Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 8 1 "Late bloomers": Fast growth equals fast bankruptcy

Volume II Strategy Volume "Tao Follows Nature" to Win the Strategic Thinking of Entrepreneurs
When we named Lao Tzu's thoughts and theories, "Tao" became the most representative and self-cultivating word.Thousands of years of scouring and the baptism of vicissitudes, this syllable gently uttered by Lao Tzu has not faded so far.Today, thousands of years later, his idea of ​​"following the way" has become more and more respected by modern business managers.If managers can manage according to market operation and enterprise development laws, they will reach the state of "doing nothing but doing nothing", and make their management in a healthy operating state of "self-acting and self-transformation", and all problems will naturally be solved.

Haste makes waste, success requires accumulation.

Late blooming——Tao Te Ching Chapter 41

The most valuable things, the greatest deeds are done last.Lao Tzu used "big bloomers are late bloomers" to advise leaders to be down-to-earth and do their current work well, instead of rushing for success.

There is an old Chinese saying that goes, "haste makes waste".Although accelerating development is the goal pursued by enterprises, if you lack a rational attitude and use impetuous strides to encourage growth, then you need to reflect.For every enterprise, its growth has its unique objective laws, which must be respected and not surpassed.If you are impetuous and blindly seek quickness, you may be able to gain fame and profits for a while, but in the end, due to factors such as financial strength and internal management, the company will be riddled with holes.Therefore, if you want to make the enterprise remain invincible in the competition forever, you have to move forward step by step in a down-to-earth manner.

All truly wise men know that success depends on a little bit of accumulation and a little bit of enlightenment.As the famous American columnist Charlie?Mr. Culkin said: "The opportunity to achieve great things does not pour down like the rapids of Niagara Falls, but slowly bit by bit." Faster can only be achieved by more efforts, hoping for gold more than the idea of ​​​​sweat , There are too many fantasy elements.

Wugu Daochang was launched in November 2005. In 11, its national sales quickly reached more than 2006 million yuan, and it was ranked first in the "Fifth China Top 100 Growing Enterprises" at the end of the year.It is a pity that its growth rate is like a rising tide, which comes and goes quickly, and finally falls into a deep predicament due to a broken capital chain, and cannot escape the fate of being acquired.Looking back at the development trajectory of Wugu Daochang from rapid growth to rapid decline, we should reflect and take warning while we are sorry.

At the end of the 20th century, Mr. Wang Zhongwang, a native of Xingtai, Hebei Province, started his own business in Longyao County, his hometown, and established Hebei Zhongwang Food Co., Ltd., which was the predecessor of Zhongwang Group. In the middle of 2004, Wang Zhongwang decided to create a new brand in order to realize the expansion and extension of products from low-end to high-end. In October of that year, Wugu Daochang was registered and established.

At the beginning of 2005, in order to build its own high-end brand and to be different from instant noodle giants such as Master Kong, Wugu Daochang made a surprising victory in terms of brand value, with concepts such as "refuse fried, keep healthy", "non-fried, healthier" and so on was quickly launched.Since the cancer-causing scandal of fried food was in full swing at that time, consumers were quite panicked, so the birth of Wugu Daochang was just at the right time, which naturally caused a strong shock in the market.

It seems that overnight, the "non-fried" advertisement of Bai Qiye in Chen Baoguo's "The Mansion Gate" began to be bombarded on CCTV, local TV stations and various print media. Cities choose high-end communities, office buildings, schools, stations, docks, and traffic arteries for large-scale free delivery.Wugu Daochang began to become popular in China, and achieved sales of 600 million yuan in the first month of its listing. Since then, it has grown all the way, and the market is getting better every day.Half a year later, the Wugu Daochang market spread across the country, and the monthly payment reached about 3000 million yuan.At the time, the company was reveling in the triumph of differentiation.

Many people spoke highly of the rapid development of Wugu Daochang, and split the huge instant noodle market in half with a simple word "non", making Wugu Daochang easily occupy half of the country.Industry experts commented: "Wugu Daochang's market development period was impeccable in terms of product positioning, brand differentiation, and communication. It can be regarded as a classic case in the history of planning."

Under the strong offensive of Wugu Daochang, the sales of the instant noodle industry fell by 2006 billion yuan in 60. The industry's operating rate in the off-season before sales was 75%, but after February 2006, the operating rate was only 45%.Facing the favorable situation, Wugu Daochang continued to expand its sales team, increase its production capacity, and increase its investment in advertising. At the same time, it set up offices in more than 30 cities across the country. The number of employees once expanded to more than 2000 within half a year.The Beijing headquarters, which originally had only a few dozen people, has actually established a sales team of nearly a thousand people in a short period of time.

But at this time, hidden dangers have been buried in the Wugu Daochang.According to an insider of Zhongwang Group to the media, the financial control of Wugu Daochang is too extensive, which seriously overdraws the company's resources. "We are a medium-sized enterprise doing the work of a large enterprise." Even Wang Zhongwang, the helmsman, once admitted to the media, "We have invested 4.7 million yuan, and 1.7 million yuan has been spent on advertising alone." Only 2007 million yuan have actually formed cash flow. [-] million yuan, which made the cash flow of Wugu Daochang begin to tighten. In the middle of [-], Wugu Daochang was out of stock in supermarkets all over the country one after another. The brand of Wugu Daochang gradually withdrew from the market, and Zhongwang Group had to swallow the bitterness of failure.

If people want to accomplish great things, it will not be smooth sailing, nor can they be accomplished overnight.Things go against extremes, grow too fast, and fail too quickly.The company grows too fast, on the one hand, because the market environment gives opportunities, and on the other hand, the managers of the company subjectively pursue the speed and scale of development too much, and seek the rapid development of the company. Caused the capital chain to break, and finally led to the collapse of the enterprise.

The basis for the survival of an enterprise is fundamental strength. Enterprise leaders must have a long-term strategy, develop step by step, stage by stage, and eat more than they can eat.If you want to develop and grow, the right way is to win steadily and seek truth, because safety is more important than speed, and entrepreneurs should "rather stop for three minutes than rush for one second."Therefore, in actual work, leaders must overcome impatience and endure loneliness.The key to success is to overcome the fear of slowness and hold your dreams in your hands bit by bit.

(End of this chapter)