Author: Cheng Shutao

There is a phenomenon in the business world. Many companies started at the same time, but after a few years, some companies have grown into well-known large-scale companies, while others However, companies are struggling to survive year after year, and some companies have even gradually faded out of the public eye! The same political, economic, cultural and market environment, what are the differences? The author has benefited from his career in corporate marketing consulting. In recent years, he has experienced and seen a lot of fast-moving consumer goods companies. I boldly summarize and summarize the 9 sins that companies cannot do well for all my friends in the industry. If it can be of some inspiration or inspiration to all my friends in the industry, Help would be greatly appreciated.

In business management, grid refers to space and vision goals, and bureau refers to scope and planning. The size of the business owner's structure and the level of effort determine the future development of a company!

The author once visited the owner of a company that produces and sells small sesame oil. The company was passed down through the hard work of his father's generation. This company has very good qualifications. It has decades of development history, good market accumulation, reputation and popularity. It is the only company in the region that has obtained national geographical indication protected products. It has advanced production equipment and unique production technology... However, the annual sales of this company have been hovering around 100 million for several years without growth.

After preliminary communication with the business owner, we discovered the problem: in terms of marketing, it is a group of senior sales staff who are direct descendants of the business owner who maintain existing customers and markets, and there are no new markets every month. Development target assessment, no new product promotion task assessment, monthly sales target achievement assessment are relatively loose, and daily management is also relatively loose. Thanks to the good market precipitation and reputation of the product, the current market sales are relatively stable, with each salesperson earning tens of thousands per year. With a salary ranging from over 100,000 yuan to more than 100,000 yuan, you can live in a prefecture-level city without worrying about food and clothing;

After further communication with the business owner, we also found that the boss himself usually works in a casual style: whether he comes or not, he says he will leave. Just leave and start enjoying life, leisure and health care around the age of 40. We suggest that from the perspective of enterprise development, the enterprise has advantages in hardware and software, and can do better and develop faster. With professional and systematic planning and operation, the enterprise can grow into a leader in the category. The opportunity for brands is huge!

However, the boss of the company said: Now that the annual profit income is nearly 10 million, it is good for the family to have enough food and clothing and to support the employees. I don’t want to be so busy, so tired, so hard... After listening Our group was really speechless at the words of the business owner. This is a person’s inner pursuit, which can also be said to be the pattern and ambition of a business owner. Everyone has their own ambitions and cannot be forced! The pattern of business owners is the ceiling for a company's development, and it is difficult for company employees and external forces to break through. There are many business owners like this, and they also represent a type of business that cannot succeed.

——There is a saying that doesn’t sound good, but it is true: “If a company is not well run, the problem lies in the ‘front three rows’ and the root cause lies in the ‘rostrum’.”

What does corporate strategy do? Strategy is used to clarify the direction and goals of enterprise development, strategy is used to solve enterprise development problems, and strategy is the way and path to achieve the enterprise's vision and goals!

Gone are the days when one-size-fits-all products were sold everywhere, and the days when companies relied on advertising and dealers to find door-to-door agents, and their performance grew rapidly, have also long since become history.

What does today’s business rely on to succeed? Rely on professional and systematic operation, rely on good products and consumer experience, rely on new thinking and new tools...

However, too many companies are too impetuous now. What is easy to sell in the market will be followed up. I did whatever was popular back then, always wanting to take shortcuts and get rich overnight. Little do they know that the most far-sighted shortcut in this world is to work hard, to clarify the strategic direction and move forward in a down-to-earth manner!

If the strategic direction of the company is not clear and firm, it will be found that no product can become the symbol of the company, no product has market precipitation, and no product has sales and influence. Ability to become one of the best in the industry.

For example, this kind of enterprise is like a piece of private land owned by the boss. This year, it is good to sell tung trees, and next year it is good to sell poplar trees. There are no towering trees growing! Why? Because there is no persistence, because it takes decades to cultivate a towering tree, and a great brand requires continuous dissemination and accumulation over a long period of time! There are currently a large number of companies that have unclear strategic directions and do not adhere to them.

——“Without determination, nothing can be accomplished in the world.”

All competition is ultimately the competition of talents!

Emperor Kangxi made great achievements in his life and was called a holy king. Why? It was Emperor Kangxi who was particularly good at recruiting and recruiting talents! To eliminate Aobai wisely, Wu Liuyi and Wei Dongting were employed; to pacify the Three Feuds, Zhou Peigong and Tuhai were employed; to regain Taiwan, Yao Qisheng and Li Guangdi were employed; to annihilate Geerdan, Emperor Kangxi personally led the expedition, and at the same time employed the eldest brother, Li Guangdi, and Bao Rilong. May wait! Different periods and careers have used different talents, and their talents have become different major events!

What is a big business? Large companies have many people and many talents; what is a small business? Small businesses have few people and few talents!

In the actual operation process of the enterprise, many business owners do not know how to hire and retain people, resulting in the talent that has been recruited through great hardships leaving the company one after another in two days. It has become the cradle of cultivating marketing talents in the industry. There are really not a few companies like this.

The author has personally experienced such a company when he just graduated. I have worked in this company for four years, from an intern when I first joined the company to a regional manager. However, in the end due to various circumstances, I became a regional manager. The reason why the employees were unhappy was that they had to choose to leave like other colleagues (before the author left the company, many excellent marketing personnel had resigned one after another to find another development platform). Later I learned that this company closed down in 2012. Other companies that started at the same time have now entered the top 4 in the industry nationwide.

——How to truly employ people? Keep people? It means doing everything possible to find the right talents, respecting each other, achieving mutual success, and seeking a win-win situation. Only this way can we achieve long-term success!

Products are the carrier of business operations and profits. There are many companies that cannot develop due to product quality problems, or even develop and then fall or even close down. Sanlu is a typical case!

The author once saw a company that produces and sells juice. The orange juice was orange-yellow when it was first produced. After a few months of display at the terminal, the product magically turned white. Just imagine who would dare to produce such a product. Sell? Who dares to buy it? Who dares to drink? Can dealers and marketers have confidence? How can you promote your product well without confidence?

There is also an old beverage company that produces a compound fruit juice drink. The product has good quality and taste in the early stage of its launch. The annual sales volume in a province has reached nearly 100 million, making it a leader in the province's beverage industry at that time. Dark horse. However, later, due to the company changing raw material suppliers, and the quality control department and production department not strictly controlling the storage and use of raw materials, quality accidents such as batch precipitation and stratification of products occurred in the market, resulting in a large number of terminals and dealers returning goods. At the same time, because the company's attitude in handling problems was not positive and responsible enough, a large number of dealers suffered losses, terminated cooperation, and sales plummeted. Overnight, the company's overall sales scale returned to "pre-liberation"! There are really not a few companies that have similar problems, and there are new similar stories every year!

——Product quality is the foundation of the "building" of the enterprise. If the foundation is not solid and firm, of course the "high-rise building" of the enterprise cannot be built!

For enterprises to engage in the offline market, it is a process in which the number of markets continues to increase and the quality of the market continues to improve. The increase in the number of markets promotes the rapid improvement of short-term performance of enterprises; the process of continuous improvement of market quality and the continuous increase of the number of large markets is the process of continuous improvement of enterprise performance and sustainable development of enterprises.

Under normal circumstances, small and medium-sized enterprises will make two mistakes in market operations: First, they focus on development and neglect maintenance and promotion, and they will die after developing in the first place; second, they will not choose key markets for cultivation and will not Building a model market will not build a big market.

The ultimate competition between enterprises is the competition of brands. What is a brand? The essence of brand is the relationship between enterprises, products and consumers.

If the company, products and consumers are not familiar with each other, the brand is a strange brand to consumers; if the company, products and consumers are very familiar with each other and "look up and see each other" every day, the brand is a famous brand to consumers ! If company personnel focus on development and do not do terminal construction, promotion, or market maintenance, how can the product establish a relationship with consumers?

The author just studied the market data of a food company that has been operating for more than 20 years two days ago. The company has developed four to five hundred markets across the country, but it can continue to ship to less than 50 markets every month. There are no more than 10 markets with sales exceeding 500,000 yuan. Sales volume is very poor in the off-season. Sales are mainly concentrated in the two peak sales seasons of Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival. More than 50% of customers come to order goods during the peak sales season. Basically no delivery during the off-season. How can such market foundation and market quality promote the sustainable development of enterprises? It is not difficult to imagine how difficult it is to run a business during the normal sales season!

——Offline market operation must focus on both hands, one hand to develop new customers and the other hand to market construction. Both hands must be grasped, both hands must be strong!

Jack Ma acquired RT-Mart, and Huang Mingduan, the founder of RT-Mart, left the scene in tears: We won against our competitors, but lost to the times!

In ancient times, when people woke up after sleeping for 30 years, they would find that society and living environment had basically not changed; but in today’s social environment, if you wake up after sleeping for 3 years or 3 months, it will seem like several years have passed. ! The speed of development of today's society and technology really surprises us. In such a social and market environment, there are still many companies whose product updates and iterations cannot keep up with the changing pace of consumer demand. Their products are seriously aging and even out of touch with mainstream consumer groups. Their marketing models have not changed for several years or more than ten years. New distribution models such as e-commerce, new retail, and community group buying have a wait-and-see attitude, doubts and even rejections...

I was chatting with a friend (general manager) of a food company some time ago, and he said that this month I went to Fujian to visit an industry senior (the boss of a well-known domestic enterprise). When he talked to this senior about the new retail sales model, the industry senior shook his head repeatedly and said: Lose money, lose money, and can’t do it. For new retail, With a completely negative and exclusive attitude, my friend had no choice but to change the conversation topic. In fact, this industry senior doesn’t know that my friend’s company currently has sales of nearly 10 million yuan per month on new retail and e-commerce platforms, and its profits are very stable!

As soon as the electric light appeared, the kerosene lamp disappeared; the lighter appeared, the matches disappeared; the calculator appeared, the abacus disappeared; the CD appeared, the tape disappeared; the mobile phone appeared, the BP machine disappeared; the digital camera appeared, There is no market for film; with the advent of smartphones and 4G, there is no need to use the computer at home; with the emergence of WeChat, no one can send text messages! Even the one that killed Mercedes-Benz was not BMW or Audi, but probably Douyin!

——As Zhang Quanling said: If you cannot keep pace with the times, the times will eliminate you and you will not even be able to say "goodbye"!

Enterprises are born to bear responsibilities, the responsibility of providing high-quality products to society, the responsibility of social employment, and the responsibility of paying taxes!

But then again, enterprises have always been a unit full of problems. When old problems are solved, new problems arise again. No enterprise is so strong that there are no problems. Therefore, companies must face up to, take responsibility for, and solve in a timely manner all problems that arise during the business operations of these companies. For example, product quality issues, dealer advance fee write-off issues, consumer complaints, etc. Some companies fail to actively face and solve the above problems, resulting in collective defections of dealers from time to time and frequently reported in the press. If a company handles problems that arise in its business operations with such an irresponsible and evasive attitude, who can be willing to share the same boat and save the economy?

In fact, the process by which an enterprise continuously solves problems that arise in the operation and management process is also the process by which an enterprise improves its management capabilities, accumulates reputation, and builds trust! And these are precisely the steps for enterprise development and growth!

——Business management, integrity and responsibility!

Diversification is also an invisible pitfall in business operations.

There are three main development strategies of enterprises: upward integration, downward integration and horizontal diversification.

When a company expands its business to upstream raw materials and raw materials, it is an upward integration development (for example, a company that produces ham sausage starts to operate pig breeding); when it extends to downstream distribution channels, it is a downward integration (for example, a manufacturing company starts to build its own distribution channel); Increasing diversified operations in different industries in parallel is horizontal diversification (for example, companies that produce and sell milk start operating walnut juice, beverage companies start to get involved in real estate, etc.)

There is no problem with the above three development strategies in itself. The problem is that Many people will not truly diversify their operations, which will eventually lead to other new projects they develop not operating smoothly and unprofitably, seriously occupying the company's liquidity, and even becoming a bottomless pit of funds, eventually bringing down the main business. There are really too many such cases, and they are too numerous to mention in the Chinese business community.

——How to achieve true diversity? The most successful entrepreneur in this regard is Mr. Li Ka-shing, the richest man in China. Mr. Li has run many diversified development projects and has never failed. He has unique business wisdom!

If you know it, you know it, but you don’t know how to ask the teacher. Students who don't know how to do it themselves and don't ask the teacher when they go to school will definitely not be good students. The same goes for running a business. If you don't understand something yourself, you must learn to borrow timely help. Ask people who know you, people who understand, and teachers for guidance and help. Huawei is great. Didn’t you know that when Huawei was big, it had more than 15 consulting companies providing consulting services at the same time? Huawei’s annual consulting fees were more than 200 million. The Fortune 500 companies are great. Which of the world’s famous large companies is behind them? The shadow of consulting company services and guidance!

——There are three things to learn in life: take advantage of the situation, and the situation creates heroes. Only by understanding the trend and grasping the trend can you win in the future. The greatest wisdom in life is to choose, learn to choose, and know how to give up. Borrowing wisdom, smart people constantly explore and sum up experience. Smart people are good at learning from successful people, acting quickly, saving life costs and shortening the time to success. Leverage, there is no perfect individual, only a perfect team. Small success depends on the individual, and big success depends on the team! It is better to build a ship and go to sea than to borrow a ship to go to sea. Make good use of borrowed words and achieve success in your life!

There is no love without reason in this world, nor hatred without reason; there is no success without reason, and there is no failure without reason. The continued success of a business today must be driven by a well-organized and hard-working boss, a team that works together to advance with the times, and a set of product development and iterations, market development, and construction. , supply chain management and optimization, risk prediction and control and other mature operating system support, and it must also be inseparable from the guidance of experts and the help of noble people!

Running a business is not easy; but no matter how bad the business environment is, there are still companies that are doing well!

What we have to do is to keep our feet on the ground, practice our internal skills well, avoid detours, avoid traps, keep pace with the times, leverage our strength to develop, and take small steps to reach thousands of miles.