This is the best team: from Ctrip to Home Inns, Hanting I

Chapter 18
Indeed, Beijing Coast Ticketing Company is already a well-developed company. In 1995, they started to work as an air ticket sales agent. In Beijing, they started to provide door-to-door service for booking air tickets very early. In 2002, the call center of Beijing Coast Ticketing Company was the largest in Beijing.

In addition, their boss, Ding Han, is also an expert who is very familiar with the airline ticket booking business.His training and management of the sales force is quite strict.After years of exploration and continuous summarization, the distribution system of Beijing Coastal Ticketing Company has been perfected.Ding Han adopts the method of centralized reservation, that is, the company establishes a reservation center to centralize the processing of air ticket reservations.After the passenger calls in, the ticket orderer first summarizes the needs of each flight, counts the results, generates an order, realizes group ticket issuance, and finally sends the ticket by the ticket delivery team.During the peak period, they have to issue more than 1200 tickets every day.On average, at least 800 air tickets are sent out every day.

Faced with such a company, can Ctrip negotiate with Ding Han?What did the Ctrip team use to talk to Ding Han?
06 Sungseung acquired Coast

Unexpectedly, the negotiation went very smoothly this time, because Ding Han also encountered a bottleneck that was difficult to break through.

Everyone knows that to be an excellent air ticket agent requires two things: centralized booking and ticket delivery.In terms of ticket delivery, Beijing Coast is already familiar with it, but for the centralized booking, it is necessary to find a company with a lot of information to cooperate with.In addition, for Beijing Coastal Ticketing Company, the most important thing is to solve the geographical problem. Let’s think about it, Coastal Ticketing already has a very large market share in Beijing.
Therefore, what Ding Han means is to start with the major cities in the country and gradually establish a nationwide network. This network is not limited to a certain place or a certain level.However, thinking of this, Ding Han immediately realized that this problem cannot be solved in a short period of time if the agency points are established one by one. At the same time, a large amount of investment is required, such as funds, management and personnel.

Ding Han fell into deep thought.

At this time, Ctrip actually came to the door.

Why did Ctrip cooperate with Beijing Coast?Because once they cooperate, it will be beneficial to both parties.Ctrip already has a group of very good customers, and these customers also need to book tickets. In this regard, Coastal Ticketing can help.In addition, Ctrip has a good technical service system and marketing methods, which are exactly what Ding Han lacks.

After meeting, they chatted happily.

Ding Han said: In terms of hardware, we are a little inferior, because sometimes we are overwhelmed when there are too many calls. Now 128 is the most powerful team that needs a better call center equipment.At the same time, we do not know what kind of website is more appropriate to build a business through the Internet.How should this site be managed.In addition, our marketing methods need to be strengthened.

Liang Jianzhang said: The network technology you mentioned happens to be our strong point, and we have also explored many good marketing methods.You already have good products, services, and relationships with suppliers. What you lack may be the combination of technology, marketing, and resources.If we can walk together, there must be a very bright future.

Indeed it is.Ctrip's marketing methods are relatively unique and effective.At that time, Ctrip did not have much money for advertising, and the return on investment in advertising was too slow, and the cost was relatively high.They went to major airports to rent counters. Next to the counters, Ctrip staff were handing out cards and membership handbooks.

Soon, Ctrip and Beijing Coastal reached a consensus, and then they began to estimate the price of the Coastal Ticketing Company.

Ji Qi said: Mr. Ding, when Ctrip cooperated with Shangzhixing and Times Express, it adopted the equity plus cash plan. Let's follow this method too!
Although the cash is not much, but Ji Qi's story is so exciting, Ding Han finally agreed.

Therefore, in March 2002, Ctrip used millions of cash and part of Ctrip's stock to acquire Beijing Coastal Ticketing Company.After Ding Han joined Ctrip, his position was vice president of Ctrip Travel Network and general manager of Beijing Branch.

After the acquisition of Coastal Ticketing Company, Ctrip placed the reservation center in Shanghai, which can be booked all over the country, and used ERP for the entire system.Soon, Ctrip quickly became the largest reservation center in China in terms of hotel and air ticket reservations. At the end of 2002, Ctrip's monthly transaction volume was nearly 2 million, accounting for more than 50% of the domestic market.

Ctrip has done so well, are they satisfied?The answer is not yet.Because you know there is an even more amazing way to make money, making someone a billionaire overnight.So, let's continue to look at Chapter 5 "Cash Out".

Summary This chapter addresses 4 questions:
4. The four basic principles of team building A team (see Figure 1-[-] for the model) is a group with common norms composed of a small number of people who have complementary skills and are willing to rely on each other and take responsibility for each other for a common goal.

From the concept of the team above, it can be seen that when forming an entrepreneurial team, four points should be considered:
1. The number of people is reasonable.

2. Complementary skills.

3. Unity of goals.

4. Strong sense of responsibility.

Here, let’s focus on the first point. When forming an entrepreneurial team, how many people should we invite to participate?
The concept of a team only defines a scope:
few.So how little is it?Of course, it cannot be less than two.Otherwise, it is not called a team.

In the previous entrepreneurial teams, there were indeed two groups.For example: Hu Zhibiao and Chen Tiannan's childhood partner group of Aiduo, Li Guoqing and Yu Yu's husband and wife group of Dangdang.com.However, there are other numbers of teams.Example Figure 4-1 Team Effectiveness Team Results Personal Growth Skills Problem Interpersonal Responsibility Interaction Minority Mission Specific Goals Common Team Basic Structure 130 This is the best team For example: Shanghai Ctrip’s 4-person team of Jiaotong University, Shanghai Complex The Fudan 5-person group of stars, and the Vantage Seven Sages of Zhongshan Vantage Gas Appliances.

There are even more people. Alibaba in Hangzhou has 18 entrepreneurial partners, referred to as "Eighteen Arhats".

According to the needs of the division of labor and combined with the successful cases of entrepreneurship, I think that when the entrepreneurial team is first formed, the ideal number of people is 3-5.Because when we first started our business, we encountered many unexpected problems. There were too few people, and the group effect of the team did not play out.When there are too many people, it is not easy to unify the thinking, and it is easy to break up when encountering difficulties.As for the Alibaba Eighteen Arhats mentioned above, in fact, they can only be regarded as entrepreneurial partners. Strictly speaking, they are not considered entrepreneurial teams with complementary skills.Because Ma Yun once said to his entrepreneurial partners that you can only be platoon commanders and company commanders at present. As for positions above army commander, I will find someone else.However, you also have the opportunity to become army commanders in the future.

Therefore, an entrepreneurial team of 3-5 people is better for division of labor.One is responsible for technology, one is responsible for market, one is responsible for management, and one is responsible for financing and so on.If there are two people, then only one is in charge of technology and the other is in charge of the market.

Next, discuss the second point of building a team.

Actually, the second point is more important than the first.There is a saying that goes like this: You are not afraid of opponents like wolves, but teammates like pigs the most.If your entrepreneurial partner is bad, then this market is very difficult to do, because the people we are looking for are here to help, not to help, not to help, nor to be accomplices.In addition, if the market starts to rise, you will also feel that you are losing money, and your psychology is very unbalanced.The story of the two founders of Aiduo is a typical case.

In 1994, Hu Zhibiao and his childhood friend Chen Tiannan each contributed 2000 yuan to open a factory.Hu Zhibiao and Chen Tiannan each hold 45% of the shares. Since their villages provided the factory site, Yilong Village also owns 10% of the shares of Aiduo Electric Appliance Company.

Hu Zhibiao is a marketing genius, he invented the first suspense advertisement in China. In October 1995, Hu Zhibiao published an advertisement in the Yangcheng Evening News, which is "a lot of money", for 10 consecutive days. What is it for? His advertising soft text suddenly changed to: Aiduo-VCD.

Later, Hu Zhibiao contributed a golden rule to the advertising industry: learn to build momentum first and then gather energy.Find the most famous person to shoot the advertisement, and at the same time find the most powerful media to broadcast this advertisement.

Hu Zhibiao did this.He hired Jackie Chan to shoot a commercial at a cost of 450 million. The slogan of the commercial was "Love more VCD, good work", and chose to broadcast it in the first 5 seconds after the weather forecast on CCTV.

Therefore, Hu Zhibiao's marketing genius has allowed Aiduo to achieve amazing results. In 1997, Aiduo's sales surged from 2 million in the previous year to 16 billion.For this reason, Hu Zhibiao also visited Philips in the Netherlands and received the courtesy of a private jet and a red carpet.

Successive successes in the shopping malls suddenly inflated Hu Zhibiao's ambitions, and he began to diversify, opening more than N companies in one go.Moreover, when doing so many big moves, they didn't even say hello to Chen Tiannan, let alone discuss with each other.

This time, Chen Tiannan felt very upset, in his words: watching others dance through the glass.He couldn't bear it anymore, so in March 1999, Chen Tiannan issued a lawyer's statement on the Yangcheng Evening News: Aiduo's new subsidiary has nothing to do with Guangdong Aiduo Electric Co., Ltd.Then, Chen Tiannan joined forces with Yilong Village to force Hu Zhibiao to give up the positions of chairman and general manager.

If Chen Tiannan did this, the consequences would definitely be unimaginable.At that time, because it was the off-season for electrical appliance sales, just when CCTV’s Aiduo advertisement was suspended, the lawyer declared that the media could smell the blood of the prey. These reporters hadn’t heard such exciting and heavyweight information for a long time, so , They all came to Zhongshan Aiduo headquarters.

What Hu Zhibiao could not have imagined in his dreams was that the reporters who used to call him Brother Biao and praised him all changed their faces this time, and started to make things worse for Aiduo. Suppliers and dealers from all over the world immediately came to collect debts one after another, and the unreasonable internal executives also hurriedly packed their bags, slapped their asses and left.

In this way, the media sent Aiduo to death. In August 1999, the Zhongshan government conducted a preliminary investigation on Aiduo's assets and found that it was insolvent.So in December of that year, Aiduo entered bankruptcy proceedings.

Of course, among them, capital operation is the main reason.Because Aiduo's financial system is very fragile, Hu Zhibiao hardly knows how much money he has or how much foreign debt he owes, and often treats cash as profit.

However, Chen Tiannan's lawyer's statement was the trigger for Aiduo's bankruptcy.Therefore, when choosing an entrepreneurial team partner, it is a very cautious thing.The story of the two founders of Aiduo is a good lesson.

In this article, we can also find evidence that complementarity of skills is the key to building a first-class team.Let's compare the eLong team with the Ctrip team.

Both Ctrip and eLong have four founders.However, the four members of the Ctrip team are well-known, while the other three founders of the eLong team are unknown except for Tang Yue.why?This may be related to the positioning of the team when it was first formed. Ji Qi has repeatedly emphasized: the name of our team is the 4-member team of Shanghai Jiaotong University, let alone someone’s entrepreneurial team; and, Ji Qi will never forget it in front of reporters Let me first boast that 4 is the teammate of the best team. In an interview with the "Internet Weekly" reporter, Ji Qi said: "Among our four founders, there is one who is interested in foreign venture capital and capital markets. Very familiar with him, he once stayed on Wall Street for two years, and later served as the managing director of an international investment bank in China; there is a very skilled man, who has written Oracle database and ERP software in the United States, and has many years of management experience in foreign companies ; Another has more than 3 years of experience in the industry. He once studied in Europe and became the boss of a well-known domestic travel agency after returning to China. As for myself, my ability is very average, but I can quickly turn a company from scratch It has advanced to a fairly successful stage, because I am more familiar with how to do business in China."

It's also really strange that Ctrip team members like to talk like that.Not only did Ji Qi always praise his teammates for being great in front of reporters, but the other three also praised their partners fiercely in front of reporters.That's probably why they're famous together.

However, when it comes to the eLong team, apart from Tang Yue, it seems that everyone is not very clear about the names of the other three and how they divide their work.In front of the media, Tang Yue didn't bother to mention them. At the same time, there was not a single word about them in the relevant reports.

If you ignore the team and compare Tang Yue with Shen Nanpeng, maybe Tang Yue is better.He once boasted to the outside world that if necessary, he could go to Wall Street and get a $10 million investment within 1000 minutes, because he has enough contacts.To prove this point, he also cited an example: In July 2004, he participated in a meeting held by a friend in the United States. There were more than 7 people, basically all of whom were the most influential figures in various industries in the United States. Gates to Warren?Buffett, from New York City Mayor Bloomberg to CIA Director Tenet and so on.Those who were invited gave short speeches at the meeting, the theme of which was China's future development.At that time, many Americans had misunderstandings and opinions about China, and they made China worthless.It was Tang Yue's turn to give a speech. He said: What the Chinese pursue is no different from what Americans pursue, that is, education, medical care, wealth, happiness and freedom, etc.As soon as Tang Yue finished speaking, all the Americans took the lead in applauding. At that time, Yang Zhiyuan was also present.

This example is enough to prove that Tang Yue does have huge network resources in the United States, but as for the financing ability, it is not as magical as Tang Yue said.Because when the Internet winter came in 2001, eLong only got a few million US dollars, while Ctrip raised more than 1000 million US dollars.However, this is not a question of Tang Yue's personal ability. It is because the eLong team is not as good as the Ctrip team. Technical talents and professional talents like Fan Min.Of course, venture capital prefers Ctrip.

Therefore, the overall strength of the Ctrip team is stronger than that of the eLong team, so Ctrip has undoubtedly become the leader in this industry.

The third and fourth points have already been discussed above.

100. The importance of sales promotion The subject of "Marketing" has a history of only 4 years since its establishment.However, it develops very fast, and every two or three years, a lot of new theories appear.Take the marketing mix as an example, 4P and 4C have not been fully understood by people, and 4R and [-]V will appear immediately, you say dizzy or not!

And this subject is not as mature as "Management" and "Organizational Behavior".

It has been fixed in four major blocks: planning, organization, leadership, and control; "Organizational Behavior" is also basically finalized, including three parts: individual, group, and organization.However, "Marketing" has not really reached a consensus so far. There are 100 models for 100 professors.

Philip, the father of modern marketing and a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management?According to Kotler, marketing credits are divided into four parts: marketing process, understanding the market, marketing mix and marketing extension.However, well-known domestic professors also have their different classification methods.For example, Professor Wan Houfen from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law believes that marketing should include five modules: theory, value recognition, value creation, value delivery, and value monitoring.After synthesizing the viewpoints of Prof. Lu Yilin from Renmin University of China, Prof. Wan Houfen from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Prof. Wu Xiaoyun from Nankai University, and Prof. Wang Fanghua from Shanghai Jiaotong University, I decided to divide the credits of marketing into the following six parts (personal opinions, please do not Paizhuan):

1. Discuss sales.Discussion is the introduction to this discipline.Including Introduction to Marketing and Introduction to Consumer Behavior.For example, subject history, market concepts, market types, market core concepts, marketing concepts, consumer purchasing decisions, industrial purchasing decisions, intermediary purchasing decisions, and government purchasing decisions, etc.

2. Advance sales.Pre-sales is to first estimate how big the market will be.This includes managing marketing information, analyzing the marketing environment, conducting marketing research, designing marketing strategies, and preparing marketing plans.

3. Distribution.Distribution is about getting more products to sell.Including products, pricing, channels and terminals, etc.

4. Promotion.A promotion is all about making a product sell faster.Including advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, direct marketing and network promotion.

5. Control sales.Sales control is the regulation of marketing activities.Including marketing plan execution, marketing audit, business performance evaluation and marketing ethics evaluation, etc.

6. New pins.New marketing is a new theory of marketing.Including customer transfer value theory, global marketing, cultural team marketing, relationship marketing, cross marketing, experience marketing and green marketing, etc.

Among the above six blocks, promotion is a very important link.Genius planning masters rely on this link to produce food.Someone once said: If the promotion is not done well, it will promote death.

Let's talk about the way of promotion.

(End of this chapter)