Blunt Knife To Create A Successful Year

It is ambition and danger.

Believing in the age of sharp knife culture, I once believed that VCM needs to "grow fast". However, the craziness of van customer's product was finally hit by a crisis in 2011. Since then, Chen has no longer adhered to the "sharp knife culture" and has made drastic reforms to all customers.

"I used to be a sharp knife. I finished writing a painting and ended with a full stop. But fan is not a work. It can't draw a full stop. " Old Say.

In the Chinese Internet circles and even in the business world, old age is a rare person who is always willing to disclose his own stage reflection. "Our evaluation of last year is called not to be able to measure it." He said, "what we may need to care about is: where are the boundaries of our capabilities? What can we do well?"

To a large extent, the trouble of customers is not a new problem. It is still the two enemy known in traditional manufacturing retail industry: inventory and cash flow. Over the past year, Chen has had a clearer understanding of this: "we have not really established a fast fashion supply chain system." It is still the finished product, sent to the warehouse, and then sold by advertising and other marketing means, but at the end of the season, there will inevitably be a large number of expired stock. Such a business chain and tradition clothing There is no difference between the industry and the industry. Later, it was discovered that instead of piling up garments, it was better to store yarn. The cost of inventory is only 1/5, but it can be adjusted and processed in time when the market turns.

The reason why customers can express their speed and passion in 5 years is due to the Internet in marketing, brand and so on.

Therefore, if everyone fails, it does not mean that the road of independent brand of Chinese electric business is still blocked, and it is still lack of excellent management ability for inventory and cash flow.

"Let the products of van customers return to the scale we can do. As for the future, now that everyone's disease is cured, we will slowly explore the possibility of innovation and trial and error, but even if we try and make mistakes, at least we know how to control the company. This constant reflection and Introspection of thinking is the reason why Chen can continue to hold on.

　　 Dream making

Before the crisis, the first creed of old management was "fast growing".

In 2008, because of the problem of capital chain, PPG, the first competitor of fan Ke Cheng, fell down, but everyone found the Internet promotion mode to survive, and soon became the first place for men's shirt business.

But in 2008 Fan Ke Cheng pin In the third financing, it was discovered that this company has reached the limit of growth only by the single category of men's shirts, and customers must find new growth points. After financing, under the pressure of the growth of the shareholders, they put forward three plans for women's wear, shoes and children's clothing, but they were also opposed by the majority of employees inside the company.

According to fan's products, many consumers are women. Most of them buy clothes for their boyfriends or gentlemen. If they enter the women's clothing market, they will inevitably bring in related purchases. However, unlike men's clothing, women's clothing products are iterative quickly and require higher supply chain management capabilities.

In the eyes of old age, this doubt is reasonable. However, looking back at the entrepreneurial experience of excellent network, e-commerce is indeed an unprecedented revolution that "touches the stone across the river", and everyone needs trial and error. Things finally settled in the "no controversy" attitude. In 2009, the large-scale expansion of VCM was described as "mass trial and error".

With Han Han's "I am a fan" endorsement of the ads, such as Beijing, Shanghai and other cities subway bus station, all customers entered a crazy accelerated year. According to the information released by fan data, in 2008, the growth rate of all customers reached 100%, 200% in 2009 and 300% in 2010.

"It inspired my dream - I really feel that everyone has the chance to become China's largest consumer goods brand." Chen said.

But now recall that in the past, frankly speaking, the biggest mistake lies in the persistence of "rapid growth" at the end of 2010 and early 2011, thus ignoring the requirement of "management system and capability" after the company has reached a certain scale.

Chen admitted that at that time, he only concerned about the results of the company's business: sales, new users and old users of these three indicators. But today, he is more concerned about product turnover, inventory turnover, sales and gross margins. Taking these indicators as a precondition is the most important basis for judging whether or not a product can be done or not. "This is a great change for me, and I learned that only in the past year." Chen said, "the data I used to see is wrong."

　　 Be out of control

The reflection on the expansion of 2011 was summed up as "some overconfidence".

Self reliance is first manifested in the unrelated expansion of category. Even the van cooker, the panel and the kitchen knife appeared. When he knew that there was a customer card mop in the van's warehouse, even Chen himself was surprised.

Chen believes that Vintage products are sold step by step from the beginning of shirts to so many categories. But this year, we find that many products can not be done by customers. For example, he said, "last year I made cosmetics, and I was too bold to do it."

Another manifestation of overconfidence is that management is out of control.

This shows that under the heavy pressure of KPI, employees can easily take part in the problem of "breaking the wall to make up for the west", covering some problems with the beauty of the overall data. Sometimes these problems are even fatal.

In mid September of this year, Chen discovered a major problem in a product line of a customer. Chen asked the responsible person, "I am much better than last year". After data analysis, Chen found that the person in charge had 4 product lines and two items were losing money. But on the other two profitable product line data, the 4 product lines of the responsible person were indeed much better than last year.

In the past experience, it is the use of "sharp knife products" to drive the growth of sales performance. For example, 29 yuan T-shirt, sold 10 million pieces; 59 yuan canvas shoes, sell 5 million pairs. But these beautiful data obscure the partial problems of category expansion and eventually lead to global symptoms.

The problem is not small, it costs a lot.

　　 cut

After the turmoil of 2011, Chen did not encourage the culture of blade.

"When I was excellent, like a sharp knife and a sharp knife, when I was a guest, I gradually realized that what I should do is to work hard to clear up obstacles." Chen said.

Nowadays, a customer is like a barrel. The shortest plank determines the capacity of the barrel. VCP needs not only the hot T-shirts and canvas shoes, but also the fast turnover and gross profit rate of related categories.

Under the three indexes of inventory turnover, gross profit margin and product relevance, Chen began to make radical reforms to VCG, and cut off any product data without mercy.

Chen said, "taking advantage of the advantages and avoiding disadvantages is human nature". After setting up a data center, the data is directly directed to the president, and the "emotions" in data can be removed to maximize the company's interests.

In a sense, the data center has become the core department above the various departments. In the start-up companies, the old age should not only worry about the emotions of some entrepreneurial elders, but also ensure that the functional departments of the data center can truly play their "authority". Chen finally chose a SVP (senior vice president) who came in from the start of every customer's business. "Because only he has the determination to figure out the data and have enough authority and authority."

With the establishment of the data center, Chen's "earthshaking" adjustment of VCG has become "ruthless". In the past, management, especially in the rapid growth of the company, all felt that they were the ministers of good deeds. When adjusting, they should also take into account their employees' feelings and talk with their employees. With the establishment of data centers, the problem is solved. The merger and closing of product lines, or even the adjustment of jobs, requires only data to speak.

In the operating data of VCM, the turnover of inventory, the correlation between gross margin and product are closely related to customer profitability. Only if all categories can make money can the company make profits.

Chen said that VCE was not yet ruined, and many e-commerce and group buying websites were "pretending to be alive". They all hoped to make large-scale refinancing. This vanity supported many start-up companies. "And customers are still relying on products one step at a time."

When asked about the three most important decisions of von sincere, the answer was: do private brand, internet promotion and quick response supply chain; and this year, the answer is: private brand, internet promotion mode and fast financing. In this year's answer, Chen is more sure of the power of capital. This may also coincide with the slogan of "fan Kai Cheng": "there is nothing to win."