Tribute to entrepreneurs Chasing the light of 2022 those tenacity, insight and sharpness

Per reporter: Zhao Wenqi Wang Ziwei Chen Ting Wang Yubiao Per editor: Liu Xuemei

In 2021, opportunities and challenges coexist.

This year, with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, mass consumer demand is picking up day by day, and many convenient and innovative services for a better life have also emerged.

This year, integration, change and innovation have become the annual keywords of the Chinese business world. New consumption breaks through the old order cage, Generation Z has become the main force of consumption, and all walks of life are also looking forward to the subversion and breakthrough of new forces.

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This year, the Daily Economic News reporter "Dialogue with Future Business" interviewed 18 founders of unicorns in new economy and new consumption-related industries, and conducted in-depth dialogue with them.

For many entrepreneurs, 2021 has a highlight moment: seizing the outlet, catching up with the financing tide, successfully transforming the company, launching a pioneering product...

However, there are also regrets on the road to entrepreneurship: "regret not to raise funds earlier", "should implement new strategies earlier", "if there is less hesitation"...

Perhaps, having regrets and not being perfect is the driving force for new hope and the starting point of a new struggle.

Standing at the junction of 2021 and 2022, we chatted with several representative founders. Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet, let us understand from their answers, a flash of inspiration on the road to entrepreneurship, as well as tenacity, insight and sharpness.

May every founder with the dream of changing the world come true in 2022.

In uncertainty, look for business model certainty

The road of entrepreneurship has always been full of too many uncertainties. In the past year, whether it is the macro environment or specific to each enterprise, great changes have taken place, some people have retreated, and some people have taken off on the wind. Countless cases also prove that when embarking on the road of entrepreneurship, we must be ready to "plan things in people and achieve things in heaven" at any time.

What will be the biggest change in the industry in which these founders operate in 2021?

Zhai Guanglong, founder of Songguo Travel: Set the tone

"In 2021, our smart factory in Hefei landed, which according to my understanding should be the first smart factory in the industry, from demonstration to planning to landing took almost 3 years; the landing of smart factory more clearly highlights our development as a transportation technology company; third, at the end of 2021, we also tried to communicate with the management about the company's general development ideas in the next 5 to 8 years, which is also an internal tone, the tone of the future development path."

Zhang Haibo, founder of Chuangyi Technology: Earth-shaking

"In 2021, the entire sports field has undergone earth-shaking changes, from the national policy to the response of governments at all levels or enterprises, and there have been relatively big changes in our industry." This change also allows our company to see a better market prospect, in order to be more firm in the research and development ideas of our products and technologies, and to provide better services for our customers with better products and technologies. ”

Take a moment of time founder Zhu Yueyi: Flower consumption from festivals to daily life

"The biggest change we've observed in 2021 is that consumers are becoming more concerned about their lives. A more important performance is that in 2021, the proportion of flowers for home use has risen sharply, compared with the previous people who occasionally bought flowers in festivals, the bigger change in 2021 is that everyone began to decorate their homes with flowers. The main reason for this change, in addition to everyone's life getting better and better, more importantly, is the 'pan-festival', we also in this process through the theme story or through different seasonal flowers, to bring users more interesting products. ”

Yuan Zelu, founder of Kwa father fried skewers: The digital upgrading of catering under the catalytic catalysis of the epidemic

"Because Kwafu Fried Skewer is a national chain brand, the repeated epidemics across the country in the past year have led us to experience no less than 10 epidemic impacts. The test after test also allowed us to quickly set up an effective and strong operation team during this period, including takeaway operations, private domain traffic, scanning code ordering, online operations, etc. We have helped a very large number of franchisees respond effectively to the impact of the epidemic and achieve a smooth transition and soft landing during the epidemic. This is one of the biggest responses and changes we have in 2021. ”

Han Wei, founder of the Luck Movement: De-bubble, digital reconstruction

"In 2021, China's fitness industry has experienced a process of 'de-bubble', doing annual cards, 'making money that consumers can't come from' has become history, and companies in the fitness track are also doing healthier around social values, and in this process, digital capabilities are needed to reconstruct the industry." The biggest adjustment made by Leke in 2021 is to establish its own digital empowerment center. ”

Zhang Junjie, founder of Bawang Chaji: Jump out of the dilemma of homogenization competition

"In 2021, the entire new tea industry in the state of excessive competition into the brand marketing, category positioning of the homogenization dilemma, products become a breakthrough to drive brand reputation, pull sales increment, so we can see that in 2021 the tea industry to launch new products the frequency is accelerating, new product ideas are gradually developed in the direction of niche and so on."

Suddenly enlightened, see the world in astronomical units

In an interview with the Daily Economic News, Zhai Guanglong mentioned an interesting word, "Astronomical unit."

"The distance from the sun to Earth is almost 150 million kilometers. When I went to understand some knowledge of the universe in 2021, I found that neither in kilometers nor light years can describe the characteristics of different dimensions of the universe very well. Then I started working in astronomical units and suddenly found that everything was connected. Zhai Guanglong explained.

Many times, human confusion comes from the contrast between its own smallness and the vastness of heaven and earth. The same is true for entrepreneurs, in the era of "innovation" and "cross-border", they need to think more broadly. But when you open the pattern and look at the world and the track you're on, it's suddenly enlightened.

Yuan Zelu: Proposed full-link digital logic

"Based on thinking, we put forward the strategy of full-link digital operation and management, which has also become the core strategy of the development of the entire company in the next 3 to 5 years." In the future, we will form a digital connection network through the three roles of users, store franchisees and employees, through four sets of systems, to truly achieve a breakthrough in scale and achieve rapid and good development. So that's one of our biggest inspirations in 2021. ”

Zhai Guanglong: Not limited by the human consciousness system

"On the one hand, I think the human perceptual and conscious systems are still relatively fragile, always taking what a human conscious system can understand; on the other hand, sometimes we artificially bring a lot of obstacles to learning, but in another way, we may be able to understand a lot of things faster." So now I will tell you that we can now run several astronomical units a month in a pine cone car, and in the future we hope to run one astronomical unit a day, and everyone thinks this expression is still quite interesting. ”

Zhu Yueyi: Bringing Internet technology to flower growers

"In 2021, 'common prosperity' has given me a lot of inspiration. Years ago, we observed that the phenomenon in the industry is that fresh flowers have not undergone good post-harvest treatment, and there is a high loss in the transportation process, after layers of dealers have increased the price, when they go to the flower market and florist, the price of flowers is already very high, but in this process, individual growers and bases have not enjoyed the dividends brought by the high value of flowers. So we cooperate with individual growers and new bases at the source, and we hope to bring Internet technology and more science and technology to the industry, and jointly promote the development of the real economy of flowers through the improvement of efficiency, and help more growers and new bases grow.

Zhang Junjie: Overseas business development proves that opportunities and challenges coexist

"To sum up, there are two points that we will do better overseas in 2021: First, seize the channel dividend. In the past few years, foreign takeaway channels started slowly, but in the past two years, the epidemic has made the penetration rate of takeaway channels soar rapidly, and the experience we have accumulated on domestic takeaway channels and the judgment of takeaway trends can be well applied overseas; second, our overseas brand building has done a good localized operation and set up a brand operation team in the local area. Since 2021, we have created the Overseas Double 11 Tear Cup Festival, completed joint cross-border cooperation with well-known brands such as Royal Selangor and Evian, and mobilized local resources to carry out mask public welfare actions in the first half of the year when the epidemic in Southeast Asia was very serious, especially in Malaysia. ”

Han Wei: "Tie up the village, fight a stupid battle", do difficult and correct things

"The biggest inspiration for 2021 is what Mr. Zuo Hui called 'doing the hard and right thing'. Correct means that we must do a thing with social value, the difficulty is that all we do the industrial Internet, to do deep transformation of things, is very difficult, may have to experience those pains, can not dry up and fish, can not rush to achieve quick success, can not rush to achieve. ”

"Therefore, during 2021, in the exploration of the industrial Internet, Leke is more willing to uphold the way of doing things like 'hardening the village and fighting a stupid battle', which I think is our deepest experience in 2021."

Explore the way forward, through the confusion can see the light

With the normalization of the epidemic, the impact on people's daily lives and business activities is also decreasing marginally, and many entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to boldly explore new forms of organizations and new possibilities for business.

This wave of entrepreneurship is to reshape the daily life of Generation Z with new technologies and new thinking, from diet to exercise, from special to daily. If entrepreneurs use Internet thinking to look at fitness, fitness can only be one of the scenes, then what is more important?

Entrepreneurs may be lost in their minds for a moment, but more entrepreneurs are beginning to explore and move forward, trying to realize the "optimal solution" in their dreams.

So, we ask: In the past year, whether in internal management or market development, have you ever made an attempt that you have never done since you started your business? The result?

Han Wei: Building the two cores of the digital industry middle office

"Around the core of the digital industry middle office, two main attempts have been made. One is to do online transactions of service products, and the other is to do open ecosystems.

Yuan Zelu: Explore a new field of management

"During the year, I explored organizational development and organizational innovation and management that I had never done in my entrepreneurial experience before, and I had never managed a team of more than 500 people before. In the midst of rapid development, the team expanded rapidly, the organizational adjustment, the dilution of the corporate culture, the face of how to make the organization more efficient connection, and the solution to the problem of three monks without water to eat. ”

Zhang Haibo: Just try it out

"In 2021, we made a lot of bold attempts, which is more typical of the first 'human-machine war' e-sports competition between table tennis robots and people. The second is in the club business, based on robots and application-related products, in the to B club scenario, we have reached a very good business ecology. ”

Zhang Junjie: Strategic upgrading, taking the first step towards nationalization

"In 2021, we completed an upgrade in strategy, went out of Yunnan, deeply cultivated Chengdu, and successfully took the first step of nationalization. This is the prelude to our market expansion in 2022. To be precise, whether we can create a successful out-of-province model market will greatly affect the progress of our store expansion in 2022. At present, we have successfully taken the first step in Chengdu. From the opening of the first store in September, by the end of the year, more than 10 stores have been opened in Chengdu, with an average store area of more than 80 square meters, which verifies our store opening strategy of "Guofeng Experience Space" at the beginning of the year. ”

Step back in time and what they want to change

Some people say that there are no ifs in life, and there are no assumptions about entrepreneurship. But you may not know that reflection can help you activate your brain in advance, and when you encounter a similar situation again, you will react more keenly and seize that opportunity than before. Success or failure is in this move.

In the process of groping forward, no one knows what the future environment will be, what kind of "black swan" or "gray rhinoceros" will appear, and whether the direction of their company's bet is appropriate. Every time you make a decision, you are always bound by uncertainty. Entrepreneurs even need to mobilize all their attention in an instant, to make judgments, to make ideas.

"If I could turn back the clock, I would like to be more decisive." Standing at the end of the year, looking back, many entrepreneurs invariably expressed the idea that they were "firmer" and "earlier" at that time. Time is running out, only for the day. Facing yourself at this time is nothing more than to be more sober in the future.

If you had the opportunity to go back in time, which decision would you like to be adjusted or changed in the year to get better results?

Han Wei: Increase investment in the middle office of the industry as soon as possible

"If we can predict the future at the beginning of the year, I hope that Leke will continue to increase its investment in the middle office of the industry, and we must play a more solid, thicker and more willing; in the front-end development, it should be a pulling speed, simply put, 'holding high and fighting high'." To sum up, it is necessary to 'build a hard village and fight a stupid battle', spend more money to fight more solidly in internal strength; in terms of expansion, we must be more bold in holding high and fighting high, and the speed of expansion should be increased. ”

Zhang Haibo: Let the "fighting robot" challenge humans early

"Looking back at the past year, we should invest resources in the confrontation robot earlier, so that the matching robot can come out at the end of 2021, rather than waiting until June 2022 to make the table tennis man-machine playing robot face the public and openly challenge human beings."

Yuan Zelu: Promote full-link digitalization as soon as possible

"If time can be turned back, I hope that not in early 2021, but at the end of last year, we will be able to promote the reform and organizational adjustment of the whole company's full-link digitalization, as strong as in 2021."

Zhang Guangming, founder of Ffit8: Raise money early to deal with uncertainty

"If I could go back in time, I would like to raise money earlier in 2021 and get more money to deal with the uncertain situation in the future."

Time is running out: the 2022 schedule is on schedule

Standing at the beginning of 2022, a new chapter is about to begin. How do entrepreneurs plan to define themselves in the new year? How do entrepreneurs want to lead their teams through this year? What are the top priorities this year?

What words will be used for these entrepreneurs who have raised funds, or upgraded their brands, or built factories, or disrupted the industry in the past year, to look forward to 2022?

Zhai Guanglong: Management

"2021 is the 4th year since Pine cone was founded. Like most fast-growing companies, the company's annualized growth rate has been about 300% in the past 3 years, but the challenge of 2021 is very large. On the one hand, the objective epidemic and flood, on the other hand, it is true that there are more people and more things, the efficiency has not been proportionally improved, the entropy increase effect is more obvious, and it can be clearly felt that the lack of management has dragged down the business. Therefore, we have made it clear that the core keyword of 2022 is management. Zhang Haibo: Empowerment

"We expect to be able to use our products and technologies to empower the sports industry more and more, and to enhance the development of the sports industry." At the same time, we will also make more efforts in technology and product improvement to make them more recognized by the public. ”

Yuan Zelu: Looking forward to

"We have consolidated some basic skills in the digitalization of the brand supply chain in 2021 and last year. It is hoped that in the context of mitigating the impact of the epidemic, these basic skills can be greatly released in 2022. We look forward to achieving our 3,000-store expansion and development goals in 2022. ”

Han Wei: Digital middle office

"In 2022, I hope that Luck can become a digital middle office for the fitness industry, empower the industry, and make the industry healthier."

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