How terrible is it for a woman to be fierce?
Known as the "mother of China's private express delivery", six years ago, in the golden age of her career, she sold the company to Jack Ma's Alibaba for 14.6 billion.
Looking at her entrepreneurial road, she can only use the word "legendary" to describe, her mental journey to this day, is still taken out by many companies to learn, and her and Ma Yun's "complementary" period is a case of "fengshen god".
She is the founder of Shentong - Chen Xiaoying, why did she choose to quit during the golden period of her career? What kind of life is Chen Xiaoying, who cashed out tens of billions of dollars now, living?
In 2009, Alibaba's Taobao launched the first large-scale shopping carnival - the Double Eleven Shopping Festival, which instantly triggered the carnival of national consumption.
Countless consumers are looking forward to the arrival of Double Eleven day and night, watching such crazy shopping enthusiasm, countless merchants lined up to participate in the event.
As we all know, in the era of online shopping, the most important thing is convenient delivery, as the founder of Shentong Express Chen Xiaoying also stared at the double eleven cake.
In order to take the opportunity to expand Shentong's market share in the express delivery industry, Chen Xiaoying racked her brains and thought about how to stand out from many competitors.
At that time, there were mainly five companies occupying the express delivery market, namely Yuantong Express, Zhongtong Express, Shentong Express, Bestway and Yunda Express.
In the market, the resources held by these 5 companies are almost the same, and the strength of each company is also comparable, and it is not an easy task to stand out from this one if you want to suppress the crowd.
In those days, Chen Xiaoying put down everything at hand, just to think about how to win the battle, but no matter what tricks she thought, several other companies could compete to imitate.
She knows that all tricks are fake, and only price is the ultimate killer.
At that time, several other companies offered a unit price of 4 yuan per order for Taobao, and the unit price of these 4 yuan was only a small profit, if it was lower than 4 yuan per order, it was almost no profit.
With a plan in mind, Chen Xiaoying began to carefully calculate the cost of each process, and finally, Chen Xiaoying accurately calculated the cost to 2.7 yuan.
Therefore, on the offer the next day, Chen Xiaoying offered a low price of 2.7 yuan to Taobao users, and people in the whole industry were shocked to see Chen Xiaoying press the price so low.
Everyone thinks that Chen Xiaoying is not falling down and banging his brain, if it is not a brain, it must be crazy, even if you want to fight a price war, there is no such fight.
Just put all your wealth on it, not even the profit, which is simply sacrificing yourself to benefit the whole industry.
At the same time, within Shentong, led by Chen Xiaoying, some shareholders said when they learned that Chen Xiaoying would sell the price to 2.7:
This is to give money to people, there is no profit, what do we earn? What about employee salaries?
In the face of the opposition of the company's shareholders, Chen Xiaoying did not choose to give in, but she made a very strong decision and cooperated with Taobao merchants at a price of 2.7 yuan.
Facts have proved how correct Chen Xiaoying's decision-making was, and at the Double Eleven Shopping Festival that year, Shentong single-handedly took over 40% of the entire Taobao waybill.
In the settlement after the double eleven, Shentong not only did not lose money, but because of this 40% of the order, it earned a pot full of pots.
And, because of her decision, the connection between Shentong and Taobao has become closer, after all, a person who dares to gamble with you on the fate of the whole company will trust you more than anyone.
It was with the double eleven of that year that Taobao became the most cattle presence in the Internet industry, and Shentong also relied on these 40% orders to lead Shentong to become the leading boss of private express delivery.
Later, when countless people reviewed this textbook-like "battle", they had a common conclusion that Chen Xiaoying and Ma Yun were complementary to each other.
If at that time, Shentong did not come up with a lonely state and completed all orders on time, then Ma Yun's large shopping festival was likely to become a laughing stock in the industry.
Similarly, if Ma Yun did not launch a large shopping festival at that time, then Chen Xiaoying could not get so many resources in such a competitive market, it can be said that the decision of the two people this time was a loss and a prosperity.
Thankfully, it was the two of them who made the most correct choice at the most critical moment, allowing their company to gain unlimited possibilities.
That year, Chen Xiaoying was 33 years old, and she used her thin body to put Shentong in the first position in the industry.
In fact, the earliest express delivery company to cooperate with Taobao is not Shentong, but Yuantong, why does the earliest cooperation of Yuantong dare not do so, but the later Shentong dares to make such a crazy move?
This also starts from the year when Taobao first began.
In 2005, Taobao was established, and the circle with a keen sense of smell told that Taobao would be an opportunity, so he took the initiative to establish a cooperative relationship with Taobao.
At the beginning of the cooperation, YTO's data has risen in a straight line, watching YTO's transaction volume increase exponentially every month, and several other companies in the industry want to establish cooperative relations with Taobao.
Chen Xiaoying's Shentong Express was one of them, but what no one expected was that the final big winner was the later Chen Xiaoying.
In 2007, with the increase of Taobao users, Ma Yun put forward a request, that is, to add logistics information to the delivery page, and the seller entered the courier number on the platform to consider the delivery successful, which allowed buyers to know where the goods they purchased went.
Perhaps this is not surprising now, but at the time, Taobao was just two years old and was still a new company.
At that time, the express delivery industry, most of them were barbaric growth, and suddenly required them to operate so finely, which meant that they had to invest more manpower and material resources to refine each process of express delivery.
If Taobao can maintain a fiery attitude to develop, it is not impossible to increase manpower and material resources, but if it takes so much energy to toss this thing, in the end, Taobao is not ok, then it is not a waste of time.
If you want to cooperate, you have to make a big move, or you don't cooperate, in the face of this dilemma, the express delivery industry does not know what to do for a while.
However, at this time, Chen Xiaoying was not bothered by this matter, she believed:
The informatization of the express delivery industry is imperative, only when customers use it, they will be more customers to use, Taobao's current move is to make countless users more assured, which must be the future development trend.
Therefore, Chen Xiaoying held a meeting within Shentong, told each shareholder all the pros and cons, and took the opportunity to say his plan for the next few years.
Looking at Chen Xiaoying, who was full of confidence on the stage, the shareholders chose to believe, after all, Taobao's big cake is now abandoned, which is an unwise choice.
Chen Xiaoying began to adjust the management mode of the entire company according to the relevant requirements of Taobao, and she established multiple parcel sorting centers throughout the country, and also built a real-time unified information management system.
This not only improves the transportation speed of the entire express, but also avoids many problems, such as lost parts, missing pieces, etc.
The real-time unified information management system allows users to know where their products are located at all times, which also facilitates users to arrange their own pickup time and successfully reduces the working time of the dispatcher.
It is Chen Xiaoying's creative approach that has brought China's express delivery industry into a new era.
Soon, several other companies in the same industry knew Chen Xiaoying's approach, and they saw from Chen Xiaoying's move that express delivery and e-commerce in the future are complementary and inseparable.
As a result, other companies also began to adjust intensively, and sure enough, Taobao did not disappoint them, in the following years, Taobao's order volume showed rapid growth, and the express delivery industry also entered a period of rapid development.
It can be seen that Chen Xiaoying's role in the entire express delivery industry is very huge. Why can a weak woman have such boldness? What sustained her to where she is today?
Chen Xiaoying was born in Tonglu, Zhejiang Province, her family was very poor since childhood, and the young Chen Xiaoying was exposed to the family's farm work early and could do all kinds of housework well.
However, the weather was unpredictable, just when Chen Xiaoying was in high school, the father of the top pillar of the family died of illness.
The death of his father made this family that was not rich even worse, and in desperation, Chen Xiaoying had to give up his studies and go to work in other places to supplement the family.
Without any culture, she just came to the city, ran into walls everywhere, and finally could only enter the factory as a "factory sister", during the factory work, Chen Xiaoying met her first husband In her life, Nie Tengfei.
The two were of similar age, similar in origin, and had a lot of common topics, so two people who worked in a foreign country gradually came together and got married.
After marriage, the two still worked in the factory, and by chance, Nie Tengfei learned that the local foreign trade industry was facing huge challenges.
Many customs declarations can not be sent to the port on time, which makes many foreign trade enterprises are very headache, they in order to solve this problem, the price of 100 yuan, to help them send customs declarations and goods.
100 yuan, for Nie Tengfei at that time, but a lot of money, you know, at that time, his monthly salary was also one hundred and sixty-seven, the money he got from running twice was equivalent to a month's work in the factory, thinking of this, Nie Tengfei had the idea of running errands.
When he returned home, he told his wife Chen Xiaoying the news, and thought that her wife would oppose him, but what he did not expect was that his wife not only did not oppose him, but was very supportive of him.
So the two will need to run errands related expenses are all calculated, this calculation, they know that a trip can get a net profit of more than 60 yuan, and the work of running errands is not guilty, just take the car to send things over.
The next day Nie Tengfei asked for leave from the factory and began the first errand run, very lucky, the first time running errands did not have any problems, looking at the money in his hand, Nie Tengfei knew that this thing must be able to do.
When he got home, he handed over all the money to his wife, Chen Xiaoying saw that it was so easy to earn money, and she also had the idea of running errands in her heart, she told her husband her thoughts, and the two hit it off.
The next day, he quit his job at the factory and began to concentrate on running errands, in order to save time, Nie Tengfei found his friend Zhan Jisheng in another city to participate in the errand running work together.
Three people divide labor and cooperate, one goes to pick up tasks, one goes to run tasks, one goes to send tasks, several times the tasks come down, and several people have earned money.
At this time, Nie Tengfei and Chen Xiaoying decided to take out all their savings and recruit people to do express delivery with themselves, so the first private express delivery company in China- Shengtong Express (the predecessor of Shentong) was born.
The new company did not have any fame at the beginning, nor did it have any resources, there was no way, Chen Xiaoying had to take the phone book, one after another to contact the relevant companies.
However, at that time, they were the first private express delivery company, and no one knew what they were doing, and some people were willing to give Chen Xiaoying an interview opportunity, but some people did not even listen to it and hung up the phone.
As Chen Xiaoying contacted more and more enterprises, her customers were more and more, and the business gradually improved, and gradually several people earned a lot of money.
But the partnership business is difficult to do, with the increase of business, the contradictions between several partners are also more and more, in the end, Zhan Jisheng chose to quit Shengtong Express (the predecessor of Shentong) and independently founded China's second private express delivery company - Tiantian Express.
Watching their friends leave, Nie Tengfei and Chen Xiaoying were not a taste in their hearts, but they knew that there would be more trouble if they were reluctantly together.
So the two renamed Shengtong Express to Shentong Express, Shen represents Shanghai, and tongze has the meaning of access in all directions.
Soon the first problem appeared in front of them, that is, manpower, considering the particularity of the industry, Nie Tengfei and Chen Xiaoying decided to find employees from their relatives.
Slowly a huge delivery team appeared, and this delivery team also had a nice name "Tonglu Gang".
In 1998, with a keen sense of smell, Shentong grew from a small team of three or five people to a huge enterprise with more than 50 outlets and more than 2,000 employees in the country.
However, God seems to not want Chen Xiaoying to be happy, in this year, Nie Tengfei had a car accident on a delivery route, and finally died of ineffective rescue, when Chen Xiaoying was only 22 years old, and Shentong at that time was in a critical period of rapid development.
Nie Tengfei's death plunged the entire company into chaos, and shareholders of various senior levels left one after another, and even Nie Tengfei's younger brother Nie Tengyun also chose to leave, and after they left, they quickly established express delivery companies such as Yuantong, Zhongtong, and Yunda.
In this way, people often say that the three links and one reach have appeared, and the emergence of express delivery companies such as Yuantong, Zhongtong, and Yunda has made Chen Xiaoying, who was already struggling, even worse.
She knew that she could not be immersed in grief all the time, and she had to find a way to protect the inheritance left by her husband.
With the help of his brother Chen Dejun, Chen Xiaoying made a bold move, cut off some of the drawbacks that endangered the development of Shentong, and carried out all-round reform of the company.
She proposed a two-level franchise policy with a total score, which is simply not to establish new outlets, but to cooperate with more mature express delivery companies in various cities to make them branches of Shentong.
As for the city outlets, most of the income belongs to the local branch, and in doing so, Shentong's fame has also been played out, and the underground branches that follow together can also earn money.
With this franchise policy, Shentong soon established more than 4,000 outlets across the country, and the number of employees increased from 2,000 to more than 50,000.
With the growth of Shentong's strength, the matters covered by Shentong have gradually increased, among which cooperation with Ma Yun is the most important.
In 2012, Chen Xiaoying bought Tiantian Express for 160 million yuan, and it was this year that Chen Xiaoying's second marriage began, this person is no one else, And Chen Xiaoying's driver Xi Chunyang.
Several years of common ups and downs have allowed the two to develop from the original employee relationship to marriage.
After getting married, Chen Xiaoying chose to live in seclusion behind the scenes and objectively view the development of Shentong from the perspective of a third party, which made her find a lot of problems.
After learning of the problem, she once again used thunder means to solve all the problems, and in this way, the development of Shentong once again stepped onto a new level.
In 2016, Chen Xiaoying and Chen Dejun rang the bell of listing on the Shenzhen Exchange, and Shentong became the first express delivery company to be listed in China.
It is the listing of Shentong that has made Chen Xiaoying's personal value rise to more than 12 billion yuan, entering the list of China's richest women in one fell swoop.
In the same year, Chen Xiaoying donated 40 million yuan to Zhejiang University to set up the "Zhejiang University Education Foundation Chen Xiaoying Medical Education Teaching Award Fund".
At this point, Shentong entered the peak period, but just when Shentong's development was bright, Chen Xiaoying chose to sell all his shares to Ma Yun, cash out 14.6 billion yuan, and leave the express delivery industry.
When everyone learned of Chen Xiaoying's wave of operations, they all said:
She was so stupid, it was a pity that she had built a country that she had so hard to lay down, but now she had given it to others.
But Chen Xiaoying did not think so, she knew that as she grew older, she had no more energy to focus on hard work, rather than desperately guarding Shen Tong, it was better to let go and live the life she wanted.
As a result, Chen Xiaoying withdrew after successfully cashing out 14.6 billion yuan.
After quitting Shentong, Chen Xiaoying did not raise his life, but set his sights on a relatively unpopular industry - smart umbrellas.
This time she is completely from the customer's point of view, this umbrella uses a water-weary material, the water droplets only need to be shaken twice, you can achieve a quick-drying effect.
And there is also a flashlight designed around the umbrella, so that even if you travel at night, you can ensure safety. With this new umbrella, Chen Xiaoying once again made a fortune.
Looking at Chen Xiaoying's life experience, we can see that she can have the side of today's scenery, which is inseparable from her indomitable spirit and innovative thinking.
People can always see the beautiful side of others, but forget that they also have unsatisfactory times, and success is inseparable from hard work and effort.
Maybe we can't replicate her success, but we can learn many, many advantages from her, which may not make our career successful, but our career will never succeed without these.