Lead
As a modern high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of intelligent and efficient power supply systems, Baiying High-tech mainly serves the international market, and has grown into a leading enterprise in the industry by virtue of its intensive cultivation in the subdivided field, and has successively won the honorary titles of "Jiangxi Province Specialized and Special New Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" and "National Specialized and Special New Little Giant Enterprise". Since its establishment in 2011, Baiying High-tech has experienced several development crises, but has always been able to break through smoothly and achieve breakthrough growth, showing strong organizational resilience. How to achieve sustainable development in the post-epidemic period is another major challenge to the resilience of its organizational development.
Text / Hu Haibo, Xiao Wangqian
On September 12, 2022, Wu Fengming, founder and general manager of Jiangxi Baiying High-tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Baiying High-tech"), issued a call for "organic in crisis" in the circle of friends, with the picture of Churchill's famous phrase "Never waste a good crisis". Since its establishment in 2011, Baiying High-tech has experienced many development crises, but it has always been able to break through smoothly and achieve breakthrough growth, showing strong organizational resilience.
As a modern high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of intelligent and efficient power supply systems, Baiying High-tech mainly serves the international market and has grown into a leading enterprise in the industry by virtue of its intensive cultivation in the subdivided field. As of 2022, Baiying High-tech has been approved more than 80 patents, and has successively won the honorary titles of "National High-tech Enterprise", "Jiangxi Photovoltaic Application Recommended Products", "Jiangxi E-commerce Demonstration Enterprise", "Jiangxi Service Industry Leading Enterprise", "Jiangxi Specialized and Special New Small and Medium-sized Enterprises", "National Specialized and Special New Little Giant Enterprise" and other honorary titles.
In 2020, the sudden epidemic had a significant impact on the production and sales of Baiying High-tech, and the net assets of the company fell into negative growth. However, the impact of the epidemic on Baiying High-tech has not completely dissipated, and how to get out of the crisis and achieve sustainable development in the post-epidemic period is another major challenge to the resilience of its organizational development.
Start-up: Establish the direction and go international
Connected to the inverter industry
In recent years, with the widespread concern of energy consumption and environmental protection, the solar photovoltaic power generation industry in the mainland has shown a rapid development trend, and has gradually formed an industrialization, scale and competition situation, which has played a positive role in the improvement of the mainland's energy structure and the construction of a clean energy system. Since 2011, the mainland's annual installed capacity of new photovoltaic capacity has maintained rapid growth, ranking first in the world.
Photovoltaic inverter is a power electronic device that connects the solar photovoltaic panel and the power grid, and its main function is to convert the direct current generated by the solar panel into alternating current that can be connected to the grid through the power module, which is one of the core equipment in the solar photovoltaic power generation system. The reliability and safety of the photovoltaic inverter are directly related to the smooth operation of the solar power generation system as a whole, and its conversion efficiency directly affects the power generation efficiency of the solar photovoltaic power generation system, and its service life is directly related to the service life of the photovoltaic power generation system. Most of the photovoltaic inverter industry is dominated by grid-connected photovoltaic inverters and grid-connected solar controllers, and in terms of on-board inverters, emergency power inverters and related supporting equipment, due to the small market scale, it has not attracted the attention of leading enterprises.
In 2006, Wu Fengming was invited to serve as the director of an electronics factory in Zhejiang, and since then he has been associated with the inverter industry. At that time, the reality of the family-style workshop-style workshop, a few employees, and an annual sales of only a few hundred thousand yuan in the factory made him very disappointed and helpless. With the spirit of hard-working and tenacious, after several years of hard work, Wu Fengming increased the company's annual sales from hundreds of thousands of yuan to 60 million yuan. In addition to the success of the company, Wu Fengming came up with the idea of resigning.
With an in-depth understanding of electronic information technology and photovoltaic energy industry, Wu Fengming realized that the development space and potential of the new energy industry in the future is huge, and believes that the market segment of the small photovoltaic power generation system inverter industry is promising, so in September 2011, Wu Fengming returned to his hometown to buy a factory in Yangxi Township, Yujiang County, and registered and established Yingtan Baiying Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. (later renamed "Jiangxi Baiying High-tech Co., Ltd."). Engaged in the production, R&D and sales of new energy application products such as solar photovoltaic system inverters.
At the beginning of the establishment of the company, Wu Fengming aimed at the e-commerce channel, opened an online sales platform on Alibaba's Chinese station, mainly engaged in OEM business, and put dozens of products such as inverters and solar energy systems on the network for sales to other B-end trading companies.
With the help of the platform, go to the international market
In 2012, Baiying High-tech registered the BYGD brand trademark, upgraded from the domestic trade integrity website to the brand mall, and joined the Alibaba international station platform, officially laying out the international e-commerce business. Originally, I had the mentality of giving it a try, but the speed of opening up the overseas market far exceeded Wu Fengming's expectations, and it didn't take long for many overseas buyers to send orders. Overseas orders require products to pass quality certification, and the certification cost is high, a product series of certification fees need more than 300,000 yuan, in order to expand export e-commerce, as soon as possible to open the product market, Wu Fengming urgently set up a special team, the product finally successfully passed the EU CE (Conformite Europeenne, a compulsory product safety certification mark in the EU market), RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances, Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment) certification, since then the overseas market has been opened, and the development of enterprises has gradually been on the right track. Subsequently, Wu Fengming specially built a young and practical e-commerce operation team to carry out comprehensive planning, maintenance and support for e-commerce operations, and at the same time required the production department to give priority to the supply of e-commerce orders, so as to provide Baiying users with a good procurement experience, high-quality product quality and perfect after-sales service.
Since then, Baiying High-tech has continued to increase its layout in the international market. In 2014, Baiying High-tech passed the factory certification of TUV Rheinland (Technischer überwachungs-Verein, Technical Supervision Association) in Germany. At the same time, Baiying High-tech has opened the Made-in-China network platform, and passed the international SGS (Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A, General Notary Bank) factory certification, and also obtained the Jiangxi Province Photovoltaic Application Recommended Product Certificate. Solid product endorsement has helped Baiying High-tech to further broaden its product sales channels, and its products are exported to more than 50 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and so on. The good growth momentum also made Baiying High-tech awarded the "2014 Best New Talent Award Company" by Alibaba. At the same time, Wu Fengming is also committed to promoting the popularization of e-commerce platforms in his hometown and helping enterprises in his hometown to go more to the world. Under his promotion and influence, well-known enterprises in his hometown such as Kangbiao Shoes and Zhengtu Sporting Goods Factory have also opened online sales platforms. With the popularization of e-commerce platforms, Baiying High-tech has built a good relationship with the local government and surrounding enterprises.
Transformation: independent research and development, towards high-end
Transform your business and take ownership
In 2015, a performance report on the "first stock of Dongguan GEM" Jinsheng Precision attracted Wu Fengming's attention. This precision component manufacturing company, which was listed in 2010, has changed its steady style, and its performance has declined sharply, and its net profit has declined sharply. For a time, how to transform the foundry to save itself has become a hot topic. Wu Fengming is well aware that OEM enterprises are regarded by the industry as "hermit crabs" in the industrial chain, at the low end of the value chain, and the profit level is low, which is not only an indispensable link in the context of the international division of labor, but also the most unstable factor in the industrial chain. Therefore, for the long-term development of enterprises, business transformation cannot be delayed.
To this end, Wu Fengming organized personnel to set up a research and development department, and went to Shenzhen and other places to widely introduce professional talents. The R&D department of the enterprise takes "one super, two changes and three innovations" as the strategic guidance, improves and innovates on the basis of similar products, and gradually shifts from business OEM to independent R&D and production. At the same time, Baiying High-tech has also introduced ERP system and Yonyou T+ system to manage the daily production of the enterprise to improve the production management efficiency of the enterprise. Under the guidance of the concept of independent innovation, Baiying High-tech has rapidly improved its independent research and development capabilities, and was rated as a national high-tech enterprise in 2015.
Baiying High-tech has received support from the government and banks in the process of business transformation. With the help of the local government, in 2015, Baiying High-tech moved into the Yujiang County Industrial Park, which covers an area of 45 acres, which effectively alleviated the problem that the original site of Baiying High-tech could not match the hardware needs of rapid development, and injected a boost into the business transformation of Baiying High-tech. At the same time, the Postal Savings Bank provided millions of yuan of loan support for Baiying High-tech. In addition, as a local enterprise in Yingtan, Baiying High-tech helps each other with surrounding enterprises, establishes a good supply chain cooperative relationship, and radiates outward and expands high-quality resources in the subsequent development.
After the successful transformation of independent production and R&D, the brand influence of Baiying High-tech has gradually expanded, and a series of characteristic products have been formed around BYGD, its own brand. With the continuous expansion of the scale of the enterprise, Wu Fengming realized that there was no real listed company in the inverter industry at that time, which was a good opportunity for Baiying High-tech. Therefore, Wu Fengming germinated the idea of seeking the listing of the company and launched a series of layouts. In July 2017, Baiying High-tech was officially listed on the New Third Board.
Channel transformation and expansion of user ends
In 2017, the new Yingtan Municipal Party Committee put forward the development concept of "small cities should be big", focused on building a "smart new city", actively embraced the era of "Internet +" and the Internet of Things, and realized the guidance of new ideas and the support of new technologies, bringing new management methods, new industrial formats, and new experiences for the people, giving the whole city a new wisdom and connotation. Wu Fengming had insight into the changes in the direction of the policy, and on the basis of preliminary research and evaluation, he led the company's R&D team to actively grasp the transformation opportunities, increase R&D efforts, set up a mobile Internet of Things R&D team, and occupy the commanding heights of the mobile Internet of Things industry. At the same time, Baiying High-tech and Huawei reached a strategic cooperation to jointly carry out the first NB-IOT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) street lamp controller R&D test, successfully landing the first batch of IoT applications, and expanding its business scope. In the process of continuous expansion of the user side, Baiying High-tech has established good cooperative relations with many traders at home and abroad, and continues to develop new customers through domestic and international exhibitions such as the Canton Fair, Hong Kong Electronics Fair, Shanghai Photovoltaic Exhibition, American Auto Parts Exhibition, Dubai Power Exhibition, and German New Energy Exhibition.
In March 2019, Wu Fengming found that product sales were blocked. In order to break the situation of being controlled by others, Wu Fengming built a platform on Amazon and operated his own C-side. Due to the lack of professional foreign trade talents, despite the large investment in the early stage, it still continued to lose money. Wu Fengming seized the opportunity to absorb foreign trade talents from Shenzhen and set up a cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen, which was specifically responsible for cross-border e-commerce business. With the continuous expansion of the user side, the profit model of Baiying High-tech has been continuously optimized. However, new problems have resurfaced, the investment in low-end market business is not proportional to profitability, the input cost is too high, and the corporate profit is insufficient. A new round of enterprise transformation is imperative.
The market has transformed and shifted to the middle and high-end
Due to the high business investment and maintenance costs in the Middle East, Africa and other markets, but the revenue is difficult to meet expectations, Baiying High-tech decided to reduce the business in the Middle East, Africa and other markets, and turn to Europe and the United States and other high-end markets, which also means that the focus of product research and development must shift from the low-end to the high-end. In the past, most of the chips used by Baiying High-tech were produced in the United States, and at that time, whether it was a domestic chip or a self-modified chip, the cost performance of both was inferior to that of American chips. But when foreign chip companies began to restrict domestic supplies, the inequality of supply and demand led to an exponential increase in chip prices.
In 2019, Baiying High-tech established a research institute in Shanghai, which paved the way for the selection of domestic chips and self-written software, and also laid the cornerstone for turning to the high-end market. Through the acquisition of low-end chips in the domestic market, the research institute re-programmed and designed to greatly improve the performance of the chip, and then improve and optimize the product to further increase the added value of the product. Baiying High-tech focuses on several key products, and while strictly controlling product quality, it expands more functions according to user pain points to create brand characteristics. In March 2019, Baiying High-tech won the title of "specialized, special and new" small and medium-sized enterprises in Jiangxi Province in 2018, and won the key support of the government in technological transformation, financing channels, brand cultivation, etc., including through interest discounts, paid use of funds, etc., in the form of projects, to support enterprises to carry out technological transformation, support to participate in professional exhibitions, develop e-commerce, and develop domestic and foreign markets, and the transformation of Baiying High-tech has been further accelerated.
Before 2019, Baiying High-tech always carried out design work from the perspective of technical personnel, and was accustomed to deciding product development in the way of "patting the head" of internal resolutions, although the products developed in this way are highly functional, but the cost is also high, and such complex R&D products are often not needed by customers, and the relevant investment can only be reduced to sunk costs, which greatly increases the R & D cost loss of enterprises. After learning from the pain, Baiying High-tech began to start with the end and reverse design, with the goal of solving the pain points of users, reversing the thinking of R&D technicians through regular training, and at the same time benchmarking competing products and carrying out differentiated design according to product positioning, so as to help enterprises improve the success rate of product development.
The impact of the epidemic: online layout, gratitude and mutual assistance
In February 2020, the sudden epidemic had a significant impact on the production management of the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, and Baiying High-tech was no exception. At this time, the online "screen-to-screen" investment promotion office model vigorously promoted by the Yingtan Municipal Government made Wu Fengming's mouth suddenly. Baiying High-tech has previously built sales channels on a number of well-known e-commerce platforms, and the online channels will not stagnate, and employees can insist on working at home. In this way, during the period when peers were forced to suspend work and rest, Baiying High-tech began to implement the work mode of "stopping production without stopping work", and with the help of online services, orders increased instead of decreasing.
In the period of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, due to the timely adjustment of the early sales strategy, Baiying High-tech expanded the product sales radius to the European market, and the customers expanded from the previous traders to both traders and terminal merchants, and the business volume increased significantly.
For a long time, Baiying High-tech has taken "creating value for customers, creating opportunities for employees, creating profits for shareholders, and taking responsibility for society" as its mission. On the corporate culture wall of Baiying High-tech, there is a very special part, which is the display of Thanksgiving culture. Thanksgiving culture is an important part of the corporate culture construction that Baiying High-tech attaches great importance to, and it is necessary to recite the company's thanksgiving culture in the daily kick-off meeting or large-scale ceremony. Baiying High-tech not only regards it as a ritual, but also implements it. On January 27, 2022, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the company, Baiying High-tech held a "family banquet" and invited the families of all employees to gather and celebrate. Baiying High-tech has set up a lot of wonderful links to celebrate this important day, and created a stage for Baiying people to show their talents. In the final commendation and review session, the family members not only accepted the honor and appreciation with their own families, but also looked back on the ups and downs of the team with all Baiying people and looked forward to the next stage of glory. "Family culture" not only shortens the distance between employees' families and the company, but also shortens the distance between employees and their families, and enhances mutual feelings.
In addition, Baiying High-tech also vigorously promotes the "craftsman spirit", strives to make the products better and better, encourages employees to boldly try and make mistakes, dare to innovate, and shapes a good corporate culture. At the same time, the company has also established Baiying High-tech Business School, inviting experts to carry out systematic training every month to improve the ability of employees in an all-round way and help the digital management of the enterprise.
Conclusion: There is an opportunity in danger, and the road is ahead
Over the years, Baiying High-tech has always focused on the main business of solar photovoltaic system inverter in the development, adhered to the fine strategy of "one meter wide and one hundred meters deep", and deeply cultivated the subdivided field. "An industry is like digging a well, if you dig a well and change the well when there is no water, it will definitely not work. Enterprises should grasp their own industry at the beginning, and the deeper the well is drilled, there will be a steady stream of water gushing out. We must deepen our efforts in the industry, optimize management, promote transformation and upgrading, and continue to deepen the construction of corporate culture, so that we can go further in this industry," Wu Fengming said.
In the three-year battle of epidemic prevention and control, Wu Fengming not only led Baiying High-tech out of the predicament, but also made a lot of contributions to the fight against the epidemic with other entrepreneurs in Yujiang District. In addition to the conventional anti-epidemic funds and materials, Baiying high-tech products have also made great achievements. In August 2022, due to the inability of the original on-board inverter of the vehicle used to fight the epidemic to carry the disinfection equipment, the disinfection equipment on the vehicle could not be used normally, and the high-power inverter was urgently needed. After learning that the local epidemic prevention vehicle lacked inverters, Wu Fengming immediately contacted the company's engineers urgently, called up the inverters independently developed and produced, and installed them on the epidemic prevention vehicles to make them operate normally. Seeing that his own products can contribute to the fight against the epidemic, Wu Fengming can't help but feel more pride in Baiying Gaosheng.
However, the impact of the epidemic on Baiying High-tech has not completely dissipated. With the increase in labor and manufacturing costs, the decline in gross profit, the significant increase in the operating cost of the enterprise compared with the previous period, and the continuous decline in the growth rate of net profit, the development of Baiying High-tech does not seem to be as calm as it appears on the surface. As the inverter industry is facing the dilemma of rising raw material prices and labor costs under the epidemic, whether to stick to the subdivided field, strengthen the cultivation of enterprise capabilities, and continuously expand the international market, or use existing technology to develop products with a variety of application scenarios, which is a problem that needs to be seriously considered by Baiying High-tech.
About the Author | Hu Haibo: Dean and Professor, School of Business Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics;
Xiao Wangqian: Master of Business Management of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Research Assistant of Specialized and Special New Enterprise Research Center.
Editor-in-Charge | Zhou Yang([email protected])
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