Xie Hong: From Zhejiang Businessmen To Philosophy Merchants

Looking back at entrepreneurial experience, Xie Hong did not like to describe himself as a "successful person".

But the area of extreme thinking is an important personality factor that pushed him forward over the years.

In 1991, Xie Hong appeared a fork in the road of life.

The 15 year old college student, who was the youngest teacher in Hangzhou Institute of Commerce, worked very well in the senior executive positions of the school. However, he finally chose to go to sea and commercialize a fast infant nutritious rice noodle developed in his spare time over the years.

This decision has made Beingmate, a well-known enterprise in China's rice noodle industry.

The leader of the school has kept his job opportunities for Xie Hong because of his good intentions. But Xie Hong knew in his heart that he would never go back to the stage of going out of business.

On the eve of the opening of Beingmate Beijing Experience Hall, he said why he had made a decision: "I am not willing to tell lies, and if I do not tell the truth, I feel very uncomfortable."

At the end of 1991, a friend of Xie Hong recommended to him a town biscuit factory in Yuhang, Hangzhou.

The company was shut down because of poor management.

Xie Hong accepted the appointment as the new director of the small factory and made a 20% stake in technology.

At that time, Heinz and Nestle's rice noodle products, which monopolized the domestic market, followed the western countries' formula.

Xie Hong adjusted the formula according to the physiological characteristics of the Chinese people, positioning the product as "for the development of Chinese baby".

In 1992, Beingmate baby formula rice noodle was officially launched.

Xie Hong saw that Heinz's products were priced at more than 14 yuan, and the retail price of Beingmate was set at about 13 yuan.

Xie Hong was only 300 yuan a month, and he borrowed 180 thousand yuan from his fellow countrymen for business development and advertising.

Soon, Zhejiang began the pilot project of restructuring township enterprises.

Xie Hong, a flexible minded company, took the opportunity to complete the pformation from the private sector to the private sector. However, he once again faced the problem of shortage of funds.

This time, he did not borrow money from fellow townsfolk, but aimed at financing overseas.

Xie Hong, a teacher, introduced a German Cole.

Cole, who liked philosophy, was soon attracted by Xie Hong's courage and his interest in philosophical speculation.

In fact, Beingmate's English name, BEINGMATE, is rather existentialist. Cole agreed to invest $100 thousand to subscribe for 30% of the small business.

Beingmate has also become a genuine joint venture brand.

This cooperation not only solves the most urgent fund problem of Beingmate, but also enables Beingmate to have the first mover advantage of the enterprise mechanism.

In that era, a jar of Chinese milk powder and a joint venture hat saved a lot of advertising expenses in marketing.

Xie Hong has also tasted the sweetness of internationalization.

At the time of the "ten years' sword" in Hangzhou Institute of Commerce, Hangzhou Institute of Commerce was a college directly under the Ministry of Commerce. Xie Hong had the opportunity to read many Western business theory books that were impossible to see at that time. The concept of effective management attracted him deeply.

After marketing Beingmate products, Xie Hong's marketing knowledge in universities played an important role.

In his "chess game", the product is not rolled out all over the market, but concentrates on the three infant food supplement market in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The central cities are mainly direct and special distribution, and non central cities are mainly sales networks based on agents.

With this marketing system, Beingmate and its rival Heinz have formed a situation of resistance in the Yangtze River Delta market.

In 1995, sales growth of more than 100% over 3 years has increased Beingmate's assets from the initial 2 million 600 thousand yuan to nearly 30 million yuan.

At the end of this year, an international food giant in the annual report of the Chinese market, listed Beingmate as the potential "number one opponent" in the Chinese market.

At this time, Xie Hong has already felt that the production capacity of the original factory can not meet the needs of the rapid expansion of the enterprise. He is determined to build another production line with the largest annual output of 15 thousand tons of nutritious rice noodles in East China.

The dream of rice noodle Empire seems to be at hand, but this venture almost bankrupt enterprises.

By the end of 1997, Xie Hong had not paid wages in ten months.

Before the Spring Festival, more than 40 suppliers of raw materials put Xie Hongdu in his office with only one purpose: to collect debts.

Finally, everyone was tired. Xie Hong took them to a small shop near the shoe factory.

Everyone drank and drank, and Xie hung was drunk. But the result turned to a great leap: some creditors agreed to turn creditor's rights into equity and become shareholders of Beingmate.

Under the questioning, Xie hung gave out the "killer weapon" of the year: "I took the creditors to visit the factory, so that they could see the advanced production line, see busy workers, good management, and see the long queue picking up cars at the factory gate, and I brought them out to them.

They saw that Beingmate's production and sales were very good, but they just lacked cash flow.

Of course, I have a good credit record myself. "

After years of silence, Xie Hong, reminiscent of the bistro's drinking, was glad that he had suffered the setback very early.

The lesson is profound: business capacity is expanding and market costs are increasing, and the cost of the market is much greater than that of building a factory.

Fortunately, the backbone has not gone along with the enterprises to tide over difficulties.

Xie Hong needs to learn to say "no" and "to think" instead of "entrepreneur" instead of "entrepreneur".

In his view, even though Beingmate now has a revenue of 1 billion yuan a year, it is still a start-up enterprise, because "when the enterprise moves from 1 hundred million to 1 billion, it falls too much."

He asked his company to have a healthy corporate culture and a steady and steady style of work.

Therefore, we need to learn to say "no" to opportunities.

A few years ago, Xie Hong and one of the most famous private enterprises in China talked about cooperation.

After the initial contact, Xie Hong gave up the plan. He felt that this business leader's style was very aggressive. Although the other side had impressive achievements in the capital market, in Xie Hong's view, the first level of enterprise development is the market, the second level is the operation of the industry, the integration of the industrial chain and the value chain, and the third level is capital operation. Capital operation must serve the development of the industry, not just the money.

Before long, the private enterprise suddenly collapsed and became a major financial shock that shocked the country.

Xie Hong also set a rule for enterprises. Beingmate's annual celebration does not spend money on virtual activities, and donate money to public welfare undertakings and consumer education.

This decision began to be opposed by many shareholders and employees. Their view is that "to take money for public service is better than to put it in their pockets".

Revenue is the important short-term interests of enterprises, and doing public welfare activities is the long-term interests of enterprises to establish brand image.

In the end, Xie Hong asked these shareholders to leave Beingmate.

Xie Hong reviewed the entrepreneurial experience, but he did not like to describe himself as a "successful person".

But the area of extreme thinking is an important personality factor that pushed him forward over the years.

In 2004, the "big headed Doll" incident caused by the inferior milk powder in Fuyang triggered a nationwide strong concern about infant food safety.

The whole industry is entering the cold winter.

Xie Hong is not worried. He has always stressed that the baby food industry is a "conscience industry" and has never relaxed the quality requirements of the products.

As a matter of fact, the bad milk powder incident has become an industry shuffle. At that time, there were nearly 2000 infant milk powder enterprises in China. Up to now, there are less than 50 households.

In terms of product quality control, he prefers to pay higher costs because "respecting consumer sovereignty and respecting intellectual property rights are the core competitiveness of enterprises".

The importance of internationalization is the internationalization of the local community, with the level of local service reaching the international level.

Xie Hong believes that it is more important for Chinese enterprises to seize the local market than to go out.

Today, Beingmate has built production bases in Anda, Dunhua, Yichang, Beihai, Huainan and other places.

"We plan to achieve a total revenue of 10 billion yuan in 2010."

He said.

The Zhejiang entrepreneur who likes to study philosophy and intellectuals has recently used the concept of "wise businessman".

He defines himself as "businessman": the person who pursues the meaning of life and the meaning of life.