JM Review | It is the sustainability of business philosophy, not just business

By Jointing.Media, in Shanghai, 2024-12-13

Pangdonglai（PDL）， does exactly what grocers are supposed to do. But against the backdrop of its peers, pdl stands out as unique and rare. This also reflects China’s longstanding food safety problem. The people have been criticising food safety for a long time. Finally, there is a PDL who can give the people a gatekeeper.

Recently, Bestore, a listed company whose fake ingredients list for a product was exposed by a fake blogger, self-certified its innocence with a certificate issued by local industry and commerce, but netizens have already questioned the integrity of the company and the government, and they’re not buying it. It used to be that journalists in the official media had to report on such hotspots on time. If they missed them, they were docked their pay.

In the absence of an independent third party to check the public power of government and the lack of market regulation, companies act according to their conscience. Fortunately, people can vote with their feet for companies that are honest and trustworthy.

Bad money drives out good money.The uncle in the Jinan（济南） University canteen was kicked out by the supermarket owner for not raising the price of instant noodles. JM hope the “good money” can be seen in every industry and benefit more consumers.

In today’s China, there is more than one industry in such a situation. China’s e-commerce platforms, for example, are full of fake goods that have been banned time and again. And the founders of TB, JD and PDD are making a killing and hiding overseas. On the contrary, PDL’s customer service, quality and integrity are more valuable. PDL does not take the consumer as a lamb to be slaughtered, but as a king，providing high quality products and refined services；PDL respect employees’ rights with high wages and good benefits, so that employees do not have a “cattle and horses” sense, but also in the work on which to earn a living to find dignity and happiness. More importantly, its strict selection standard, urged its suppliers no longer follow the crowd, bullying, but to do the right thing, as a result froming the establishment of a good ecology.

Is it difficult to build a positive circular economy? If so, why have only a few companies such as Costco, a foreign company, and Pangdonglai, a private company, succeeded in doing so in China? Who should reflect?

Yu Donglai, the founder of PDL, has said publicly more than once that he will close PDL after his death. He wants the PDL staff who have followed him to take PDL’s spiritual culture of love and freedom and spread it around the world. In his eyes, the sustainable development of a company is not about the life span and continuous profit of a business entity, but about the inheritance of a spirit, and the bearer of the spirit is the human being, and various entities are just a form of externalisation and visualisation of that spirit. From this point of view, Yu Donglai, who has only a junior high school education, can be described as a man of enlightenment.

Edited by Wind, Youdao and DeepL

中文原文