Author: Thousand Trees
Source: Zhenghe Island (ID: zhenghedao)
In January 2003, Wang Chuanfu lightning entered Qinchuan Automobile, and BYD's car construction entered the countdown.
In less than a year, BYD built its first new car, code-named "316". It was difficult to hide his excitement, and Wang Chuanfu recruited dealers across the country for the first time.
On this day, Shanghai was rainy and the temperature was almost freezing, and the dealers participating in the review looked at "316", first shook their heads, then sighed, and then turned around in disappointment. In the end, someone broke the oppressive atmosphere of the scene, "Mr. Wang, this car should not be listed, otherwise it will smash your signboard."
No one knows whether Wang Chuanfu was disappointed or angry at that moment, only to see him pick up a hammer and smash it hard against this sample car...
What everyone did not know was that Wang Chuanfu's hammer not only smashed a car, but also smashed his yearning for a fuel car. Later, BYD imitated toyota corolla to launch the F3, and achieved sales of more than 100,000 in two years. But at that time, fuel vehicles were no longer wang Chuanfu's strategy, in the words of peers, "no matter how much they sell, they are also plagiarism, and they will never be the first in the world."
In 2007, at the inauguration ceremony of BYD's Shenzhen Pingshan base, Wang Chuanfu announced BYD's new energy strategy with the slogan of "the future is the world of hybrid and electric vehicles".
After that, Wang Chuanfu gave up the ternary lithium battery commonly used in the industry and devoted himself to the research and development of lithium iron phosphate batteries that were not yet mature at that time. This has led to industry questions, "Wang Chuanfu is too advanced, he is a madman."
But Wang Chuanfu was not moved, and his logic was clear: safe and cheap lithium iron phosphate batteries are the best way to achieve new energy vehicles.
10 years later, BYD's self-developed blade battery shocked the world. In the first half of 2022, BYD's global sales exceeded 640,000 vehicles, pushing Tesla to win the global tram crown, and domestic cars stood on top of the world for the first time.
BYD's success also lies in its ability to surpass corners through innovative strategic tracks. Just imagine, if Wang Chuanfu insists on making fuel vehicles, then there will be one more fuel vehicle giant in the world, but that's all.
This case tells us that the temporary setbacks and difficulties of enterprises are not terrible, and the key is that entrepreneurs must have forward-looking judgment and choose the right direction.
Industry pain, "strong man broken wrist"
BYD's case has a strong universality.
Especially in the era of increasing uncertainty in the environment and rapid changes in the market, this positive and effective strategic adjustment can often lead the company through the cycle and towards success.
Google's 3 strategic transformations have created a long-term prosperity for it for 30 years. Tencent adheres to the strategic openness of product innovation, which has led to the subversive social tool of WeChat. Haier changed from "electric drive" to Internet "intelligent drive", which was able to establish a smart home appliance ecosystem........
A series of successful cases of strategic transformation have great reference value for the nut industry that is experiencing short-term pain.
In 2009, Zhang Liaoyuan, who was then the head of marketing of a company in Anhui, saw the digital wave of future retail at Alibaba's tenth anniversary celebration. When he found that the nut industry was still a "small scattered" offline pattern, he had the idea of moving it online.
In 2012, Zhang Liaoyuan founded Three Squirrels in Wuhu with 5 young people and 1 million yuan of funds. From the beginning, he firmly stood on the e-commerce retail.
Facts have proved that Zhang Liaoyuan's judgment based on retail digitalization is correct. Under the blessing of online traffic dividends, in just 7 years, the revenue of three squirrels exceeded 10 billion yuan, and won the first place in China's nut sales for 5 consecutive years. This is a miracle of speed in the history of Chinese retail. Even if the famous sauce wine that has been passed down for a hundred years, Luzhou Old Cellar, only stood on the 10 billion steps a few years ago, while the well-known kitchen appliance Su Boer broke through 10 billion, and it took more than 20 years.
The three squirrels not only staged a speed miracle, but also drove the development of the nut industry with the attitude of an industry pioneer. In the past ten years, the three squirrels have reached cooperation with more than 400 partners, driving the output value of the supply chain to exceed 50 billion yuan and promoting the orderly, large-scale and standardized healthy development of the industry. Zhang Liaoyuan also used e-commerce to promote the online transformation of leisure snacks, and since then, brands such as Xiaoxian Stew, Li Lei and Han Meimei Snack Shop have succeeded through e-commerce.
Miracles are just beautiful scenery on the way forward, and the ultimate goal of the three squirrels is to serve hundreds of millions of consumers. Relying on the scale effect of e-commerce and the openness of channels, three squirrels have put the world's high-quality nuts on the public's table. This has led to large-scale cultivation of nuts and increased the income of farmers; It also lowered market prices and boosted the popularity of nuts. Nuts are rich in nutrients such as unsaturated fatty acids, which greatly improves the healthy diet of the whole people. Consumers' eyes are shining, ranking first in the fan list of tmall and Jingdong platform brands for many years is the best proof of the "consumer-centric" of the three squirrels.
It is no exaggeration to say that Zhang Liaoyuan and his peers have done a good business that benefits the country and the people.
Since the beginning of 2019, the three squirrels have achieved three consecutive increases in net profit under the background of relatively stable revenue, especially in 2021, the net profit has increased by 36% year-on-year, behind which is strict cost control and advance planning layout.
But that's not to say that three squirrels can sit back and relax. Under the epidemic, the increase in industry channel costs, the rising cost of the industrial chain, and the fierce competition have jointly compressed the profit margins of the industry. This has sounded a wake-up call for the industry: in the face of an unshakable environment, nut brands can only accelerate change.
In the first half of 2022, the revenue of the three squirrels fell by 22% year-on-year, which was the only negative growth in the same period in the past 5 years.
This has pressure from the industry, but in detail, more than three squirrels are actively seeking change. Control online costs, carry out channel changes, adopt stock incentives, and optimize stores in a big way... In order to find a path to high-quality development, even if short-term goals are sacrificed, it is not spared.
For example, starting in 2021, three squirrels have plans to optimize offline stores with poor performance. In the first half of 2022, Three Squirrels closed 238 feeding stores and alliance stores. Behind the broken wrist of the hero can be seen the determination of the three squirrels to change.
The three squirrels are not abandoning the offline, but through the cultivation of high-quality stores, improve the profitability of single stores and other strategies, the proportion of offline revenue has been greatly improved.
The pain of the nut industry is just a microcosm of China's retail market.
According to AVC push total data, domestic home appliance retail sales in the first half of the year were 338.9 billion yuan, down 9.3% year-on-year. According to the domestic mobile phone market report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, domestic mobile phone shipments in the first half of the year were 136 million units, down 21.7% year-on-year. At the macro level, in the first half of the year, the per capita consumption expenditure of residents nationwide increased slightly by 0.8% after deducting price factors.
Not only consumption, on the supply side of enterprises, according to a statistical data of Tsinghua University, in the first half of 2022, 460,000 companies across the country announced the closure, and more than 3 million individual industrial and commercial households were written off.
Economic and social progress is spiraling and wavy, and the cyclical fluctuations in the industry are not terrible. However, it puts forward higher requirements for the strategic choice of enterprises: it can lie dormant for a short time, and it can survive with a broken arm, but it must find a more long-term and more correct development path.
This also requires us to look at the development of enterprises with a longer-term, more dialectical and more inclusive mindset.
The war "burned the plains" and started a business for the second time
On February 28, 2012, Squirrel Daddy Zhang Liaoyuan led the founding team and made an imposing entrepreneurial declaration.
Frankly, not every employee can remember the entire contents of the manifesto, but they must remember the first and last two sentences: "We are subversives, we are revolutionaries" and "(We) come together for a crazy cause, change, subvert, create."
Be a disruptor of the industry! The squirrel man said so, and even more so. Since then, through e-commerce, the three squirrels have not only changed the traditional offline retail model of nuts, but also subverted the industry pattern.
10 years later, stripping the performance halo and the fog of public opinion, in the face of online traffic peaking, customer acquisition cost surge, offline operation extensive, supply chain lame and other industry problems, Zhang Liaoyuan sounded the rallying call of the second entrepreneurship, this time he wanted to "change and create".
On April 22, 2022, the three squirrels issued the "Announcement on Comprehensively Promoting Strategic Transformation and Upgrading and Moving Towards High-quality Development". The thousand-word announcement outlined the core logic of the strategic transformation of the three squirrels:
First, the transformation and upgrading of the development concept - to enhance the development pattern, comprehensively upgrade the mission, vision and values;
Second, the transformation and upgrading of the development path - with science and technology as the core, deeply cultivate products and industries, and promote the deep integration of the first, second, and third industries;
Third, the transformation and upgrading of the development model - from e-commerce to omni-channel transformation, from a single brand to a multi-brand transformation, reconstructing brand power, channel power and product power.
Specifically, the mission of the three squirrels emphasizes the health and popularization of nuts, and the vision adds the social goals of rural revitalization and common prosperity.
At this point, we can glimpse the two core routes of the strategic transformation of the three squirrels: the first consumer demand line - to build nuts that can be bought everywhere at healthy and affordable prices, and achieve universal popularization; The second industrial supply line - through the integration of the nut industry chain, promote the integration of the first, second and third industries, and drive rural revitalization and common prosperity.
These two logical lines correspond to the "development model" and "development path" in the strategic planning, respectively. In other words, the squirrel people who took precautions have long found a way to achieve its strategic route.
It is true that at the moment when the three squirrels were strategically upgraded, Zhang Liaoyuan's secondary entrepreneurship also entered the practical level.
The first big deal is to build a "demonstration factory" by itself.
In August 2022, the Three Squirrel Daily Nut Factory was officially put into operation, using a 300,000-level clean workshop and 36 sets of fully automated production line equipment, which is the highest standard in the industry. At present, the factory has put into operation two production lines, this integrated factory that integrates production and delivery, and can even achieve direct delivery to consumers. It is expected that before the end of the year, the "demonstration factory" around the three core products of pecans, macadamia nuts and pistachios will also be completed and put into operation.
Through equipment, technology, research and development upgrades, the three squirrels not only improve product quality, but also promote the high-quality transformation of enterprises.
The deep significance of self-built factories also lies in the fact that through the key node of secondary industrial manufacturing, three squirrels truly link the first, second and third industries, improve the efficiency of the whole industry chain, and reduce the cost of the industry. Along this direction, the three squirrels in the future will be able to grasp the initiative and discourse power of industrial development, which can not only drive farmers to increase income, but also ensure the healthy diet of the Chinese people.
In 2022, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee proposes to "continue to promote the integrated development of rural first, second, and third industries, focusing on the development of agricultural product processing, rural e-commerce and other industries." Three squirrels built their own factory, just in time.
From the perspective of the industry, most nut brands are still taking the OEM and OEM production mode. The advantage of this model is that it can quickly start the volume, and the disadvantage is that it cannot guarantee the quality and cannot create the core competitiveness. In contrast, the difficulty of building a self-built factory is capital investment, and even affects short-term performance, but the benefit is to win in the future.
In fact, three squirrels are already in action. For example, joint partners have established raw material planting bases in Lincang, Yunnan, Longzhou, Guangxi and other places; For another example, since 2019, in the form of joint procurement, more than 10,000 tons of walnut raw materials have been purchased from Xinjiang every year, which has effectively driven the development of the local nut industry.
In addition to self-built factories, another point of strength of Zhang Liaoyuan is channel development - offline distribution.
On the organizational side, the six major distribution and platform distribution, KA sales, and new channels are formed into a new nine major sales units. At present, the three squirrels have formed a sales team of 100 people with rich experience to complete the first step of organizational upgrading;
On the channel side, the three squirrels have established long-term cooperation with 546 dealers, and focused on the development of new channels such as the flagship store of the city, the hot list snack Nakajima, and the mother and baby store. This year, more than 100 new dealers in the city were added, and the first batch of more than 200 island counters were launched;
On the product side, 38 distribution products were developed to adapt to the circulation batch market and sinking channels; Newly developed 47 independent small package snacks, in the form of brand island cabinets stationed in the terminal supermarket.
Under the three management of organizational strength, channel power and product force, the three squirrels are accelerating the transformation to the mainstream model.
Overall, "new manufacturing" is to broaden the upstream moat from the supply side of the industrial chain, and "new distribution" is to open the incremental market from the downstream consumer side, and the two build a complete supply and demand ecological closed loop, which not only raises the ceiling of the three squirrels, but also points out the direction for the industry.
The measure of a company's success is to create its own value. Zhang Liaoyuan achieved this goal through his first venture. The measure of corporate greatness is to create social value. This is the second entrepreneurship carried out by Zhang Liaoyuan under the new strategic vision. Today, the three squirrels have made a good start.
Sailing the sea, the helmsman decides the course
No matter how grounded it is, the strategy is always "on top".
For example, a salesman, his fundamental goal is to find ways to sell goods, rather than blindly asking himself to adhere to the strategy. A technical engineer first considers the rational logic of the algorithm architecture, not the strategy itself.
Strategy is like a beacon for enterprises, although it points out the direction, but to reach the end of the line, you need to be down-to-earth and practice. In other words, strategy is only the first step, and under the strategy, companies must also find a practical path to achieve it.
Zhang Liaoyuan's thinking is even more profound, "It is usually believed that there is a strategy first, and then there is a tactic, but in fact, on the contrary, it is often we who find a method with a decisive victory in practice, and we upgrade this method to a strategy, so the strategy itself has no meaning, and its purpose is to solidify and guide tactics."
Take three squirrels as an example, "Because e-commerce has successfully sold nuts, we upgraded it to an entrepreneurial strategy." When we found that our products did not have much advantage in cost and quality, we upgraded our supply chain strategy..."
After witnessing the 10-year butterfly change of the three squirrels from 0 to 1 and then from 1 to 100, Zhang Liaoyuan's thinking on strategy has become more and more practical.
He firmly believes that "only excellent management can play a strategic role". He even thought that three squirrels may have 3 ways to die, "one of which is to die from strategic re-selection: blindly choosing a new strategy, causing resource dispersion and dragging down the main business." And "glory belongs only to those who really work in the arena." ”
In summary, under the helm of Zhang Liaoyuan, every strategic choice of the three squirrels comes from the practical exploration at the bottom, which gives flesh and bone and soul to the strategic shell. This more pragmatic and more realistic approach also ensures the correctness of the strategic direction to the greatest extent.
In addition to adhering to practical exploration, we can also read Zhang Liaoyuan's long-term concept from his thinking. "All the leading edge is a temporary advantage" "When encountering difficulties, grind first, accumulate in the dry work, and learn for a long time."
Zhang Liaoyuan believes that the development of all economic things has a life cycle. For enterprises, each cycle is divided into two stages, rising and falling, rising as glory, climbing all the way up to the apex; And then it goes into recession, depression, until the trough, and this is a new starting point from decay, and so on. "In the long run, short-term troughs are both an inflection point for enterprises and a point of strategic opportunity."
The strategic planner of the enterprise is to accumulate strength at the inflection point, seize the opportunity, and push the enterprise to a new height.
Peter Drucker, the world's most famous management scientist, believes that strategy is to do the right thing, and management is to do things right. Zhang Liaoyuan deeply believes that "management is not only the fundamentals of carrying strategy and operation, but also a long-term project that takes ten years."
In today's uncertain environment, this set of management logic is more valuable. "The three squirrels should take management as the most important strategy under the premise of the right direction, and through at least ten years of exploration, create a set of their own sustainable development management system, help and undertake the landing of the industry, and cross the industry cycle."
One is seeking truth from facts based on practice, the other is the long-term doctrine of continuous learning, and Zhang Liaoyuan has found the most reliable, stable, and most growth-oriented realization path for the new strategy. That's the power of the helmsman.
More and more cases have led to the conclusion that the corporate brain determines the height and life and death of the enterprise.
On May 25, 1995, Gates wrote a handwritten letter to Microsoft on the "Internet Tide", which made Microsoft firmly stand on the Internet and eventually became the dominant Internet overlord. Gates is amazing in that he sees the upcoming industry turnaround and has caught up with this trend through 20 years of practice.
But success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. In the 21st century, Microsoft missed the phone, which put it behind Apple. Afterwards, Gates was annoyed and claimed to have made a fatal mistake.
But history doesn't pay for anyone, including Gates, and that's the beauty of the corporate brain. Like a giant ship sailing the sea, the helmsman must not only indicate the course, but also hold the steering wheel.
Set sail against the wind and move forward fearlessly
According to Frost & Sullivan data forecasts, the retail sales of leisure snacks in mainland China will reach 1.1 trillion yuan in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 7.3% from 2020 to 2025. Nuts are still a sunrise industry with good prospects.
On September 5, the Professional Committee of Nut Fried Goods of the China Food Industry Association held an online president's working meeting. More than 40 nut companies have firmly optimistic about the industry and established a sense of cooperation in the short-term under pressure.
Zhang Liaoyuan believes that although the overall sales of the industry have stagnated at present, the supply side is developing in a better direction, and how the entire industrial chain has been gathered from the fragmentation of the past to the overall benefit, so as to achieve the leading total cost and the win-win situation of the industry, which is a good opportunity for the industry.
He put forward 4 suggestions: First, strengthen the awareness of risk prevention, shrink non-core businesses, and prevent blind expansion; Second, pay more attention to cash flow management and pay more attention to market segmentation; Third, improve the internal strength of management and increase product research and development; Fourth, the whole industry is in the same boat to tide over the difficulties.
Compared with the short-term pain of the nut industry, the Impact of Online Education on the Internet will only be greater. But we don't see a hint of decadence in Chinese entrepreneurs.
In the second quarter of 2022, Xiaomi mobile phone shipments were 39.1 million units, down 26.2% year-on-year. But on August 11, in Lei Jun's 2022 annual speech, we still saw the confidence from entrepreneurs: Xiaomi Autonomous Driving has formed a super team of 500 people, the first phase of the plan has invested 3.3 billion, and 140 test vehicles will be tested nationwide.
Unlike Lei Jun's large-scale cross-border car manufacturing, more entrepreneurs still focus on existing industries and do marginal innovation.
On June 10, the live broadcast room of New Oriental teacher Dong Yuhui was completely on fire. On the same day, he rushed into the top ten of the Douyin with goods list.
Behind Dong Yuhui, everyone is most concerned about Yu Minhong, the helmsman of New Oriental.
It is said that the father of China's most legendary education and training has shed tears three times in front of a group of executives in internal meetings after the collapse of the industry. After that, New Oriental firmly turned to live streaming with goods.
Yu Defines the live economy as "the third revolution in business." The first time was a hypermarket, the second time was e-commerce, and the third time was live streaming with goods. His logic is: "Products need sales channels the most, and the most effective sales at present, in addition to agents, are live streaming with goods." ”
In November 2021, New Oriental shut down the core business of K12. A month later, New Oriental launched the live broadcast platform "Oriental Selection". Nowadays, he has set up a team of "New Oriental Live Broadcast Room", in addition to agricultural products, but also promotes New Oriental's high-quality educational products, including books, intelligent learning equipment and cultural and educational supplies.
After a series of transformative explorations, Yu Minhong completed the redefinition of New Oriental and "became an education company with education products as the core".
Yu Minhong has also changed from a timid industry rookie to a live broadcast master. Behind Dong Yuhui and other teachers going out of the fire is the strategic freshman of New Oriental.
On June 10, the closing price of New Oriental Online rose by 39.37%. In June alone, New Oriental Online's stock price rose by 409%, and now it is April. With the difficult transition to death, Yu Minhong's New Oriental has regained its former glory.
In 1985, Zhang Ruimin smashed 76 refrigerators of Haier, and Haier finally became the king. In 2003, Wang Chuanfu smashed hundreds of millions of new cars, and 20 years later, he became the world's largest new energy automobile enterprise. In 2022, Ren Zhengfei shouted "let Huawei survive", but in the first half of the year, Huawei achieved 300 billion yuan in revenue...
The kings of every age have to go through a flight against the wind.
"Life is like a journey against the grain, and I am also a pedestrian." In the face of industry pain, China's knowledgeable entrepreneurs have no fear, let alone retreat, they have chosen to actively face the battle: take the initiative to change, face difficulties, temper the fire, and then climb the peak. With both a strategic forward-looking layout and down-to-earth sinking exploration, they are creating a future without being shocked.
At the end of Pingwu is Spring Mountain, and watch them win this headwind.