Click to read the original article for details With the advancement and iteration of technology, the traditional FMCG distribution business has also begun to undergo earth-shaking changes. From the initial B2B to unified warehousing and distribution, to short-video live-streaming e-commerce, community group buying, new consumption, and discount stores, new channels and new business models are emerging one after another. As diligent businesspeople, should we chase the trends, constantly change ourselves, arm ourselves with new technologies and channels, and overtake on the curve through differentiated competition? Or should we solidly practice the basics and do well in the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)? Many traditional FMCG practitioners still haven't figured this out, after all, companies that have done community group buying, B2B, and unified warehousing and distribution haven't developed that well, and companies that haven't tried these new business models don't seem to be doing much worse. But an undeniable reality is that over time, more and more traditional FMCG companies are feeling that business is getting worse, and some have had to switch industries or even close down. It is at this point that many distributors realize belatedly: they have gradually begun to be eliminated by this era! Just like Nokia's CEO, Jorma Ollila, said when the company was acquired by Microsoft: "We didn't do anything wrong, but somehow we lost." "Arrogant" Traditional Marketers Times create heroes; behind the success of most distributors and brand owners, there are factors of the era, the most typical being Wahaha. As Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, said, it was the era that made him. In the early days of reform and opening up, China's beverage market was barren. By relying on product imitation strategies, supplemented by a joint sales system with Chinese regional characteristics, one could defeat all opponents. The same goes for most distributors. In the 1980s and 1990s, the explosion of consumer demand, insufficient production, and information blockage provided natural soil for the survival and development of middlemen. The once-disdained business of "profiteering" was stimulated to great value in that special era due to the imbalance between supply and demand. Against this backdrop, some distributors even grew up alongside brand owners and enjoyed the dividends of the era's rapid development by following the brands. New Distribution has visited a large number of distributors with annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan. They are bold and meticulous, daring to fight and strive, diligent and hardworking. It is precisely with these traits that they earned their first pot of gold. While accompanying brand owners in development and continuously growing themselves, some distributors even gained the ability to influence brand personnel appointments. "If a sales manager performs poorly, I can directly call the boss, and the boss will immediately replace them," a distributor told New Distribution. At the same time, as the scale of business expanded, their own limitations began to gradually emerge. Poor learning ability, unwillingness to change, and empiricism have also become the biggest obstacles hindering the development and growth of these FMCG practitioners. The Invasion of the "Barbarians" In the past, business was easy; under the premise of unchanged objective environmental factors, being bold, careful, and wealthy was enough. But once objective factors change, the logic of business undergoes earth-shaking changes. For most offline physical industries, all changes began in 2002. At that time, the SARS epidemic was raging, and offline physical retail suffered an unprecedented impact. At the same time, people began to come into contact with computers and the internet and started trying to shop online. As the epidemic continued, some consumers gradually accepted online shopping and developed the habit of shopping online. To mitigate the impact of the epidemic, many entrepreneurs began to try moving their businesses online. Taobao and JD.com are representatives of this trend and gradually developed into two unshakable mountains in China's internet e-commerce sector. To a certain extent, it was the epidemic that created Taobao and JD.com, but from the perspective of retail development, the emergence and development of Taobao and JD.com were undoubtedly inevitable. From the previous single channel to today's fragmented channels, the only driving force behind circulation and retail is efficiency. The speed of upstream commodity circulation is accelerating, the consumption efficiency of downstream consumers is also continuously improving, and consumption costs have been greatly optimized. Since Taobao and JD.com, the internet has accelerated its penetration into offline entities like a flood of beasts. The "barbarians" were initially silent, but their impact on consumers has been earth-shaking. Up to now, e-commerce has spawned various forms such as social e-commerce, video live-streaming e-commerce, content e-commerce, and community e-commerce, becoming a force that brand owners and distributors cannot ignore, and it has begun to gradually reconstruct the traditional FMCG distribution channels. It is at this time that traditional FMCG practitioners finally realize: the industry has changed! "Falling Behind? Time to Change Your Circle" Facing the new market environment, how should traditional FMCG practitioners respond? Facing the old market stock, how should FMCG practitioners quickly break the deadlock? Facing old corporate organizations, how should managers activate team vitality? Teacher Liu Chunxiong once wrote in a past article: "Falling behind is often not the fall of one person, but the fall of a group of people, the fall of a circle, and the fallen circle will also warm each other, comfort each other, and ultimately fall behind with peace of mind. Tradition has its own circle, the internet has its own circle, and the two may not even interact. To transform, you must break the circle. To change circles, you must also bravely avoid the traditional circle." Undoubtedly, in the face of the new uncertain market environment, only by personally engaging can one find ways to cope; only by breaking the stock, maintaining an empty cup mentality, and re-laying out can one create new market increments; facing old corporate organizations, only by breaking them apart and reconstructing can new organizational vitality be unleashed. More importantly, one must enter a new, continuously upward circle, using advanced tools, methods, and cases to continuously expand one's horizons, in order to break free from one's own thinking and behavioral inertia. Truly re-examine the current business model and management model from a third perspective, continuously iterate oneself, improve one's business and management capabilities, and thus cope with greater future uncertainty. From September 23 to 25, New Distribution invited nearly a hundred brand executives, new consumer product founders, community e-commerce platform operators, short-video live-streaming e-commerce operators, industry experts, and internet e-commerce service providers from across the country, hoping that through their personal cases, their thinking, tools, and methodologies, they can help everyone find certainty in uncertainty, and through their personal experiences, help companies find methodologies to break the deadlock. We have already built the circle, are you ready to come? Are you "watching" me?