Why did he choose Danone in the first place as a partner?
I believe he wanted the money. Also, joint ventures were popular at the time, and it was a way to reduce government involvement in his business. Who are the other senior managers at Wahaha and how do they fit into a succession plan for Zong? Zong relies on Du Jianying, who worked at a Hangzhou canning factory that Wahaha bought in 1991. Zong s wife is Shi Youzhen, who is the head of purchasing at Wahaha. This kind of involvement of the wife has been something that Danone no doubt hasn t been pleased with. Zong s daughter has been involved in selling children s apparel, something that was considered unusual for the company. You can see that Zong early on was thinking of letting Du take over. The daughter has grown up, and the early plans have changed. To my knowledge, beyond these people, most of the senior executives in Wahaha are women in their 40s, which is something quite unusual in China. They are loyal and stable but have almost no ability to discuss anything with Zong. So Wahaha
