The Annual Salary of 6 Million can Not Keep People, and the Turnover of Photovoltaic Executives Is Growing

"The board of directors has recently received the written resignation report submitted by Mr. Zhang Longgen, director and general manager Mr. Zhou Qiangmin." In early August, an announcement by Daqo Energy caused a shock in the industry. In addition to Tan Zhongfang, director and deputy general manager of Daquan Energy Quality, who announced his departure in June this year, three senior executives of Daquan Energy have left this year.

Some industry insiders believe that the successive resignations of three senior executives are related to the unsatisfactory performance of Daqo Energy. In the first half of this year, due to the release of new production capacity in the silicon material market and the decline in polysilicon prices, the operating income of Daqo Energy fell by more than 40% year-on-year, while the net profit attributable to the parent company fell by more than 50% year-on-year. This is also the first time that the performance of Daqo Energy has declined since its listing in 2021.

Most of the talents in senior positions are under great pressure of performance. Therefore, affected by poor performance, it is not uncommon to find another position. "This year, the performance pressure of optical storage enterprises is enormous, and the competition in all links is fierce. In the first half of the year, the completion rate of each task is only 37%, which is bound to force out some executives who have doubled KPI." Hu Zhiqiang, an observer of the photovoltaic industry and founder of "Cegelun Photovoltaic", said. The resignation of Dong Shuguang, vice chairman

of Zhongli Group, is another type of executive turnover with poor performance. In the past four years, Zhongli Group has been losing money year after year, and has been unable to repay its huge debts of nearly 8 billion yuan, which has reached the point of bankruptcy reorganization. Faced with the situation that Zhongli Building will collapse, Dong Shuguang has been "unable to recover" and can only leave sadly.

In addition to performance pressure, Hu Zhiqiang believes that another major reason for the departure of photovoltaic executives is high-level infighting and uneven distribution of interests. For example,

he said that a leading enterprise's internal product research and development, around TOPCon, HJT, IBC and other technical routes have different technical teams in synchronization, the team formed a competitive relationship, once the R & D products are not recognized by the market, its R & D leader is easy to be excluded, eventually leading to resignation. There are also some large factories, because of the uneven distribution of listed shares, which triggered a struggle between the old team and the new forces of the company, and eventually the loser was eliminated.

In addition to the above situation, the mutual "poaching" between enterprises leads to more cases of photovoltaic executives leaving their jobs. It is often the enterprises that rank in the forefront of the industry and have excellent performance that are facing greater challenges of being "poached". A large part of the executives who hold important positions left because they did well and were poached by the same industry. In addition, there are not a few people who set up their own businesses. East China Heavy Machinery, a

cross-border photovoltaic company, dug up a heavyweight executive, Zhu Zhiguo, from Aikang this year. Zhu Zhiguo was the chief operating officer of Trina Solar and concurrently served as the president of the component division, the president of Tenghui Photovoltaic and the executive vice president of Aikang. He has many years of experience in project operation and management in the photovoltaic industry. After

Zhu Zhiguo left Trina Solar, his job position changed more frequently. In October last year, Zhu Zhiguo became the executive vice president of Aikang Science and Technology Company, and then left again only half a year later, and jumped to East China Heavy Machinery as the head and executive vice president of photovoltaic business, as well as the general manager of East China Solar Energy and Xuzhou Solar Energy. Xie Yi, the former chairman

of Tongwei, is the representative of leaving his job to start a business. In March this year, after Tongwei changed his leadership and Xie Yi resigned as chairman, he established Sichuan Heguang Tongcheng Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd. and launched a 32GW battery project, featuring the N-type TOPCon technology route. From the resume, most of the high-quality talents who are "contested"

in the industry have the working background of leading companies, which is also the "halo" of the new photovoltaic forces.

Component leader Jingke Energy has delivered a number of "top leaders" to new power companies in the industry, which is called "Whampoa Military Academy" in the industry. For example, Xu Zhiqun, chairman of photovoltaic "rookie" Gaojing Solar Energy, Guo Junhua, general manager of Mubang Gaoke, Jin Rui, CEO of Baobi New Energy, and Zhang Longgen, former director of Daquan Energy, all came from Jingke Department.

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This kind of senior executives from leading enterprises have the ability to start new businesses from zero to one, and it is easy to gain the recognition of the capital side.If they have the idea of leaving their jobs and going it alone, it is easy for them to "hit it off" with the management.

A person in charge of an investment institution said: "Star executives leave their jobs to start a business, as long as the direction is right and the resources are enough, the probability of success is very high, and the capital is very optimistic about such projects.". Two photovoltaic executives left their jobs to start their own businesses, and many managers wanted to give him money, but in the end they "couldn't invest". Heguang Tongcheng, founded by

Xie Yi, has attracted heavyweight investors including Sichuan Wuliangye New Energy Investment Co., Ltd., Yibin High-tech Investment Group Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Xuanyang Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd. Shanghai Sige New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., founded by

Xu Yingtong, has received hundreds of millions of yuan of angel round investment only three months after its establishment. Investors are Gaolu Capital, Walden International, Yunhui Capital, Zhongding Capital, etc. As of May this year, Shanghai Sige has accumulated nearly 600 million yuan in financing, with a current valuation of nearly 3 billion yuan. Behind Gaojing Solar Energy controlled by

Xu Zhiqun, there are 43 capital figures. Four years after its establishment, it has carried out three financing, four capital increases and five equity transfers, and the company's valuation has reached 20 billion yuan.

"At present, the president-level executives who left their jobs decently have chosen to start their own businesses in Chengdu.". To start a business, there are infinite possibilities in the future, of course, there is more room than being a professional manager. Hu Zhiqiang said. The iteration of

new technologies, the influx of new capital and the huge market space that can be expected all make the photovoltaic industry "full of entrepreneurial opportunities". If we seize the opportunity, we can often create new legends. Liu Yong, the founder

of Yidao Xinneng, has successively served as the chief technology officer (CTO) and chief operating officer (COO) of Jingao Science and Technology, the general manager of Longji Component Business Department, and the deputy general manager of Zhonglai Stock Co., Ltd., and later founded Yidao Xinneng in 2018, which is positioned as a new energy solution service provider, and is deeply engaged in photovoltaic cells, components and distributed power plants. It took four years for

a new company to be promoted from a start-up to a leading company in the industry. By the end of 2022, its component shipments ranked eighth in the world, becoming a photovoltaic "unicorn" with an output value of over 10 billion yuan.

These successful entrepreneurship cases have a strong driving effect on the departure and entrepreneurship of photovoltaic executives. The flow of photovoltaic talents in the

"offensive and defensive war"

has stirred up a pool of spring water and prevented the industry from falling into a lifeless state. However, the staging of the war of robbing and digging people has also brought serious troubles to many enterprises.

"The photovoltaic circle is not big, and it is normal for people to come and go, but robbing people and digging people do bring a lot of problems.". Salary is expected to be raised very high, do not give an annual salary of millions, do not allocate equity dividends, it seems that there is no sincerity. In fact, the profit level of photovoltaic industry is not higher than that of Internet and finance, and wages can not be compared with them. Salary expectations are too high, and finally it is difficult to recruit people and find jobs. The aforementioned senior people in the photovoltaic industry said.

Following the flow of talents, the most direct problem is the dispute of technology patent rights. Some companies can't compete in technology, and they will also steal technology by digging people.

"On the surface, there are fewer job-hopping technicians, which is actually because the job-hopping of technicians is relatively low-key.". As the development of photovoltaic industry is transforming and upgrading from P-type to N-type, there are many technicians who change jobs in the cell sector, and many people go with technology. Hu Zhiqiang said.

Hu Zhiqiang said that due to the restrictions of non-competition agreements, some technicians take the "invisible" job-hopping route, such as not daring to use their real names, and some will borrow the names of brothers and sisters. "These practices can not be carefully studied, and they are patent lawsuits.". The loss of

core technology backbone makes the enterprises that are "digging the foot of the wall" complain incessantly. In order to retain core executives or minimize the impact, many photovoltaic companies have also made great efforts.

A photovoltaic midstream company once had such a story, because the executives left to take away the technology, the company sent undercover personnel to sneak into the same industry company, after collecting evidence, submitted to labor arbitration, requiring the former executives to continue to perform the Non-Competition Agreement, and pay a high penalty for breach of contract.

Photovoltaic senior sources said: Some photovoltaic listed companies in order to retain talent, in addition to the announcement of the annual salary, equity, there will be another channel to send money. Some executives set up companies to pay money in the form of business contacts, and the actual salary is much higher than announcement.

"On the one hand, it can avoid tax reasonably, and on the other hand, it is also afraid that the bright price will be easily dug by other companies." The person added.

Employee stock ownership is a common way for many listed companies to retain people, such as Jingke, Longji and Tianhe, which have introduced employee stock ownership plans or equity incentives, which have played a positive role in maintaining the stability of the workforce. For example, Jingke Electric Power launched the 2023 Employee Stock Ownership Plan in April this year, involving 136 supervisors and core managers serving in the company.

Of course, equity options are also "golden handcuffs", only to settle down and develop with the company for a long time, can we enjoy high returns. In order to retain people, some companies will add a lot of restrictions on equity, such as a component leader, whose employee stock ownership platform has designed a four-tier equity structure, which is equivalent to adding "four locks". Some enterprises make restrictions on the reduction of executives'cash holdings, "need to obey the unified arrangement of the company", not at any time can cash out.

But in fact, the "golden handcuffs" may not be able to achieve the effect. Talent is like sand in the hand, the tighter it is grasped, the faster it flows away. In a healthy growth industry, the normal flow of talent is very logical, and the high-speed flow of talent often indicates that the industry is in a high degree of prosperity. Behind the turnover tide of

photovoltaic executives, the growth of the industry has brought more development opportunities, so that talents have more choices. From the perspective of industry development, it is not a bad thing. It is much better for talents to spread their branches and leaves and for the whole industry to become bigger and stronger than for a few enterprises to have no future.