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Dong Mingzhu joined Gree Electric in 1990 as a 36-year-old widow selling air conditioners. On her first assignment in Anhui she spent about forty days chasing a debt that an earlier dealer owed Gree, and got the goods back. She then built Anhui into one of the company's top markets, took over the sales operation in the mid-1990s after many salesmen defected, became general manager in 2001, and became chair in 2012.
Starting in the late 1990s, Gree set up provincial sales companies whose shareholders were Gree and its largest local dealers. Each company enforced one price across its territory. This turned rival dealers into partners with a shared stake, ended the cross-regional undercutting that was eroding margins, and let the manufacturer control channel pricing without owning retail.
Dealers pay Gree for stock during the winter off-season, before the goods ship, and receive rebates or interest compensation in return. Dealer cash finances the manufacturer's production and evens out a seasonal factory load. It also removes receivables risk, and it ties dealers' capital to the brand ahead of the summer peak.
Dong's position was that an appliance maker survives through quality and in-house control of key components such as compressors, not by joining industry price wars. Gree refused to cut prices during the sector's price battles. It spent on its own R&D and made that the basis of its brand message, betting that customers would pay a premium for reliability.