"Without Banu, Haidilao would not have progressed."
"Haidilao's over-service will eventually become a thing of the past!"
"Haidilao is not a god, it is just the god of this era."
Who is it that says such "arrogant" things? A veteran who has been in business for 20 years, the founder of Banu Mao Belly Hot Pot - Du Zhongbing.
Is this "touching porcelain" seabed fishing? Or is it a heartfelt word?
Also, what is Banu? A hot pot that originated in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, was founded in 2001 and focuses on hairy belly.
In cities such as Zhengzhou, Xi'an and even Beijing, you will see two peculiar phenomena: Haidilao and Banu, next to each other, and the Haidilao opened next to Banu, the best service; at the same time, Banu, which is 40-50 yuan more expensive than the unit price of Haidilao, is still crowded.
In essence, this may be a business that is constantly evolving. Relying on 85 stores, a plate of hairy belly, and an annual income of 1.8 billion Banu, out of the hot pot industry a "non-mainstream" road: dead bump products.
Banu, how did you do it? Is Du Zhongbing "self-righteous", or is he extremely sober and thorough? What did he learn about accomplishing things?
In the 12th issue of "Evolution", we had a dialogue with Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu Mao Mao Hotpot, in June, covering topics such as business competition, business trends, productism, corporate mission and personal cognition, from which you can feel the honesty of this Zhongyuan Man.
I hope that Du Zhongbing's thinking and the "tuition fees" he has paid will inspire you:
Oral description: Du Zhongbing Founder and chairman of Banu Mao Mao Hot Pot
Interviewed: Xu Yuebang, the director of "Evolution"
Source: Zhenghe Island
01, "Without Banu, Haidilao will not progress"
Q: From an external point of view, some of Banu's slogans - "the service is not excessive, everything is exquisite", "service is not a feature of Banu, hairy belly and mushroom soup are", and so on. Although you said that you didn't go to the bottom of the sea, it still sounds like this?
Du Zhongbing: Frankly speaking, Banu did not learn Haidilao.
When Banu entered Zhengzhou in 2009, he worked service for 3 consecutive years. Inertia makes you feel that the rules set by Haidilao, you have to follow it, as if these are the symbols of hot pot, if you don't do it, you are not like hot pot.
But over time, you will find that these things really have no power for you, and you are getting less and less confident.
Later, I realized that when you dare to refuse something, you are confident. The customer spends because you can bring him value. It is better to ask for others than to seek oneself, and to die and be the most valuable to oneself. So we started to take the road of "productism".
Of course, when advertising slogans such as "Service is not a feature of Banu, hairy belly and mushroom soup are", they are actually controversial. What do people mean by that?
Haidilao is the boss, everyone gave him the "eyeballs", then as a latecomer, we always have to find a way to make the attention of customers turn to us, give them a reason to "turn their heads".
I think these are just to solve some obstacles, some difficulties. Because in the age of information explosion, not so many people will actually give you time to communicate. So sometimes you have to use a way to "educate" your internal partners, but also to make it easier and more direct for customers to understand you, to figure out what you really are and how different you are from others. It's that simple.
Q: But some people will think that service itself is a kind of customer demand, but also a different kind of "product". Just say that some hot pot restaurants, can not learn Haidilao?
Du Zhongbing: So we have to bet, you bet on the service, I bet on the product, and finally let's see which one the customer will recognize more.
Of course, this is not to say that I made a product, I said that Haidilao's "service" is not good. Rather, this is our thematic idea.
Because I think the essence of dining is still eating. From a productistic point of view, when you think of foreign restaurant giants, you tend to think of their "products" first, such as Starbucks coffee, KFC fried chicken, McDonald's burgers. Look at China's time-honored brands, Quanjude's roast duck, Lao Sun's lamb steamed buns.
I think that the product is the 1 in the front, and without this 1, there is no point in having more 0s in the back. I'll always stick to this. It is a matter of precedence, without which there is no such thing; not a question of parallel relations, of what to emphasize and what not to emphasize.
The "over-service" that I proposed from 2015 to Haidilao will be a thing of the past. At that time, there were many voices of opposition, but today, it seems that it is becoming more and more established.
I think that to a certain extent, people actually need space and freedom, and they don't need to be too disturbed. You can't get there without a chance to breathe, and all dimensions envelop you, even between it and the customer.
In Banu, we advocate that people are equal to each other, and that they are glued together by the value of both parties.
So our staff from the early stage of positioning, he is a hair belly hot pot expert, employees will eat first, eat clearly, will speak, and then to provide expert services equally.
I have always believed that taking care of the customer's mouth is more important than taking care of the customer's person.
For services, we also have our own set of understandings and definitions. For example, every part and every design in a Dyson hair dryer is not for customers to like it from the bottom of their hearts. Dyson treats customers with the ultimate product, which is service.
For example, if a patient goes to the hospital, the doctor will not ask the patient whether he wants to take medicine or inject, right? It must be the right symptom, the injection must be injected, the test must be tested, and the most comfortable and fastest way to cure the disease is his product and his service.
I think the premium for brands actually comes from professionalism. If you can provide expert service to customers, even if you accidentally step on the customer's feet, it does not matter, it will not damage your identity as an expert. Therefore, providing expert services is the service concept that Banu has always advocated and adhered to.
I think the general direction and thinking are right, we should firmly go backwards, and there is a complete misalignment between haidilao and Haidilao. Haidilao does theirs, we do ours. Many people compare us to Haidilao, but it is not the same thing. What we have done for 20 years has been to do our own thing with our own thoughts.
Q: So do you think Haidilao's products are "unqualified"?
Du Zhongbing: Enough and not qualified, we still start from the customer's point of view, as long as the customer recognizes it, the customer does not recognize it is not qualified.
Q: Do you think it is to recognize or not to recognize it now?
Du Zhongbing: I don't recognize it. Because once people recognize something, they will not recognize something, which is also human nature. It's not that Haidilao's products are not doing well, it's that customers will not see your products as good because your service is too strong.
It is the law, not who decides.
Q: Recently, we can see that Haidilao's market value has evaporated by HK$250 billion in a few months. Daniel Zhang, the founder of Haidilao, also admitted that he misjudged the trend some time ago, and said that "if you want to know what is not true, just look at Haidilao." Your research on Haidilao is certainly very in-depth, how do you see the situation it is in now?
Du Zhongbing: I may not agree with some of the voices in the media. Because the market value is not only Haidilao's decline, the entire industry is like this. Because it was rising too high last year, the bubble squeezed down.
Based on its current scale, I think it is a "clear real price", a regression, a real value.
But then again, if you look at it from a money point of view, Haidilao is a very successful company in any case. The valuation of its capital is so high that it falls down by 200 billion yuan. People take out 10 points or 20 billion yuan.
But I don't think that should be the only measure. If that's the only measure, then we don't have much to talk about, and we can talk about death.
Q: Are you optimistic about Haidilao's business model?
Du Zhongbing: I'm not very optimistic.
Q: Huh? Why?
Du Zhongbing: Because it is my competitor, if I am optimistic about it, how can I still exist?
Of course, this is a joke at first, and you must give your partner long ambition.
But I say this because dining is too challenging and not easy. From the perspective of business laws, in any case, there may be later "subversives".
Haidilao is not a god, it is only the god of this era, the next era is not necessarily who it is, no one can live well for a long time, including Banu, it is likely to be subverted. I also face constant worries.
Q: Some people feel that your practice of "benchmarking" Haidilao is provoking "competition"?
Du Zhongbing: In fact, competition is everywhere, either if you talk about competition, there is competition, and if you don't talk about competition, there is no competition. Rational or unreasonable, the competition is there.
If you want to make the country stronger, do you have to compare your own people first? If you want to make your family strong, do the brothers have to play a game first?
Without Banu, Haidilao might have slackened off. Because a family will age slowly, but with Banu as a challenger, it will suddenly become nervous and sensitive.
Haidilao in Zhengzhou is so energetic and the service is particularly good, and a big reason is the existence of Banu.
Similarly, where there is a seabed fishing, I don't have to care, I don't have to go, it's not bad. Everyone doesn't want to lose to anyone, it's better than doing better. For example, Banu's Zhengzhou mall store, since Haidilao opened a store next to us, the enthusiasm of our welcome partners has been stimulated at once, and it is really from the heart.
Many people like the situation of "hello, hello, hello, everyone", and are not willing to face the competition, but the industry that is not fully competitive will gradually shrink.
Without Banu, Haidilao would not have progressed. Therefore, healthy competition is contributing to the interests of the industry and the ultimate customer experience. Am I wrong? It is difficult to be innovative.
02, "I'd rather crash into the south wall"
Q: Before visiting the central kitchen of Banu, I saw that in order to bump many new dishes, you often "make a big move" inside, like the drag noodles in Banu, I heard that the research and development of nearly 9 months, the R & D chef even rushed to resign 3 times, "tossed" many suppliers to make this drag noodles.
Obviously, the catering industry does not have to be so real, and it can still make money. Why are you still so sharp that you have to be the "chief product manager" of Banu?
Du Zhongbing: Why should I make a hot pot brand? Because I like to eat hot pot, as a result, I opened the dry, found the hot pot industry shocking, when the phenomenon of old oil reuse in the industry became the "unspoken rule", dishes rely on fire alkali, especially in the summer, but also pour formalin embalming, scary?
I felt that the industry needed to change too much. Now that I'm in the industry, I'm going to change it. Because if you don't create and only imitate, for example, if someone else makes six walnuts, and you follow seven walnuts and eight walnuts, then you will only produce inventory.
However, making a good product is bound to be the hardest road. When the first store was opened in 2001, in someone else's shop, a plate of hairy belly 8 two sold for 12 yuan, in Banu, 4 two sold for 18 yuan. Now it's sold to seventy or eighty. The pricing looks a lot higher, but the profit margin is much lower than that of others.
But I don't believe that good things customers won't eat.
I think that productism itself is also the way of being a person and the way of choosing. Others eat spinach in the greenhouse, Banu will customize the stupid spinach grown in the ice and snow; others use ordinary peppercorns, Banu uses Maowen peppercorns grown at an altitude of more than 2500 meters; others use ordinary flour, Banu uses natural additive-free flour...
When we really think about customer needs, we actually have a sense of smell. For example, celery. In the past, we all ate celery stalks. Later, I thought that the celery was so good, I went to ask if this thing could not be eaten? Can eat. So why do you have to grow up to let people eat?
So we went to run into farmers. This process is also very difficult, don't think that this matter will be completed in the field. Because celery is not "standard" when it is grown in the field, it is big and small, but there is still a standard in the store, so it is often out of stock at the beginning. In the run-in of that half a year, everyone often made a "stomach full of anger", but in the end we still let the customers successfully eat small parsley.
There are too many such examples, and Banu's dishes are inspired by walking the streets and alleys, rather than staying in the kitchen and tinkering with them.
Why toss so much?
I think ren Zhengfei's words are worth reflecting:
"It's not easy for a person to be able to do one thing in a lifetime, why? China's 1.3 billion people, we grind tofu well, grind it into good tofu, you few enterprises to make bean sprouts, do a good job of bean sprouts. Each of our 1.3 billion people has done one thing well, and together we are the great motherland. ”
So on the way to build the product, I think the boss is the general on the battlefield, sleeping in armor, and the weapon is next to the pillow. As long as you are still the boss, as long as you have not handed over the baton, you will always be a general on the front line of the battlefield.
Q: But do people really "buy it"? Will you be "educated" by Banu?
Du Zhongbing: Isn't the hot pot industry now separated from Zhengzhou? Banu is Banu, Haidilao is Haidilao, and the overlap between us is up to 30%. The spending power is relatively strong, generally here, because we found that a large number of Moutai bottles are packed out in the Banu store every day.
Moutai bottle is the best symbol, and red wine bottle, why do we put wine glasses in our private rooms, no way, because they all want red wine.
Others make their own beer, and we only sell Budweiser's fresh beer; others sell ordinary lamb, while we only sell natural lamb; others sell ordinary hairy belly, and we are New Zealand hairy belly; others sell rootless bean sprouts, and Banu sells baskets of natural live bean sprouts...
That's the difference. Banu is in a word, to be a value. Always be valued.
The so-called "strategy" is actually to think about what may constitute a long-term competitive advantage. Its core is not to grab the position of others, but to keep their own seats and sit well, as the saying goes, "Everyone goes back to their own homes, each finds his own mother."
Q: But Banu's insistence on "productism" is clearly non-mainstream in the industry. Aren't most restaurants still the "standardized" of the first generation of supply chains in the West? The pursuit of removing the chef and promoting the wrapping of ingredients, rather than pursuing the ultimate ingredients, etc. Don't you feel like an "outlier" like this? Isn't there a voice of doubt inside? For example, the cost is high.
Du Zhongbing: Sometimes, those old experts who study food engineering will have different views, such as asking me this "question": Mr. Du, without food additives, there is no food industry, the future of Chinese food, do you agree with this statement?
I told him that the teacher was so right, but you guys make food, I do food. The concept of the food industry cannot be brought to the catering, which is fresh, that is, sold fresh.
I finally said, you sing yours, I sing mine. I can't simply copy your method to mine. That's my point.
Now when the catering industry is bigger and does chains, there is a "popular" orientation - standardization.
Some of us "follow the trend", and follow more of this strong wind - learning from the West, standardizing for the sake of standardization. The Western standard is industrialized, that is, freezing + additives. It is possible to leave a piece of meatloaf in a restaurant for 1 year.
I don't think you can use this standard to make Chinese food. Chinese talk about it, today you are talking about "zhong" in this territory of Henan. Good is "medium", is exactly right. Chinese're pretty much the same.
So the Chinese standard of eating is the standard of "no standard", which was cultivated by the great mother behind us. Mom's standard is to carry a basket to the market every day to buy it and make it fresh at home.
I think that the future of Chinese catering must be such a state, the future will be more "mom-and-pop shops", the demand is more inclined to non-standardization, personalization: I don't even give you a menu today, probably what direction, you just have to come and eat.
So when I collide with many restaurant owners today, I am thinking about how to build a standard of the freshest degree, the so-called "non-standardized standardization", that is, you must have a standard, but you can't blindly pursue the standard, the premise of this standard is to serve the ultimate delicious.
I've been on this path, but in the process, I've found that internal partners may not approve of you, worry about you, and even doubt you. But it's my belief, I don't want to change it, I'd rather go headlong into the black, or crash into the south wall and knock out a "bloody head", I don't want to change.
Why? That's because, I have nowhere to go. I just think that path is feasible.
03, "I am not thinking about 1+1, but 1-1"
Q: But the standardization of other catering enterprises is conducive to their rapid expansion and strengthening. For example, Haidilao opened more than 500 new stores in 2020, but Banu has been working for 20 years, and the number of stores is now less than a fraction of Haidilao's, only 85. Never did you ever want to open a few more stores and expand your size and visibility?
Du Zhongbing: No, it's all natural. We have only one vision for the future, it is not an exhaustive plan or plan.
In the 20 years since I started my business, I have not been fast, and I always have a sense of brakes. I never cared much about how many stores would open this year, but after each market, I summarized whether there were any stores that should be closed this year.
And Banu is an "inverted triangle", and opening a store is actually not the boss's business, but the matter of the partners below. To put it a joke, the following partner wants to open a store, you stop him from opening, that is not in his way of money.
But opening a store is also conditional, the above will be reviewed, we will look at their ability to report, how the internal organization is, how the talent is cultivated, and we will also look at the market and opportunities.
But I never said to the partner below to come on and open more stores, never.
Haidilao has opened so many stores, it is difficult for us to catch up even if we are fast, so there is no need. For us, don't care about these things, just practice your skills and go out of your own way. When the ability is practiced, it will naturally be fast.
What's more, the purpose of doing business is not simply to become bigger, the purpose of expansion is not just to expand, I must still adhere to my original intention, always want to make a good hot pot for customers, so that everyone can enjoy delicious food in the store like me.
It cannot be said that expansion for the sake of expansion, development for the sake of development, and all the systems that have been built up to the end are done for this orientation.
Q: Aren't you itching to see other people's stores open more and more?
Du Zhongbing: Don't itch. I have always had a view that the catering industry has no concept of market share, and living well and living for a long time is the most important.
Other industries, such as FMCG, pay special attention to channel management, as long as you grasp the channel, you basically seize the opportunity. Because it is a relatively fixed product model, it needs a scene to sell, and whoever runs fast wins.
But catering is not like this, it is a variant of the product model. Maybe after a few years of running, you will find that all the occupied territory must be given up as long as it is not done well.
So my personal judgment on catering is that it is an industry that cannot be fast.
Q: Is there any rumor that Banu is recently preparing to accept its first financing in the 20 years since its establishment, and the scale of 500 million yuan will even set a record for the first round of financing in the catering industry? Do you have a time expectation for going public?
Du Zhongbing: Every day, investors ask me if I have any plans to go public, saying that Haidilao has done such a big job, and you are not in a hurry.
In this matter, my mentality is relatively peaceful. Banu is not saying rushing to raise funds. Financing is not an end in itself. I've been doing it for 20 years, and to this extent we can loosen and tighten, fast or slow.
I can only say that I have not listed a result or a goal for myself, but there is a direction, I am like weaving a net, I will take a break when I am tired, if I am not tired, I will weave more nets, it is slowly knitted, rather than saying that I will think of a mature net at once.
I will only grasp my own rhythm, how someone and money will do it, no one, no money will do it, and I will not impose a goal on myself, such as running to go public within 3 years. I will only say that if you plan to go public, then you can work hard in the direction of listing, as for which day to list, which year to list is not important, do not take it so seriously.
What I want most now is to find an investment institution that matches Banu's underlying logic of strategy and values.
When I talk to all the capital, I will tell them, can you accompany me for 10 years, 10 years. And I'll also mention the most fundamental principle, don't interfere with my normal rhythm.
And when some capitals talk to me, they always ask Mr. Du what your whole development plan for the future is. I said as soon as you talked to me about this, I basically didn't want to talk to you.
You always ask me a little bit of it, Du Zong, how are you now, whether you have enough physical strength, do you have regular physical examinations, is the state good or not? I hope they care more about that.
Many people regard making money as their only guide. But for Banu, the general direction of the future is to make itself a good company that can be passed down and can be done for 100 years.
At the capital market level, why we sometimes see that some companies are not good after listing, it is because capital orientation has overpowered customer orientation and become the main idea of its development. There's a good chance something will go wrong.
But is capital important, or is the customer important? That's the orientation.
So I think we can't just shout slogans, today I also emphasize our values, whether I am or not, whether Banu is listed or not, it is still the customer is big, the customer is in the most important position. Nothing else matters.
Once, when I went to a certain business school, I said so-and-so, what are you doing? He handed over the screen of his phone and let us see that he was paying attention to his own company's stock.
I joked that there was still something to pay attention to after the bell was rung, and I didn't hurry to work. After the stock is sold, the money has not already arrived, it is ugly, even if the stock market "goes out of business", no one will find you for money. So why do you look at the "graph"?
That's my point. But if I were to say this, some people might say that I, your boss, are irresponsible, don't pay attention to the stock market, don't care about investors.
But I just think that the founders and bosses of some Chinese enterprises can't just focus on capital, otherwise it is easy to be "kidnapped" by capital.
Some people aspire to be pigs on the cusp, too greedy, too many martial arts, too high vision, everything over-conceived, but lack a respect for simple and universal business logic.
Q: In specific business links, such as takeaway and online retail, will Banu consider doing it in the future?
Du Zhongbing: Personally, I don't support Banu to make takeaways.
Because the "entrance" of customers is different, the business is different and the value is different. In terms of extension, we are a hot pot, and it is still a hot pot delivered to the home.
But when we really go back to the level of customer value, they are not the same thing at all. We can't do two things as a team and use one value to support two value needs. Is that still called values?
How are our values formed? To put it paranoidly: is Banu making any money? Will this be successful in the long run? That's the value.
If it's business-oriented, of course any amount of money can be made, but I'm definitely value-oriented, and I'm definitely guided by continuing to create good hot pot for my family, my friends, and my customers.
What I'm grasping is always value. Add one more word, value points. The front of the value is the value, and the value is the value point. In other words, what is the "value point" that my company brings to customers?
I define Banu's "value point" as opening a hot pot restaurant and a hot pot restaurant, which means that customers experience a delicious hot pot in the store. This is Banu's value point.
But if I scratch this value point away and say you can send it home, then this point is gone. I personally believe that if the point is gone, the root of the product is gone, and the root is gone, and there is no power.
The world is made up of multiple businesses, multiple structures, and multiple value orientations, and it is not up to one boss to do it all. It's not that it's not right to do takeaway, but to do takeaway you do takeaway, do retail to do retail, I must do this thing, do it thoroughly.
For example, the belief of everyone up and down my company is to do retail or takeout, so don't think about that restaurant anymore, otherwise the customer's judgment of you will be out of balance.
I think hot pot takeaway is indeed a big business. But it could be a new brand, a new business, certainly not Banu.
If I say that when my supply chain, or the degree of digitalization is very mature, I think the possibility is huge, I will pull a new team, a new brand, as an "enabler" or with a capital thinking to promote it, but I will certainly not let me do this wave of partners who are hot pots to do this.
Q: You just said that Banu "customer first", so if customers feel that this matter can bring them value, will you compromise?
Du Zhongbing: Let's put it this way. If the customer needs a hot pot restaurant, I will certainly compromise on everything, but if the customer needs roast duck, then I can't do it.
Q: What if they want Banu to make hot pot takeaways?
Du Zhongbing: That's the same as needing roast duck. That is to say, your needs are not necessarily what I should do. I only do what I'm supposed to do, I only do my service as well as I can, beyond that boundary, and I think it's not my profession, it's not what I should do, it's not my belief.
I think that eating at home and attracting customers out to eat are two things that are opposites to the bottom of their own value.
In this way, I can't tell my friends clearly. I have been telling them that we must serve customers well, after the customers come, the eyes should follow the customers, we must do a good job in the presentation of our products, lighting, music, and the atmosphere should be good.
As a result, you say that the takeaway should be delivered quickly, keep the temperature good, and keep it present. I was thinking, if I were that little friend, I would collapse, what does my boss really want? I do not know.
What you are measuring is "1+1", that is, the 1+1 effect of online and offline. I'm wondering if it's going to be 1-1.
Because you know in your heart, if you do this, you will feel the whole value point between your little partner and you, and you can no longer grasp it.
This is actually a kind of lack of confidence. I'm not confident I can do both. I think it's okay to focus on one thing, to be a hot pot restaurant, we have confidence, once beyond the scope of the hot pot shop, we don't have this confidence.
Q: Is it possible for you to run to the top of the entire industrial chain and transform agriculture like Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo in the future? This is not in conflict with Banu's value point.
Du Zhongbing: This depends on the needs of our future development. If it's related to my task, I'll do it; if it's not related to my task, I won't do it.
I'm not going to just leave the business there and go upstream to be an agricultural scientist. I still make hot pot for everyone.
04. Educate foreigners with "small hairy belly"
Q: In recent years, there has been a boom in catering investment, and many entrepreneurs have squeezed their heads in and want to make a quick buck. Do you have any suggestions or advice for this phenomenon?
Du Zhongbing: In the past two years, catering investment has been very hot, especially hot pot, with a high degree of standardization and strong replicability, everyone thinks that hot pot is easy to do, and wants to get a handful of fast money.
But everyone is reluctant to think, if catering is really a simple and easy to do, profiteering, low-threshold industry, has long been crowded, how can it be waiting for you.
Sometimes people think too much, sometimes they deliberately do not think about this aspect, they all think that they are the "exception", and they all want to try to "fight" at the end.
The deeper reason for this starting point is the "poor man's mind". What is Poor People's Thinking? "Because of the lack of money, so eager to make money." The so-called thinking of the rich is, "Because there is no shortage of money, so there is no rush to earn money" and "spending money is for the sake of success, and the present is for the future."
The yardstick of poverty and wealth is not only money, but also the amount of heart and way of thinking. It's almost money, it all depends on what you think in your heart.
Why do some restaurants not live for two years? The reason is that the boss is too eager to make money, and when he doesn't make money, he no longer has the heart to wrap delicious buns and boiled delicious soup, and he no longer has the energy to consider longer-term development. All he saw was money, and what could stir his heartstrings and disturb his mind was only money, not career.
The company is not big, in fact, it is determined by the cognitive boundary of the boss. It's important that you don't keep thinking about doing business for the sake of doing business, and thinking about making money for the sake of making money.
Anyway, I told myself that starting a business is to "kidnap" myself all, not to leave a way back for myself, and after making money, I will invest in the enterprise again.
I remember one year, I suddenly found that there were 20 million on my personal account, so I quickly donated 15 million to the company, don't let myself have money on my account, don't let myself rest, don't let myself have more money and think about playing, otherwise this thing basically won't work.
Q: Where do you think your spiritual core comes from? Let's say ideas like not making quick money. Who has the biggest influence on you? Or do you have any beliefs?
Du Zhongbing: Relatively speaking, I still believe in traditional Chinese culture and ideas, such as the three feet on the head, such as walking the right path, similar to Wang Yangming's "unity of knowledge and action". I myself added 3 words to this, called "hard thinking, insight, and determination", and then the unity of knowledge and action.
These are the things I have a lot of respect in my bones. Including ancestor worship like Chinese, I think it's a very scientific culture. Because we Chinese our hearts will be loaded with the influence of the previous generation on ourselves. For example, after my father died, I carved the little story of my father's influence on me on his tombstone, and I felt that this thing was my faith.
I especially believe in this, and I don't believe in any religion. I think that there is a god on the head, that is, to talk to the "god" yourself, and not to believe that there is a promise on your head that should be kept.
No matter whether there is anyone to help you or guide you in your life, there should be someone above you who continues to pull you and cannot deviate.
Either don't do it, or don't say it, do it when you say it, you have to do it, you have to cash in.
Q: What books do you usually read? Or is there any pastime entertainment?
Du Zhongbing: Books are more complicated to read. Like in the past, when I was in school, I always skipped school, and my favorite books at that time were some biographies of people, especially those entrepreneurs who had national righteousness in the past, like Hu Xueyan, who everyone knew, to die to thank the world.
I think this spirit is very Chinese, worth learning, dare to face, and apologize for our sins with death. I think this kind of Chinese-style entrepreneurship may be gradually awakened in the future.
At the corporate level, I relatively like to read Drucker's books, and I think his "continuous value creation for customers" orientation is more consistent with my ideas. I have read more of Mao Zedong's Selected Works, including "Selected Works of Mao Zedong". Reading books is still relatively miscellaneous.
Q: You've said before that mission is how a person uses his life. So what is your mission?
Du Zhongbing: For me, dry hot pot is the expression of life, it is shooting a TV series without an end, I am like a screenwriter, constantly shooting, constantly editing, and constantly directing.
Dining is a complete experience, like a play. I am an actor on stage, and I am responsible for the audience below, which is the truth.
Does the audience know what he wants to see? I don't know. So, like Jobs, we need to create them. When your performance really exceeds his expectations before he enters the door, the applause can't stop.
Therefore, life is a stage. This stage is built by yourself, and the audience is also chosen by you. If you don't like "Peking Opera", you leave. To put it bluntly, the audience also has to choose.
I have always had a belief, and for many years, I still believe very firmly that Chinese food is the best representative of Chinese culture.
If China wants to stand tall in the world in the next 20 or 30 years and become the country with the first influence, then China's cultural power should also be the strongest. Like the powerful cultural forces of the United States in the past 20 or 30 years, they have formed an invisible advantage around the world.
It easily "went down" our property. We Chinese pay for the United States in everything we do, such as drinking Coca-Cola, eating hamburgers and pizza, and wearing Nike and Adi.
What a powerful power! Behind this is not only technical support, but also the support of cultural strength, not Chinese can not make jeans, can not make Nike, not to say nike, Coca-Cola how good, I really do not think so. But when this country, this nation, is very cattle, the culture is very strong, it will "emerge" a large wave of great brands.
So, if there are not a few decent catering enterprises in China, where is China's catering culture?
I stubbornly believe that if I "put the horse in place" now, I will definitely be carried up like a palanquin in the future. That wouldn't be the ceiling now.
This may be because I grew up in a grassroots cadre family, like my father, he never saved, used to wear Zhongshan suits, a flip pocket, 10 yuan a bunch, real time can see that the money is there.
I always thought my family had money. Actually, it wasn't until my dad died that I learned he didn't have a savings, he just liked to give others that feeling and wanted others to appreciate and approve of him.
It's culturally and genetically. You have to live as yourself. I used to go around abroad and find that Chinese was not respected wherever I went. I am extremely respectful. You dare to discriminate against me, I will put your neck and fight, I am this kind of person.
I especially long for China to be strong. I'd rather light a kerosene lamp and burrow in a cave than settle down.
So I want to bet my life on it, just so as not to regret it, not to leave a way back for myself. I am such a pursuit in my bones, and I am convinced that the Chinese food and beverage dream is equal to the Chinese dream. This is my ideal and my obsession.
A person's life is nothing more than an experiential process from birth to death, a process of creation. Isn't a person's life just those few words engraved on the tombstone, and what do you do in a lifetime? Who is it?
These things are particularly simple when they are understood.
My wish is "a good hot pot, a good school", to make a mao belly hot pot as a career, to use Banu as a platform for employees to realize the value of life; Banu's brand concept is based on a belief, that is, China's things must surpass the West.
How they use hamburgers to educate us, we should use the hot pot to educate them.
If I have a synonym for my head, it's "hairy hot pot";
If I die, my tombstone will be engraved with the words "Mao Belly Hot Pot King".
That's enough.