Recently I came across a report likely to attract widespread industry attention: it says the renowned Chairwoman and President of Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai—the beauty known as "Miss Dong," Dong Mingzhu—has decided that Gree Electric will enter the construction machinery market. This must be called a bright piece of news for the industry. We all know Gree; it is a giant in the electrical appliance world, and its leader Dong Mingzhu is not only a strong woman but also a beauty. A famous enterprise paired with a beautiful boss is the icing on the cake—a genuine "golden configuration." Such a dazzling beauty of a CEO now wants to set foot in the construction machinery industry, which inevitably reminds me of another leading beauty in the industry: the "Iron Lady" of the heavy equipment manufacturing field, Li Dingmei, Chairwoman of Aoshengte Heavy Industry Technology Co., Ltd.
　　Li Dingmei holds a master's degree from Hunan University. In 2007 she founded Aoshengte Heavy Industry Technology Co., Ltd. and serves as its chairwoman. The company specializes in developing piling machinery, rock drilling machinery, and special equipment for high-speed rail. Li Dingmei frankly admits that what has influenced her most deeply over the years is the saying by the Russian physicist Lebedev: "A calm lake cannot train a tough sailor; a comfortable life cannot produce a great man of the era." In 2007, harboring lofty ideals and aspirations, Li Dingmei formally entered the construction machinery field. She did not rush to build a factory and start production; instead, she established a research institute in Beijing, hired a strong R&D team of "returnees," spent two years carrying out technical breakthroughs, and actively pursued comprehensive cooperation with the world's largest construction machinery R&D center, the IHA Research Institute, as well as Caterpillar of the United States, BORATECH of Germany, China Railway Construction, and others.
　　In 2009, at the earnest invitation of the Changsha municipal government, Aoshengte Heavy Industry Technology Co., Ltd. moved from Beijing to the Changsha National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, specializing in the development of piling machinery, rock drilling equipment, and special equipment for high-speed rail. Dozens of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights emerged one after another, along with authoritative EU CE certification, ensuring that Aoshengte products were destined from birth to stand at the forefront of the market. For this reason, Li Dingmei and her Aoshengte created, in four years, a high-tech construction machinery manufacturing enterprise with annual output value exceeding 500 million yuan and profits and taxes of 50 million yuan. Its products play an important role in key foundation engineering construction in China and are exported to more than 10 countries and regions in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Today's Aoshengte is one of the top 100 private enterprises in Hunan Province and has won titles such as "Hunan Province Contract-Abiding and Credit-Worthy Enterprise" and "Star Enterprise of the Construction Machinery Industry." The Aoshengte brand is deeply rooted in people's hearts and has become a Hunan Province Famous Brand and a Hunan Province Famous Trademark. She herself has been elected multiple times as a deputy to the provincial and municipal people's congresses and named one of the Top Ten Hunan Merchants.
　　Dong Mingzhu studied statistics at the Wuhu Cadre Education College in Anhui Province. In 1975 she did administrative management work at a chemical research institute in Nanjing. Dong Mingzhu's husband died of illness when their son was two years old, and this event became a turning point in her life. In 1990, Dong Mingzhu came to Zhuhai and joined Gree. During her years at Gree, she basically never took annual leave. In 1992, Dong Mingzhu's sales in Anhui exceeded 16 million yuan, accounting for one-eighth of the entire company's total. She was subsequently transferred to Nanjing, where there was hardly a crack in the market, and signed a 2 million yuan air-conditioner order; within a year, her personal sales soared to 36.5 million yuan. At the end of 1994, when Gree Electric was at its most difficult, Dong Mingzhu took over the position of director of operations.
In 1996, the air-conditioning industry fought a bloody battle during a cool summer. Dong Mingzhu, by then promoted to sales manager, preferred to give up market share rather than cut prices. She led 23 marketing salespeople to fight against the marketing teams of hundreds or even thousands of people from some domestic manufacturers. On August 31, Dong Mingzhu announced that 2% of 100 million yuan in profits would be subsidized to each distributor in proportion to sales, prompting Gree's sales that year to grow 17%, surpassing Chunlan for the first time. Since Dong Mingzhu became director of operations at the end of 1994, under her leadership Gree Electric, from 1995 to 2005, ranked first nationwide for 11 consecutive years in air-conditioner output and sales volume, sales revenue, and market share. Until she became President of Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai in 2007, Dong Mingzhu successively won the title of "Chinese Enterprise Woman of the Times," was elected as a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress, won the honorary title of "First Session of Outstanding Female Entrepreneurs of Southern Guangdong," was named one of the "Top Ten Innovative Entrepreneurs Respected by MBAs," and appeared on Fortune magazine's list of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" in the United States.
　　Yet it is precisely these two trendy women—seemingly gentle in manner, elegant in style, and fashionable and novel—who, in the face of fierce competition from numerous strong rivals, devise strategies, direct operations with composure, capture territory, press forward against difficulties, and lead their respective enterprises to become fluttering banners marching onto the high ground of the era. As the saying goes: two mountains cannot come together, but two people can. This is true. Today Dong Mingzhu has publicly stated that Gree will overcome the "bottleneck" of upstream mechanical equipment and, in the basic components industry for intelligent equipment, promote the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing and achieve green and sustainable development according to the standards of "world-class scale and production capacity, world-class equipment technology, and world-class environmentally friendly processes." Li Dingmei also has a bigger dream: Aoshengte will accelerate its global layout and in the future march toward becoming an industrial group with a scale of tens of billions, provide more jobs, and make positive contributions to social stability. Undoubtedly, these two beauties, who with clever and wise hearts turn hundred-refined steel into softness around the finger, will from now on begin to stage a wonderful "Twin Beauties" dance on the same platform, displaying their incomparably charming feminine elegance to help China's construction machinery "intelligent" manufacturing reach the world's peak!