---
title: "Tang Binsen's Anniversary Speech: Withstood Inventory and Other Pressures, Learning from Huawei in Organization"
description: "On Children's Day, Genki Forest held its seventh anniversary celebration at its headquarters. Founder Tang Binsen called the past year the company's 'coming of age,' disclosing performance progress and reflecting on past issues, including channel inventory pressure and organizational adjustments."
author: "杨亚飞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-06-06"
language: "en"
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# Tang Binsen's Anniversary Speech: Withstood Inventory and Other Pressures, Learning from Huawei in Organization

> On Children's Day, Genki Forest held its seventh anniversary celebration at its headquarters. Founder Tang Binsen called the past year the company's 'coming of age,' disclosing performance progress and reflecting on past issues, including channel inventory pressure and organizational adjustments.

Yang Yafei On Children's Day, at Huijia Building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Genki Forest held its seventh anniversary celebration at its headquarters. It is understood that this celebration was for all employees and lasted from 3 PM to 6 PM. At the event, founder Tang Binsen called the past year the company's 'coming of age,' disclosing some performance progress and also conducting a sincere reflection and review of past issues. At the start of his speech, Tang Binsen first reviewed the company's beginnings, saying that in 2016 they sold over 20 million yuan worth of goods, exceeding his initial expectations. He also responded to internal product managers' complaints that 'the self-built factory doesn't support many things,' saying that in the early days when they sought contract manufacturers for process upgrades, they had to pay out of pocket for equipment and spent a lot of unnecessary money. However, Tang Binsen's entire speech focused on how Genki Forest withstood internal and external pressures, including channel inventory and organizational adjustments. Due to a series of problems exposed in terminal management, the company faced severe inventory pressure in its channel last year. Tang Binsen reflected, 'Currently, Genki's inventory is in the 'millions of cases,' while at the same time last year, the inventory of Genki's distributors was 'one digit more,' and that didn't even include goods already in the channel,' which was once a 'state of being overwhelmed.' It took Genki a year to 'completely digest' the inventory of distributors in the channel, and he said that current channel inventory has become healthy, with gross profit and marginal profit also 'significantly improved.' However, Tang Binsen also stated that the company's organizational management currently faces some contradictions, reflected in: the roles played by processes and departments, the attribution of strategy and execution, and the contradiction between maintaining growth and ensuring quality. These issues correspond to the relationships between headquarters and local branches, distributors and sales, and brand and sales. Tang Binsen said that in terms of organization, Genki has been learning from Huawei this year. 'The core soul of Huawei is these four things: budget, process, culture, and organization... Huawei calls it 'comprehensive budget management,' where every detail and every account is aligned with the goals set at the beginning of the year, tracking progress.' Tang Binsen said that Genki is slowly accumulating some processes and forming consensus. Regarding product plans, Tang Binsen said that Genki has sufficient product reserves in the dimensions of sugar-free, health, and functionality, and mentioned that some new products being tested have shown good market feedback, such as 'Yuanqi Zizai Shui, which sells very well in e-commerce, and Mai Cha, which many regional distributors now insist on having, and Fa Cha, which are all good products.' The following is the full text of Tang Binsen's speech titled 'Returning Still a Youth' at Genki Forest's 7th anniversary: We start today with a question: How much revenue did Genki Forest have in its first year? How much did we sell in the first year? It was between 10 million and 30 million, and in the first year we sold over 20 million. Actually, when I first founded Genki Forest, I didn't think much about it. I remember there was a diary entry. Guess what I wrote? I said if one day Genki Forest's monthly revenue could exceed 10 million, or 50 million, or 100 million, I could sleep and laugh at home? The diary said: 'Oh, this month is great, revenue finally exceeded 3 million.' Then I set a goal: when can we reach 30 million per month? I would laugh even lying at home. At that time, I didn't think much about making drinks; I just wanted to make some good things. I didn't expect to cause such 'trouble' for the industry and make such a big splash. I didn't expect to have so many entities and factories today. I remember when we made our first drink that year, we wanted to make a package, so we had to find a contract manufacturer. The manufacturer said, 'If you want to do this, you must buy the equipment yourself and put it in our factory. It will cost about 2 million to meet that standard.' Why do I think of this? Because today many product managers say, 'Our factory doesn't support many things, this label isn't supported, that process isn't supported.' I say, when we first started making drinks, in the contract manufacturer's factory, if you wanted to do any process, you had to buy the equipment first and put it there. At that time, we didn't know how the drink would turn out. We had nothing, so we spent 500,000 on some equipment, and in the end, that thing didn't work out, and we didn't know where to put the 500,000 equipment. Back to the main topic, this theme is called 'Returning Still a Youth.' This is Children's Day, and it's also the seventh anniversary of Genki Forest. For Genki Forest, the past year has indeed been a coming-of-age year. We have experienced too much this past year. I think this year has seen the biggest changes for Genki Forest, and we have faced many challenges. There are two pictures here. The first is called 'Willows and Flowers in the Shade,' and the second, over the past year, our national sales team has been troubled by this: 'turnover days, inventory.' Actually, over the past year, including this year, we call it 'Willows and Flowers in the Shade.' From January to May this year, our overall performance exceeded our budget target by nearly 5%. The hardest is the second: 'turnover days' and 'inventory.' Our current inventory is about several million cases. How much was Genki Forest's inventory at this time last year? How much was the distributors' inventory? Do you know? Last year, our inventory was one digit more than at this moment this year, and that doesn't include the goods in the channel. So over the past year, we completely digested the inventory of distributors in the channel, changing from a state of being overwhelmed by stocking pressure to a sales rhythm with pace and progress. I believe our sales colleagues and distributor partners can feel this change. This change took only one year, but behind it, we paid a huge price. So currently, our entire channel and inventory have become healthy, even reaching the advanced level of the industry. As for the remaining three indicators, our per-capita efficiency has improved, and gross profit and marginal profit have also significantly improved. Our sparkling water sales have also been steadily increasing for four consecutive months this year. This is called 'Willows and Flowers in the Shade.' More importantly, over the past year, I believe everyone can feel a few points: First, our organization has become clearer. What was the most common complaint you heard six months ago? Guess? It was job adjustments. Last year, many Genki Forest colleagues were transferred between departments. But starting this year, our organization has become relatively stable, and such adjustments will become fewer and fewer. The organizational structure and division of labor are also becoming clearer. Second, our departments have become fewer. Previously, there were many departments at headquarters and in regions. Last year, I made a request: 'Leave complexity to yourself, leave simplicity to others,' meaning that headquarters should focus on key issues and output an overall solution, reducing interference with regions and other departments. Now we have a 'large department system,' and the number of departments has decreased. Another important thing is that processes are becoming more optimized. A year ago, people at Genki Forest might not have been aware of this term. This year, we started to extract, summarize, and accumulate processes, making our organization more goal-oriented and project-aware. For a company like ours with so many chains, without processes, we can't function. Last year, we emphasized opening up closed-loop departments, which means we face several contradictions: one is process and department. Previously, we had no processes. Now that we have processes, we need to discuss who initiates the process, which department undertakes it, and what role each department plays in the process. This has gradually come into view. This is a problem we, as a food and beverage company, need to continuously pay attention to and solve. Today, I think the whole company has begun to realize the importance of processes and departments, and has started to slowly solve this problem. The second is strategy and execution. Previously, we often had problems not knowing what strategy and execution meant. Bosses easily micro-managed and didn't think about strategy, while supervisors often went down to do the work to show so-called 'attention to detail.' Now we truly separate strategy and execution, requiring senior cadres to focus more on strategy and grassroots execution to focus more on efficiency. What is strategy? It's doing the right things. What is execution? It's doing things right. We haven't seriously sorted this out before. Now, with processes and clear positioning of departments, everyone is beginning to discuss who is responsible for strategy, who ensures things are correct, and who ensures efficiency. Everyone is also holding their departments to these standards. Another is growth and quality. These two are a double-edged sword. In the past few years, we focused more on growth because, as you know, in the previous few years, almost no beverage company in the Chinese market didn't make sparkling water. At that time, all beverage companies worldwide were attacking Genki Forest in the Chinese market. In the early years, we indeed needed to quickly 'get a seat at the table,' so we emphasized growth. In the past two years, starting last year, we began to emphasize truly balancing growth and quality. Everyone has also started to have this awareness: we need both growth and quality. These things happened over the past year, and the whole company has begun to reach consensus and awareness on these issues. On the basis of these issues, the following three questions arise: First, we are clarifying the relationship between headquarters and local branches. What does headquarters do? It should leave complexity to itself and simplicity to others, giving regions clear instructions and strategies. What do local branches do? They focus on efficiency, budget, cost control, and morale. Second, the relationship between distributors and sales. On this issue, everyone is gradually forming a consensus: our relationship with distributors should be an equal, strong-strong partnership. It cannot be strong-weak, weak-weak, or weak-strong; it must ultimately achieve a strong-strong, equal, and mutually respectful relationship. Third, the relationship between brand and sales. In the past, brand and sales often had disputes over execution and strategy. Now we have clarified that brand focuses more on the overall, global, and planning aspects of strategy, while sales focuses more on rhythm and efficiency, choosing appropriate plans for execution at the right time. Looking back, the biggest change for Genki Forest over the past year is that we are completing a new round of leadership and organizational upgrade. Our four most important pillars are budget, process, culture, and organization. These four things sound simple, but they carry great significance. Behind the problems I just mentioned, many are closely related to budget, process, and culture issues. The core soul of Huawei is these four things: budget, process, culture, and organization. Genki Forest has been learning these things this year. Huawei calls it 'comprehensive budget management,' where every detail and every account is aligned with the goals set at the beginning of the year, tracking progress. From budget formulation to budget tracking, there is a complete system, and we are now slowly implementing it. As for processes, for people from Huawei, processes are like air. With processes, they know how to drive things and how to do them. We are also slowly accumulating some processes and forming consensus on who initiates, who implements, and who executes, which is gradually forming coordination. Regarding culture, last year we finally formed our consensus, called the 'Three Loves' culture. As for organization, we won't expand on it today, but please remember that today, June 1, 2023, Genki Forest has grown one year older. Where has it grown? I think the past year's main manifestations are these: we truly began to have budgets, processes, organization, and culture. Regarding the outlook for the second half of the year, my feeling is that many industries are indeed greatly affected. But our beverage industry is still a basic, rigid-demand industry, and the impact of the overall economic environment is within an acceptable range. At the same time, the state is also vigorously supporting and boosting consumption. I recently carefully read the book 'The Lost 20 Years,' which mentions that beverage and alcohol companies in that region were still able to achieve counter-trend growth. Also, in the beverage market, I believe Genki Forest's current product portfolio is in line with future development and demand trends. In the dimensions of sugar-free, health, and functionality, we have sufficient product reserves. So, I am confident on this issue. I believe Genki Forest has stronger competitiveness in its future product line layout. You can see that this year we have many products, including cola-flavored sparkling water, Alien, and our current Ran Tea and Ice Tea, which are selling well with varying degrees of growth. Behind this is because we are laying out for the future. We also have many new products in reserve. I think these products all align with our health and functionality trends, so I am confident in our product line layout. Another word: 'a hundred flowers bloom.' Returning to products, I think Genki Forest's product line is more complete today than in previous years. We have Ice Tea with sweet tea, Ran Tea as sugar-free tea, and we upgraded our sugar-free tea. We also have functional sugar-free tea, Xian Tea, which is also for future layout. We have sports drinks and carbonated drinks; we have laid out all these lines. Look at any large beverage company; they basically lay out around these product lines, and we have found opportunities in each of these lines. For example, take the recently popular sugar-free tea. The biggest opportunity in the entire tea beverage market is not the growth of sugar-free tea, but the encroachment of sugar-free tea on two-yuan water and sweet tea. We think our Ran Tea and the sugar-free teas we have in reserve have a chance to get a ticket. We may not be number one, but I look forward to a better position and performance for our sugar-free tea line. Other new products, we have also started testing this year, and these products will bring some surprises. For example, our Yuanqi Zizai Shui sells very well in e-commerce, our Mai Cha is now demanded by many regional distributors, and 'Fa Cha' are all good products. Our Lang and Maxx, I think these products each have their own clear positioning and have found their own differentiation points. Finally, if we don't summarize, it seems the height doesn't rise. In summary, it's the title of the speech: 'Returning Still a Youth.' Do you remember I once said, 'Believe in the power of belief.' What is the highest realm? First, believe in yourself; second, believe in others; third, after experiencing many changes in the world, still hold the power of belief. Behind belief, there must be a youthful heart. Only with a youthful heart can one believe in the future. So I hope everyone maintains some childlike innocence and always believes in something.


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