A year ago, I read "Creating JD" as an internet story, finding it inspirational but lacking in entertainment value—there wasn't even a mention of Sister Milk Tea, so I wouldn't give it a thumbs up. Unexpectedly, a year later, I joined the internet industry myself, and upon rereading the book, my perspective was completely different. This time, I read it slowly and gained deeper insights.
In the preface, the author said, "Over the past 30-plus years, China has relied on three major drivers—demographic dividends, capital investment, and open markets—to fuel economic growth, creating golden eras for manufacturing, export, and real estate. However, the disappearance of demographic dividends, shrinking overseas demand, and declining returns on capital investment mean that old drivers are fading, and China needs new growth engines." Since I started part-time sales in 1998, I've been in the business for nearly 20 years, which I can divide into three phases.
1 Phase One (1998-2016): In 1998, I first encountered the opening of Huanghe Supermarket in Wuhan, where people were extremely enthusiastic about this self-service supermarket's novelty and low prices. The scene was chaotic—People Mountain People Sea—and I was shocked. By 1999, when I saw Trust-Mart in Guangzhou, I realized Huanghe was nothing. A few months later, in Shenzhen, I saw Walmart and Carrefour, which I had often read about in business cases, and understood what international hypermarkets were. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1999, I went alone to Shenzhen and met with colleagues from Longfeng Group's Shenzhen office in Sungang warehouse, starting my journey in modern channels. Terms like DM, display, and SKU began to merge with my previous knowledge. I immersed myself with distributors, promoters, and store managers, learning eagerly. After three months, I could independently plan a promotion. Later, I moved from Longfeng Group to Kerry Oils, responsible for Walmart, Sam's Club, ParknShop, and Wanjia Department Store (predecessor of China Resources Vanguard). By then, I had transformed from a novice to a veteran. My daily work revolved around orders, shelf space, DM, displays, promotions, and pricing, with arguments and frustrations but more often the joy of achievement. Gradually, I rose to Direct Sales Supervisor, Office Director, and Regional Manager, with my retail exposure expanding from hypermarkets to distribution, catering, and group buying, but still primarily sales-driven. In 2005, at National University of Singapore, I heard Professor Chen Chunhua say, "China's market is driven by channels, not brands." I've often recalled this and think she was very forward-looking. During this period, success was highly probable if you had a good product, dared to advertise, quickly distributed, kept up with promotions, and had a bold sales team. Golden Arowana, JDB, and Wahaha all grew rapidly during this time.
2 Phase Two (2007-2014): I chose this starting point because it was significant personally and marked a critical period for China's FMCG transformation. In March 2007, I left the Central China region and returned to Shenzhen to take an unfamiliar role as Director of the Rice and Flour Project Department, responsible for the group's new project marketing. I was still a month shy of 30, but fortunately, I looked older, masking my youth. I continued to travel extensively, visit clients, copy competitors' product information, and learn from industry seniors. Three months later, the first new product launched, opening a new chapter in small-pack rice. During this period, the economy experienced the 2008 global financial crisis, a resurgence after the 4 trillion stimulus, and another downturn after 2013. Brand promotion shifted from the traditional combination of advertising, distribution, and promotions to new media, integrated communication, event marketing, online-offline integration, precision marketing, and category segmentation. Retail formats also added e-commerce, micro-commerce, a second rise of direct selling, and new gift channels. In this phase, I focused more on marketing models, product systems, brand positioning, management streamlining, and channel layout, with a broader view, though my involvement in specific channel management decreased over time. Many brands began to decline from their peaks: P&G started layoffs and divesting product lines, Wanglaoji and JDB were in fierce competition, instant noodles declined, and some health-focused and novel precision-positioned products rose. People around me began to diverge: some seized the Weibo dividend, others made their first fortune via WeChat, but most, like me, struggled to break through. In October 2014, I made a bold decision to leave my colleagues and platform of over a decade, unsure of my reasons. Looking back, it was confusion and fear of the unknown.
3 Phase Three (2015 to present): During this phase, I mainly worked at Evergrande Oils, experiencing several organizational changes and one equity transfer. I led a new team, developed a new product, and rebuilt a network. This period saw new retail, new models, new marketing, and new business models springing up like mushrooms, constantly challenging me. Traditional retail, distribution models, and group buying all faced difficulties. I felt I understood something but also didn't, elusive and intangible. My admired colleague Yu Weijiang (a man of great wisdom, proficient in business models, strategic planning, and human nature) often joked that I was begging with a golden bowl. Weibo went from boom to bust and then a second rise; WeChat became a phenomenon; and live streaming, which I still don't fully understand, became a craze. Suddenly, TV media and traditional portals seemed powerless, and many familiar brands saw increasingly weak growth. My idol JDB lost its luster after the gold can; China Red Bull faced brand disputes; P&G lacked eye-catching breakthroughs. All seemed so feeble. People's Daily commentator articles proposed the L-shaped new normal for China's economy. In the second half of 2016, B2B entered my view, and I vaguely felt it was a new opportunity for breakthrough. At the March 2017 Chengdu Sugar and Wine Fair, the B2B forum hosted by New Distribution saw colleagues from across the country filling the corridors, many of them distributors from all directions. Talking with many peers about marketing confusion and powerlessness deeply stung me.
The grand occasion of the 2017 (Second) China FMCG + Internet Conference held by New Distribution at this spring's Sugar and Wine Fair.
After several contacts with Meicai, I was moved and decided to leave the familiar FMCG industry, transitioning from a sales role (Party B) to a procurement role (Party A).
This transition took me only a month to mentally prepare, and I was quite confident. The book states, "In the last one or two decades, all innovative models are related to reducing transaction costs or improving transaction efficiency. Either lower transaction costs or higher transaction efficiency—at least one must be achieved for a new model to survive and develop. If neither is achieved, all innovation is meaningless." This deeply moved me. We need to be good procurement managers for restaurant owners, helping them save costs and improve efficiency—that is our mission. Once the goal is set, the rest is left to time, effort, and luck.
From the book, I saw the hardships and passion of JD's early days. When I read about Nokia's provincial distributor inviting Wang Xiaosong to the 2008 annual meeting (with a Gionee promoter on the left and a BBK promoter on the right), I couldn't help but feel for Wang Xiaosong for two seconds. Six years later, JD's sales accounted for 20-25% of Microsoft Mobile (Nokia had been acquired by Microsoft), which felt like a different era. On one hand, I empathize; on the other, most of our current suppliers understand and support Meicai far better than JD's suppliers did back then. The rest can only be resolved with time. Well, it's an inspirational story! The author's conclusion that "those who control channels win the world" echoes Professor Chen Chunhua's 2005 statement that channels drive brands.
"In 1996, Jeff Bezos proposed the 'Get Big Fast' philosophy to Amazon employees. He believed that the bigger the company, the more it could get low prices from wholesalers like Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and the stronger its channel capabilities. The faster the company grows, the more fields it can enter, and the more qualified it becomes to join the forefront of the electronics industry and compete in establishing new brands."
This book offers many cases and management insights on procurement and sales that benefited me greatly, but what touched me most was this line: "In a rapidly developing company, what determines a person's growth space is the ability to learn quickly, not past experience."
Source: Tianxia Liangren
The Third (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in November 2017, closely围绕 the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting 1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions to explore new chapters of cross-industry integration!
Core topics of this conference:
How can the FMCG industry leverage B2B to achieve new growth opportunities?
How should the new supply chain behind new retail be built?
How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development?
Highlights of this conference:
The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"
Case sharing of excellent distributors in transformation and upgrading
Conference + exhibition upgrade: Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens networking
Leaders from Alibaba Retail Link, GL Capital, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yijiu Batch, and Haiding will deliver speeches and share pioneering views.
November 8-9, 2017 Chongqing Yuelai International Conference Center, Xinyue Hall Registration is now open: long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Add friend with note "Conference Registration" Click the links below to review the highlights of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: 2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum -END-