It is expected that half of 2024 will pass, and the 618, known as the worst in history, has just come to an end, Xingtu data shows that the total sales of the whole network during this year's 618 period were 742.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of nearly 7%, which is also the first time that 618 has experienced a decline in sales, and the recovery of consumption seems to be far from people's expectations.
Obviously, relying on online traffic dividends to support brand growth has come to an end, and tapping the more long-term and endogenous value of consumer goods companies is an important proposition that Inspur New Consumption is studying this year.
As a result, Mo Xiaoxian, the head brand of convenient fast food, has entered our field of vision:
From its establishment in 2017 to seize online opportunities such as Taobao and become the top of the category, to 2019, it will focus on attacking offline, accounting for more than 70% of the total. In the new wave of consumption, after 5 rounds of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, by 2022, when the new brand was crazy to burn money, it has not moved much, and in the past two years, it has focused on the construction of the factory supply chain; When everyone is still looking forward to new big opportunities and anxiety has nowhere to grow, it puts a lot of energy into organizational construction and expands new category space based on this......
Mo Xiaoxian founder Wang Zhengqi
Although it is not as legendary as the growth of Bawang Chaji, it can not be caught in the trap at the key node, make strategic layout earlier in advance, and still be able to do in-depth exploration of new business and organization.
Therefore, instead of being immersed in the market sentiment, watching the buildings rise and fall, always asking for nothing, and being in a state of wanting to win at all times, it is better to find your true passion and expertise, to continue to climb, cross the mountains and rivers behind you, and pursue a sea of stars that belongs to you.
This is just like Mo Xiaoxian's founder Wang Zhengqi's many business ignorance explorations from childhood to university, the enthusiastic foreshadowing of becoming the general manager of COFCO Shanghai Branch in four years, the profound lessons of two business entrepreneurship precipitation, and Mo Xiaoxian's step by step to achieve 1 billion + revenue, every step seems to be laying the foundation for the next step, there are not many shortcuts and legends, and it doesn't count if you go to today and in the future.
As Wang Zhengqi said, "Although success requires luck, in the end, it depends on strength." This is where we can remain relatively optimistic in today's environment. ”
Similar to Mo Xiaoxian's brand growth experience, it also inspired the founders of the brand who have come to this day, stop being a teenager chasing the wind, and become a pragmatic accumulator and explorer of the subdivided industry, and we will eventually gain a broader space than before.
Conversation | Wang Zhengqi
Edit | Gong Yi
1. There is a morning and a late start for entrepreneurship, but success depends more on the day after tomorrow
Inspur New Consumption: People who start doing business during college often experience social trials very early, and it is easy to achieve a certain scale in entrepreneurship later. You did business when you were in school, was it a result of your talent, your character, or was there some more combination of reasons?
Wang Zhengqi: My hometown is in Guilin, in the 30s of the last century, my grandfather's generation was in business, and then his career declined, so he moved to rural Hunan.
When I was in school, my family was poor, I began to think about earning pocket money in junior high school, in 1992 I was the vice president of the high school Chinese Society, at that time there was a book, many students read it and were idle, but the book was still very new, at that time there was only one Xinhua bookstore in a county town, and many books were not necessarily available.
So I took these books for 1 yuan a piece, sold them for 4 or 5 yuan a copy in junior high school, and earned 500 yuan for a year's tuition and living expenses in one night.
Looking back now, everyone has this book, why is it that only I thought of it and did it? That's really business insight. And I didn't have that much cash for the more than 100 books, because I only had 5-10 yuan a month for living expenses, so I told my classmates to give me the books first, and then pay them back when I sold them, and the whole process didn't cost a penny.
Inspur New Consumption: Now some post-00s can think at the same frequency as the founders, and their ideas are very up-to-date, because their parents are entrepreneurs and have been influenced a lot since childhood. Do you feel that you are greatly influenced by your parents in your business?
Wang Zhengqi: Since I was in elementary school, I followed my parents to sell vegetables on the street, and my mother didn't know how to settle accounts, so I helped her settle accounts and collect money.
These are created by the family environment, and if my family is in a good condition, I may not be asked to help sell things, and maybe I will not start a business.
Inspur New Consumption: The experience of childhood is an accelerated evolutionary process, which can help you have a more mature judgment when facing opportunities in the future. When you get to college, how did you earn your first pot of gold? How did this experience inspire you to start your own business in the future?
Wang Zhengqi: I opened a studio in the university, purchased wood by myself, and found someone to process it into handicrafts to sell, the tuition fee was 2800 at that time, and the first one was sold for 1800, but then I even lost the tuition fee, because I felt that it was too easy to make money, so I chose to expand the scale and make more products, but in the end I didn't sell it.
This experience made me more cautious, I thought I could make money by feeling, but it turned out that it was not, and then I realized that I need enough ability and cognition to do well in a category, and it also forced me to start seriously researching products, channels and marketing.
If you want to achieve a scale of 1 billion, how will you think about the weight and role of innate genes and acquired tempering? How do you get the most out of both?
Wang Zhengqi: Everyone's innate factors are different, but if you lack the experience and awareness you have learned, it is not easy to succeed.
As for whether it can reach 1 billion, it first depends on whether there are suitable opportunities.
How to grasp the opportunity when it comes? Depending on how much preparation has been made before this, having enough ability is only the first step to success.
Because of the previous precipitation, it is not difficult for Mo Xiaoxian to achieve 1 billion from the beginning, but the core difficulty after this is how to precipitate the business for a long time, which requires us to continue to invest in various dimensions such as organization, operation and marketing, which is a gradual evolutionary process.
2. What do young people need to change if they want to overtake in corners today?
Inspur New Consumption: If you want to succeed, you can't rely on luck, but you also need to have deep experience accumulation in order to have enough advantages to do the next thing.
When you graduated from college, both Arowana and COFCO were invited by the general manager for an interview, and you just came out of school at that time, what are the characteristics and tempering of your body that make the two large enterprises willing to throw an olive branch to you?
Wang Zhengqi: I graduated from law in 1998, and at that time, graduates would prepare a very thick resume when looking for a job, and put certificates and transcripts in it.
So I found another way, hoping to let the general manager directly see my resume, at that time spent half a year of living expenses on the distribution of Arowana in Hunan, dynamic sales, consumer evaluation have done a detailed research, wrote a 5000-word report.
How can I make the report visible to the general manager? At that time, information was not as developed as it is now, so I went to the library to find the information of the other company, and sent it to the general manager by EMS, and it cost more than 20 yuan to send an EMS, and I only had 2 yuan for a meal at that time.
A general manager will receive 1-2 EMS in a day, because only important documents will be used, so as to ensure that the research report can be seen by the general manager. Less than a week later, I received a call from the general manager's secretary, inviting me to meet with him in Shenzhen.
Inspur New Consumption: Today, many graduates are still worried about finding a job, what kind of reference value do you think your previous experience and thinking are still in the present?
Wang Zhengqi: In fact, many companies have been short of talents, from the perspective of graduates, the important thing is whether they can spend time on the company they want to go to, which is a process of improving analysis and research capabilities.
From the perspective of the enterprise, the candidate's market analysis can reflect his thinking and learning ability, if the ability matches, then he is the person the company needs, so the core is to let the company see the difference between himself and others.
Inspur New Consumption: Today's young people want to find a suitable job for themselves, how can they achieve corner overtaking?
Wang Zhengqi: First, you have to think about what you want to do, and many people can't do that until they graduate from university. Going backwards, how many people fill in their favorite majors in the college entrance examination? Often, they choose whatever professional fire they have, and they don't have the opportunity to do what they are interested in.
It is difficult for a person to succeed if he does something he doesn't like, college students must be clear about what they like, and when you do one thing to the extreme, you can form enough business value.
Second, you have to calm down and act, college students often face this problem, you give him a reason, he feels that the direction is right, but he is not willing to act. Many people have ideas and paths to do things, but they don't move every day, in fact, as long as they dare to act, they are already half the success.
3. How to get through the fog period of the workplace after becoming a company executive in four years?
Inspur New Consumption: Young people must be willing to pay for their love in order to get results, you have been working at COFCO for four years and were only 27 years old when you managed a business of 270 million yuan.
There will definitely be a lot of difficulties in this process, what tests have you encountered in the process? And by what do you rely on to cross it?
Wang Zhengqi: I spent four years at COFCO to become the general manager of the Shanghai branch, and I was stunned when the leader announced this decision, because I was only in charge of a dozen people and a business of 70 or 80 million yuan a year, but suddenly I was in charge of 150 people and a business of 270 million yuan.
In addition, I was only in charge of sales, but after I took over, I had to take charge of logistics, finance, marketing, and other departments that I had not managed before.
Later, because of my lack of experience, I did encounter a lot of problems, it was 2003, the big box was popular, and I had to negotiate contracts with a group of experienced purchasing directors, which was very painful.
At that time, there were six or seven rounds of contracts to be negotiated, and I was in a hurry, but fortunately, my team was mature, so I authorized them to do it.
In response to personnel changes, I did a talent assessment at that time, and I didn't fire anyone, but talked to them individually, and I said that if you want to do well, I can give you time, and if you do well, you can be promoted and raised, and if you don't do well, you can go by yourself.
For the highly capable employees, I also talked to them about their future career planning, so that the hierarchical management solves many problems.
Inspur New Consumption: Some employees are very active at the beginning, but they lose their direction because they encounter some things, or they feel that they have been in the company for a long time, even if they lie flat, how will you treat this kind of old employees or backbones?
Wang Zhengqi: It is definitely not possible to lie flat, because people are motivated, no one wants to be ignored or looked down upon by others, this kind of person may exist, but the proportion is very small.
For employees who are willing to move up, the key is to stimulate their inner drive, even if they are materially rich, they also want to be recognized and respected spiritually.
I told a truth to the fresh graduates who came to Mo Xiaoxian, you are in Shanghai, 90% of them will leave in the future, because you can't afford to buy a house on your own, and you still have to leave after 3-5 years of work, so what is the purpose of your visit?
The salary may be a little higher, but the rent and living expenses are so expensive, and some people who spend a lot of money have to be subsidized by their parents, and it is difficult to accumulate material wealth.
I told them that in addition to earning a salary, the improvement of ability is more important than making money, and you should be the best talent in the industry when you return to your hometown after 3 or 5 years, and only by doing this, these years will be worth it.
If you don't make any money and don't learn how to do it, then why come to Shanghai?
I'm willing to help people plan, set goals, and give them training opportunities, but if I don't do it myself, it's all unnecessary.
I asked the employee, when you join Mo Xiaoxian, you may have a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, but can it become 20,000 yuan in the market after 3 years? If you do that, you've succeeded; If you still stay at 10,000, then you are a loser.
Inspur New Consumption: You are young and promising at COFCO, and you can start to slow down in the eyes of others, but you chose to jump out and start your own business, why do you think that entrepreneurship may be a better path?
Wang Zhengqi: I wanted to start a business when I joined COFCO, and I never thought of working in the workplace for the rest of my life, and I set myself the goal of becoming a billionaire in college.
In the past few years at COFCO, I have worked so hard because I am not going to work, but to learn and explore and accumulate experience, so I have gone all out to work. When you focus on your work regardless of the cost, the work will also pay you back, and it took me more than three years to become the youngest and fastest-promoted general manager of COFCO's branch.
To this day, I believe that if you like a job and put it all in, you can't do it badly.
Inspur New Consumption: The environment at that time was different from now, entrepreneurship was still a more unconventional choice, were there some events and stimuli in the middle, so that you chose to start a business relatively quickly?
Wang Zhengqi: In 2007, when I decided to start a business, I also had a struggle, and the annual salary at that time was more than 300,000 yuan, which was a good income.
The reason I made the choice was that I saw the right project and had the right people and channels, so I decided to leave COFCO and start my own business.
1. 8 years and 3 periods of entrepreneurship, what did Mo Xiaoxian teach?
Inspur New Consumption: After coming out of COFCO, you have done edible oil and imported food business, and made a Turkish biscuit the first in Taobao imported biscuit sales, making a lot of money.
In the past few years, you have returned to busyness, how do you recall the comfortable time after the first two entrepreneurial achievements were made? Was that state self-consistent, or was it a little paralyzed?
Wang Zhengqi: I made some money in those years, and I spent a month overseas every year, but I still have a brand dream in my heart, hoping to be a big brand.
I have made overseas biscuits and olive oil, but due to the supply chain and domestic market channels, although I can make money, it is difficult to grow bigger.
So at that time, I was not lying flat, but thinking about how to do it, if it wasn't for the exploration period from 2008 to 2017, there would be no success for Mo Xiaoxian later.
Mo Xiaoxian started online and made self-heating hot pot the first in sales on Taobao and Tmall, largely thanks to my two years of channel and operational experience to make biscuits the first.
In 2019, Mo Xiaoxian entered the offline market, which would not have been possible without his previous 7 years of offline experience at COFCO. Many Internet brands fail to move offline, often because of a lack of deep understanding of offline.
Some influencer brands have failed to recruit professional managers from large companies because their original management methods and business philosophy may not be suitable for a new brand.
Inspur New Consumption: From the time you started your business in 2008 to 2017, you have made certain achievements, but you fell to the bottom later, what difficulties did you encounter in the middle?
Wang Zhengqi: In 2017, we received the domestic general agent of some brands, but many brands are short-sighted and dishonest. After we built the brand as an agent, he cut off all the customers and channels, and the business slowly disappeared, and the team felt that the company could not develop.
At that time, the situation was very difficult, I brought 7 sales, and only one left, and the e-commerce director and e-commerce manager were all gone. Later, I was thankful that they left because it accelerated me to do a new brand.
I changed from the original boss who was in charge of 100 million yuan to a salesman, and I talked about the channel by myself and fully understood the needs of the channel. Therefore, Mo Xiaoxian launched at the end of August that year, and during the Double 11 period, the self-heating hot pot ranked first in Taobao sales, and it achieved more than 100 million online in the second year.
Inspur New Consumption: So what is the biggest lesson you learned from starting a business before Mo Xiaoxian, and what reflections did you bring?
Wang Zhengqi: This experience made me understand the needs of dealers: stable chassis, timely after-sales support and reasonable profit margins.
First, acting for a brand often has no right to speak, so now Mo Xiaoxian will sign a contract with dealers to ensure their interests on their own turf.
Second, this year's business is declining, the return rate is high, and the dealers are very difficult, Mo Xiaoxian decided to solve the dealer's after-sales problem 4 times a year, on the surface, the cost has increased, but it is actually cost-effective.
Because solving the after-sales service can not only enhance the confidence of dealers, but also promote our team to choose products more carefully, improve the success rate of new products, and enhance the team's product selection and service capabilities.
At the same time, solving the after-sales service can also allow the dealer's salesman to have no worries and cover more outlets. Consumers will also give preference to products with a close date when purchasing at the terminal, which will speed up sales and give them more advantages in the competition.
Third, do not owe dealers with investment fees, and write them off in a timely manner.
These knowledge and understanding of dealers are the key to Mo Xiaoxian's achievements offline.
In addition, the core of our business is integrity, and we must do what we promise others even if we lose money, because dealers are a circle, and if we are not honest, no one will want to do Mo Xiaoxian brand.
Inspur New Consumption: How do you make dealers make money and drive them to treat Mo Xiaoxian as their own business?
Wang Zhengqi: We rely on the concept of "altruism", that is, to benefit employees, customers, and society. This is not just a slogan, because only by putting the interests of the customer first and making him make money, the brand can earn more.
Now we are training the team to help dealers do a good job of channeling and solving after-sales problems to drive their business growth. We empower good dealers, and they will naturally respect Mo Xiaoxian's employees, because they are here to help them make money.
Although dealers may have their own ideas, what I hope is to find like-minded partners and grow the business together.
If a dealer only wants a higher gross profit, the business is not good, because the dealer is not a terminal, and he can't sell the goods to the supermarket owner at a high price, and the dealer can't make money. Only when each link considers mutual benefit can the smooth and efficient whole link be guaranteed.
2. Starting online, how did Mo Xiaoxian penetrate the offline business?
Inspur New Consumption: Mo Xiaoxian's understanding of offline business is still very profound, and this kind of altruistic thinking is also very inspiring.
But you started online at the beginning, and it only took three months to achieve profitability, quickly becoming the first place in the sales volume of Taobao self-heating hot pot, and you didn't rely on burning money to do traffic, what is the unique secret here, or is it released by previous experience?
Wang Zhengqi: At that time, Taobao and Tmall were still in the bonus period, as long as they played correctly, they could still make money. But when we started doing it, we also burned some money, and we invested 30,000 yuan a day in the through train, and we could only sell 5,000 or 10,000 yuan.
But we insist on investing every day, because we look at the growth of data, so we invest 30,000 a day, and after ten days, we can invest 30,000 and sell 30,000, and when we finally invest 10,000 and sell more than 100,000, we will make money.
Inspur New Consumption: After Mo Xiaoxian's volume, the gameplay of the entire traffic is constantly changing, what is your core online play style at present? What will you choose to do and what not to do?
Wang Zhengqi: In the past two years, the cost of traffic has been rising, and it is difficult to build a brand on Tmall and JD.com, so you can only rely on Douyin, but Douyin hopes that the brand can achieve the price of Pinduoduo, the service of JD.com and the quality of Tmall.
Therefore, Mo Xiaoxian re-evaluated his strategy on Douyin, and stopped doing old products that didn't make money on Douyin, focusing on explosive products, but the premise was that there must be omni-channel undertaking capabilities, because simply doing Douyin would definitely lose money.
Although Douyin is still an effective platform for new product promotion, we are more cautious when launching new products, and will first conduct small-scale tests, and only when the data meets the standards will we expand the launch. In this process, the selection of products must be accurate, and the products must have sales potential in all channels.
For JD.com, Tmall and Pinduoduo, we will develop special channel products, even if they can't make a hit, they can also do a long tail to achieve stable sales.
At present, Mo Xiaoxian has invested the most in Douyin online, but not for brand promotion, but just as a channel for selling goods.
Inspur New Consumption: Mo Xiaoxian has achieved phased success online, but offline may be a more stable and long-term channel.
Wang Zhengqi: For example, we all talk about ROI online, but the highest ROI is often the most difficult to reach.
In fact, the ROI of the small store at our door is the highest, as long as the goods are delivered, you can make money without any fees, but how many platforms can put products on the shelves at the door of each small store?
Therefore, the most difficult place to do is the best profit, not because everyone does not want to do it, but because it requires complete organization and professional capacity building, and it is very difficult to do it well.
Inspur New Consumption: Now many post-95 and post-00 entrepreneurs have achieved hundreds of millions online, but they are at a loss offline, what do you think are the main problems here? Is it not thinking far enough, not investing enough, or something else?
Wang Zhengqi: The difficulty of doing offline is much higher than that of e-commerce, and you have to rely on your own understanding, there is no shortcut.
Mo Xiaoxian has also taken many detours along the way, and has been iterating and evolving every year. Because offline channels change every year, we need to dynamically consider how to cater to changes, including product pricing, channel strategy, competitive strategy, and so on.
If a brand can gain a foothold offline, it will grow every year, and now Mo Xiaoxian's offline accounts for about 70%, and the annual growth is very solid, also because we have invested a lot of energy offline.
3. It started with self-heating hot pot, but why is the end far more than that?
Inspur New Consumption: A problem faced by many consumer entrepreneurs is that they want to try what channel is popular when they see it. If a brand founder wants to follow the values and rules as much as possible, rather than following the trend, what does the core need to rely on?
Wang Zhengqi: It is necessary to embrace new things, and I do not reject new things, and the emergence of new things is worth studying.
Convenience food satisfies the immediate needs of consumers, and this scenario is more likely to occur offline.
However, different brands should choose their channels according to the characteristics of their own categories, some brands may be more suitable for offline, while others may need a combination of online and offline.
Recently, some beverage brands have done a good job in the catering scene first, and then expanded to other offline channels, because offline is a big concept, and where to start depends on the brand's familiarity with different channels.
Inspur New Consumption: Some people say that Mo Xiaoxian's success is to step on the dividends of the outbreak of the convenient fast food industry, and achieving 1 billion+ may be the peak moment of the brand. Do you think that's right? What does the reality look like?
Wang Zhengqi: Mo Xiaoxian started from self-heating food, but the potential of this brand is far more than that, Weilong also started by selling spicy noodles, but its konjac shuang sells more.
The development of a brand is not limited to a single category, as the channel, team and supply chain mature, the brand will naturally extend outward.
Some people question that Mo Xiaoxian has reached a bottleneck, which is not in line with the actual situation, and now our other categories are expanding well. There are infinite possibilities for a brand to do a good job in the organization, channels and suppliers, and it cannot be said that a certain category will not continue to grow after it is done.
This year, we expect self-heating food to account for 55% of the business, with the remaining 45% to be filled by new products.
After 7 years of development, Mo Xiaoxian has accumulated a certain brand power and channel power, and has the ability to absorb some small brands, and use the advantages of organization and team to expand the category of 100 million to 300 million.
When the competition intensifies, it is often the time when the brand begins to open the gap, because the business is not good, and the small brands that lack the team, service and product capabilities will gradually be eliminated, leaving us with an opportunity to seize the market space that the big brands do not look down on, but are suitable for us.
Wave of new consumption: Now that convenience food has entered a new cycle, Mo Xiaoxian has been growing and expanding new categories, but some brands have been acquired or are no longer there.
What reflections have you gotten from the rise and fall of the industry and the ups and downs of enterprises? What should be avoided and what should be adhered to?
Wang Zhengqi: To do business to have a long-term vision, many companies have gone through 20-30 years of development before going public, Mo Xiaoxian to become an excellent brand, it also takes time to precipitate.
Therefore, our current mentality is very stable, as long as there is a little progress every year, we are moving forward steadily, and if we persist, we can reduce mistakes and continue to release compound interest.
Many brands are in a hurry, and it is difficult to try to break the situation with a new product, because even the right product takes time to settle, including the team's organizational ability and understanding of the product.
Choosing new products and investing heavily in advertising can lead to short-term growth, but it is often unsustainable, and brands that spend a lot of money on advertising are not really doing well right now, but are doing better if they are consistently within their budgets.
Now there are many people talking about positioning, but today's channels are so subdivided, it will limit their own development space. Brands should choose products that sell well according to the needs of channels and suppliers, and gradually build a solid foundation, and in this process, some brands will stand out.
1. What is the organizational value of a current consumer goods company?
Inspur New Consumption: After the consumer brand reaches 1 billion, many people regard channels, supply chains or marketing as ways to break the situation, but you have mentioned many times that the most important thing to do at this stage is manpower and organization.
At present, the traffic dividend is decreasing, the involution of peers is serious, and the head company is also squeezing, what is the organizational competitiveness and value of a new consumer goods company, and how to resist so many changes and consumption?
Wang Zhengqi: Offline is the core of Mo Xiaoxian, and the professional ability of the team is the key to doing a good job offline.
The products in the food industry are more homogeneous, and we compare the operational capabilities, because dealers and channels are public resources, and only through excellent operations can we help dealers, optimize channel services, and improve consumer experience.
The value of organizational ability is also reflected in the implementation of strategies, because it is not difficult to formulate strategies, but it is difficult to achieve results after implementation.
At the same time, my thinking alone is limited, the collective wisdom of the team is the key to solving the problem, and a good case must be made by everyone, not by the boss alone.
The value of the organization is amplified when the team is constantly providing excellent advice.
Inspur New Consumption: Now that the brand has entered the omni-channel era, the problem is that each channel, online and offline talent models and organizational efficiency are very different, you have also carried out several years of in-depth exploration, how to face this difficult problem now?
Wang Zhengqi: In the face of today's omni-channel environment, the single pallet strategy of the past is no longer applicable, and e-commerce is different from offline, and different pallets need to be used, which puts forward higher requirements for the supply chain.
Now that a product may require four or five different packages to accommodate different channels, one product covering all channels is no longer viable, and every link from procurement to production to logistics is facing new challenges.
Inspur New Consumption: What is Mo Xiaoxian's biggest difficulty in organizing now?
Wang Zhengqi: At present, we are improving the process coordination ability of the organization internally, because there are great challenges on the production and sales side today, and if the internal functional departments are not only unable to empower, but even have to lag behind, the cohesion of the whole team will be affected.
How functional and sales departments can empathize and increase understanding and buy-in is a challenge in itself.
At present, we have a team of more than 300 people, and it will continue to grow in the future, so the construction of process system and institutionalization is very important, if there is no good system process, it will face serious problems and chaos.
At the same time, my own energy is mainly offline, and through the annual data performance, I find that the ability of the offline team has improved rapidly, and their market analysis, strategy formulation and execution are becoming more and more accurate.
Inspur New Consumption: Recently, because of the popularity of layoffs and involution, lying equality, the whole public opinion is very concerned about the way of enterprise management, and the senior managers of the post-70s or post-80s use a more strict way to require everyone to strengthen the spirit of struggle in the downward environment, but it seems that it has not been recognized by public opinion, what do you think of the right and wrong in this?
Wang Zhengqi: Using Huawei as an example, everyone knows that Huawei is relatively "rolly", but their success has not only won the support of the public, but also set an example for China's IT and chip industry.
Businesses need this spirit, not only for their own development, but also for the country's economy and the welfare of their employees. Today's Chinese enterprises are facing competition all over the world, and if they do not work hard, they cannot ensure the survival and development of enterprises.
As the founder, although I only have an annual salary of hundreds of thousands, the company can create tens of millions of taxes a year, not to mention that I myself am not willing to lie flat, all year round, and may work harder than employees.
Therefore, the hard work and success of enterprises are ultimately creating value for society, including providing employment opportunities, increasing tax revenue, and improving employee welfare.
Competition is the reality of today's society, no one can escape, and only through hard work can a better life be achieved. As an enterprise, we must also accept the competition, go all out to create more value for the society, and not only live in our own ideals.
Inspur New Consumption: In the face of young people's workplace emotions and social public opinion, how do you manage the post-95s and post-00s? What are the guiding values behind it?
Wang Zhengqi: I very much agree with the young people in the company, because they are all self-disciplined and hard-working.
To evaluate the development and future of an employee, it is to see how the time is used after work, for example, colleagues who do design go to the library after work, visit art exhibitions to accumulate materials, which can reflect their interest and investment in work.
If they can persevere, I believe that they will surpass their peers in the future, get better pay and a better life.
On the other hand, if you just relax and have fun after work and only complete the tasks assigned by your boss, you are likely to fall behind in the fierce competition, because others are still learning while you are resting and will eventually surpass you.
I myself came from the countryside, and after graduating from university, I devoted myself to my work, both intellectually and physically, so I was promoted the fastest in the company.
Of course, there are always unsatisfactory situations, but in the face of difficulties, we cannot shift the blame to external causes. No matter what situation you encounter, you need to find your own reasons and overcome and solve the problem from within.
Inspur New Consumption: What will be the future direction of Mo Xiaoxian's organizational development?
Wang Zhengqi: I hope to build Mo Xiaoxian into a self-learning and self-iterating organization, where everyone is willing to share good experiences and drive the growth of the whole team.
The young people in our company are excellent, have dreams and pursuits, and may just not find a more suitable path. As long as there is proper guidance, they are still willing to improve, because their minds are more active and they understand new things faster.
Inspur New Consumption: When employing people, will you give preference to people with complete cognition, or will you be more enthusiastic about your work?
Wang Zhengqi: I prefer to choose employees with enthusiasm and passion, because as long as they are well guided, this kind of person is more likely to succeed.
On the contrary, there are very few people who think things very clearly, or even non-existent.
Even if it is me, I may only be able to think through half of the things, although thinking is important, but thinking is only a part, and then there is a process of landing.
Thinking and doing are completely different abilities, and thinking of not doing it is always zero.
2. In the trough cycle of the industry, how to grasp the long-term and deterministic opportunities?
Inspur New Consumption: Now that the economy is down, capital is cold, and enterprises are facing more uncertainty, in the face of this situation, what are you more confident about doing well and what you are very confident about what trend will rise?
Wang Zhengqi: Despite the fierce competition, China is still the world's largest FMCG market, and I have full confidence in this market.
But if you want to succeed, the key lies in the four aspects of product power, channel power, brand power and organizational power.
Costco in the U.S. and Uniqlo in Japan were both born in times of economic downturn, so the gap between businesses often widens during difficult times.
Last year's annual reports of listed companies in the food category showed that even in the face of poor economic conditions, the profits and sales of leading companies are still growing, while small companies are facing more challenges.
So the opportunity is not waiting for it, but it is created, and through the polishing of the past few years, I am more optimistic about Mo Xiaoxian's future development.
Inspur New Consumption: Some people lack confidence today, but you are full of confidence in the market and industry, is this because of historical achievements, experience, or other unique insights?
Wang Zhengqi: I probably have a deeper understanding of the channels, products and markets today than some brands. And I also know where I am currently lacking and how much my performance will improve once I make up for this part of my homework.
Looking back on the past, from making olive oil, importing biscuits, to acting as an agent for imported food, until Mo Xiaoxian, we have maintained profitability in these four stages of entrepreneurship, and the scale of the company has continued to expand, and every time we switch tracks, our development space has become broader.
Success sometimes requires luck, but ultimately it's all about strength, which is why we can remain relatively optimistic in today's environment.