A 10W+ sales of explosive cars, an "ideal" that controls their own destiny - this is the story of Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Auto and an EMBA alumnus of Ceibus, who changed lanes with Ideal to overtake. He said that CEIBS has established a complete framework for its own thinking and has also deeply influenced its own values. This article and video is one of a series of interviews jointly produced by China Europe International Business School and NetEase Cultural and Creative Wave Studio, "This Company Is Not Simple• Dialogue with CEIBS Alumni Entrepreneurs".
As the co-founder and president of Ideal Auto, Shen Yanan does not have too many distinctive labels on him.
Ideal employees commented that he was calm and pragmatic, and every time he spoke to the outside world, he was calm and restrained, even on October 28, 2021, when Ideal ONE became the first new force electric vehicle to mass-produce more than 100,000 units, Shen Yanan did not send a circle of friends for this matter.
This style was formed in Shen Yanan's career as a professional manager in the past ten years. Prior to joining Ideal in November 2015, he worked at ZTE and Accenture, and was Lenovo's youngest vice president, specializing in supply chain management and complex operations.
After coming to the ideal, in the eyes of outsiders, Shen Yanan can be called the best partner of Li Xiang, helping the ideal car to become the only car brand that relies on a single model to achieve profitability in the new domestic car manufacturing forces in just a few years.
Friends familiar with Shen Yanan saw the other side behind this achievement, from scratch to establish an ideal supply chain, experienced the most thorough product route adjustment, challenged the financing of hellish difficulty, from not being optimistic to counterattacking out of the circle, Shen Yanan accompanied the ideal through the most difficult period from 0 to 1.
Entering a period of growth from 1 to 10, he felt that he needed some changes to meet the new challenges that might come in the future. In the face of the unknown, Shen Yanan does not like to escape, and the greater the pressure, the more he wants to do a good job.
01
Enter the new arena
Recalling that he and Li wanted to start a partnership, Shen Yanan now feels that this is the most correct choice he has ever made in his career.
Shen Yanan's first thoughts about starting a business were in early 2015, before that, he completed the 2-year EMBA program of China Europe International Business School in 2013, and the classmates came from all walks of life, and it was one of the students who contributed to Shen Yanan's encounter with the ideal.
In 2013, Shen Yanan graduated from the EMBA in Central Europe;
Introduced by his classmates, he and Li Xiang met
This classmate learned in a chat that Shen Yanan wanted to start a business, so he made suggestions, thinking that he lacked experience from 0 to 1 from a large company, and if he wanted to improve the chance of success, it was best to find an entrepreneurial "old driver". The "old driver" in the other party's mouth is Li Xiang, who once founded bubble networks and auto homes. At that time, Li Xiang was preparing for the third business and looking for partners to do new energy vehicles together.
In the eyes of Celebrant students, Shen Yanan is a typical "excellent student", not only can put a string of A in the strict examinations of Cebu Europe, everyone groups to do small games, but also show a strong level of process control and management, both theoretical and practical ability, very suitable for entrepreneurship.
The first meeting with Li Xiang was in Beijing's Eurasian Plaza, and Shen Yanan was very impressed, and the person sitting in front of him spoke logically and logically, expressed clearly, and his eyes were firm. The two only talked for a short time for 1 hour, and Shen Yanan chose to "join the company".
Saying that it is a choice is actually challenging yourself. Shen Yanan was 38 years old at the time, and going to start a business meant giving up a step-by-step life, bearing the price of possible failure, and even sacrificing his health and time with his family. But he thought twice and decided to join the ideal.
In July 2015, the predecessor of Ideal Automobile, "Car and Home", was founded.
There are only 4 rented office spaces
One of the reasons is the attractiveness of the new track, "the development of human society is actually a change in information and energy, and new energy vehicles are changes in information, and it is a change in energy, which is a very long and wide track," Shen Yanan pointed out.
Before that, Shen Yanan had already made preparations. In 2014, when he was assigned by Lenovo as the new chairman of Motorola Mobility (China) and saw that the executives who had helped the company create brilliant moments, because they lagged behind the smartphone era, one after another was "optimized" in advance, Shen Yanan deeply realized that if he did not want to be eliminated by the torrent of history, entrepreneurship was a more correct choice.
Information society, IT industry to accelerate the upgrading, no one can escape, "when I am almost 50, if there is an Indian boy to tell me, sorry, thank you for your contribution, you can rest, this result is probably I can not accept", Shen Yanan said bluntly.
"Life and death" is a choice, after reaching the ideal, Shen Yanan has also met several times, the most important thing is to do range extended electric vehicles.
In 2016, Ideal decided to do a large-scale range extended electric vehicle for home users. But until the ideal ONE mass production delivery, for a long time, this choice has made Shen Yanan bear great challenges and pressures.
On November 20, 2019, the first Ideal ONE mass production rolled off the production line
Range extender electric vehicles in the market has not yet a very successful precedent, pure electric drive route is the main theme of the industry, almost everyone wants to make the next Tesla, even investors meet the ideal, the first reaction is, "can invest, but the premise is to change to pure electricity."
Ideal finally chose to stick to the original route and became the only car brand that adopted range-extending power technology among the new car-making forces at that time. Shen Yanan pointed out that making this judgment is based on an ideal set of value systems: do the right thing, do not do the easy thing.
"The driving experience of new energy vehicles is far better than that of fuel vehicles, but why don't consumers buy new energy vehicles", in Shen Yanan's view, the core pain point facing the entire industry is actually the user's mileage anxiety and charging inconvenience. In 2016, the endurance of pure trams was generally below 400 kilometers, the number of public charging piles was very small, and the charging speed was slow.
"The range increase is actually to add a charging treasure to an electric vehicle that generates electricity by burning oil", Shen Yanan explained, and the range extended electric vehicle that can both charge and refuel can truly solve the current pain points of consumers, although risky, but it is the most correct choice in the ideal view.
It turns out that the ideal was indeed chosen correctly.
In December 2019, ideal ONE opened the first batch of deliveries, and in the following days, this car created countless "firsts" for ideals: the first single model sales of domestic car-making new forces, the first single-month delivery of high-end SUV models in independent brands, and the first new car-making force models that exceeded 100,000 production... With the "power of one car", the ideal came to the fore and became the head player on the new energy track.
Ideal ONE made a good start for Ideal, but Shen Yanan did not let himself indulge in joy for too long. He knows very well that Ideal is participating in a marathon race, and it is still a knockout race, "if you want to survive, you must have a very large market share."
With the rapid growth of the market, new energy vehicles will become more and more like a smart product, sensor recognition, automatic driving and other automotive intelligent technologies will gradually increase the proportion of a car competitiveness, the industry pattern will be more like smart phones, market share to the head manufacturers concentrated, "the market share of the top five mobile phone brands together will exceed 70% of the share", Shen Yanan pointed out.
This means more brutal competition, and Shen Yanan believes that ideals must grow rapidly. And he's ready for a new challenge.
02
Take control of your own destiny
"It is more to perceive what new problems the company will have to solve", Shen Yanan feels that the challenge will not take the initiative to appear, or to "hear the cannon fire", with sales, suppliers and other people in the most front line to understand the situation, at any time to grasp the changes in the industry.
Controlling your own destiny is a sentence written on the wall of Ideal Automobile Company, and it is also what Shen Yanan has always believed.
Just as the ideal does not give up the initiative even in the most difficult times. Shen Yanan also remembers that the company's financing in 2018 and 2019 is not very smooth, so he concentrated all his resources on the ideal ONE car, "our concept is to do it well, not to do more."
Ideal is still only one model, there is only one configuration, in the car-making forces are mostly trying to meet the diversified needs of users at the moment, this is another way, challenging the convention, but also the product confidence.
On the other hand, the ideal is also to control one's own destiny: to survive, but not to rely on the continuous transfusion of blood from the capital market.
In the latest financial report, Ideal achieved a significant narrowing of net loss in 2021, thanks to the operational efficiency of production and supply chain management, its gross profit margin of 22.4% in the fourth quarter reached a record high, in the first echelon of new energy vehicle companies, and also gained the second single-quarter profit after listing.
"Doing new energy vehicles is a very money-burning process, in the stage from 0 to 1 through a car to explore a successful model, relying on the sale of cars to achieve positive cash inflow, the ability to generate self-hematopoiesis, in order to better control the future development rhythm of the enterprise," Shen Yanan pointed out.
After a staged victory from 0 to 1, when most people were still focusing on when the ideal would launch a pure tram, the ideal L9 (the upcoming second flagship SUV built for families) surfaced.
Most brands have been running wild on the pure circuit for many years, but the ideal is still adhering to the route of increasing the range, in Shen Yanan's view, it still has to be attributed to the starting point of their products, "the user pain points have not changed to this day, that is, mileage anxiety and charging inconvenience."
The increased range and pure electricity are not in conflict, it is possible to solve the problem at hand, entering the stage from 1 to 10, and the ideal has been exploring the corresponding technical solutions. Rather than which route to choose, Shen Yanan feels that it is more important to enlarge the core capabilities established by the ideal from 0 to 1.
Shen Yanan summed up three points: insisting on product is king, independent value judgment, and continuous iteration. Every product must have a clear customer positioning, just like the ideal ONE, not relying on marketing or innovative business models, the real attraction of customers is the product itself.
The criterion for judging whether to do something is not a simple pros and cons, but based on the company's values, that is, to make customers satisfied, but also to make yourself proud, "in the long run, this is a key to whether the enterprise can go far", Shen Yanan pointed out.
As for continuous iteration, Shen Yanan explained that it is actually an emphasis on improving and optimizing products, services, business models and so on step by step through digital operation. For example, the ideal factory has all been digitized, what is produced every day, how efficient it is, which day is more efficient, and what is done can be reflected in the data, according to which the factory can continuously optimize the process and make positive changes.
"From the logical deduction, if we insist on doing these things from 0 to 1 to do successful things, and copy it to new products from 1 to 10, we have every opportunity to achieve a larger market share," Shen Yanan said.
The first is to prepare the supply chain. In order to persuade suppliers to cooperate with the next production of the ideal, Shen Yanan believes that equal cooperation is the basis for building trust, and the principle is transparency, such as inviting core suppliers to the company to see the new shape of the ideal next car.
There is also the competition of talents, the next stage of the ideal need for people will rise to an order of magnitude, in Shen Yanan's view, the main or ideal values as the guide, to create a good company's organizational culture, this is the most attractive place for a new energy vehicle company.
More difficulties are unknown. Shen Yanan felt that he also needed to make some changes.
With the maturity of the internal team, he will try to let the team members take on more operational things, no longer immersed in daily affairs, "looking outward, looking at the industry, looking at the whole society", to do more exploration, to discover new problems.
03
Push the limits of growth
Over the years of entrepreneurship, Shen Yanan feels that he has more deeply experienced the difference between professional managers and entrepreneurs, just like exam writing essays, the former is facing propositional essays, and the latter is getting open topics.
Shen Yanan used the production of new energy vehicles as an example, whether it should be OEM or self-built factories, standing on the standpoint of professional managers, in fact, both methods can be, which road may achieve high-quality and low-cost results, he only needs to think about how to achieve this.
But as an entrepreneur, you have to think about this problem from a higher dimension.
"Not only to let the factory operate efficiently, you also want to think about what impact it has on research and development, what is the impact on future car sales", in Shen Yanan's view, for a start-up like the ideal, if you want to achieve continuous iteration in the manufacturing stage, OEM is definitely not very satisfied.
Moreover, Shen Yanan pointed out that the goal of entrepreneurs is no longer just to optimize manufacturing costs locally, but to optimize the business model of the entire company. Although building a self-made factory will increase manufacturing costs, the flexibility it brings is crucial to the business model of a new energy vehicle company.
It sounds simple, but it is not so easy to cross this logic and complete the identity conversion.
Shen Yanan pointed out that to make pressure into motivation, it is necessary to have self-driving force, "(I will) have an idea that I think I can do well, I want to change what I want to do well." Not running away from problems and taking the initiative to change himself is Shen Yanan's personality, but on the other hand, the growth brought about by change also allows him to gain the greatest sense of satisfaction when starting a business.
Shen Yanan's growth includes both different dimensions of thinking and changes in methodology.
For example, seeing an employee with poor performance, Shen Yanan said that in the past, his first instinct was to teach and tell the other party what to do, but now he will think from a different perspective, "If this person has the ability to solve problems, then I will think about what is wrong."
According to Shen Yanan's experience, it may be that the other party has not figured out their goals, or it may be that there is a problem with the self-driving force, at this time, you can "prescribe the right medicine" to help employees solve, so that everyone can be in a benign growth state.
Looking back on his growth, Shen Yanan lamented that his study experience at China Europe International Business School ten years ago has always influenced him.
Before joining the ideal, Shen Yanan, as a professional manager, the rich curriculum arrangements and case sharing in Ceiblia have injected him with the knowledge system of "how to start a business" in advance, "from finance, marketing, manpower, strategy and other aspects of management, many things you can't feel when you learn, but when you want to use it, you find that imperceptibly, you have been established a framework." ”
In addition, Shen Yanan felt very deeply that CEIBS exposed him to many people he had not been in contact with before, including self-made entrepreneurs and professional managers from different fields, from which he also met a group of like-minded friends.
One of the friends, Xiao Xue, a media person and former editor-in-chief of ELLE magazine, helped this group of students build a WeChat group, and Shen Yanan was also in the group. Ten years after graduation, although everyone is in the south of the sea, the people in the group are quite active, and they will go out together before the epidemic.
In the eyes of his friend Xiaoxue for many years, Shen Yanan has a valuable "youthful spirit" and can quickly adapt to the rhythm of entrepreneurship when he comes out of a large company. "I met him at the airport, he was carrying a backpack, flying alone to the ideal Changzhou factory, like a college student with momentum and drive."
For Shen Yanan, the classmate group is a place where you can talk and share your life at any time, post a room he designed for your children, or send photos in the group to ask which ski suit you should choose before skiing with your family.
Occasionally, Shen Yanan will also communicate with the students in the group about the "confusion" at work. In his view, CEIBS has a set of systems and standards for recruiting trainees, and although this group of friends come from different fields, their ideas and values are approaching, so that their work and life have great benefits.
In 2013, Shen Yanan and the research group students
Together, they completed the celebrant EMBA graduation project defense
On the other hand, the humanities courses in Central Europe also inspired Shen Yanan, "The rationality mastered by man is limited", many things cannot be measured only by efficiency and reason, and there is something higher above reason - an absolute value.
From the perspective of corporate management, there are some preconceived values, such as customer first, "you can never calculate everything, you can only calculate short-term profit and loss, which may be wrong in the long run," Shen Yanan pointed out.
In this case, how to make a judgment? Shen Yanan mentioned what he saw and heard in Central Europe, and he found that everyone's approach may be different, and to reach an agreement, in fact, it is still values - what you think is important.
In the past few years of ideal entrepreneurship, Shen Yanan's thinking has also been verified.
Shen Yanan also remembered that when the ideal ONE was close to mass production, the company decided to make a major adjustment to the shape of the car to increase the sense of science and technology. Perhaps from the perspective of cost, this decision is very "uneconomical", but it can meet the needs of new energy vehicle users to buy a car and look at the "appearance" more. Judging from the final result, this modification also proved correct.
Entering the next stage, the new crown epidemic, chip shortage, policy changes, upstream raw material price changes... More uncertainty in the external environment will bring new challenges to Shen Yanan and his ideals, and if we insist on doing only the right things, we may face more difficulties.
On the other hand, because of these trials, the future ideal and Shen Yanan are more likely to accelerate their growth and move forward.
Originally published on the public account "Wave Studio", the pictures in the text were provided by the interviewees. The creative images in this article have been authorized by Helo Gallery.
The source | Central Europe Beijing
Wen | Wave Studio
Edit the | Bian Xiaoxuan, Jiang Yannan
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