Who Is The Real Rescuer Of Lining's Upward Labor Pains?

One family enterprise If a leader has no head, he will not be in the first place to fight against the enemy. If chaos is chaos, he must first cure the enemy and then the enemy. Lining, the old sporting goods leader in the past, is in the latter stage.

　　 It is just that the internal injury is not healed, and it adds insult to injury.

Announcing the resignation of Zhong Yiqi, director and chief financial officer, on Wednesday Lining It also sold 25.23% of the shares to the blockbuster "bomb" of the associated enterprises in China, which led to an uproar in the capital market. In the end, the news ushered in "vote by feet" for investors. People interpreted it as "Lining or Li Ning Co in disguise".

Lining, who is in a precarious period, uses the way of "healing". This way is full of question marks - the short term can not see the results, and even cause labor pains, the enterprises can not afford to live, investors and so on.

In the opinion of marketing expert Li Zhiqi, the success of the revolution will certainly benefit, but the "fumble" without ready answers is bound to be accompanied by risks.

　　 Upward pain

Due to severe inventory pressure and sustained decline in performance, Li Ning Co's "post transformation 90" brand redevelopment proved to be unsuccessful.

But that does not mean making mistakes. "Lining is the first domestic sporting goods enterprise to realize the problem and the first to think of transformation. "Shoes and clothing commentator Ma Gang has told reporters that in fact, these problems exist in all enterprises, but Lining first touched. At that time, Lining had problems, and Anta, XTEP and other local enterprises also claimed that they had no problems.

Lining's initiative in seeking transformation is not wrong. The wrong way is that there are some deviations in the way in which the transformation is too fast. At that time, the vast majority of consumers thought that Lining had abandoned the "70 after" and "80 generations" and "pleased" the "post-90s". Although Zhang Zhiyong, then CEO of the company, once clarified that "the concept of" post-90s "is creative rather than brand positioning, consumers do not buy it. After losing their original customers, the new generation of customers did not show special recognition to Lining.

In the past seven years, Lining, who has worked for over two years, has summed up two words - "decentralization". Zhang Qing told reporters that in the past, the acquisition of brands or resources was very fragmented. From the brand perspective, from Lining to lotto, from AI Gao to the new movement, too much energy was dispersed, which reflected the Li Ning Co's overoptimistic judgement on the market environment and the prospect of the enterprise. Tactically, it is the blunders of brand promotion and the blurring of corporate image and values.

However, this year, the general direction of Lining's reform has been gradually clear, that is, the essence of returning to sports. "Whether it is to reduce expenditure, or to change management, or even to sell shares, is a correction to the past and a healing act. "Zhang Qing thinks," even in the process of change, it brings pain, which is also a painful upward trend. "

　　 Who is the rescuer?

Zhang Zhiyong is the leader of the brand transformation after the 1990s. Now, the reshape campaign has not been endorsed by the market.

For the resignation of CFO Zhong Yi Qi and former CEO Zhang Zhiyong and other core executives, the public is more of the approval and the expectation of fresh blood injection. Page_break

A source told reporters who asked not to be named, when Zhong Yiqi was CFO, Lining was carrying out a brand remolding plan. In the face of doubts about the market's reshaping of the brand, Zhong Yiqi's consistent view was that the sporting goods industry was on the decline, not that the Li Ning Co had problems.

Zhong Yiqi recently appeared in the investor's perspective. He announced in the semi annual performance briefing of Li Ning Co in August that he announced that because the sales situation of the order meeting could not predict future sales, the company decided to change its sales strategy for the second quarter next year.

The actual situation is that in the fourth quarter of 2012, the order amount and order quantity of Lining's clothing products both declined, and the decline was over 20%. In the first half of the year, Lining's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was HK $44 million, a decrease of 84.9% over the same period last year.

The global private investment firm TPG, which holds 13% stake, is currently the second largest shareholder of Lining. Now 8 full-time senior managers have been deployed in Lining, 2 of whom have entered Lining's board of directors.

These people said that after TPG's stake in Lining, a radical reform plan was put forward. Zhong Yi Qi had already expressed differences with TPG, and Zhong Yiqi's role as CFO was greatly weakened in a package of spending cuts for Jin Zhenjun from TPG.

The speculation is that all this is behind the scenes of TPG. The investor of one of the largest private equity firms in the world is Lining's "rescuer" who has high hopes. The "foreign monk" has had a case of bringing Daphne back to life.

　　 However, the object of the "fire fighting"

After all, Lining and Daphne are two completely different business models and different consumer groups. Will the market and competitors set aside enough time to reinvigorate Lining? For this reason, Li Zhiqi said, "the introduction of new management experience and mode by TPG can not copy Daphne, it needs to be reformed. Lining has many channels, so the transformation of the channel will take longer. "

　　 The cost of surviving a broken arm

Lining's revival plan is almost a reversal of the past. Whether it is a big change of executives or the sale of shares, it is a kind of self rescue.

Before Zhong Yi Qi, six months from May 2011 to November, five chief executives, Li Ningyuan, chief brand official Shi Wei, chief operating officer Guo Jianxin, Wu Xianyong, general manager of Lotto business department, Zhang Xiaoyan, director of the company's government and public affairs department, and Xu Maochun, the chief product Officer of the brand, left office.

There are rumors that TPG will have new moves on Lining, including a possible increase in Lining's shareholding. However, TPG did not reply to this reporter.

Although enterprises in the course of reform, inevitably new and old changes. But the impact of frequent personnel shocks on enterprises can not be underestimated. Especially the change of personnel in key positions often renewing the enterprise in a radical way, it is unavoidable to encounter such embarrassment: strategic execution is out of mind, the former and the thinking are out of step, or even the old ones are totally negated and pushed back. Page_break

But the injection of fresh blood also brings new thinking and hope. Jin Zhenjun, TPG partner and head of Greater China, told the media not long ago that changes should be made at the moment. First, cost control, especially procurement and management costs, Marketing expenses This is to be adjusted so that more money can be invested in new sponsorship and investment. Second, rationalize commodity structure and reduce things that are not worth selling. The biggest goal this year is to clean up the stock.

However, Li Zhiqi said that from the past experience, it is difficult to regain new life with external force. No matter how many years of business experience the operator has come in, his experience may only apply to the last company. After the new venture, the risk of dissolving the original team is greater without any judgement and decision making. Moreover, the whole industry is now in a slump, and the turbulent period of the industry is more difficult.

"However, this will not have a greater impact on the short-term performance goals of enterprises. Lining is in the process of reducing expenses, and some of the cash flows can be exchanged through layoffs and reduced spending. "Li Zhiqi said.

Zhang Qing is more concerned about, "when are these core jobs in place? For example, why CEO has not yet found the right candidate?" perhaps, the long wait is testing the investment value of enterprises, on the other hand, it is also testing the patience of investors.