The reason why Toyota can become the world's first profitable company is not only due to its strong market plundering ability, but also to the way of spending money.
In Ōno's book "Toyota Production Philosophy", the "Toyota production method" mentioned by Ohno has been emulated by the whole world, because the Japanese have proposed a very perverted method of saving money: if you can spend less than a dime, why spend a dime more?
If you produce 100 more cars this month, you waste far more than these 100 cars, is there an additional parking lot, you need extra people to take care of these 100 cars, and you have to establish independent files to trace these cars.
These are invisible costs that become the key to stealing corporate profits.
Under the epidemic situation, last year in Beijing, looking at the 4S stores that took turns to close, there are many old friends and many new friends, most of them because the epidemic can't go on, for 4S stores, it is difficult to make money by selling cars, and the profit points are actually on the after-sales.
The traditional way of making money after sales is also being infiltrated by Internet culture, insurance, maintenance, maintenance, beauty four blocks have been loosened signs, such as maintenance of this item, many entry-level brands of after-sales profit points have been hollowed out, the rise of a rabbit master can see how big the aftermarket is.
To make money, 4S stores have only two ways, one open source, one throttling.
Open source is to sell more cars, attract more customers, use maintenance, repair to retain more people, throttling is to streamline the architecture, retain key positions, and eliminate unnecessary redundant personnel.
Less staff inevitably leads to less expenditure, while management is leaner and organizational restructuring is simpler.
For example, many companies have actually set up a modification department, and you recall that when you buy a new car, it is not filmed, loaded with a car recorder, installed a configuration, and so on.
In fact, in my opinion, this department is the most unnecessary department for 4S stores to retain, the reason is very simple, although the modification profit is large, but with the millennials cutting into the market in advance, in fact, the DIY requirements for vehicles are higher, 4S stores are often equipped with professional quality is not strong, equipment is not professional enough, the site can not meet part of the construction requirements (film, color change) and so on.
I have a good relationship with several investors in Zhengzhou for many years, and they all have the idea of dismissing these people, because it is true that the value created by these people is not high, but the 4S store needs someone to do the things of filming, color change, and basic installation.
Of course, there are those who have the courage to lay off this part of the personnel because they have found a better solution.
Looking for external interfaces to come in, let more professional people do this more professional thing, 4S shops eliminate the beauty decoration department, but also save venues, equipment.
For example, a Henan enterprise I know, E&P.
This is a very interesting enterprise, this company does not appear in the public eye frequently, but it has created a very high output value and solved practical problems for 4S stores.
This is a company that is simply called "car beauty", but it is not simply "car beauty".
Some 4S shops that have abolished the modification of beauty have signed an agreement with E&P to deliver the new car film, modification and other businesses to E&T, and the user will carry out the film work after receiving the address and contact number.
In fact, this is a way for conventional 4S stores to save architecture and save personnel costs: to find foreign aid.
But E&P is really different, it has several advantages that other small beauty shops do not have:
1. The system is huge, and more than 100 employees have strong professionalism and can provide higher services and products at the same price.
2, the business is extensive, new car users need to upgrade the film, E&P has a better choice, while more advanced "full car deep fine washing", top color change, car clothes and other businesses are still very good.
Equivalent, the 4S store combined with E&T, by cutting off the modification department, grafts new car users to E&P, E&P can complete the same service as the 4S store at a cost of 0 yuan with high-quality services, and can also freely and advance more DIY projects according to the budget.
This is an advantage that 4S stores do not have.
For the 4S store, a lot of costs are saved, and for the company, E&T perfectly undertakes 4S new car customers, makes new friends, and expands more market share by the way.
This logic is very clear, I have talked to many investors about this model, this model is actually not new, has been integrated for many years.
But some 4S stores are not willing to do, one may be afraid of affecting the reputation, once the user hits the 400 complaint for the 4S store is a real loss of money and silver, and some 4S stores are not willing to do the fundamental fear that the peripheral docking unit can not solve the professional problem.
The core key is to look at the strength of the external units themselves, the strength is uncontrollable, the boss is short-sighted to make quick money, which makes it difficult for many 4S stores to accept this new way.
In fact, this way is very necessary for 4S stores, the current passenger car market is very scary, polarizing at a speed visible to the naked eye, eliminating a large number of car brands, although the dealer group may hold five or six brands, but at the same time to seize customers, it is also necessary to do money-saving actions.
Referring to the successful case of E&P, this is a successful, qualified, and far-sighted enterprise with a boss, which can not only make the 4S store successful, lay off unnecessary personnel, but also digest a lot of unnecessary accessories received by the manufacturer.
Digesting inventory, saving costs, and streamlining the architecture, E&P is the same as providing "one-stop" beauty services for many 4S stores.
In my opinion, today, when the mighty transformation of new retail has defeated traditional investors, 4S stores should actually transform rapidly, cut unnecessary structures and personnel, integrate resources, and alliance with strong external units to achieve the effect of 1+1>2.
I checked, the size of the car modification market in 2021 easily exceeded 60 billion, and the market still had an increase of more than 7% last year, because of the increase in young consumers, the liberalization of the concept of consumption of market users, and the increasing demand for DIY modification.
It is speculated that in the next 10 years, this modification market will reach 100 billion shares, and a huge market will inevitably emerge, which means that more and more companies like E&P will land on the market.
I am very optimistic about E&P such a model and enterprises, it can solve a lot of mess for 4S stores, with their own professional skills to integrate resources, in my opinion, E&P such enterprises are not serving 4S stores, but with 4S stores standing at a height, to solve the industry's survival difficulties, profitability difficulties, serious waste of resources such problems.