Author: Chen Wei is vice president and editor-in-chief of Masakazu Island
Source: Zhenghe Island
(This article is the author's preface to the August issue of Zhenghe Island Magazine "Decision Reference", originally titled "The New Continent of Commerce")
On August 3, 1492, the navigator Columbus was sent by the King of Spain to lead three sailing ships to the west with a letter to the Indian monarch and the Chinese emperor. After 70 days and nights of turmoil, in the early morning of October 12, they finally found land.
Until his death, he thought that the place where he had set foot was India. Later generations proved through investigation that the place where he arrived was not India, but the "New World" - the Americas.
The Age of Discovery began here. The opening of new shipping routes, accompanied by a new industrial civilization becoming the mainstream of the world economy, has also risen to the world and dominate the earth.
In June this year, I attended the Yabuli Annual Meeting with Mr. Donghua (Liu Donghua, founder and chief architect of Zhenghe Island).
As the most popular forum for entrepreneurs over the years, the most eye-catching people at this event are not the old cannons of the business community who have been immersed in the forum for many years, but several young faces who have just arrived: Tang Binsen of Yuanqi Forest, Yin Ye of BGI Gene, wang Ning of Bubble Mart, etc. With their fresh, bold and sharp cognition and practice, they have brought impact to everyone.
Coupled with the previous deep chats about Nie Yunchen, Anaya Ma Yin, small pot tea Du Guoyao, etc., I have a distinct feeling: differentiation and evolution are becoming the theme of today's business world.
They are a group of "new businessmen" who are very different from their predecessors, and the territory they and their peers are cultivating and exploring is the "new continent" of commerce.
The inhabitants of this new world have different fields and styles, but they have several things in common:
1. Leading cognitive level
He once discussed with Hurun the differences between new and old entrepreneurs, and he said that the older generation of entrepreneurs is bold, and the new generation of entrepreneurs is bolder and has bigger brains.
Compared with the predecessors who rose with the rise of the reform and opening up process, this generation of entrepreneurs has a slightly weak experience, but the exploration of the trend trend and the world of ideas is more in-depth.
Ma Yin, who single-handedly created the "Cultural Tourism Divine Disk" anana, has no less deep thought than many scholars. On his desk, there were very few books on economics, and I saw a thick stack of books on anthropology, sociology, and history. He said that sociologist Wang Dingding had the greatest influence on himself.
2. Return to the essence of business
The outside world often pays attention to the popularity of these new forms of companies. And the founders of these companies themselves are often most concerned about the quality of products and services.
They generally believe in "user worship", emphasizing user insight and experience.
Tang Binsen said that the most expensive traditional drink is actually the bottle. In the Yuanqi Forest, the product manager has the greatest say. The controversial post-80s generation, who likes to challenge giants, gave a lot of the company's shares to the team, and vowed to make really healthy and delicious drinks for users at any cost in research and development.
3. Raise the aesthetic banner
Design is the value and competitiveness of the new type of company.
Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University, once proposed "replacing religion with aesthetic education", and in the eyes of the new generation of business, appearance is both justice and aesthetics are religion.
HiCha is jokingly described as a design company that has been delayed by tea drinking, and its product style blends modernity and tradition into one furnace, which is widely popular. Founder Nie Yunchen idolized Jobs, and in the eyes of this 30-year-old young man, the unbeautiful product is unforgivable.
4. Pay attention to humanities and science and technology
Great entrepreneurs dance at the intersection of science and humanities, technology and art.
Many restaurant owners regard "Wen heyou" as the same kind, but Wen Bin, the founder of Wen heyou, showed himself as a "culture" when interviewing the Zhejiang Lakeside Entrepreneurship Research Center. And Midea is also trying to tear off the label of home appliances and replace them with new clothes for science and technology.
The technological and cultural content of a new generation of startups is growing rapidly, and many big trees are also sending out new branches of vitality. SenseTime, Royole, Kuaishou, iFLYTEK, Xiaopeng Motors... Perhaps in the future business vision, there will only be these two types of companies: technology companies and cultural companies.
"After the year, the waves push forward the waves, and the flowers in the rivers and rivers are fresh everywhere." The rushing waves of the business world are the convergence of the front wave and the back wave.
Although "old men are more powerful", as Mao Zedong said, the world belongs to young people after all, "because they are poor and lowly, their vitality is vigorous, they have less superstition, they have fewer worries, they are not afraid of heaven and earth, and they dare to think and dare to say and dare to do." If they are encouraged again, not afraid of failure, not pouring cold water, and admit that the world is primarily theirs, there will be a lot of invention."
