Looking at the world with a broad vision The media industry has obvious ceilings. New Distribution has been wandering and hesitating over this in recent years, making many attempts. Recent reflections, especially from Tiger Bang Chili Sauce founder Lu Wenjin, revealed the energy a true entrepreneur should have: certainty about the present, not rushing to grow big, but focusing on doing things well, as he puts it: 'growing grain on bluestone slabs.' As long as you want to do it, you can definitely do it well. Yes, it's this 'doing well' that gave me tremendous inspiration. I began to reflect: as a vertical media in the industry, what is New Distribution's core value? Is it to make a lot of money? Or something else? I think: as a company, we must solve problems for society, the industry, or a certain group. As media, I believe we should use our pen and our vision to inspire the industry, lead the industry, promote the industry, and change the industry, thereby making ourselves and this company an object of respect and recognition. But in the past few years, we have deviated, busy making money, busy monetizing, busy discovering various business opportunities and possibilities, ignoring the inherent significance of our existence as an industry media. When I first started the business, many people told me that B2B and WeChat official accounts would soon decline in a couple of years, so I should quickly monetize while there was still traffic. At first, I was very anxious when hearing this, but over time, I gradually found that those who said this to me have all been on the decline. On the contrary, we slowly did things, seriously did some things we thought were valuable, and survived. This made me reflect: what kind of company is New Distribution? Do we really want to make this company very big? At the Q3務虛會 (planning meeting) last year, we discussed the issue of growing big versus doing well. Actually, media can be big, but what indicators are used to evaluate this 'bigness'? GMV? Or profit? Is it the clients served? Or the value created? I think the most critical should be influence. Brother Ting said that New Distribution's most impressive point is that we can influence influential people. Right! Since we can influence influential people, our 'bigness' should be: influencing more influential people, thereby changing the entire industry, even the whole world. We once made a very clear judgment that almost all American marketing theories emerged in the 1960s to early 1970s. Based on these theories, not only were a large number of global brands born, but more importantly, they guided brand operations in many countries. I was recently chatting with Yuan Dejian: Li Si, who does positioning, earns more money in China than the total of all other countries combined. China's national strength has risen. Chinese brands, based on a large number of new infrastructures locally, have practiced a lot of work experience, theories, and methods that can actually be abstracted into a large number of models, methods, and theories. We must know that marketing is an inductive discipline, which means that the task and responsibility of induction must be an important mission of New Distribution. In addition, we see that a large number of foreign brand executives, even top leaders, have been replaced by Chinese people. At the same time, a large number of foreign companies are transferring professional managers from China to other countries and regions around the world. This shows that local professional managers, leveraging China's market, China's practice, and China's new marketing concepts, have successfully guided domestic marketing and are gradually going global. Not only professional managers, but more importantly, Chinese local brands will also gradually go global through the accumulated momentum and experience domestically. In this process, what value should New Distribution carry? New Distribution's mission is to help this generation of Chinese brands, Chinese professional managers, and Chinese marketing theories go global, and in our own way, complete the great rejuvenation of the nation and the country! Our work is to refine, discover, and summarize the most outstanding talents, best practice cases, and most profound marketing theories, to tell the industry, create communication opportunities, train and guide them, so they can grow faster, not get entangled in domestic marketing involution, but truly look at the world, go out, and go further. Think about it: what could be more exciting than this? If we understand where we are going, why still worry about the immediate business? Why must we worry about whether this business makes money? Why worry about small frictions and issues among colleagues? Look at the direction we are heading, look at what we are going to do—isn't its significance much more important than the current problems? Do the present well Yesterday, He Lei discussed in the shareholder group the issue of New Distribution choosing a track, which is also a route issue we have discussed for a long time and is New Distribution's most important strategic choice. That is whether New Distribution should enter the exhibition track. In the past few years, New Distribution has done well in conferences. But in exhibitions, there has been no major breakthrough. Seeing peers getting better and better through exhibitions, shareholders are anxious, as if New Distribution's development has stagnated for two years due to the founder's limitations. It is undeniable that in the past two years, especially in 2021, New Distribution's business structure, model, and team have undergone significant changes. These changes have both good and bad aspects, but overall, they are positive. At least we haven't died because of the founder's reckless actions. Over the past two years, I have been thinking about a question: what is the value and meaning of my existence and this company? This question seems empty and meaningless. Some classmates might answer: of course, it's to make more money! This value has a logical flaw: what is making money for? Is it for happiness? For joy? But happiness is a feeling, an emotion, with a threshold, and constantly changing. This leads to the possibility that we might quickly reach our desired goals or ideals, but it is difficult to persistently and consistently do one thing for a long time, because emotions change and the demand for experience keeps rising. This leads to: if we place our personal mission and values on something constantly changing, then I and the company will encounter the same problems as in the past two years: once a phased goal is achieved, the meaning of existence for the individual and the company will be completely lost. Life should pursue meaning rather than happiness; for a company, it should pursue mission rather than vision. From today's perspective, for an individual, using a limited life and cycle to accomplish something meaningful may be more important than making more money. Similarly, for a company, doing something for a mission is far more important than pursuing a certain revenue scale. So what is meaningful? I got an inspiration from a book: an important way to gain meaning is not to ask what I want, but to ask more about what the world and the people around us need us to do. New Distribution has an important viewpoint: our world is gradually transitioning from industrial civilization to information civilization. In other words, the world as a whole is moving from the physical to the virtual. The physical world, whether it's technological evolution, the variety and quantity of resources, or the satisfaction of physical needs, is limited and was already fully satisfied in the industrial era. Technological progress, the development of the times, and the core of the metaverse mean that people will increasingly focus on the spiritual world. Meaning and relationships far outweigh survival and material. The entire marketing logic of the world is about to undergo a major change. Fortunately, New Distribution happens to stand at this node of change. We must view our value and significance as an industry media company and industry research institution from the perspective of human civilization evolution and industry cycles. We are to promote the change and upgrade of China's FMCG industry marketing. We must help and awaken more people to see the world changes they cannot see. We must use our media leverage to pry the gears of industrial transformation! We must let Chinese marketers go global, lead the world, and transform global marketing! I think this is New Distribution's mission:

  • Make FMCG sell faster!
  • Let Chinese marketing go global! Of course, New Distribution is not just a media; it is more like an industrial group, with training, consulting, and exhibition businesses under it. But we must see that these do not conflict with our existing mission. For us, media is to solve a universal problem in the industry, while exhibitions and consulting solve a company's problem. Training solves an individual's problem. In this field, whether it's the industry or individuals, they are all objects we need to focus on and influence. New Distribution wants to do many things, and it has many development issues. We do not avoid or retreat. Each of us must face and solve problems like an adult. Most of the problems New Distribution faces today are only temporary, and businesses do not conflict with each other. All problems are just about order and resource allocation. All the problems we encounter today are like Tang Xuanzang going to the West to fetch scriptures: it's impossible to prepare all elements before setting out. The only thing he could do was pick up the alms bowl and hit the road, solving problems along the way. Where is the 'scripture'? I think the 'scripture' is not in the West; it's under our feet. What we pursue is not necessarily to become a company at a certain stage, but to do every current thing well, and that is the best company. This is our vision: not to pursue bigness, but to pursue doing well, to do every current thing well, polish every product, and write every article well. Do everything uniquely, integrate knowledge and action in everything, and strive to align what you think, what you do, and what others see. That is enough. As long as we know who we are for, where we are going, and how to walk the current path, leave the rest to time. Editor's note: Today we publish New Distribution's internal reflections on mission, vision, and values. We actually want to tell internal colleagues and industry readers that we are willing to grow together with the industry, observe, and promote industry change. I think this is the value a vertical media contributes to the industry. -END-