Rarely, Zhonggong Education held a press conference just to announce its latest positioning: from "multi-category vocational education institutions" to "employment and re-employment service providers".
This is not the first time that Zhonggong has mentioned this positioning. In the first half of 2023 performance report, Zhonggong adjusted its positioning as above. At this press conference, Zhonggong obviously wants to tell the outside world that Zhonggong, with a new mission and new positioning, is "starting again".
For the current Zhonggong, why do we need to upgrade our strategic positioning?
On the one hand, from the perspective of Zhonggong's business development, the 25-year-old company is experiencing unprecedented challenges and crises.
Founded in 1999, Zhonggong has found a way to survive through exam training and knowledge transfer since 2004. However, I have been thinking about whether this method of examination training has created real value for society.
Li Yongxin, chairman of Zhonggong Education, confessed: "From its establishment in 1999 to 2004, we need to survive; From 2004 to 2010, we wanted to survive; From 2010 to 2020, we need to survive better; Since 2020, we have found it so difficult to survive! The past four years have been our toughest. Although we didn't have enough to eat from 1999 to 2004, it was just a matter of survival for a few people at that time. Now we are an enterprise of tens of thousands of people, this is the survival problem we are facing, it involves all aspects of society, and it is indeed a lot of pressure. ”
It is precisely the past four years that Li Yongxin has clearly seen the most essential problem of enterprise development: "As an enterprise, we must always return to the essence of business, and we cannot pursue virtual things; As an enterprise, we must always put system construction in the top priority, and use the system to manage people and affairs; As an enterprise, we must always walk on thin ice, and always think about difficulties and problems in the forefront; As an enterprise, what we always have to solve is the problem of drifting and not floating, and if we float, we will go downhill, and if we don't float, we will always go uphill. ”
After recognizing these essential problems, Li Yongxin said that when the Zhonggong set off again, "I especially hope to focus on the national strategy, around the needs of society, and around the pain points of the work, to meet the needs and create value in a certain aspect in a down-to-earth manner, which is the meaning of our own existence." ”
On the other hand, from the perspective of the macro environment, Li Yongxin judged that "the trend of comprehensive employment services is unstoppable". Underpinning his judgment is that:
First, with the help of policy support, urbanization and demographic changes, the employment service market has entered a golden period of development.
Second, due to the mismatch between supply and demand and the increase in employment difficulty, scattered employment services cannot meet market requirements, and systematic and integrated employment services are the future trend.
Third, phased employment has become a common phenomenon, and employment services are not a one-time business, but have the opportunity to provide customers with long-term continuous services (reemployment services).
Fourth, with the advent of the AI era, technology has accelerated the improvement of educational productivity, and content and tools have become the core competitiveness of the industry.
Fifth, the focus of employment is sinking, and second-, third- and fourth-tier cities have become a new direction for more and more people to choose employment.
Based on this, what Zhonggong wants to do is to provide growth + employment services for groups aged 18-45.
Regarding employment, Li Yongxin believes that the current job market is a situation where the 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 eras coexist. The era of employment 1.0 is the era of resumes, which integrates recruiting companies and candidates to establish talent supply and demand inefficiently; The era of Employment 2.0 is the era of websites, which is highly efficient, but the information screening is limited; The Employment 3.0 era is the era of AI employment, which comprehensively presents the portraits of job seekers and the positions of enterprises through algorithm matching, so as to achieve accurate matching and recommendation.
Obviously, what Zhonggong wants to do is the third type of employment, that is, through AI, the needs of students such as learning, practice, information recommendation, and employment recommendation are embedded in the whole process of services, so as to vividly show these situations in front of the enterprise, and also present the needs and perceptions of the company's positions in front of the students, so as to fully match people and positions.
Regarding growth, Zhonggong will effectively improve the comprehensive quality and comprehensive ability of job seekers through learning and training, and improve it through systematic integration before, during and after employment, not a simple and piecemeal improvement. "We want to tap into a person's potential so that they are better suited for a professional position. This is what we were good at before, and we will definitely do better in the future. ”
After clarifying the positioning, Zhonggong said that it will carry out two key actions:
The first is to build a high-quality employment service network.
On the basis of the original self-operated channel network covering more than 300 prefecture-level cities and more than 2,800 counties, Zhonggong will also lay out asset-light outlets in more than 3,000 colleges and universities and more than 2,800 counties and districts to build an employment service network platform that combines online and offline.
The second is to build a digital AI+ employment service platform.
Zhonggong will combine holographic talent assessment, career path planning consulting, precise employment and job recommendation, efficient growth blueprint and other methods to shape the digital image of students and corporate positions, and finally achieve supply and demand matching.
Li Yongxin also revealed that in 2024, Zhonggong's development goals are "five new":
1. "New": upgrading the industrial chain, embracing the new opportunities for the development of the times, in-depth layout of the entire employment service industry chain, and providing integrated employment service products;
2. "New": digital upgrading, efficient combination of intelligent AI technology and business scenarios, initiating the application transformation of "AI + employment", and promoting the transformation of the traditional employment service industry;
Three "new": channel upgrading, launching new potential outlets, high-quality expansion of universities and county markets, and in-depth expansion of direct user employment service needs in the sinking market;
Fourth, "new": platform upgrading, strengthening a full range of industrial platform services, and simultaneously promoting the construction of employment service platforms from both demand and supply ends;
Five "new": organizational upgrading, promoting the core talent reserve plan, strengthening the construction of platform-based organizations, and deepening the professional construction of vertical fields. Regarding the organization, Li Yongxin also said: "All the problems that Zhonggong is currently facing are caused by the backwardness of the talent organization. ”
"Our vision is to promote the whole chain of employment services and become a leader in national employment services." Li Yongxin finally said. (Duozhi Xu Jingjing)
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