Women of Influence
Their strength, resilient and resolute.
Dong Mingzhu
“Making products made in China go global does not rely on low prices, but on quality and innovation.”
I lost my husband at the age of 36 and went south to work. It took her 34 years to go from a low-level salesperson to the head of a company with annual revenue exceeding 190 billion. Dong Mingzhu proves: Iron is not born, it is made. 1990, Zhuhai. A 36-year-old single mother walked into a small air-conditioning factory called "Haili" and applied for a job as a grassroots salesperson. No one thought that this woman who started from scratch would be in charge of a manufacturing empire with an annual revenue of 190 billion 34 years later. Her name is Dong Mingzhu. Later someone called her the "Iron Lady". But at that time, she was just a piece of pig iron that needed to be forged. 1. The melting pot: From widowing her husband to moving south at the age of 36, Dong Mingzhu’s life was plain and stable, and she lived an ordinary life step by step. A sudden accident caused her to lose her husband in middle age, and her life suddenly hit rock bottom. Faced with the heavy blow of fate, she had no way out and refused to bow her head. She said goodbye to her still young child and went south to Zhuhai alone to start a new life from scratch. In 1990, 36-year-old Dong Mingzhu joined Haili Air Conditioning, the predecessor of Gree, starting from the most basic grassroots salesperson. In an unfamiliar city and an unfamiliar industry, she faced the dual melting pot of life and career. Destiny threw her into the furnace, and she chose to refine herself into iron. 2. Forging: Counterattack with 16 million sales. When she first entered the industry, Dong Mingzhu had no connections, no background, and no mature market experience. She only relied on her tenacity and serious attitude to carve out a way out in the fiercely competitive home appliance market. She gritted her teeth and recovered the debt that others were unwilling to take over; others couldn't do it well.
Dong Mingzhu
Asia Cover Character · Business Rebel | Dong Mingzhu: After losing her husband at the age of 36 and moving south to work, she turned Gree into a piece of iron
Asia's "Cover Character" Business Rebel
Total Issue 018 - ACF-NXZ-2026
【Abstract】
I lost my husband at the age of 36 and went south to work. It took her 34 years to go from a low-level salesperson to the head of a company with annual revenue exceeding 190 billion. Dong Mingzhu proves: Iron is not born, it is made.
1990, Zhuhai. A 36-year-old single mother walked into a small air-conditioning factory called "Haili" and applied for a job as a grassroots salesperson.
No one thought that this woman who started from scratch would be in charge of a manufacturing empire with an annual revenue of 190 billion 34 years later.
Her name is Dong Mingzhu. Later someone called her the "Iron Lady". But at that time, she was just a piece of pig iron that needed to be forged.
1. The Melting Pot: From Widowment to Going South
Before the age of 36, Dong Mingzhu’s life was plain and stable, and she lived an ordinary life step by step. A sudden accident caused her to lose her husband in middle age, and her life suddenly hit rock bottom. Faced with the heavy blow of fate, she had no way out and refused to bow her head. She said goodbye to her still young child and went south to Zhuhai alone to start a new life from scratch.
In 1990, 36-year-old Dong Mingzhu joined Haili Air Conditioning, the predecessor of Gree, starting from the most basic grassroots salesperson. In an unfamiliar city and an unfamiliar industry, she faced the dual melting pot of life and career.
Destiny threw her into the furnace, and she chose to refine herself into iron.
2. Forging: Counterattack of 16 million sales
When she first entered the industry, Dong Mingzhu had no connections, no background, and no mature market experience. She only relied on her tenacity and serious attitude to carve out a way out in the highly competitive home appliance market. She gritted her teeth and recovered the debts that others were unwilling to take over; she worked hard on markets that others were not good at; facing the gray hidden rules of the industry, she always refused to give in and guarded the bottom line of her career.
In 1992, her sales exceeded 16 million yuan, accounting for about one-eighth of the company's total revenue at that time. With outstanding performance and strong execution ability, she worked her way up from a salesperson at the grassroots level to sales director and president, and finally took charge of Gree, leading the company to expand steadily.
She held on to the debts that others could not recover.
The hardness of iron is developed through repeated forging.
3. Quenching: Stick to quality and break technology monopoly
In the early days of the development of the home appliance industry, the market was mired in a price war. A large number of companies followed suit and lowered standards, resorted to counterfeiting in pursuit of profits, and neglected product quality. In the wave of the industry, Gree has defied public opinion and always adheres to the bottom line of product quality. In the mid-1990s, a batch of air conditioners had quality problems. Dong Mingzhu ordered the batch of products to be destroyed on the spot, causing losses worth millions. He insisted on the quality red line with a tough attitude.
At the same time, Gree continues to increase investment in scientific research, making every effort to tackle core technologies and break the long-term monopoly of foreign core air-conditioning technologies. Data shows that Gree's air conditioner failure rate is as low as 3 in 10,000, the lowest level in the industry; from 2022 to 2024, Gree's cumulative R&D investment exceeded 20 billion yuan and its cumulative patents exceeded 130,000, including 72,000 invention patents.
Dong Mingzhu said bluntly: "Quality is the life of an enterprise. Without quality, there is nothing to talk about."
Good products are the only basis for a company to survive.
Iron is the hardest after quenching.
4. Persevere: Reject quick money and take root in manufacturing
During the industry's dividend period, many peers have made cross-border deployments in the real estate and financial fields, pursuing short-term huge profits and abandoning their industrial foundation. Gree remains unwavering, firmly rooted in the manufacturing industry, deeply engaged in the main business of air conditioning, and rejects the temptation of capital and quick money. Even if it is burdened with external controversies and is under short-term performance pressure, it has always adhered to the foundation of national manufacturing.
Under long-term stable operation, Gree has paid a cumulative dividend of more than 172 billion yuan since its listing, and will pay a dividend of 16.755 billion yuan in 2024, using continuous dividends to give back to investors and society. Dong Mingzhu always adheres to: "Made in China, we must not lose the fundamentals."
However, this piece of "iron" that has been forged to be extremely hard also shows its stubbornness and heavyness when trying to shape it into a new shape.
Diversified exploration in mobile phones, chips, new energy and other fields has so far failed to replicate the success in the air-conditioning field; the "Gree Dong Mingzhu Store" that shook the offline distribution system caused a huge shock inside and outside the company.
Dong Mingzhu used his "iron" will to protect Gree's core, but what the next era needs may be another form of "iron" - a more flexible and open system vitality.
The fast money will go away, but the manufacturing industry will not.
The value of iron lies not in its luster, but in its resistance to rust.
5. Rebirth: 60-year-old live broadcast, the temperature of iron
In recent years, the industry has ushered in a cold winter, offline channels have collapsed in large areas, and the home appliance market has faced a new impact. Dong Mingzhu, who is over sixty years old, put aside her status as an entrepreneur and started live streaming in person. In 2020, 13 live broadcasts brought in 47.6 billion yuan in goods, accounting for a quarter of the total revenue that year. She learned the new online model from scratch, defied public criticism, and personally promoted products. She led Gree to proactively embrace the digital wave, bucked the trend, completed corporate transformation, and saved the jobs of tens of thousands of employees.
In 2024, Gree Electric's revenue was 190.038 billion yuan, and its net profit attributable to the parent company was 32.185 billion yuan; according to 2025 data from Aowei Cloud, Gree's offline share in the domestic air-conditioning market is approximately 29.42%, ranking first in the industry for many consecutive years.
Today, Dong Mingzhu is over seventy years old. Who will write the next chapter of Gree?
This is the biggest suspense of the "Dong Mingzhu Era" and the last question she left for China's manufacturing industry.
At 60, she learned to live stream. It's not that she has changed, it's that iron needs to shine in a different way.
Iron has temperature because it remembers why it was forged.
Someone asked Dong Mingzhu, why Gree can live for more than 30 years?
Her answer is simple: make the product right.
From a 36-year-old single mother who went south to work, to the helm of a 190 billion empire. She was not born strong, she was beaten by life.
Her story is not a cool novel, but the whole process of a piece of iron being forged, quenched, formed, held firm, and glowing in the furnace.
Iron is not born, it is refined.
The real rebel is not that he has not experienced the furnace, but that he has become a better piece of iron after coming out of the furnace.
But how far a piece of iron can go sometimes does not depend on how hard it is, but on whether it can find the next person to forge it.
【Data source】
Regarding the 36-year-old Dong Mingzhu who went south to Zhuhai in 1990 and joined Gree's predecessor "Haili Air Conditioning" as a grassroots salesperson: Dong Mingzhu's autobiography "Playing Chess without Regrets" and Gree's official public information.
Regarding Dong Mingzhu's sales exceeding 16 million yuan in 1992, accounting for about one-eighth of the company's total revenue: Gree's official development history, "Chinese Entrepreneur" 2006 exclusive interview.
About Dong Mingzhu serving as chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances for five consecutive terms: Gree Electric Appliances announcement, Shenzhen Stock Exchange disclosure, CCTV financial report.
Regarding Gree Electric’s revenue of 190.038 billion yuan and net profit attributable to parent companies of 32.185 billion yuan in 2024: Gree Electric’s 2024 annual report and company official website announcement.
Regarding Gree’s cumulative dividends exceeding 172 billion yuan since its listing, and 16.755 billion yuan in dividends in 2024: Gree’s official website “Investor Relations” and Flush Financial Database.
About Gree’s cumulative R&D investment in 2022-2024 will exceed 20 billion yuan, and its cumulative patents will exceed 130,000 (72,000 inventions): Gree’s 2024 annual report and public disclosure information.
Regarding Gree's offline share of the domestic air conditioner market, which is approximately 29.42% (according to data from Aowei Cloud in 2025), it has ranked first in the industry for many consecutive years, and its air conditioner failure rate is as low as 3 out of 10,000: AVC's 2025 data and public data from Gree's quality conference.
Regarding Dong Mingzhu’s live broadcast sales of 47.6 billion yuan in 2020: Gree’s official live broadcast battle report and public financial report disclosure.
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