Yu Minhong's latest speech: If you don't like "Crazy", entrepreneurs must have a sense of responsibility

Author|Zhang Rui

Editor|Kang Xiao

Produced by|Deep Net Xiaoman Studio

"I don't like the film "Crazy" very much, because the private entrepreneurs in it don't have a good person. I hope that if I make another film about private entrepreneurs in the future, at least half of them are good people. Yu Minhong, chairman of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, said at the "Deshengmen Lecture Hall" sponsored by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce a few days ago.

As the Secretary-General of the Well-known Enterprise Committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the rotating chairman of the Yabuli Forum, and the chairman of the All-Union Private Education Funders Chamber of Commerce, Yu Minhong pointed out two key words in this keynote speech: confidence and turnaround.

In Yu Minhong's view, the circle of Oriental selection is a more intuitive embodiment of "confidence" and "turnaround".

After the "double reduction" policy, Yu Minhong led New Oriental Online to transform live streaming and launch Oriental Selection. In the first half of fiscal year 2023, the revenue of New Oriental Online after the transformation was 2.08 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 262.69%; The net profit was 585 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 207.59%, which is also the first profit of New Oriental Online since its listing.

"Last year, New Oriental made the Oriental Selection and seized a major turning point from the field of education to another field. Some people tell me that this turning point has given a lot of confidence to many entrepreneurs or the business community in China, but it is a natural process for me. Frankly, I've never lost faith, so there's no such thing as having faith, faith has always been in my heart. Yu Minhong said.

Regarding the "turnaround", Yu Minhong said: "Don't think that the current difficulties of enterprises are caused by China's bad economy or the three-year epidemic, some difficulties are everywhere even during the most prosperous economic period." The so-called turnaround is not to wait for difficulties to look for, but to actively seek a turnaround at any time. ”

In Yu Minhong's view, entrepreneurs should have the ability to "not do their job" and maintain sensitivity to various fields.

"It's like when I started playing TikTok, people scolded me every day for not doing my job, but now I have brought results because of my 'not doing my job'. Entrepreneurs are meant to 'not do their job'. Entrepreneurs and managers are not the same thing, managers don't have to think cranky, just execute the strategy firmly. What entrepreneurs do is 'go wild': I drink with other entrepreneurs to get their ideas, and I go to other companies not to eat and drink, but to think about whether I can make another business model in the future. How can you do as an entrepreneur without sensitivity and the ability to learn? ChatGPT has been popular for so long, if you've never tried it, how can you possibly find future opportunities. Yu Minhong said.

The following is the content of Yu Minhong's speech:

Today's theme is mainly two words: one is "confidence" and the other is "turnaround".

Last year, New Oriental made the "Oriental Selection", seizing the major turning point from the field of education to another field. Some people tell me that this turning point has given a lot of confidence to many entrepreneurs or the business community in China, but it is a natural process for me. Frankly, I've never lost faith, so there's no such thing as having faith, faith has always been in my heart.

If it were just to make my life easier, I might have retired 20 years ago, but since New Oriental went public in 2006 until today, I have not stopped for a moment. I am 61 years old this year, and although I feel a little old in my heart, and I may be a chicken feathering in the future, I still insist on doing business.

Why am I still holding on? I do all this not only to sing about contributing to the prosperity of the motherland, social progress and the good life of the people, but more importantly, a need for value in my heart. I only feel fulfilled inside when I do something I think I am worthy. And this fulfillment and contribution to society are not contradictory, many times they are integrated.

If you let entrepreneurs like Dongsheng (Chen Dongsheng) go out on a yacht every day, they may not be able to stand a minute. We all feel that such a idle life is too time-consuming and uneconomical. Until today, the real entrepreneurs I know have hardly seen their behavior of eating and drinking, but have been pursuing something that they think is valuable. What I want to stress is that the so-called "valuable things" must be linked to the development policy of the motherland. If you can't even grasp the general situation and general principles of the country, then everything else is exempt from talking.

Today's China does face many challenges, the three-year epidemic, Sino-US relations, the Russian-Ukrainian war, etc., the direct and indirect impact of these changes, so that enterprises have encountered many challenges and difficulties in all aspects, but from the top leaders to the ordinary people, everyone hopes that China can continue to improve. As for "how to do it well", maybe everyone thinks differently, but for me, if China can "go well", there are several elements that must exist:

First, we must face the future and do things that are synchronized with the development of the motherland; Second, we must do something beneficial to the improvement of people's living standards; Third, we must do what we can do in our hearts from the bottom line of values; Fourth, we must continuously integrate technologies and capabilities that can be applied in various fields (such as ChatGPT, which has been discussed recently) as much as possible, and translate them into practical actions to promote the development of enterprises. There are two important points involved:

First, we must face future development. In the big picture, we must have faith. No one wants the motherland to decline, and no one wants to return to the old days when it was poor and white, which is the demand of all the people. Although the subtleties of needs may be different for everyone, it is these small differences that eventually converge into a mighty torrent and condense the driving force for the continuous prosperity of the motherland.

Although I am no longer a delegate to the two sessions this year, I will also pay close attention to the movements of the two sessions, because they are closely linked to our future development direction. In any case, I believe that the theme of "two unwavering" will not change with the simultaneous development of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. With this bottom line, the development of enterprises has the most important guarantee.

The epidemic has lowered the quality of life of ordinary people, and after the epidemic, many people are very anxious to join the tide of China's economic development. According to this situation, everyone does not buy books without much money, but on the three platforms of New Oriental, books are selling extremely hot, and everyone desperately wants to learn and get further development opportunities. In the past few days, the Convention and Exhibition Center Book Fair is crowded with people, and it is impossible to squeeze in. This also confirms what I said on another level, everyone wants to seize the opportunities for the future.

Second, no matter what the direction of Sino-US relations is, the general trend of cooperation and common development around the world will not change, and no country is willing to let its citizens fall into isolation from the world. In this sense, "the East does not light up the West", and leaders have always said that China should maintain an open attitude and actively seek win-win cooperation between countries.

Similarly, horizontal cooperation between entrepreneurs is evident. Yabuli Forum entrepreneurs have discussed many more opportunities and times for future development and horizontal cooperation than before, and local governments at all levels have a stronger desire to invite entrepreneurs to investigate investment. This year, I am the rotating chairman of the Yabuli Forum, and although I have only been in office for one year, Chairman Chen Dongsheng has assigned me countless tasks, which makes me feel super regretful and excited to take over this "chairman". Now that I have something to do, I expect that in 2023 there will be all kinds of horizontal alliances, between entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, between entrepreneurs and investors, between entrepreneurs and governments, which will be so dense that many people cannot keep busy. That's the opportunity.

Despite the hardships of the business, many entrepreneurs around me are still confident. Will we encounter some man-made or natural disasters in the future? Will there be a very bad situation? Undoubtedly, there will be difficulties and difficulties, but if there are no difficulties in life, what is the meaning of living? How can we feel happiness if there is no pain? Difficulties and opportunities always go hand in hand.

Before the "double reduction" policy came out, we did not complain, at that time New Oriental did not say so do it, in fact, New Oriental can completely close the door, but the idea of "not doing it" has never appeared in my mind, even under the crisis, I can still do New Oriental has the balance to pay bonuses to employees. This brings us to the second word – turnaround.

First of all, the opportunity is always there, the key is whether you have the ability to seize the turnaround. In 2019, I proposed that the field of education needs to be rectified, although I did not expect such a large rectification, but as long as the country makes a decision, we will implement it. The better you execute, the better your future opportunities. At that time, according to the instructions of the state, New Oriental was the first to say that it would not do K12, and all 250,000 sets of tables and chairs were donated to rural areas and mountainous areas, and the freight alone cost tens of millions of yuan.

People will always be confused, and when most enterprises encounter difficulties, they must have at least half a year to solve the dilemma, and they must have a "family base". New Oriental did both of these things. After the "double reduction", New Oriental spent nearly 20 billion yuan, but even so, the family can still survive for another two or three years. In the face of any difficulties, enterprises should not complain, but look for a way out. As soon as the "double reduction" policy came out, the opportunities in the field of education may become smaller, but it is not completely absent, the state only restricts the subject education in the compulsory education stage, but there are other opportunities, and New Oriental's other education fields are still doing well.

When I spoke at the forum last year, the "double minus" had just arrived, and I was a little forced to say that you don't have to worry, there will be a chance, and today I can proudly say here that we have seized one of the opportunities, and we are still seizing the second and third opportunities in the future.

Second, we need to be patient enough to discuss where the turnaround is. When you look back, you don't see a "turnaround", you need to think about it repeatedly, and sometimes what you don't realize is precisely the turnaround.

In 2020, I went to Wuwei, Gansu Province, where there is a deep cultural heritage, I have many friends there, and after I went, the local leader said: Can you help me do an hour's live broadcast of agricultural products?

I didn't know what live agricultural broadcasting was, and I had never even hung any products on the yellow car. When I heard the local leader say this, I was very worried. I said, I might not be able to sell a single melon. He said, you don't have to sell, as long as there is a video of selling melons and your video is allowed to be promoted. It took me an hour to sell 8,000 boxes of melons. Although I have long heard of Li Jiaqi and others selling goods on Taobao and Tmall, when I sold melons myself, I found that this was a new sales model, and I planted it in my heart at that time.

Last year, we discussed the future direction of New Oriental internally for five months. I thought we could sell something, but no one thought it was a solid idea, they thought it would not work. But I think it can be sold for a very simple reason: when selling goods and introducing products, if you can speak well, it is very conducive to sales, and New Oriental employees are intellectuals and teachers, and have the natural advantage of being able to speak well.

As a result, New Oriental employees began to learn to sell goods, the first sale was sold under my personal brand, and it took four hours to sell four million yuan, and half of the goods were still bought by New Oriental people. At that time, everyone felt that this road was not feasible, but I thought it was important to adhere to the core competitiveness of New Oriental. It looks like we're selling something, but we're actually selling the "culture" behind it. At our insistence, the Oriental Selection was finally detonated.

Even in the most prosperous times of the economy, businesses still encounter various difficulties. Technology does not reduce stress; Outdated products, supplier disruptions... And so on, it's all stress. Don't assume that the current difficulties of companies are caused by China's bad economy or the three-year pandemic, some of which are ubiquitous even during the most prosperous economic period. The so-called "turnaround" is not to wait for difficulties to look for, but to actively seek a turnaround at any time.

As an entrepreneur, what's going on in various fields and do you really pay attention? Just like when I started playing TikTok, people scolded me every day for not doing my job, but now I have brought results because of my "not doing business". Entrepreneurs are meant to "not do their job." Entrepreneurs and managers are not the same thing, managers don't have to think cranky, just execute the strategy firmly. What entrepreneurs do is "go out of the blue": I drink with other entrepreneurs to get their ideas, and I go to other companies not to eat and drink, but to think about whether I can make another business model in the future. How can you do as an entrepreneur without sensitivity and the ability to learn? ChatGPT has been popular for so long, if you've never tried it, how can you possibly find future opportunities.

Third, when enterprises are best in doing business, how to enter new fields and try? How to start thinking about the second curve when the first curve is very prosperous. Enterprises should think about the first curve, the second curve and the third curve of development. Even without Oriental Selection, New Oriental is still very good, we still have seven or eight areas in the field of education that are booming, and some education companies that only do primary and secondary schools are gone.

As a business, you need to learn to focus on the right things. As a business leader, you must lead by example in everything, otherwise there is no way out. I took the first class when New Oriental was founded, and I sold the first batch of goods selected by Oriental. You are the leader, you must first jump into the fire pit, you must first take responsibility, if things are not done well is your responsibility, you must bear it first. If a business leader doesn't want change, or just pays lip service that "change" is just his mantra to comfort his men, how can the people below change?

Fourth, to do anything, your "turnaround" must be done in the direction of common prosperity with the motherland and common development of the people, which is the responsibility of every entrepreneur. If this can't be done, just want to make money or speculate, in the end, like Gao Qiqiang in the TV series "Crazy", there will be endless sequelae.

I don't like the film "Crazy" very much, because the private entrepreneurs in it don't have a good person. I hope that if I make another film about private entrepreneurs in the future, at least half of them are good people.

Well, due to time constraints, my nonsense is here, thank you all for your listening and patience, and I wish you all a better and better 2023!