Teli Group CEO Tong Zhixiang: Continue To Integrate &Nbsp; Strive For Differentiation.

In 2009, Tong Xiang, who worked in IBM for nearly 30 years, served as chief executive of tri group. In September 7, 2011, HOLA HOLA was renamed the "HOLA special force and happy" conference held in Shanghai. There is no correlation between the two. The change of name is one of the steps that Ms. Tong Zhixiang has played in the process of leading the tri group to integrate.

Tall and tall Business Suits The child always appeared at the conference site. This is the first time she appeared before many mainland media, but she also had no lack of elegance. She told reporters about the reasons for the renaming and the development plan of HOLA Teli and le, and accepted an exclusive interview with reporters.

In the interview, Tong talked most about "integration", which was the focus of her work after taking office. From promoting four retail outlets in Taiwan brand Integration, to achieve integration of trade and retail, as well as the integration of Taiwan and the mainland, various integration is gradually advancing. The main reason for this renamed is to achieve the consistency of retail brands between Taiwan and Mainland China. In Taiwan, HOLA focuses on hard clothes, while tri and Lok mainly sell soft goods. With the increase of cross strait exchanges and personnel exchanges, it becomes urgent to achieve brand consistency.

Behind the brand integration is actually a process of integrating resources, combing internal management and optimizing the process. Tong has repeatedly stressed to reporters that the purpose of integration is to effectively reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Based on this, Tong has done a lot of articles in internal management, including integrating all the system talents, integrating IT system, and implementing high performance culture internally.

HOLA tri Li ho an insider told reporters: as a professional manager, the total change brought by Tong Tong to the enterprise is to introduce a high performance culture, set a clear goal, and assess everyone in the team according to the objectives. The whole enterprise management adds more "professionalism".

In the process of integration, the most difficult thing is: the integration of people. Tong always laughs: we must persist in insisting, insisting, and communicating with each other continuously.

"Differentiation" is another word frequently mentioned in the interview process. How to find the differentiation of commodities and the differentiation of brands, but also focus on their main business, can be seen that this is the adjustment direction of HOLA tri and music, and it is also the core competitiveness to ensure the continued development of Teli and music.

Attachment: full text of the interview

Reporter: first of all, Tong Tong wants to ask what aspects of the rename are considered.

Tong Zhixiang (hereinafter referred to as Tong): this time we changed the name of HOLA HOLA to HOLA Teli and music in mainland China. The main reason is that we firmly believe that we will continue to develop on the mainland in the future, and there will be a bigger breakthrough. Why is it renamed? Because our group has similar stores in Taiwan, B&Q in Taiwan, and HOLA under our group. It is called HOLA in Taiwan. In 2004, we put our soft clothes on the mainland store and then called HOLA HOLA. Now both sides of the Strait travel freely, plus direct flights, so the guests on both sides are very confused when they are interworking. Whether you are HOLA, or happy or special, and so on, on the one hand, in order to make the guests clearer, in fact, the name renaming is one aspect. Our most important thing is actually doing the integration of resources. Because after the integration, the whole purchasing volume of the tri group will be greater. In addition, when developing its own brand, the strength will be stronger, and the production efficiency will be improved.

Reporter: This renamed the name is mainly for the cross-strait uniform brand. Will we introduce other famous brands in the mainland after that?

Tong: I think this is possible, because the vision of our entire group is that in the areas we serve, we hope that the size of our customers will be our special strength all our lives. In mainland China, we are now living in soft furnishings. Furniture will be advanced in the future. But in the future, we will be able to achieve this vision, including soft clothing, hard clothing and even services, including home design, maintenance and so on. So I think it's possible. {page_break}

Reporter: will this rename affect the consumer awareness of the brand in the past? Have you done any research in this field?

Tong: we have done a survey, in fact, like people, renaming is also a difficult decision, but it is also based on our commitment to the mainland market. We believe that the future will go ahead. This is a definite goal. In the next 10 years of gold, China's consumer market is bound to flourish. Since the name should be unified, it would be better to change it earlier. If it is replaced after two or three years, the cost of conversion will be even higher.

Reporter: judging from the performance in the first half of the year, whether the performance and opening speed are in line with your expectations.

Tong: we opened a shop a bit slowly in the first half of the year. We only opened a store. Because last year we opened 9 stores, so we are now evaluating the status of these 9 stores. We will continue to open stores in the future. We are gratifying about our business in the first half of the year. Our growth in the first half of the year is close to 30 percentage points, but the next step is how to develop rapidly. It was estimated that there will be 50-55 stores by 2014.

Reporter: in the first half of the year, only 1 stores were opened. Can the opening goal of this year be completed?

Tong: this year may be a bit backward, but it will catch up next year. Because we found that selection is very important to our business and even profits, so I told my colleagues that I would prefer to choose a right point, and I do not want to choose a point quickly, which will lead to regret in the future. At the same time, I think from the retail point of view, there is a very important reason. I think opening a shop is a social responsibility, and can not choose a point at random.

Reporter: inflation and price rise in the first half of this year will affect your sales, including the soft clothing industry.

Tong: I think the whole price rise is obviously a challenge to our growth, including the rise of fabrics, human resources, rents and so on. But the whole group is going to be differentiated, whether it's goods or services. Therefore, first, we continue to introduce distinctive products to meet the needs of the guests. Second, I have to constantly integrate to reduce my cost. As the integration of mainland and Taiwan now, our purchasing volume is bigger, and my personnel cost is reduced. Third I think we should constantly use information technology to achieve more automation to reduce the demand for manpower. So although there are challenges, we feel that opportunities are greater than challenges.

Reporter: because inflation is still continuing, so are you optimistic about your development in the second half?

Tong: we are optimistic. We find that people nowadays are very stressed at work and want to have a comfortable environment when they get home. So if we can have a lot of innovative products, it will make our customers feel that there will be more enjoyment or taste after the pressure of work. This is our chance.

Reporter: to deal with the growth of the cost of the shop rent, whether the special force has taken into account the commercial real estate and owns its own property.

Boy: I think it's a logical thinking, but we don't think about it at the moment, but we'll be more prudent on the selection point. Why do I not consider building my own property? Because I think every enterprise has its own core competitiveness. I think our core competitiveness is the R & D capability of goods, the purchasing power of commodities, and the operational capacity of our channels. I think we should focus on our core competitiveness. To be an enterprise well, sometimes it is tempting to resist temptation. We are very good at bringing our competitiveness into full play.

Reporter: in the face of rising labor costs, what kind of measures do you have?

Tong: in 2009 and 2010, we made a four channel integration in Taiwan. We found that our productivity increased by 15%. In addition, our entire group is constantly pushing up the performance culture, encouraging our employees to do better, and the better the performance, the higher the salary range will be, the quicker the promotion will be, and the more opportunities for training, so that we will encourage greater value and productivity. At the same time, we improve the IT system to reduce the demand for manpower.

Reporter: what new measures have you taken in the introduction and training of talents?

Tong: actually, last year, we set up tri retail college, specializing in cultivating our retail talents, including professionals, including Administration Talents, from the grassroots to the middle level.

Reporter: since you took office, you have been doing a series of integration. In the process of integration, what do you think is the most difficult and how to deal with it?

Tong: the hardest part is people. People usually have inertia. It is very difficult to leave a comfortable area. I think there are several secrets in the process of spanformation. One is to have a clear direction and a continuous communication in the direction, so my few tips are to stick to persistence and stick to the direction, communicate and communicate again, and hope to reach a consensus through communication. Of course, this is not enough, because in the whole process, we should let our colleagues see our efficiency and effectiveness, so that we can have confidence in the integration of such a big change.

Reporter: tri group attaches great importance to IT system. What aspects will be strengthened in the future?

Tong: first of all, we need to establish and maintain a stable and stable system, because retail is 24 hours and 365 days, so a stable and high availability system is very important.

The second important thing is in application. Our IT system is also being integrated because we focus on people, systems and people. So in the past, 4 retail outlets in Taiwan had 4 VIP systems, and now they are 1 sets of VIP systems, a set of financial systems, and a personnel system. At the same time, we are actively developing CRM system and improving logistics system.

Reporter: now that e-commerce is getting hotter, will there be more initiatives in this area?

Tong: we already have e-commerce departments last year, and have already started business. Besides selling on our own website, we also sell goods on other people's websites. We will continue to develop in this respect. We have foreign trade and domestic trade in Taiwan. In fact, these products can be sold online. But at the moment, we will still focus on physical stores. E-commerce is only one of our assists. We should focus on our core.

Reporter: according to the change of consumption trend, is there any corresponding adjustment in the whole commodity structure and store layout?

Tong: we see that the process of urbanization in China is very fast. People are satisfied with the problem of food and clothing, and their spiritual needs are coming out. The taste of life is related to the needs of people's minds, so I think this trend will continue, and more and more compatriots will want to enjoy the taste of life and the beauty of life.

The most important thing is that our own brands are increasing. We want our products to be unique, so we have invested in a group of commodity development and design teams with the goal of selling more than 3 of their own brands. At the same time, we are integrating foreign trade and retail business. We have 22 offices in 16 countries around the world, and our foreign trade colleagues in these areas can help us to purchase local special products to our Chinese market. {page_break}

Reporter: your positioning is high and medium end. What are your initiatives in attracting young customer groups?

Tong: from last year to this year, our average guest price per passenger is increasing. In the first two days, I met a consumer in mainland China in Taiwan. She suggested that our products should be better and the price should be higher. So I find that there are still many consumers in mainland China. If we meet different levels, it will be bad. So our position is high-end customers, if young people also have high-end customers, of course, our customers.

Reporter: the whole tri group has a strong growth in retail business. How do we balance the retail trade with the future? Is it more focused on Retailing in the future?

Tong: retail and trade are our 2 main force. The main customers of our trade are European and American customers, but the retail market in Europe and the United States is not growing faster than that in China. So the growth of our retail trade will be higher than that in the future, but both of them are very important for us. Besides, the common points of trade and retail are commodities, so the integration of the two is very important, which is also different from many retailers.

Reporter: localization is a very important topic for foreign-funded enterprises. In the past two years, the development of many foreign domestic enterprises in the mainland is not very smooth. What causes you to look at this problem?

Tong: we are Taiwanese funded enterprises. The language and cultural exchanges between Mainland China and Taiwan are very smooth. The reason why B&Q and home depot do not develop well in China is that they are coming in to manage people outside China. They are not so familiar with Chinese culture and consumer groups in China. There are still some estrangement. Just like our Chinese people go abroad, this is also a tuition fee they need to pay to grow up.

Reporter: you've been in IBM for more than 20 years. What prompted you to leave IBM and choose to be the CEO of the tri group?

Tong: IBM is a very good company. I have been grateful to them all the time. Because I have been staying in a foreign-funded enterprise since I graduated from university. I feel that at the end of my career, I am going to spend a safe time in a foreign enterprise and bring a Chinese company to the international market. I think the latter is more interesting, which is what I want to pursue. I strongly agree with the family culture advocated by tri group, so I came there at that time.

Reporter: what surprises and changes have brought to you from IBM to the tri group?

Tong: when I left, I asked a good friend of mine in IBM, "do you not like the rules most often? Why do we have to set up a set of rules and regulations again?" My answer at that time was that I wanted to build a flexible and humanized system. The challenge was absolute. Many things were never there, but it was very interesting. Our business is an interesting business, so we want to build a system that is humanized and can stand the test of time.

Reporter: how do you see the role of professional managers and their mission?

Tong: I think it's about adults and things. Professional managers should be right in doing things, first of all, determine what is right. The second aspect is how people integrate with teams and lead them to do the right thing.