AOKANG: Winning At The Turning Point

20 years ago, when Wang Zhentao told others that he wanted to build China's famous brand shoes, many people said he was restless.

"Similarly, now I say to be a Chinese LV, many people do not believe it, tell me not to play empty.

But I know that people must dare to think first before they can do their best to seize the opportunities for development.

I heard Wang Zhentao worked as a carpenter and sold rice, and LV was actually a packer at a pier.

Wang Zhentao believes in his philosophy of life. In his eyes, the nose and eyes are almost the same among people. The biggest difference is "above the neck", that is, the difference between thinking.

"In innovation, we must set up such an idea that there are always more ways, better ways, and the best ways. There is no market in the off-season, but only in off-season products. There is no overdue style, only the wrong place.

If you want to win others, you should think of places that others have never thought of.

Wang Zhentao often said: "people do not win at the starting line, but win at the turning point."

The development course of AOKANG is the best annotation of Wang Zhentao's quotations.

What AOKANG thought and what Wang Zhentao thought and did, to a certain extent, represented the growth of a series of Wenzhou enterprises. It also represented some aspiring Wenzhou people and began to pform from "businessmen" to "entrepreneurs".

When the company starts to sail against the wind, the enterprises want to go along with the trend, and our AOKANG seems to run against the current situation.

To speak, today's AOKANG group is really grateful to the 1987 fire.

At that time, Wenzhou produced a lot of fake and shoddy leather shoes, which had a very bad impact on the whole country.

As a result, the counterfeit and shoddy Wenzhou shoes that Zhejiang's industry and commerce departments will check in all parts of the country are concentrated in Hangzhou's Wulin gate.

The second day after the fire, I was returning from Wuhan to Wenzhou on the train, ready to enter a batch of leather shoes back to Wuhan to sell.

On the way, I heard everyone talking about Hangzhou burning Wenzhou shoes, but I don't feel like it. Because Wuhan is so far away from Hangzhou, it can't burn there. Besides, the quality of leather shoes I have entered has been good. There should be no problem.

But second days before entering the house, Wuhan called and said that it was a big event. Our shoes worth about two hundred thousand yuan were all confiscated.

Who can imagine that overnight, Wenzhou shoes have become the pronoun of "plague shoes".

When the city gate was on fire, the fish fell into the pond, and the leather shoes that were sold were all leather shoes.

Though I had received more than two thousand yuan compensation in spite of the difficult litigation finally, many years of hard work and efforts were lost.

Wenzhou people have always been famous for their good business. But in the late 80s of last century, a lot of Wenzhou businessmen stayed at the level of businessmen who only paid attention to making money, and quite a lot of people were making money first. The prevalence of fake and shoddy goods led to Wenzhou's goods falling to the point of shouting at once.

However, I never expected that the fire would have burned my passion and determination: what can Wenzhou people do if they can't even do their shoes well?

I want to start from scratch, make shoes for myself, and love Wenzhou shoes.

So I went back to my hometown and started the AOKANG group's predecessor with a borrowed 30 thousand yuan.

I also thought of a trademark for my leather shoes: Olin.

Olin, the Olympic Games, was a famous name at the time when China was organizing the Asian Games.

However, because it involves international brands, it has to be changed to "AOKANG": to launch the Olympic spirit and promote the healthy development of enterprises.

We have to avenge Wenzhou's leather shoes.

I went back to Wuhan with my own leather shoes.

Send your own shoes to large and small shopping malls in Wuhan, but no one will accept them.

It was difficult to put shoes into a shoe cabinet of a shopping mall in Hanyang for trial and marketing. It lasted for a month and a half.

On one occasion, I posted a notice in front of the counter early in the morning: "this is not Wenzhou shoes that are burned, but durable AOKANG shoes. The quality period is six months, and the quality problem is two."

Finally, customers began to patronize.

Over the years, our reputation has been regarded as the lifeblood of our company, because we have won the favor of domestic and foreign merchants, and AOKANG group has been developing rapidly.

In Wenzhou, I am afraid that the quality consciousness of employees is weak.

Now AOKANG has ten thousand or twenty thousand people, the quality is not guaranteed, and everyone is going to lose the job.

Who let us lose the job, we must first smash whose rice bowl.

In July 2000, AOKANG group dismissed 8 senior staff because the quality of the leather shoes they were responsible for was unqualified.

When the company's quality control department refused to accept it, they thought that the products basically met all the technological requirements. Although these products were fully qualified in other companies, we still felt that these managers relaxed the quality requirements, or decided to remove their duties and destroy the leather shoes.

After ten years of development, by the end of the 90s, AOKANG has already had considerable scale and strength. After AOKANG was named "China's real leather shoes king", a great opportunity to establish AOKANG brand and revitalize Wenzhou shoes began to emerge.

At that time, a lot of fake AOKANG shoes sprung up everywhere.

Faced with thousands of fake AOKANG shoes, we have a bold idea.

More than 10 years ago, a fire burned the reputation of Wenzhou shoes. After ten years, why can't we burn another fire and rebuild the image of Wenzhou shoes?

In December 15, 1999, also in Hangzhou, under the watchful eyes of all the people, I, together with the leaders of Wenzhou and the competent departments, burned more than 2000 pairs of fake AOKANG shoes.

It is very interesting that a leader of the government department also ignited the fire in Hangzhou's Wulin gate 12 years ago.

At that time, looking at the blazing fire, the leader said something worth pondering. "12 years ago, I burned fake shoes in Wenzhou. After 12 years, I burned fake Wenzhou shoes."

A fire has also fired a famous brand in China.

At the same time, we lifted the banner of "made in Wenzhou" and entered Shanghai.

Until the 90s of last century, some enterprises in Wenzhou did not dare to mark the Wenzhou word on their products.

In order to reshape the image of Wenzhou people, in March 2001, AOKANG made a move that shocked our colleagues. In March 15th of that year, AOKANG resolutely raised the banner of "Wenzhou made" and opened the store directly to Shanghai Nanjing Road, known as China first street.

The store is less than 70 square meters, with an annual rent of up to about 1600000 yuan.

How risky is it?

Because just 10 years ago, that is, on the same street, many businesses competed for the brand of this shop without Wenzhou goods, so as not to cause trouble.

In fact, we dare to take this step by relying on strength and firm belief.

Soon after we entered the Shanghai market, we won the favor of consumers with exquisite production and new styles.

In the early May of that year, in the tender procurement of the Shanghai municipal government procurement center, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau ordered the purchase of 50 thousand pairs of Police shoes for the public. Our AOKANG shoes won the bid at one stroke.

Now, brand extension seems to be a fashion.

Many large enterprises have done almost the same thing in one industry, and have begun to extend to a new industry with the advantage of their original brands.

In Wenzhou, there have been such signs. Some of the enterprises that originally made leather shoes started making clothes again.

When the hot spread of the brand spread, we did not blindly follow suit. AOKANG took the road of multi brand operation because we wanted to concentrate on our own leather shoes.

In 2001, we successfully launched Kanglong casual shoes. Next, beautiful ladies, fashion women's shoes, GEOX breathing shoes, and red Firebird brands were launched. AOKANG began to take advantage of the three-dimensional brand strategy to seize the market share of all segments.

After the expansion of the scale of disruptive management reform, many internal management problems also follow.

In the course of AOKANG's development, it has undergone three major changes, that is, the three change.

The first change was to break the family management in 1995.

At that time, for a long time, I had been trapped in the tedious disputes caused by family managers all day long, and became a "firefighter" without any time to take account of the development of enterprises.

Just when I was hesitant, two things happened, prompting me to make up my mind to break away from the management malpractice of family businesses.

One thing happened inside the company. At that time, an elder in charge of sales saw that the shoes of the old lady in the market were selling well, and I could not distinguish them. I insisted on producing a large number of cotton shoes worn by old ladies, which was also very cheap.

Although these shoes are selling very well, after a long time, many people mention AOKANG and say, "AOKANG, I know, is that the one who sells the old lady's shoes?"

It is a fatal blow for an enterprise that hopes to create a first-class brand image. It took us several years to slowly turn the adverse situation.

Soon after that, another thing that shocked the Wenzhou industry happened again.

At that time, a well-known shoemaking enterprise in Wenzhou suddenly collapsed, and it was once the largest shoe manufacturer in Wenzhou.

I remember two years ago when the business went bankrupt, I talked with the boss about the family business, because he was the chairman of the board, his son was the general manager, his son-in-law was the deputy general manager, and his wife was the financial manager. Once the problem arises, I find it difficult to deal with it.

The boss laughed at the time. "We are all family members. Can we really fight?"

As a result, neither son nor son-in-law would be able to fight anyone. He really fought, and the management was in a mess.

After a shock, I took a hard time. The enterprise should use the best and not the most pro.

And if all of the family members are type A blood, no matter how they breed, they are A type blood. Only when they find another type B blood from outside can they produce AB blood.

This is the reason for doing business. New employees will bring new ideas.

If you are always confined to your own small family, you will not see the vast world outside, and the business will only get smaller and smaller.

After the family management reform, the management of the company became more open, and a large number of talents were trained and developed, which laid the foundation for further expansion of the company.

Then in 2002, the company made second changes, through the establishment of a complete system of rules and regulations, so that the company's management is more standardized, and operation is more stable and safe.

In 2006, the company entered the third period of reform. The organizational structure of the group was reformed. The management and control mode of the group has changed from operation management to strategic management. It has strengthened the functions of group planning, monitoring and service, and laid the foundation for the company to achieve its strategic goals.

In recent years, AOKANG has been groping on the international road. AOKANG's practice in the past five years has witnessed the internationalization of most Chinese enterprises.

In this process, management innovation is the key to the internationalization of Chinese enterprises.

We formally signed the global partnership agreement with one of the largest strategic management consulting companies, Kearney.

He will make a comprehensive diagnosis and control of AOKANG's management system and the development strategy plan for the next five years, including the setting up of footwear strategy formulation and enterprise management and control mode, as well as the new management mode and management process.

The introduction of Global Management Consultants is a need for our own internal management development and a natural extension of AOKANG from the domestic market to the international market. This is a comprehensive physical examination for AOKANG.

We hope that such a "physical examination" will make the development of enterprises healthier and safer, and lay the foundation for AOKANG's greater role in the international arena in the future, and ultimately achieve the vision of the enterprise.