned: receiving a high annual salary but not managing the company's affairs. 

And a series of plans led by Yu Liang were quickly implemented. In terms of the human resources system, the "180 Plan" that has a profound impact on Vanke began to be implemented in 2010. The headquarters of all regional companies of Vanke were reduced from more than 80 people to 24 people, and the group headquarters were reduced from 300 people to 180 people. These talents from the headquarters and regions were sent to the front-line companies. 

Yu Liang believes that an efficient modern enterprise system should maintain a balance between the "head" and the "body", and give more autonomy to the "body". 

The author once privately asked Yu Liang: What is the ultimate goal of Vanke's human resources and management system? The headquarters is streamlined, the regional autonomy is greater, and what does the headquarters rely on for strong control? 

Yu Liang replied that he retains the most important personnel and financial rights in his hands. Vanke wants to learn from Huawei and ensure that Vanke can operate normally without any senior executive. 

Therefore, Vanke has initiated the "Regional Rotation" system. Some "veterans" who joined Vanke in the early days have also been intensively mobilized. 

These changes have also indirectly led to the departure of Mao Daqing, Xiao Li, and others. 

At the same time, with the "Partner Plan" as the context, the management of Vanke began to layout investment and financial companies outside the company system, eventually forming a huge "shadow". 

However, Vanke has not stopped. It is just that in different stages, there are different perceptions in the corporate culture. 

It is precisely at this stage that many people think: Vanke has changed. 

03

In 2014, Yu Liang concluded: China's real estate market has entered the 'Silver Age'.

At that time, the mobile Internet was impacting traditional industries, the voice of young people in public opinion was growing, the contrast between different regions in the country and the social structure were accelerating and changing rapidly, while the real estate industry seemed to be still old.

Yu Liang wanted to change Vanke, or rather: he wanted Vanke to change with the times.

In April 2015, Vanke internally issued the "Vanke Group Internal Entrepreneurship Management Measures", encouraging internal employees with more than 2 years of service to start their own businesses, and named this strategic action the "Grass Plan".

Vanke is even willing to provide up to 30 million yuan for a single project and a cumulative maximum of 300 million yuan in financial support for entrepreneurial employees in exchange for project shares.

The "Grass Plan" is a supplement to Vanke's "Career Partner System". The latter is an internal partnership, while the former is an external partnership.

With the implementation of this series of reforms, the proportion of employees in the development sector in Vanke's internal system has dropped from 19.7% to 12.4%.

At the same time, based on the judgment of the "Silver Age", Vanke missed the mark.

In 2014, Vanke's land acquisition-to-sales ratio dropped to 12%, less than half of the sales growth rate of 25.9%. But this also shows that Vanke is still adhering to its consistent conservative style.

From 2014 to 2016, Vanke adhered to the "inventory reduction" strategy and strictly controlled the land acquisition-to-sales ratio, and finally successfully lost the position of the industry "leader" in 2017.

After experiencing the "lost three years", Vanke began to catch up again. In 2017, Vanke's growth rate increased again, and the land acquisition-to-sales ratio returned to a high level, reaching 41.3% - once again missing the mark.

This is a somewhat chaotic period for Vanke. A former Vanke employee said: (The reason for leaving Vanke at that time was that) many of us felt that our weak bodies could not keep up with the company's progress.

And at this stage, Wang Shi, whose actual connection with Vanke has gradually decreased, also gives people a feeling: he is no longer suitable for Vanke.

 Yu Liang's last post on Moments in 2024

04

In March 2013, Vanke's internal "Everest Action" class started, and everyone in Vanke from top to bottom began to take the "compulsory" running course, especially the senior executives. This class is personally served as the head teacher by Yu Liang.

It is said that everyone in the "Everest Class" has to set a challenging task for themselves. At first, everyone was required to climb Mount Everest. Later, it was considered not realistic, so it was revised to that everyone has to run a marathon, with women running a half marathon and men running a full marathon.

But the initial purpose of the "Everest Action" is to "cultivate the successors of Vanke's future business".

After Yu Liang, who is the next successor of Vanke?

At that time, many people were thinking about this question and followed with a series of speculations, Sun Jia, Liu Xiao, Wang Haiwu...

Twelve years later, this question has become nonsense. Even the "Vanke-Baoneng Dispute", the sudden appointment of Zhu Jiusheng, and the shout of "Survive", have all become the background and the gears of fate.

Wang Shi once believed in several religions, seeking comfort and solutions for the future in the mysterious spiritual world. This is his way of fighting against fate.

And Yu Liang is good at setting rules. He is calm, introverted, and restrained. Even many people think that Yu Liang pursues the "Doctrine of the Mean". He wants everything, speed, scale, quality, and reputation, and seeks a balance among them.

However, Yu Liang also has a crazy side. He has a tattoo and takes "nude photos" on the snow mountain.

People are complex, and a company composed of a group of people is never so simple. Just like the manipulation of fate, it is difficult to tell whether it is accidental or inevitable.

But Vanke is definitely no longer the same Vanke.