From Lining To Bi Mai: The Life Of Former Lining CEO Zhang Zhiyong

Zhang Zhiyong, 48 years old, keeps a good look.

This may be related to his recent frequent participation in running activities.

At the end of March, Zhang Zhiyong completed his second marathon, the Wuxi marathon.

Lining has been away from the company for nearly 4 years, but Zhang Zhiyong is always watching the company.

After all, he has had more than 20 years of experience in this field, and has gone all the way to the CEO position from an ordinary employee. He has maintained close ties with Lining himself. Not long ago, they had a dinner in Shunyi and exchanged some topics on the sports industry.

In the 80s of last century, Zhang Zhiyong, who was born in Xinjiang and grew up in Shanghai, came to Beijing and studied at Capital University of Economics and Business.

During his study, he contacted foreign brands of sneakers at the Lisheng sporting goods store in Wangfujing.

"For the first time, I have the concept of sports shoes.

If it is not mistaken, then a pair of shoes seems to be three hundred or four hundred yuan, and we have only one hundred yuan a month to live.

At that time, Zhang Zhiyong could not imagine that Li Ning Co could go to the doorway of 10 billion yuan of annual sales. It is even more unimaginable that today's sports industry will generate so many companies, talents and capital.

Zhang Zhiyong said with emotion, "sometimes, imagination is very pale."

Lining's 20 years career, achievements and controversies coexist

After graduating from college in 1992, Zhang Zhiyong joined the Lining sporting goods company as a financial officer. "I remember it was the twelfth employee in the company."

Zhang Zhiyong said.

At the beginning of Li Ning Co, with a small number of employees, Zhang Zhiyong had many opportunities to communicate with Lining himself.

And so on.

Zhang Zhiyong said to lazy bear sports that Lining has a good grasp of sports core elements and sports spirit, and has special feelings for athletes.

Zhang Zhiyong, a financial man, is highly sensitive to numbers.

In his view, the text description will give people different understanding, but the number is objective and impartial. Through the numbers, we can clearly see the company's business trends and changes.

Zhang Zhiyong's promotion path flew fast, and became chief financial officer of Lining in 1999.

In the early days of the Li Ning Co, under the leadership of Chen Yihong, the road was smooth and the annual sales volume was close to 1 billion yuan.

But external factors such as the financial crisis and macro adjustment have dragged Lining's pace.

In 2001, Chen Yihong left, and Zhang Zhiyong became general manager of Li Ning Co.

Two years later, Lining's annual sales exceeded 1 billion yuan.

In June 2004, Li Ning Co was listed in Hongkong. Zhang Zhiyong became chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director.

"There are many capable people, but for various reasons, Mr. Lining chose me.

This is trust, thank Mr. Lining. "

Zhang Zhiyong was grateful for that.

During his administration, Zhang Zhiyong constantly tried and explored the business and mode, and led the company to move forward rapidly in many dimensions, such as the number of stores, brand matrix, multi category layout, internationalization and so on.

By the end of 2010, Lining had more than 7900 stores in China, including the brand of red double happiness, AIGLE (French outdoor brand) and Lotto (Italy sports leisure brand).

Through the two pronged strategy of agent management and self operation, Lining also opened stores to China, Singapore, Spain, the United States and other countries and regions in Hongkong.

In 2010, when the Li Ning Co was founded 20th anniversary, Zhang Zhiyong launched the brand remolding strategy, made a major adjustment to the brand DNA, target groups and product positioning. The new slogan was "Make The Change". The new logo abstracted the original "Lining cross" action of Lining.

This year, Lining's turnover reached a peak of 9 billion 478 million 500 thousand yuan.

Speaking of the brand remodeling plan, Zhang Zhiyong explained to lazy bear sports, "although I have always been a professional manager, I have always positioned myself as an entrepreneur, because many of my things are based on entrepreneurs.

I started the slogan of new brand in 2010, including the change of product line. In fact, the risk is very great. Professional managers may not do it, but if you see some obvious problems, you have to do it.

From the long-term development of a brand, entrepreneurs will definitely do this because they will not take account of short-term operations, but look at how they operate in the long run. This is very important.

"If any brand is enough for 20 or 30 years, it will encounter the problem of brand aging."

This is also the reason for Zhang Zhiyong's initiative to change. "At that time, I particularly wanted to shift our main audience to the young side.

Mr. Lining is also very supportive of our team's decision making.

Contrary to expectations.

The sharp increase in operating costs leads to the high retail price of products, and the lack of control over the retail terminal caused by the franchising mode of franchising.

A series of complex reasons led to the backlog of Lining's inventory, the decline in the price performance of products, the loss of competitiveness in the three or four tier market, and the complaints of retailers and consumers.

Despite Lining's re integration of retailers and operators, inventory problems this year, Damour's sword has always been high.

"I divide some problems into two categories: one is cyclical and the other is trend turning."

In Zhang Zhiyong's view, inventory is a cyclical one.

Footwear industry chain is longer, from design to terminal retail, it takes a long time to respond.

"In addition, in 2009 and 2010, China's sporting goods industry also reached a turning point."

Zhang Zhiyong explained the distribution link as an example.

"The turnover of the retail store has not begun to match all the costs it has undertaken.

Many single store profits declined and discounts increased.

This is actually due to the problem of the back end of the industry, including the sharp rise in labor costs.

These are all turning points.

These problems are particularly prominent in Li Ning Co.

In 2011, Lining's annual revenue was 8 billion 929 million yuan, down 5.8% from the previous year. Net profit plummeted by 65.19%, which was only 386 million yuan. It was at the bottom of the five major domestic sporting goods brands (Anta, XTEP, 31st degree, PEAK and Lining), while Anta's revenue Rose 20.2% over the same period last year, reaching 8 billion 904 million, almost equaling Lining.

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For a while, the sound of Lining's voice rose one after another. In the face of declining performance, Li Ning Co executives resigned one after another.

In the Spring Festival of 2012, Lining laid off nearly 30%.

Zhang Zhiyong, who was under heavy pressure, resigned as chief executive officer of Li Ning Co in July of this year.

Looking back, Zhang Zhiyong told lazy bear sports that Li Ning Co was once made in China.

The leader of the race needs to take the lead.

"Lining brand remolding is aimed at exploring the trend of business change and the status quo of its own brand.

Today, I will come back to see that this process may be constrained by ability, experience, knowledge and environment, but I feel this sense of mission and the feeling that we all try to do is really very good.

Zhang Zhiyong said.

"It takes time and place to make things happen.

Everyone has his own limitations and experience is wealth.

Former Li Ning Co staff, now key sports consulting company CEO Zhang Qing commented.

"I belong to a more open-minded person and will not be very entangled in the past."

Zhang Zhiyong said.

Keep up with the changing situation of China sports and create the brand of "Mai Mai".

After leaving office, Zhang Zhiyong almost disappeared. In addition to being the independent executive director in October 2012 and resigning from executive director Li Ningfei in October 2014, there were few news about him.

"After I left the Li Ning Co, I had a rest for a while, and some of the problems were not clear at that time."

Zhang Zhiyong said he was looking for the right time to return.

In October 2014, the State Council document No. 46 was officially released.

With the introduction of policies, the sports industry has rapidly changed. Sports investment institutions and venture projects have sprung up rapidly. The price of copyright and IP is high and demand exceeds supply. Almost all sports industry links such as clubs, venues, sports media, intermediaries and so on are changing.

A group of company executives or join sports startups or start their own businesses, including Zhang Xiangdong, President of the 3G portal, who joined the 700BIKE as co founders, founded Yan Qiang, deputy chief editor of NetEase's former NetEase portal, who was responsible for the IPO project of the investment bank.

"By the time 2014, I felt that there were some answers."

Zhang Zhiyong said.

According to the statistics of lazy bear sports, from January 2015 to March 2016, there were 257 investment and financing activities in China's sports industry, with a total amount of 17 billion 400 million yuan.

"From 2015 to now, it is a major change that I have never seen in physical education for more than 20 years.

In the past, it was centered around the most close to the user demand of sports equipment as the core business model, but now the whole sports value chain has changed so much, it has never happened before.

Zhang Zhiyong pointed out that capital is an accelerator.

At the same time, the per capita GDP of the mainland continues to rise and the acceleration of consumption upgrading has brought the sports industry to the node of rise and break.

Because, according to the experience of European and American countries, when the national per capita GDP reaches 8000 US dollars, sports fitness will become the pillar industry of the national economy.

In 2013 and 2014, China's per capita GDP was 6767 US dollars and 7575 US dollars respectively.

"Upgrading of consumption will inevitably bring about product upgrading."

Zhang Zhiyong believes that "China's big country, after the upgrading of consumption, the value of the market segmentation has been aroused, and it is no longer the traditional market such as basketball and running."

Zhang Zhiyong plunged into the tide of entrepreneurship.

He founded

Bi Mai started in February 2, 2015, taking running as a starting point for this sport with high public participation.

"Everyone is talking about starting a business now. Making this brand must be a continuation of my career.

Because I have seen more trend changes and want to explore in a new way. "

Zhang Zhiyong said, "I am a curious person. If I have the opportunity, why not give it a try? The process is more important than the result."

"Zhang Zhiyong's advantage is to lead Lining from around 1 billion to get close to 10 billion accumulated experience and grasp the rules of the sports footwear industry."

Sporting goods industry independent observer Ma Gang to lazy bear sports pointed out, "but from 0 to 1 do a brand, and from 1 to N to make a big brand, the difference is quite big."

Zhang Zhiyong, who started his business, began to try to run. He has completed two marathons in more than a year.

In addition, he began to use more and more Internet products and services such as electricity providers.

In Zhang Zhiyong's view, technological change has brought about changes in the lifestyle of consumers, thereby affecting the change of business models.

Among them, chip technology, 4G pmission, cloud technology, big data and other new technologies, so that brand, product and user communication path is shorter, and thus changed the dissemination, marketing, promotion, interaction and a series of commercial links.

The first running shoes of Bi Mai were sold to consumers at the end of June last year.

At present, the products will be extended from running shoes and clothing to running accessories and equipment, etc., and will be sold in the official website and the three party business channel. In Wuhan and Beijing, there will be a physical store under the line and a running experience center in Beijing Chaoyang Park.

In May 18th, Zhang Zhiyong said, "there is no obvious LOGO on our products. Most companies will put them in front. Our LOGO is on the side, and LOGO in our shoes is hidden inside."

We don't need to represent anyone, just suit you, this is our idea, which is consistent with the trend of future consumers.

Zhang Zhiyong said to lazy bear sports that there will be some changes in the trend of sports equipment. "The first is the quality brought by the upgrading of consumption. Most people will choose quality things more and more. The second core is to segment the market, because everyone's lifestyle will be more and more different."

There must be nearly 50 people in the team. Apart from some traditional industries, there are young people in the Internet and IT.

All the staff of the company are runners.

"In our business model, we can extract three core DNA: sports, technology and the Internet."

Zhang Zhiyong said.

"No accident, we should be able to achieve tens of millions of annual income."

Zhang Zhiyong said that the main shareholders of the company must be him and management and his friends outside.

"No financial investors, because we have enough cash turnover, there is no need to carry out our strategy first. I am very cautious about taking money because everyone has a different foothold."

According to Zhang Zhiyong's plan, when running products are maturing, they will enter more areas, such as ice and snow.

In the way of realisation, we must plan to make products first and then extend to services gradually.

"We have a very high demand for liquidity, because Chinese consumers are willing to pay for physical products, and service realisation takes a little time to do it."

Zhang Zhiyong said.