Harbin Tongji Factory During our working life in Tongji Department Store, we often heard the stories of Wu Baixiang and Tongji Factory from our predecessors. Since we have been engaged in the accumulation and investigation and research of Tongji historical materials for a long time, we wrote this historical material. To comfort the predecessors. Wu Baixiang, the founder of Tongji Factory, opened a grocery store in Fujiadian, Harbin in 1903, which was called "Tongji". When "Tongji" was established in 1907, he began to purchase sewing machines to process British leather hats. Because of the novel style, he made a lot of profit. In 1911, Tongji Factory was officially established with relatively complete machinery and equipment, such as many workers making various hats day and night. In 1915, Tongji expanded the new factory to produce various types of clothing and socks. Later, the Da Luoxin Food Factory and Tianjin Shoe Store were added, and the Da Luoxin and Tongji Department Stores were built. In 1928, Tongji Factory built a new four-story factory building, employed 1,800 workers, had an annual output value of more than 1.5 million yuan, and had more than 750 sets of various mechanical equipment, becoming the largest factory in Harbin. After the fall of Northeast China, Tongji Factory fell into trouble and suffered a fire in 1933. In 1937, Tongji Factory was established as a joint-stock company and prospered for a period of time. However, after the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, three managers of Tongji Factory were arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese puppet regime as "economic criminals". In 1942, Tongji Factory was forced to close down. The famous Tongji Factory, which had been in operation for more than 30 years, no longer existed, but its management and operation are worth mentioning. The operation and management of Tongji Factory are innovative and occupy the market. The staff and workers of the past generation have a good reputation and praise Wu Baixiang for his good management of the factory. "I don't do what others do, and I can do what others can't do." This is Wu Baixiang's life creed and his creed for running a business. "I have what others don't have" and "I am better than others" are Wu Baixiang's consistent business ideas. Tongji Factory is good at innovation and seizes the market when the opportunity arises. When the old and young people of the Qing Dynasty still had long braids behind their heads, Wu Baixiang produced the first British-style leather hat in Northeast China for the first time, opening up a large market for the leather hat industry. It set up a head office, built branches, sent counters, engaged in underwriting, and introduced Japanese technology, doing everything possible to meet the needs of hat making, making Tongji Factory the center of hat production and operation in the entire Northeast. Subsequently, Tongji Factory's felt hats, straw hats, velvet hats, and woolen hats also occupied the entire Northeast hat market. Tongji Factory also paid attention to making its products complete, skillfully grasping the business situation and national and people's sentiments, and grasping the market. When the Revolution of 1911 was victorious and people cut their hair and changed their clothes, Tongji Factory observed the customs and sentiments of the people, and immediately organized a clothing production system with craftsmen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the technical backbone, producing 1st-class clothes, suits, school clothes, uniforms, raincoats, and various shoes, and took the lead in occupying the market. From headwear to footwear, Tongji Factory provides Jackie Chan-style clothing for men, women, old and young, and other manufacturers can only look up to it. "I am better than others." Tongji Factory pays attention to foreign products, learns from peers, takes their strengths and avoids their weaknesses, and creates novel products. At that time, Shanghai Heiju brand socks were popular all over the country. Tongji Factory found out that the shortcomings were the single yarn count and the fatal weakness was the large shrinkage rate and short service life, thus predicting that this brand's status was unstable and its life span was short. Wu Baixiang hired Wang Ruoyu, who studied textiles in the United States, to introduce American hosiery machines, adopt new technologies such as selected raw materials, multiple yarn counts, and strengthen automatic needle lifting and automatic closing, and finally created a famous brand white bear socks that can enter Guanyue Port and sell well at home and abroad. Tongji Factory is not satisfied with one or two famous brand products. For example, after launching the popular product of small man candy in food, it has successively developed a series of varieties such as coffee candy, electric light candy and box candy, which are not only popular in Northeast China, but also famous in Beijing. Even the "Eight Great Xiangs" in Beijing sell food produced by Tongji Factory. Therefore, people believe that being different is one of the important reasons for the vigorous development of Tongji Factory. Holding trade fairs to expand influence While Tongji Factory put its own products on the market, it also created a new form of self-organized product trade fairs. In 1930, Wu Baixiang held the first product trade fair of Tongji Factory. Before the meeting, Wu Baixiang dispatched people to organize the budget section, layout section, printing section, reception section, and business section, and invited artist and factory manager Sun Ruoxuan to serve as exhibition designer. When people enter the trade fair lounge, they will enter the statistics exhibition room, and through all the models, they will have a panoramic view of the general appearance of Tongji Factory and all its products. In order, there are woolen textile exhibition room, embroidery exhibition room, sewing exhibition room, boots and shoes exhibition room, hat sample exhibition room, new clothes exhibition room, and food exhibition room, which are dazzling, exquisite, rich, and colorful, making people pleasing to the eye. For example, the first part of the wool textile exhibition room is a scene of mountains, forests and sheep, the second part is wool, the third part is wool yarn, and the fourth part is finished sweaters. The production process of the products is clear at a glance. The design of the embroidery exhibition room wins by novelty. With the help of all the furnishings, tables, chairs, sofas, and backrests, they are all decorated with embroidery. It is a physical exhibition where you can rest, enjoy, and truly experience the use value. The fur hat exhibition is unique in conception, with hunters catching animals in the deep forest as the background, to show that the source is precious and it is not easy to catch, indicating that the use value of fur hats in the high-altitude cold areas of Northeast China is more considerable. In the food exhibition, all kinds of food, whether real objects or scene models, are cast with sugar materials, which is unique. There are Chinese and foreign account rooms at the exhibition, and the purchase and transaction are made on the spot, and domestic and foreign merchants who come to place orders are received. The product exhibition of Tongji Factory is unique in Harbin. It not only promotes products, but also attracts customers, expands the reputation of Tongji Factory, and promotes both production and sales. Active competition with prize sales In 1937, Daowai Delong Factory seized the opportunity and imitated Tongji's "White Bear" to produce "Ziyang" brand socks to squeeze into the market competition. Tongji Factory adopted the method of prize sales to deal with it. White Bear socks cost 50 cents per pair, and the factory posted lottery tickets on the waist of the socks in proportion. The first prize was 100 yuan, the second prize was 50 yuan, the third prize was 10 yuan, and the fourth prize was 1 yuan. All winners were immediately cashed in, and the first and second prize winners were photographed and advertised in newspapers. In this way, customers felt that they could not only wear socks but also get bonuses, and the newspapers widely publicized the winners, making people very envious. Through prize sales, the inexpensive, durable and durable white bear socks attracted thousands of users. After the Tongji Factory's famous brand Yongnian brand small man candy came out, it was quickly sold by old customers from Shuangcheng, Hailin, Fujin, Nehe and other places. However, the factory was not satisfied with the status quo and vigorously opened up the Harbin market. The factory sent out four carts every day to deliver goods to stalls throughout the city, so that the small candies were flooded in the stalls throughout the city. If you buy goods worth 1 yuan in Tongji Department Store and Da Luoxin Department Store, you will get a bag of small candies for free. If you buy a box of small candies (120 kilograms), you will get 6 towels for free. If you buy a large box (180 kilograms), you will get a pair of pillowcases for free. Advertising and promotion take the lead. Although Tongji Factory's products have always been popular, they still advertise widely and actively promote them, so that before the products are sold in large quantities, they can make a good impression on people and gain their favor. Before the white bear socks were put on the market, the factory made a 7-meter-high big white bear model, which was carried by 4 people. The leading workers deliberately imitated the ancient style and held large signs of "Silence" and "Avoid" to lead the way. Behind them was a band playing music and marching along the main streets of the city, just like the governor's visit, which was very eye-catching and made people feel that white bear socks were as cold-resistant as white bears. The factory also went to Japan to burn a large number of enamel billboards and nailed them in conspicuous places at the intersections of the city. Hired trumpeters carried more than a hundred large flags and played music to promote the product. White Bear Socks are a household name. On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, the factory's mooncakes were posted all over the streets of the town. A toothless old lady was painted on the advertisement, eating mooncakes and saying, "I love Daluoxin mooncakes." After seeing the advertisement, people naturally wanted to try the Daluoxin mooncakes from the Tongji Factory. Whether it is custom advertising, background advertising, physical advertising, or newspaper advertising, the factory spared no effort and was willing to spend money. In particular, the naming of the product brand also contains positive product information. The Ministry of Food called it "Daluoxiang", which means a great collection of delicious foods of various styles from the southeast, northwest, and northeast. The women's socks are crowned with "rooster", which is a rare name. At first glance, it seems out of place, but in fact, the over-the-knee women's socks give women the charm of being tall and healthy. Therefore, it is very famous. The Yongnian brand villain candy is named after the last sentence of Cao Cao's "The Turtle's Longevity": "The blessing of nourishing and relaxing can bring eternal life", which means that eating the Yongnian brand villain can make you healthy and prolong your life. Customer first to ensure quality Tongji Factory pays great attention to product quality, because this is the foundation of the factory. Tongji Factory strictly controls the quality in the production process. Take the inspection of white bear socks as an example. All those with the "white bear" trademark must be carefully selected and have no defects. Unqualified ones are all by-products. By-products are labeled with "parrot", "rose", and "tiger head" trademarks according to the degree of defect and sold at a reduced price. They will never pass off inferior products as good ones. You get what you pay for and price according to quality. Tongji Factory also implements Tracking service to satisfy customers. After Tongji Factory sells products to customers, if the customers are not satisfied, the finished products can be replaced or returned, and the processed products can be repaired. For example, when selling clothing, a repair card is issued. If there is an error, the customer can repair it with the card. All the products of Tongji Factory are carefully developed to ensure high quality. For example, the development of the little man candy was too expensive at the beginning. After repeated experiments, more than 10,000 kilograms of sugar were used before it was successfully developed. They also worked hard on the shape of the candy and developed a "child" shaped mold. The candy is injected into the shape of a child, which is delicious and beautiful. One of the important reasons why Tongji Factory's products have become popular in the market is that they seek credibility with quality. Tongji is unique in its management. The reason why the factory was famous in Harbin and even in Northeast China was inseparable from its unique management. The organization was tight. Wu Baixiang established strict discipline within the factory, stipulating nine prohibitions such as "no excessive drinking, no arbitrariness, no concubines, and no smoking". If violated, they would be punished without mercy. Individual employees and workers who contracted syphilis were fired. Once, when the shoe factory manager Han Guozhen was smoking a cigarette, he saw Wu Baixiang coming over. He was quick-witted and swallowed the burning cigarette butt into his mouth, thus avoiding the disaster of being fired. Trust people when you employ them. Wu Baixiang regarded employing people as the true principle of management, advocating "trust people when employing them, and don't employ people if you don't trust them." He didn't listen to gossip. When he saw someone reporting something, he immediately refused and said, "I have my own vision." After Wu Baixiang became famous in Harbin, his uncle He Shanrong came to help him, but he often regarded himself as an old man. He found Zhao Chantang annoying and publicly threatened to drive him away. He also often spoke ill of Zhao to Wu Baixiang in private. For the sake of his career, Wu Baixiang managed to make his uncle retire and ensured his lifelong cooperation with Zhao Chantang. The factory's director, manager, department director, staff, workers, and apprentices all had a clear promotion system. Wu Baixiang jumped out of the old circle of not hiring people who were not related to him. Starting from his career was the reason why Tongji Factory was full of talents. Risk management. In the case of insufficient funds, in order to seek great development, Wu Baixiang engaged in debt management in order to manage funds. At the same time, he also engaged in credit sales, mostly paying back the principal after the profit, and engaged in agency management to the outside and entrusted management to the subordinates, so that there was a source of funds. In general, the joint operation of industry and commerce was adopted, and the Daluo New Department Store and Tongji Shopping Mall were established, giving full play to the advantages of integrated supply and marketing. There is a striking horizontal plaque at the gate of Tongji Factory Well, the four characters "cleanliness, honesty, and love" are the motto of Tongji Factory, which every employee is required to abide by. In order to cultivate this virtue, various forms are adopted, such as education, choirs, worship, libraries, sports fields, and carnivals. The wages and benefits of Tongji Factory, the wages of employees and workers, began to be promoted at any time according to their performance at 3 yuan, 5 yuan, 7 yuan, and 10 yuan. After the change to a joint-stock company, the employees have a stronger sense of belonging to the company. The welfare benefits are also considerable, with bathrooms, hospitals, and canteens, all free of charge, and a kindergarten for children. The canteen will improve its food every New Year. Employees are given preferential prices when buying products from their own factory, and employees who buy supplies for weddings enjoy half-price discounts. Because the salary level of Tongji Factory is a few yuan higher than that of the same industry, the employees have a sense of superiority and are willing to work for Tongji. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)