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10 Pitfalls and 55 Questions in Traditional Enterprises' Transition to E-commerce
Pitfall 1: Rigid thinking of the boss. Corporate culture is the boss's culture; the boss's vision and mindset determine the company's rise and fall. The prevailing internet thinking, which is rampant to the point of being infuriating, solemnly tells traditional bosses: "You need to change your mind!" But in my opinion, changing the mind is just formalism; the root lies in "heartfelt" change. The rigidity of the boss's thinking is more about an aging heart, fatigue, still proudly holding onto past achievements, still commanding with arrogance and stubbornness. The path of transformation tells us that if the boss's young heart cannot return as a king, transformation is at best a slogan, or a deathbed cry.
Pitfall 2: Decaying teams. Enterprise teams under the industrial revolution were like infantry companies armed with spears, efficient and uniform, looking spectacular. But now it's different; teams under the data revolution are more like gangs, with sparse formations and loose spirits, but each carrying machine guns, and some even equipped with precision-guided nuclear bombs, casually destroying traditional legions with laughter. The path of transformation tells us that a decaying team will silently drag the enterprise to death during the transition, and you may not even notice.
Pitfall 3: Inflexible products. Do you know the most painful thing in business? It's when your competitors give away for free the products you rely on for survival. This is the rhythm of a price war to the death! The new era's product strategy is exactly this kind of play. Moreover, consumers in the new era have aesthetic standards comparable to experts; even the meticulously crafted Spring Festival Gala is criticized mercilessly. If your product's expressiveness is still at a first-grade level, how can you avoid being eliminated by the times? The path of transformation tells us: from product to experience, the lack of interactivity in products will gradually bury traditional enterprises in consumers' memories.
Pitfall 4: Aging channels. Channels are the nerve endings of the market; any market change will be reflected in channels first. So you see, when the internet arrives aggressively, its first blow is aimed at channel distributors. Essentially, channels are the interactive platform between products and users. When product display no longer relies on traditional channels and users' habits shift elsewhere, the significance of traditional channels vanishes. Aging nerve endings lead to the enterprise's mother body losing blood and becoming rigid. The path of transformation tells us: if you don't optimize channels, you'll cancerize life.
Pitfall 5: Customers' wandering affections. People are driven by profit and avoid harm; feelings are built on mutual benefit, and customers are no exception. In the era of material scarcity, there was constant hunger, and inventory was king. But in today's material abundance, customers are well-fed and picky; they may not even care about brands, don't believe ads, some don't buy your products but still find you useful, some use your products often but don't buy them personally, some buy your products often but don't use them personally. The rapid fragmentation of customer characteristics forces marketers to adopt new strategies. The path of transformation tells us: customers are shifting their affections; if we don't change our approach to courting them, we might end up single. Oh, what a painful realization!
Pitfall 6: Competitors' cross-industry tactics. The infinite possibilities of mobile internet have made classic cases of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind" common. When the five major domestic TV brands were fighting fiercely, who would have thought the winner would be an obscure company like LeEco? As long as your ideas are cool enough and you have a massive following, you can use the magic of the internet to slay all comers. This is not an exaggeration. The path of transformation tells us: if you understand integration, everyone is your ally; if you isolate yourself, everyone is your enemy. What kills us is no longer your direct competitor, but X.
Pitfall 7: Confusing business models. Following the old routine, business is a simple vertical buying and selling relationship, pure and cute, a two-dimensional linear exchange. But in the internet era, business has entered a multi-dimensional ecological integration model. Any traditional industry may be disrupted infinitely. This impact from cosmic energy is a nightmare for any traditional enterprise. So, in the mobile internet era, anyone making a 10-year strategic plan is a fool. The path of transformation tells us: thinking about business models is the heavenly way of enterprise survival; in these times, you can afford to lose sleep.
Pitfall 8: Misallocation of funds. Every month, pull out your budget and see how much money was burned like ghost money. The transition window is a period of currency depreciation; the well-known "burning money" is often burning for the dead. Money is abundant but people are foolish, so money inevitably depreciates. Funds are the weapons of business operations; if every penny you spend doesn't kill an enemy, it doesn't reflect the ineffectiveness of the money, but the incompetence of you as the commander. The path of transformation tells us: in the current hot money environment, learning to spend money is more important than learning to earn it.
Pitfall 9: Harm from training companies. In a panic, people seek any doctor. Undoubtedly, with the economic downturn, traditional enterprises are collectively in a plague, and in the next five years, more than half may fail to escape the haze and collapse. So, to get timely treatment, many bosses and executives flock to training institutions, listening to their indoctrination and salvation. But reality tells us that those quacks who are half-baked and can't even save themselves dare to prescribe various magical remedies for you to try. Such harmful behavior attracts countless enterprises. The path of transformation tells us: the chaotic training market is the execution ground for traditional enterprise transformation; it's time to wake up!
Pitfall 10: Misleading media. In Caigen's view, media is a public butcher knife driven by profit. When you want to kill someone with a borrowed knife, you can hire an executioner with money and openly and justly slaughter someone. Too many articles in the media are either PR pieces or advertorials; it's hard to find texts that truly reveal the truth of the internet. Worse, too many entrepreneurs treat media articles as decision-making templates. If so, aren't we falling into the trap and dying under the knife? The path of transformation tells us: the objective spirit of independent thinking and the pragmatic style of daring to try and err will be important capital for traditional enterprise transformation!
Source: Public account: Chen Caigen