In May, these auto personnel changes broke the circle of friends

The stay of top managers of car enterprises is extremely relevant to the operation and future development of car companies. Especially during the critical period of the company, the impact is even more “inviting and moving”. It is precisely because of this that the industry has always maintained a high degree of concern for the changes in car executives. Since May, several high-level changes have taken place in the automotive industry and they have taken a look.

FAW, Dongfeng and then change executives, the three major central enterprises to be dried up?

In the automotive industry, when the company's “enjoyment” winds prevailed, personnel adjustments in FAW, Dongfeng, and Chang’an in the past two years are particularly harmonious, and the rumors of the merger of the three central SOEs have been stunned again and again.

On May 14, the official release of the FAW Group stated that Sun Zhiyang was the standing committee member and deputy general manager of the Party Committee of Any Steam Group, and the standing committee member and deputy general manager of Party Committee of Any Steam Group. Just a few days ago, Dongfeng Motor announced that Youhe was appointed as the Standing Committee member and deputy general manager of the Dongfeng Motor Party Committee; Liu Weidong and Lei Ping were transferred from Dongfeng Company and were appointed. It is worth mentioning that you have previously served in FAW Group, Lei Ping this time by the Dongfeng Automobile transferred to FAW Group. In other words, You Qi and Lei Ping belonged to the exchange of an executive of the two major central enterprises.

Lei Ping

Prior to this, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor, and Changan Automobile had all exchanged exemptions. In April last year, An Tiecheng, former general manager of FAW Car Co., Ltd. went to Dongfeng to serve as a standing committee member and deputy general manager of Dongfeng Corporation. Qi Dongxian, former vice president of Dongfeng Automobile, went to FAW Group as the Standing Committee Member and Deputy General Manager of FAW Group; last year 8 In July, Xu Liuping, general manager of the former Corps Group and deputy secretary of the Party Group, took over the chairmanship of any of the Auto Group. Xu Ping, Chairman of the original FAW Group, was transferred to the chairman and party secretary of the Corps Group; followed by the former deputy general manager of Changan Suzukihara. It was also transferred to FAW as Assistant to General Manager of FAW Group and Minister of Marketing of Red Flag.

The interaction of the three major central SOEs is not only reflected in personnel adjustment. Since last year, the three major groups have also continued to cooperate. In February last year, FAW and Dongfeng signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly create a "forward-looking and common technology innovation center"; in June, Dongfeng Parts and Company signed a contract with FAW-Fuao Group Co., Ltd. The Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement plans to seek cooperation opportunities in terms of capital operation, ownership reform, technology research and development, and resource cooperation. In December, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor, and Changan Automobile signed a strategic cooperation agreement for a joint-looking and common technology innovation center. According to the agreement, the three parties will carry out all-round cooperation in forward-looking and common technological innovation, full-value-chain operation of autos, joint overseas “going out”, and new business models.

Frequent personnel exchanges, a series of cooperation incidents, and the tendency of FAW, Dongfeng, and Changan Baotuan development are already very obvious. Some industry insiders even believe that this is a sign of the merger of the three major central enterprises in the automotive sector, although the three parties are only strategically oriented. It is still too early to talk about “merger” in cooperation, but in the context of intensified competition in the auto industry, it is not ruled out that these three companies are working hard in this direction. However, there are also some commentators who believe that just from the current personnel adjustment and cooperation, it is not enough to prove that the three parties have a merger intention, and taking into account the difficulty of operation and implementation, the possibility of the merger of the three is not great. In the author's opinion, no matter how the final three major groups “coexist” in what way, at least from the current point of view, the interaction of the three is more based on the level of cooperation, and the personnel adjustments involved therein are to promote related cooperation projects. The landing may have a substantial impact.

The two executives were "departed from office." Why did the rumors find Chery?

Relative to the personnel changes of FAW and Dongfeng, Chery’s recent personnel news is somewhat confusing.

On May 18, there was media coverage that Zhao Huan, general manager assistant of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., and executive vice president of marketing company, had left from Chery. At about the same time, another media report stated that Jia Yaquan, the current deputy general manager and general manager of the marketing company of Chery Automobile Co., has left.

Jia Yaquan

One day, two executives of Chery Automobile were revealed to leave their jobs, which really surprised the industry. However, judging from Jia Yaquan’s response to the media’s “Currently opening a regional meeting in Chongqing to arrange work for June-August” and the dynamics of Zhao Huan’s circle of friends, the news of the two resignations may not be accurate.

Despite speculation that the official Chery did not give a public response, the speculation about this incident continues. However, it can only be classified as rumors. It is worth mentioning that just a few days before this incident, there was another rumors “finding” Chery: Some media broke the news that Baoneng will take a share in Chery. Although this news was quickly denied by Chery, the successive “accelerated” and “departed” incidents caused the Chery Automobile, which had been developing unsatisfactorily, to once again be put on the spotlight of public opinion.

It is undeniable that Chery had had a glorious past. He once won the championship of independent brand sales for nine consecutive years in passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and mini-vehicles. However, since Chery began to decline in 2012, the sharp decline in sales in 2013 further pushed it out of the top ten list of auto sales. In recent years, Chery’s overall performance is still not satisfactory, and it still faces a series of problems, such as its non-explosive models, mainly relying on volume, and many sub-brands, but its profitability is weak. There are not enough strength on high-end products and so on.

According to the latest data, Chery’s auto sales decreased by 14.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. In the past April, Chery has fallen out of the top 20 in the auto sales list, lagging behind most of the major self-owned brands. From this point of view, the news that Jia Yaquan and Zhao Huan both were “departed from their posts” may have evolved from internal speculations that have not caused apparent improvement in performance.

According to relevant statistics, nine Chery executives have successively left their positions in recent years and their service time is relatively short. Whether it is normal personnel changes based on personal reasons or unclear corporate strategies leading to inaccurate selection of candidates, or other reasons, the high-level changes will undoubtedly bring a lot of pressure on Chery in the current period, after all, the professional management team It takes time to set up and choose the right management, but in a fierce market environment, Chery's time is already very urgent.

After the announcement of the departure of Baidu stock price fell, Lu Qi even so important?

On the evening of May 18, Baidu suddenly announced that Lu Qi, president and chief operating officer of the group, will no longer serve as president and chief operating officer of the group from July, but will continue to serve as vice chairman of the group company. Although the statement has pointed out that Lu Qi was unable to continue working full-time in Beijing due to personal and family reasons, but the industry speculated about the reasons for the departure of Lu Qi. There are also rumors that this personnel change is due to the fierce fighting in Baidu executives.

Lu Qi

On May 21, on the third day of the resignation announcement, Lu Qi appeared in Baidu and participated in an internal communication conference held by Baidu. In the speech, he explained that this time he left Baidu because of sudden personal family reasons, and rumored that the Internet was rumored. The reasons for his departure are false information. Although Lu Qi did not mention specific rumours of network resignation, it is not difficult to guess what he is referring to is the rumors of the "internal court struggle."

However, neither the previous statement nor Luqi's positive response seems to have reduced the impact of this change on Baidu's share price. In fact, after the news that Lu Qi stepped down as a COO, Baidu’s market value shrank by 14.7 billion U.S. dollars in a matter of days from the high market value of 98.5 billion U.S. dollars on May 17th to 8.8383 billion U.S. dollars on May 22. In sharp contrast to this, Lu Qi’s share price rose more than 60% since Baidu’s time in more than a year. Although this growth cannot be attributed to Lu Qi alone, the great influence of Lu Qi on Baidu can be seen.

It is understood that during Lu Qi's tenure, Baidu's internal structure has indeed been a considerable part of the improvement. Under its bold reforms, Baidu's current architecture is paralleled by six major business groups: search companies, AI technology platform systems, smart driving business groups, smart life business groups, emerging business groups, and financial services groups.

It is worth mentioning that Apollo, which is of great concern to the industry, is also a smart driving system built by one hand. According to statistics, since its release on April 19, 2017, the Apollo platform has released four versions, accumulating more than 100 partners, including automotive manufacturers, Tier1 suppliers, scientific research institutions, local governments, and chip companies. Lidar company, software algorithm companies, travel service providers and other hardware and software suppliers, etc. throughout the entire automotive industry's industrial chain.

For this reason, after Lu Qi announced his departure, the industry’s focus was more on Apollo’s “fate.” Although the industry has always been in doubt as to whether the platform can be implemented and whether it can be commercialized, Lu Qi’s incumbency still left a lot of room for imagination in the industry. Now, the Apollo plan's last trailblazer's departure has once again put these issues on the table, and Apollo's doubters are increasing.

So, in the face of stock price fluctuations and the industry's doubts about the Apollo platform, what will Baidu do next? We will wait and see!