Mei Bang Dress Zhou Chengjian: "World Tailor" And "Internet Tailor"

August 28, 2011, to Shanghai

On this day 3 years ago, he led the US state clothing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and raised more than 1 billion 300 million yuan.

More than 10 years ago, the company was a small garment factory in Wenzhou.

Zhou Chengjian led the company to light asset mode, rapidly rising in the domestic casual wear field.

After the listing, the American Apparel not only changed the single operation mode, launched ME&, CITY, online brand AMPM, footwear brand, etc., but also continuously enriched Meters/bonwe product line to meet different age groups.

In May this year, BrandZ released the list of the most valuable global brands, and Metersbonwe ranked the top 10 in the global apparel brand with the value of $1 billion 446 million.

But three years after listing, the company is not going smoothly.

At the very beginning of ME&, CITY started its operation as an independent business unit and signed a large number of celebrity endorsements. With the increase in sales costs, rents and decoration costs, in 2010, the first quarter net profit fell 90% in the first quarter, and the net profit fell 83% in the first half of the year. In addition, the stock went up, and in the first quarter of 2011, the inventory exceeded 3 billion yuan.

Standing on such a time point, Zhou Chengjian warned himself and his team to "stick to this tailor".

His goal has changed from "Chinese tailor" to "world tailor" and pformed the entire company with the spirit of Internet.

One of his dreams is that his own electricity supplier website, the state purchase network in China, is equivalent to the level of the best electricity supplier in the world.

But he knows that perseverance is not easy; insisting on the same time, we must constantly sum up the past and continue to innovate in management mode, process and personnel training.

Reflection on gains and losses

We should not blindly innovate. The present and the future will always be a coordinated and balanced development.

Twenty-first Century: can you share some of your thoughts and experiences in the past three years?

Zhou Chengjian: in the past three years, there are gains and losses. In general, gains are greater than losses. What we get is something that can be used for a long time.

In the past, Chinese enterprises only wanted scale and speed, and did not really think deeply about the internal.

With the opening of the retail industry to the international market, the Chinese market is slowly becoming competitive. Competition is not a speed issue, nor a scale problem. It is more about internal management and control capability.

Over the past three years, I have thought more about product development, management process, talent team building, organization and business mode.

In addition, in the past three years, I have gradually changed from pure opportunists to a person with a strong sense of risk.

In the past, I only had opportunities and no risks in my mind. Facing the fierce competition today, we must have enough risk awareness and do 360 risk thinking in everything we do.

Twenty-first Century: what made you from a fearless state to a strong sense of risk?

Zhou Chengjian: This is also the change brought about after the listing.

Is it possible to achieve the ideal state of the market every time it announces its earnings to the outside world?

Has it reached our ideal state?

We will all go.

Many things are better done than done.

Why do more?

It is because there is no sense of awe, because you do not want to know clearly what the value of this thing is.

Twenty-first Century: do you want to be clear when you do ME&? CITY?

Zhou Chengjian: to do ME& and CITY is of great value to the whole company.

It faces urban white-collar workers aged 22-35 and has strong complementary and support with the "Meters/bonwe" of the 18-25 year old student group.

But there are also regrets.

At that time, 2 billion sales were planned for 2009.

Twenty-first Century: 360 degrees in consideration of risk, is it included in the performance of the financial report?

Zhou Chengjian: of course.

Twenty-first Century: if you consider financial performance, will you limit your bold innovation to a certain extent?

Zhou Chengjian: I don't think so.

In recent years, our innovative work has not stopped. ME&, CITY is doing it continuously, the shoe brand is coming out again, e-commerce is also doing it, and it is always innovating.

Of course, we should not blindly innovate. We emphasize that the present and the future will always be a coordinated and balanced development.

Twenty-first Century: you have made a rapid development in the mainland garment industry by taking the initiative of "light company". Why did you throw heavy gold stores directly after listing?

Zhou Chengjian: "light company" is like Nike and Adidas.

10 years ago, the United States was the 100% brand business model. Later, the dealers in all provinces bargained with me.

I don't feel right. In 2004, we started the direct camp mode, which was directly run in the difficult tier cities, the provincial capital and municipalities directly under the central government, and expanded the direct operation system after listing in 2009.

Well done two or three line market, let franchisee do, and franchisee is loose.

Now, if we turn our battalion into wholesale, we can earn at least 600 million more profit a year, because a lot of costs will be saved.

But 10 years ago, I insisted that what I want is not today's financial profit, but how the brand continues, and there is no way to keep the brand under the wholesale mode.

If Lining set up a direct battalion system at the beginning, today's position is not Nike or Adidas shaking, let alone Fujian brands.

Be an Internet tailor.

It is a combination of traditional stores and e-commerce. It should be the carrier of the Internet in terms of ideas, culture, management processes, supply chain and the whole mechanism.

Twenty-first Century: Lining and other traditional enterprises are already doing business.

Your electronic business platform is purchased at the end of 2010.

Is this the best time?

Zhou Chengjian: because I just felt it at this time, but I didn't really understand it. This feeling may not be right or wrong.

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Twenty-first Century: what platform will Bong buy?

Zhou Chengjian: I hope one day, at least, the market share and this.

Twenty-first Century: does it mean that the operation mode is as successful as Amazon, or is it also a platform based e-commerce company like Amazon?

Zhou Chengjian: it is the mode of operation.

Amazon has been very successful in the world.

We hope that in the future, the State Grid is equivalent to the best country in the world that Amazon has done in the world.

This is my pursuit.

Twenty-first Century: how many success do you have?

Zhou Chengjian: from my own strategic level, we should say that eight or nine is not ten.

Tactically, we are still at the starting point. There are not many good mechanisms to support us.

Twenty-first Century: what are we thinking about at the strategic level?

Zhou Chengjian: in the next 5-10 years, the whole enterprise should turn from a traditional tailor to an Internet tailor.

The so-called Internet tailor is not only sold on the Internet, it is a traditional store combined with e-commerce mode, but in the concept, culture, management process, supply chain and the whole mechanism, it should be the carrier of the Internet.

This is what I want to do. I have been thinking and pushing this thing all the time.

I personally feel that people will really enter the life of the Internet in the future. Internet life includes media, business, social life and other aspects of life.

Twenty-first Century: supply chain management is one of the most praiseworthy aspects of Amazon.

What do you think the ideal supply chain is like?

Zhou Chengjian: from factory to consumer, it is 5-10 days, this is the most ideal state.

Of course, this is part of the product, after all, we need to lay out the number of fields, the number of pre season, and finally the speed of the middle season, the fabric and so on.

Different speed has different costs, so long as you analyze from the market and what speed can match the market demand, it is reasonable.

You can do it from workshop to consumer in 10 days, as long as you are willing to spend the cost you can do it. We need to set up the mechanism in this direction.

The original origin of the original supply chain is in the design center and the planning center. The real efficient supply chain should be based on the store as the origin and the consumer as the origin. The two logics are totally different.

Our past supply chain management is a supply chain management based on wholesalers, rather than a supply chain based on retailers. Now our supply chain management is done around the supply chain of Internet and retailers.

Understanding "team up and team"

People will eventually return to an instinct, which is important for managers and managers to trust each other first.

Twenty-first Century: you have said more and more sense of importance of "team up and team".

How do you understand it now?

Zhou Chengjian: first, whether a person is fit or not for a job is not a question of ability or strength.

This is what we learned recently. It may have been blind to think that a person's ability is very good, but he doesn't know how to put him in the right place.

Second, managers support and assist managers, which is an important relationship between managers and managers.

We didn't understand this at the beginning. It might be more of a kind of accusation or even curse at the beginning.

The ability is not strong, is the ability to bring a team head, his incompetence is his incompetence, this is also myself over the years to sum up slowly.

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Third, for managers, if success is the responsibility of others, then everyone will be happy to work with you. If success is your own and failure is others, then what is the strength of everyone working with you?

Start with this idea from me, and gradually penetrate the whole company, so that the whole gas field will follow.

It may be more to think about problems before, and now more importantly, to think about problems.

As long as the heart is careful, the other party will feel it, so that the team will be built, and things will go smoothly.

It's not that complicated.

Twenty-first Century: what are your more important leadership styles and elements?

Zhou Chengjian: career and concentration.

There is a clear understanding of how to achieve goals and results in terms of management strategies and methods.

But there are no specific ways and elements of leadership.

The deeper you understand management, the more you live and normalize. It's also the best way.

You have to force a theory, a set of values, not necessarily suitable.

People will eventually return to an instinct, which is important for managers and managers to trust each other first.

Twenty-first Century: do you still have to cling to your company when making decisions?

Zhou Chengjian: we are democratic centralism.

Many decisions are made now, first of all departments.

A leader can not understand many things, but he must be able to identify who is right or who is wrong. He must be able to decide which one is the main point from three or five points, or draw it out from it, and turn it into a point of view, guiding everybody how to do it.

This is the ability that a leader must have, otherwise things can't be done well.