It's almost hard to have a topic that can be talked about all the time, just like the outlet, always coming and going as fast as it comes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the discussion about post-investment management has gone from being talked about in the streets to being as calm as water today.
However, after a good investment, can relying on a temporary "brain fever to follow the trend" become a mirror to show the comprehensive strength of an institution? The answer goes without saying. In fact, even when post-investment management is at its hottest, there are still many people who misunderstand post-investment: "it is nothing more than to help the invested company to connect with resources", "the main thing is to help the enterprise to raise funds externally", "it is enough to hold a few industry consultation meetings", "it is to supervise whether the founder of the company has run away/divorced or something"......
On more than one occasion, I have even heard investors in charge of post-investment complain that "post-investment is the least valued department in the entire organization" or that "post-investment is to do miscellaneous work for investee companies".
As more and more people pay attention to post-investment, it belongs to the "management" of "fundraising, investment, management and withdrawal", and post-investment is becoming more and more standardized and productized in many institutions. Some institutions have set up independent companies for post-investment purposes.
It's hard to say whether the above strategy is right or wrong, and if you think about it another way, if post-investment is a science, there won't be a standard answer. So, how can you really do a good job after investing? I talked to Wang Li, the managing partner of Xieli Investment, about this, and she developed her understanding of post-investment from the perspective of an early investor.
She frankly and bluntly stated her post-investment experience, and did not comment on whether her experience is in line with the playing style of all institutions. And these should be worth learning from.
Post-investment is not about preventing risks, but about supporting and empowering
"If you want to do a good job in early investment, you must do a good job in post-investment." This was the first thing Wang Li said to me.
Ten years ago, when Wang Li began to be in charge of post-investment management services at Xieli, she realized that in addition to the "risk control" of enterprises on the surface, post-investment management also has another branch line called "support and empowerment". The former is not difficult, and every institution can do it with a little time and effort; And the latter – despite all the institutions that claim to be empowered today – not every agency actually has the capacity to support it.
Wang Li believes that the post-investment of early-stage institutions is not to prevent risks, and it is impossible to create value for enterprises by preventing risks, and its real core value is to empower enterprises.
Wang Li carefully explained her understanding of the word empowerment: "In order for an organization to have the ability to empower, it is necessary to know how to do business. Most investment institutions are mainly from a financial background, and their industrial background is not the majority, and even fewer have entrepreneurial experience, which makes it not easy for them to understand what the problems encountered by the enterprise at each stage are and where its core problems are. ”
This alone is not a complete post-investment empowerment. Different from the productized and standardized post-investment approach adopted by some peers, Wang Li clearly stated that the post-investment is a non-standard product, and for her, how to combine her own investment stage and the characteristics of the project to create a personalized post-investment plan that meets the situation of her own investment institutions is the real effective post-investment management.
"The core lies in the fact that investors must not only have the ability to distinguish and analyze, but also have a clear sense of boundaries, and at the same time have corresponding post-investment plans for different enterprises, different stages and different organizations."
Undoubtedly, Wang Li regards post-investment management as a complex discipline - a discipline that can never be fully standardized and productized. In her eyes, the post-investment is enough to become the key to testing the true strength of an institution.
Wang Li understands very well what to do and what not to do after the investment of early investment. "If the scale of an enterprise is less than 30 people, investors do not need to pay attention to the management ability of the enterprise, and the enterprise must be business and strategic oriented at this stage. At this stage when it is necessary to get out of the 'valley of death', the most important post-investment empowerment is to help enterprises control the strategy and direction. ”
To this end, Wang Li established the "Tempering Association" in Xieli.
Photo/The scene of the second phase of the event
After the vote, "you must tell the truth, and it is strictly forbidden to boast and boast"
It may be hard to believe that the cultivation founded by Wang Li will have a series of requirements, or rather, the threshold for membership.
For example, it has to be the founder, because the founder is the boss of the team, and almost no one dares to say "no" to the boss, so it is difficult for them to hear real advice. At the Tempering Society, he could, "because everyone is the founder." Naturally, in order to hear the real advice, the "Kwa Kua mode" is forbidden to appear in the Temper Society.
"You just have to be honest about what you see and what you don't see."
In addition, the Tempering Club does not pay attention to teaching the founders business management knowledge and courses, because in Wang Li's view, static knowledge such as management knowledge is easy to obtain, and it can be obtained by participating in relevant management courses. The main thing to do is to solve the real and practical problems encountered by the founders in the enterprise based on practical problems.
Up to now, there have been three phases of the Tempering Association. Each session of the Tempering Club members are 15-20 members in a group, only the founder can join, one person raises questions, and other students discuss and analyze and solve problems together through the special mode and method of the Tempering Society.
10 years ago, Wang Li established the Tempering Club, and this year is her 9th year as a coach of the Tempering Club. "The tactics of the sea of people cannot solve the real problems of the enterprise, and the Tempering Club has built a special field, which is highly trusting, completely open and straightforward communication, and at the same time, it also leverages the mode of mutual support between the students and the multi-angle and multi-dimensional in-depth analysis of the problem, which is the most unique and valuable part of the Tempering Society." Wang Li sighed.
In order to ensure the effectiveness of each session, there will be a series of strict disciplines and rules, only the founders who really have management needs will have the opportunity to join the meeting, and each student must also go through a "probationary period", must come three times to be a member of the trainee group, and finally more than 2/3 of the voters can become official members.
There are 4 to 6 learning activities every year, and each group activity must be a fully enclosed two-day offline activity, "First of all, we are absolutely not allowed to be late and leave early, and with strict discipline, almost no one is late (laughs)," "In addition, we are not allowed to use mobile phones during the activity, which ensures everyone's attention and commitment throughout the process." Wang Li described the rules and discipline of the Tempering Society. During these two days, we will generally discuss and analyze 1 to 3 specific problems in depth and give suggestions from multiple perspectives, and then we will also follow up on whether the students who raised the questions have effectively solved the problems based on the results of the discussion and suggestions. The typical approach is for each team member to write 'the important problem I want to solve at the moment', describe and explain the problem according to the structured framework of the meeting, and then everyone votes to select the problem to be discussed in this event. ”
It's also interesting to note that at the end of each event, members rate each other's contributions and engagement, and at the end of each year, there is a secret ballot on a "who would I like to walk with" format. If you often score low in activities, you may be eliminated from the year-end voting.
Since its establishment in November 2015, nearly 50 formal members of the first, second and third phases of the Tempering Club have held 50+ group meetings and 10+ visits to external enterprises, during which 130+ questions have been raised, and 40+ questions have been discussed and followed up in depth by the corporate host.
There is no doubt that such a model is enough to make the Temper Club a special existence.
Photo/Group photo of Qixia Mountain in the third phase
After investment, non-standard personalization is required to solve the actual problems of the enterprise
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Wang Li believes that because of enterprise development and human factors, it is impossible to use a standardized way after investment. Non-standard personalized solution to enterprise problems is the guarantee of post-investment effectiveness. Because every startup faces different problems, involving strategy, operations, management, organization, and the team and founders. It is necessary to analyze and treat it concretely.
There are many ways to solve problems, and there are many ways to solve them, and it is necessary to distinguish between the main contradiction and the secondary contradiction. Some treat the symptoms, while others treat the root cause. Some are effective in the short term, while others are slowly improving in the long term.
The company has entered its ninth year, and one of the outputs accumulated over the years is that the company has formed its own unique methodology. In the discussion of different enterprises and founders, we should first identify the priority of the problem, and then use the most suitable method according to the current situation of the enterprise and the founder's ability, energy, resources and cognitive level, taking into account the short-term and long-term, and treating both the symptoms and the root causes.
Ten years after the investment
In other words, it can be said to be a "learning organization that starts with real problems." Here, only the problems that are really difficult for the founders to solve and have been troubled for a long time will be taken out and discussed repeatedly and given multi-angle suggestions. It is not only a "place to discuss and solve problems", but also a home to improve the success rate of founders.
Wang Li told me that in addition to the classic group activities, she also helps and supports the founders in other forms to solve problems, such as three-person group dialogues, which is a more effective way to help and support the founders when there are conflicts or communication barriers between the founders and professional managers. From the perspective of a coach, Wang Li uses her unique way to guide the two sides to communicate frankly and objectively, if they can find the essence of the problem and empathize with each other's perspective, such communication is more likely to promote the two sides of the conflict to reach a consensus.
"This kind of problem cannot be solved with resource docking and so-called management knowledge. It is necessary to have a deep understanding of the company, to understand the founder and the team, and to build enough trust between both parties. ”
In fact, whether you do well after the investment or not, the feedback of the people who have been voted on can be glimpsed.
In the eyes of Chen Yimin, the founder of the listed company Yinghuate, the Tempering Association is a co-construction and sharing organization. For him, the weight of "building" and "enjoying" is equally important. He once wrote: The Tempering Society is not a training institution, let alone a school; There is no teacher in the Tempering Society, but everyone is a teacher; The Temper Club not only gives and exports to every member, but also requires every member to give back; While the members of the Temper Club come with a desire to learn, they are always ready to share their knowledge, thoughts, opinions, experiences, and so on.
Secondly, Chen Yimin also believes that the tempering will be a "field". In the "field", each member is required to abandon their own sociality to the greatest extent, inject their hearts and perform their true colors, so as to trust and commit to each other, and learn to be friends. Only by forming such a field, where everyone is fully open to others, can the energy of the private board be maximized. The establishment of this "field" is very important for the organizational form of the private board of directors and is a necessary condition for the effective operation of the committee.
He also joked: "Before I participated in the tempering meeting, I hugged people no more than three times to be exact. In the tempering meeting, we will meet and hug each period. It's all so natural because of the field.
There is power in this field, and when our classmates made the difficult decision to get rid of their partner, I saw him return to this field, and he had the spirit to rely on. This field is powerful, and I saw the figure of a female classmate who claimed to have degenerated tear ducts and started again with tears in her eyes after the failure of her business. There is power in this field, and here I am completely myself, an empty and awe-inspiring megalomaniac. Of course, this field has power, so after I became the owner of the case, I wrote these words. ”
Luo Xiaofan, the founder of Jufu Technology, has participated in the Tempering Club for eight years so far, he said: The special 'field' of the Tempering Club has allowed me to experience collective flow many times, and my self-breakthrough as a host is something I have never had in my life, and I believe it is difficult to obtain it in other scenarios. The tremendous shock that this breakthrough brought to me is still fresh in my memory. ”
The students of the Tempering Club praised the Tempering Club as "a harbor for the lonely, a school for seekers, and a home for dreamers", "Entrepreneurship is difficult, but Tempering will bring us together to deeply analyze problems and discuss problems from multiple perspectives in an effective way, while supporting and trusting each other." This kind of spiritual power is invaluable. ”
With vigor and excitement chasing the wind, it is easy to do one thing; But it's hard to keep doing something. The Tempering Club is about to be 10 years, but for Wang Li and Xieli Investment, it is just ten years.