A gentle reminder: Click the "↑" above for "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management. Rapid iteration, continuous trial and error, and gradual progress toward success are the way of the Internet age. — Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Let's start with a story: In July 2002, Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier Group, faced over 70 mid-to-senior level managers during an interactive training course. He proposed the theme "Promoting Process Reengineering" and first posed a question that seemed like a brain teaser: "How do you make a stone float on water?" "Hollow out the stone!" someone shouted, but Zhang shook his head. "Put the stone on a wooden board!" Zhang said, "There's no wooden board!" "Make a fake stone!" Everyone burst into laughter. Zhang said, "The stone is real." At that moment, Yu Zida, Vice President of Haier Group, suddenly realized: "It's speed!" Zhang Ruimin said firmly, "Correct!" He continued, "There's a saying in 'The Art of War': 'The rapidity of rushing water can float stones, due to its momentum.'" So, speed is the key factor in determining whether a stone can float on water. Think of the game of "skipping stones" we played as children; a stone can float on water because we give it a sufficiently fast and directional speed, but when the thrown stone doesn't receive continuous external force, its speed slows down, and the stone will sink to the bottom. Robin Li, Chairman of Baidu, once said with emotion: "The Internet changes so fast that if you doze off, you fall behind. This era is no longer about 'big fish eating small fish,' but about 'fast fish eating slow fish.' Especially in fierce market competition, whoever reacts slowly may be eliminated. Facing the new changes of mobile Internet, Li is so busy every day that he doesn't even have time to eat. The high tension even requires him to keep a masseur by his side at all times." "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned"—this quote from Marx's "Communist Manifesto" is now often used by scholars to describe the post-industrial, post-modern, and globalized era. Our current business ecosystem can also be described with this phrase. Looking back at companies that have gone bankrupt, declined, or shown signs of weakness since the beginning of the 21st century—Kodak, Motorola, Nokia, Sony... we cannot deny that what once seemed so indestructible turned out to be so fragile. There are many reasons for their downfall, but speed is certainly one important factor. Of course, companies that haven't fallen don't necessarily have no problems; the only reason they haven't collapsed is that their development speed has surpassed that of their peers, and they know how to adjust their posture while running. In a fast-paced era, aiming is not the first priority; shooting is! Speaking of speed, we easily think of ZARA's "fast fashion." Harvard Business School has rated the ZARA brand as the most research-worthy brand in Europe. ZARA wins with "speed," and its unique "fast fashion" model has created a legend in the fiercely competitive fashion apparel industry, earning ZARA a leadership position in the global fashion apparel sector. The "rapid response mechanism" is ZARA's magic weapon for winning the market. It can be said that no one can surpass ZARA in the race against fashion. ZARA's speed in launching new products is astonishing; from design, trial production, and manufacturing to store sales, the Chinese apparel industry generally takes 6 to 9 months, international brands typically take 120 days, while ZARA usually takes 12 days, with the shortest being only 7 days. Products are restocked twice a week, and every three weeks there is a comprehensive update; for example, in logistics and distribution, ZARA requires standards equivalent to supermarket fresh food delivery. In EU countries like Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, truck transport is the main method, with an average arrival at stores within 48 hours. Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah Mobile, stated that innovation is differentiation, being a little bit different. But plagiarism and imitation cannot be prevented; the core solution is to make yourself run faster and think more deeply, which is often said as "always imitated, but never surpassed." In modern society, all competition revolves around speed and is closely related to it. Whoever is fast is ahead of the times and grasps the future! — Excerpt from "Ten Commandments of Brands in the Mobile Internet Era" --------------------------------------------