Click to read the original article for details Students lined up at the cafeteria for food, where steamed buns were categorized into "Eurasian-African" types: "European" was white flour mantou, "Asian" was cornmeal wotou, and "African" was sorghum wotou. A 5-cent dish was cabbage boiled in water, 10 cents got you some vermicelli, and 15 cents included a few slices of meat. Sun Shaoping always went to eat last—he couldn't afford the dishes. Reading this in Lu Yao's Mao Dun Literature Prize-winning work "The Ordinary World," 23-year-old Hou Xiaohai chewed on his mantou and smiled knowingly, a smile tinged with bitterness. He knew well how to save money by skimping on his stomach. (Hou Xiaohai during his studies in the Statistics Department at Renmin University of China) After graduating with a degree in statistics from Renmin University, to secure a Beijing hukou and become a "Beijing person" completely, he became a planner at Beijing Shougang Corporation. His monthly salary was 94 yuan. He sent 34 yuan home, spent 30 yuan on books, saved 10 yuan, leaving 20 yuan for all living expenses each month. After the major deductions, the only flexible saving was on his "stomach." Hou Xiaohai understood Sun Shaoping's embarrassment. His method seemed even more clever. He went to the cafeteria at the regular time, but only ate a small portion of his lunch dish. By dinner, he'd stick his lunchbox directly into the mantou window, with the leftover lunch dish supporting his confidence in the cafeteria. (Hou Xiaohai during his time at Shougang) Thirty years later, China Resources Beer, with a market value of over 200 billion yuan, released its 2020 annual results: revenue of approximately 31.448 billion yuan, net profit up nearly 60% year-on-year. Profit attributable to shareholders was about 2.094 billion yuan, an increase of around 42.3%. "We are no longer a company earning one or two billion; we don't know exactly how much we can earn, but we know next year will be more than this year, and the year after more than next year," said 53-year-old Hou Xiaohai, CEO of China Resources Beer. (Hou Xiaohai delivering a speech at the 2020 Snow First Channel Partner Conference) As Sun Shaoping said, "One day, I will climb on a train to the outside world." For 30 years, a voice has been whispering in Hou Xiaohai's ear: Go for it! Braving the World On a corner of Hou Xiaohai's desk, the cool, sharp blue bottle of Brave the World superX features a white backpacker climbing upward with determination. The silhouette conveys the brand's philosophy of self-breakthrough and challenging limits. superX is the younger, upgraded version of Snow's Brave the World. (Brave the World superX, advocating "Born Fearless") Sixteen years ago, Hou Xiaohai led his team to create the "Brave the World" brand, achieving a classic case in China's mid-range beer brands that is hard to imitate and surpass. Often, Hou Xiaohai feels that the little silhouette on the bottle is like another self. (China Resources Snow Beer's national "super big single product" Brave the World) In December 2001, Hou Xiaohai wrote a job application letter from PepsiCo and joined China Resources Snow. At that time, Snow had successfully launched in the northeast through the "mushroom strategy," expanding from the northeast southward along rivers and coasts to the whole country. How to transform from a Local Brand to a National Brand? The challenge fell on Hou Xiaohai, who was then responsible for both sales and marketing. Since it had gone national, could Snow remain just an ordinary beer selling for two or three yuan? "At that time, I was just unconvinced—I'm still rebellious now, and probably will be for life," Hou Xiaohai said. Because of this "unconvinced" attitude, Hou Xiaohai was beaten countless times as a child. Rolling pins, brooms, stools, sticks... "Being chased by my mother with a stick was my norm." There was a small river in the village with a small bridge. Many birds nested in the bridge holes. The kids would stack up as a human ladder to steal bird eggs. The bully at the east end of the village stood at the top and got the eggs. The kids wanted to share the eggs, but the bully refused. The others gave up. Hou Xiaohai didn't; he tore the bully's hat and broke his head. The beaten child was dragged by his parents to Hou Xiaohai's house to settle accounts, holding the bird's nest over his bleeding head on the way. Hou Xiaohai, feeling guilty, went home to check. Seeing the stick already standing at the door, he ran away and hid outside until after midnight. The town's revolutionary committee director, who was stationed in the village, lived next door. "My mother often cooked for him, and my father, a minor rural cadre, often helped him purchase this and that." The director's son had comic books to read, but Hou Xiaohai didn't—he couldn't afford them. Because of a copy of "Crossing the River Reconnaissance," the two kids got into a fight. He, a child, went to the director's door and jumped up and down cursing. "Because he was bald, the villagers called him 'Bald Zhang' behind his back. Who would dare call him that to his face? You'd get beaten for sure. I kept calling him 'Bald Zhang! Bald Zhang!'"—That was the worst beating of his childhood. From the northeast to the whole country, do you have the mindset to charge? Can you maintain the courage to "defeat whoever you meet"? This was asked in the internal publication "China Resources Beer" in 2005, addressed to all employees. This was a war of annihilation. The surrounding competitors all focused on physical selling points: fresh, crisp, pure... Hou Xiaohai felt that following this approach had too little chance of success. "To defeat them, we must take a different path." The unfulfilled wish from PepsiCo kept churning in Hou Xiaohai's mind. Before joining Snow, Hou Xiaohai was responsible for marketing and brand at Sichuan PepsiCo. Wang Fei's music dreams, Aaron Kwok's jungle adventures, the football all-star team... Pepsi's brand activities were very active. "But I thought it could be better. I was determined to turn Pepsi's activities into a Pepsi brand. Pepsi International certainly wouldn't allow that. At the time, I thought if I ever managed a brand myself, I would do it that way." The opportunity came on that day in 2005. Hou Xiaohai was in a hurry to hold a meeting to create a national promotion activity for Snow Beer. The agency's proposal for a Snow Beer Yarlung Zangbo River trip was approved by him. "But it didn't realize the desire to promote both the brand and the product together. We should launch a beer whose name is integrated with the activity." The agency proposed many names, and the brainstorming in the meeting room was intense, but Hou Xiaohai was dissatisfied and his mind wandered. His fingers tapped lightly on the table, and his eyes casually fell on a DVD on his left—a gift from the general manager of Discovery China. On it were four bold characters: Brave the World. (In 2006, Snow Beer Brave the World "Beer Enthusiasts Trace the Source of the Yangtze River Journey") The war of annihilation, mid-range beer, tapping into young people's brand emotional value, linking brand activities and brand names... That glance suddenly "clicked" for the brand and marketing issues he had been thinking about for nearly 10 years. Hou Xiaohai said: "I felt it was it." That same year, Snow Beer officially partnered with Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific to launch the first Brave the World promotion—the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Exploration Journey. Subsequently, Snow Beer named "Brave the World" gradually appeared on Chinese dining tables. Snow thus created a "trinity" marketing model integrating brand image, brand activities, and same-name products. (Participants in the Brave the World activity embroidering a red flag in the rain) This "silhouette" figure, representing young people who are proactive, challenge themselves, and dare to climb, became the symbol of "braving" and entered thousands of households. "Snow won this war of annihilation and was no longer synonymous with low-end beer." Departure The sun climbs up I open my eyes again I look at the sky, I look at the earth Ah I lift my legs and walk on the old road ... In Hou Xiaohai's phone, rebellious Cui Jian tells a story of departure. It's been 20 years since he first stepped through Snow's gates. Hou Xiaohai has been with the company for 19 years, with one brief departure rarely mentioned—Hou Xiaohai's 2008 was themed on departure. Promoting Snow as a national brand, focusing on the mid-to-high-end market, successful marketing models like "Brave the World"... These consecutive changes enabled China Resources Snow to be the first to exceed 5 million kiloliters in national production and sales, ranking first nationally. Hou Xiaohai made significant contributions to Snow Beer's entry into the first-tier brand. (Hou Xiaohai published an article: "Snow Beer: Raising the Banner of Non-Olympic Marketing") In 2008, when "non-Olympic marketing" was supposed to end perfectly, Hou Xiaohai left Snow in the first half of the year to become general manager of Henan金星 Beer Group, leaving after 5 months. In the second half, he moved to InBev (AB InBev) as Vice President for Asia Pacific, leaving after 8 months. He then returned to Snow, parachuting into China Resources Snow Beer Guizhou Regional Company as general manager. In the circle of competitors, his comings and goings sparked various rumors and speculation. "All my positions were actively sought by myself; my leaders gave me the greatest recognition. There was no divine favor, no connections. None." Born in the impoverished mountainous area of Yimeng, Hou Xiaohai, as a child, squatted in the fields, feeling a confusing silence. The land was vast, but the world felt small. He shared the same pair of pants with his two older brothers; he could eat white flour once a year, unless he was sick. During junior high, he had 54 pancakes a week, cutting radishes with a knife and dipping them in soy sauce—he didn't even have pickles. "I had a strong drive to go out, to leave the countryside and the mountains, to make my own way. This may stem from poverty, from lack of knowledge, from the drive to change one's fate as a person. It's closely related to my background." Becoming a Beijing person was Hou Xiaohai's first life goal. After graduating from the Statistics Department of Renmin University, to get a Beijing hukou, Hou Xiaohai chose Shougang, which offered hukou quotas. The hukou was settled, and many envied him. But Hou Xiaohai felt increasingly uneasy: There was only one old lady in his department. He was to become her apprentice to eventually take over her position. "I saw this as boring. A student from a prestigious university becoming a statistician in a fourth-tier unit of Shougang was definitely not my ideal. Where's the challenge?" One day, 8 months later, Hou Xiaohai took leave and ran away. This was his first "departure" in his career. He ran all the way to Fuyong Town, Bao'an, Shenzhen, joining the "migrant workers" army. In a Hong Kong-owned garment factory doing "three-plus-one" processing, making shirts and clothes for export, Hou Xiaohai worked as an accountant. After work, he'd go for late-night snacks, surrounded by workers from electronics, zipper, and shoe factories. Men and women slept in large dormitories—everyone was identical on the assembly line. This wasn't what he wanted either. After disappearing for 4 months, he returned to Shougang and received a disciplinary action: no salary increase for two years. "You see Shougang's colorful flags and hear the drums, but as a university graduate, your major is completely irrelevant. No one needs a statistics major." He ate, read voraciously, and wandered the ancient city in circles at night, feeling miserable. "Shougang had hundreds of thousands of employees. In front of this huge enterprise, I had no special significance and felt powerless." Where to go? Join a foreign company, work in an office building, and realize his unique value. "I wrote application letters every day, at least a hundred. For any job ad in the newspaper, as long as it was in English, I sent my resume." At that time, the globally renowned consulting firm Gallup had just been in China for two years, managed by Gallup Inc. USA. "Everything required you to create. How to conduct research in China? How to design questionnaires in China? You had to create it yourself. It encouraged independent creativity, respected individuals, and promoted collective co-creation. It had a huge impact on me." (Hou Xiaohai (second from right) during his time at Gallup) On Chinese New Year's Eve in 1996, when families were reuniting, Hou Xiaohai was still in Taiyuan on a business trip collecting questionnaires. "Why did the client have such high accommodation standards, staying in five-star hotels, with meals reimbursed, and doing nothing while I did everything? I was unconvinced. I wanted to be the client too." That year, Hou Xiaohai pursued love in Sichuan and left Beijing. The girl was in Sichuan, and he gave up his hukou, files, and everything in Beijing. After marriage, he sought employment again. Finally, at Sichuan PepsiCo, Hou Xiaohai saw the sky of a big client. "Some people only understand brand, not sales; others only understand sales, not brand. In those five years, I fully integrated market and brand. Many of my current experiences come from that." Never having been in sales, Hou Xiaohai started as a salesperson. He first tackled Kotler's "Marketing Management," and for the first time, he walked the streets with thousands of salespeople, visiting stores and stocking shelves. The difference was that he could turn his field experience into theories and tools to guide practice. Four months later, Hou Xiaohai wrote a long market analysis report on a bench in a Chengdu park. "My leader said, 'Your research report is impressive. Don't do brand in the marketing department. Go into sales and change Pepsi's situation in Sichuan!'" For 7 consecutive months, growth was 30%, ranking first in similar markets nationwide; annual sales exceeded 8 million cases, far surpassing competitors... Sales representative, assistant manager, sales manager, general manager assistant, sales director and marketing director... After twists and turns, he finally entered a promising field, and Hou Xiaohai's life seemed to "open up." "At that time, in the Pepsi camp, Sichuan was the only place where one person managed both market and sales—that was me. I was the only one in Pepsi nationwide." But after 5 years, he saw the limitations of his life again. "There was no future in just Sichuan and the southwest. I had to find a position managing national business." His leader asked, "Why do you want to leave? If you're dissatisfied with me, I'll give you my position." "What I want is development," Hou Xiaohai said. Again, he proactively wrote a job application letter, this time to Snow. "Once again, I chose my own career and planned my own future." Looking at Hou Xiaohai's every departure, it's easy to understand his 2008 departure from Snow. "The national brand was established, national sales ranked first, and my value to the company was only to continue. It was boring, so I had to change," Hou Xiaohai said. "I felt that at Snow, it was impossible for me to go from CMO to CEO. The reason I went to金星 was that it could fulfill my wish to be a small CEO, allowing me to train in managing a company and showcase my abilities. So I resigned." From the then village-run collective enterprise Henan金星 Beer to the foreign company InBev (AB InBev), he had two "flash marriages and divorces" in the industry. This experience is rarely mentioned now. Hou Xiaohai is very straightforward about it: If I couldn't change that company, I couldn't achieve myself or the company, so I left immediately. The brief separation between Hou Xiaohai and Snow ended with his return. "You were disloyal to Snow, and now you're back. Aren't you embarrassed?" This was the attitude of outsiders watching the drama. "Loyalty sometimes has little value to a company; what companies want is results," Hou Xiaohai said. Whether he left or returned, Snow didn't care. Snow only cared: Did you harm me when you left? Did you contribute when you came back? For himself, "Whether I'm embarrassed or not is not my concern. What platform I choose to realize my value is my concern." At that time, his conditions for returning were: first, his position had to be lowered, not restored to the original; second, he had to go to a region, not back to headquarters. Hou Xiaohai went to Guizhou for his new post. (Hou Xiaohai during his work in China Resources Snow Guizhou Region) Was being demoted and degraded shameful? "I don't care. I only care about what I want."—Going to the region was exactly what he wanted most at that time. China Resources Snow had a tradition of valuing executives from frontline regional companies. Major personnel appointments were usually transferred from subsidiary companies. Most of the management team did not come from headquarters. To go from CMO to CEO, going to the region was inevitable. Years later, when asked if he had a time machine to go back and change his life choices, what would he choose? Hou Xiaohai said he would only go back to college graduation and would never choose Shougang for the Beijing hukou. Among his many life choices, this was his only regret. Lying Low Every choice to challenge or even subvert requires effective methods. Creativity to break tradition and find new paths is crucial. "At any stage, I started as a disadvantaged group. I knew early on that I would have to take different paths in life." The first time he deeply felt this was when he moved from a poor mountain village to the county town for high school. "You find you're the worst; the gap is too big. If you compete using their methods—now called 'involution'—you definitely won't succeed. Unconvinced? You have to create your own things to turn it around. It's forced." Even as the worst student in the class, Hou Xiaohai didn't like burning the midnight oil or rote memorization. He "invented" a playback learning method. He would review what he learned during the day by closing his eyes for an hour every night before sleep. If he couldn't recall, he'd take out a flashlight to check the book. "In the end, for the entire geography textbook, I could recall what picture was on each page and the direction of its mountain ranges." With this trick, he turned around his college entrance exam and got into Renmin University. In 1999, PepsiCo achieved market advantage in Sichuan with 8 million cases. When competitors were thinking about how to compete with Pepsi for first-tier market share, Hou Xiaohai suddenly introduced his "vehicle sales model," developed from a year of research on second- and third-tier rural markets. "Rural markets are remote and scattered; even deep distribution couldn't achieve full coverage." In Hou Xiaohai's "vehicle sales model," salespeople were very relaxed, even not needing to think. They just used fixed vehicles, sold fixed products, and fixed packages, driving along a country road, completely solving the problem of channels not covering all outlets. With the help of such a seemingly simple "tool," Hou Xiaohai's "half-step ahead" marketing philosophy prevented international giant Coca-Cola from raising its head in Sichuan. Defeated, he lay low in the southwest. Hou Xiaohai's Guizhou challenge was: a city surrounded by baijiu. After traveling through counties and villages, Hou Xiaohai keenly spotted a breakthrough. "Guizhou has many ethnic minorities—Miao, Buyi, Dong... They all have a very traditional habit of drinking rice wine, and local rice wine sales are particularly large." Rice wine has low alcohol content, so it can be drunk freely. If we capture young people's desire for new things and shift their rice wine consumption, then beer definitely has an advantage over baijiu because beer's alcohol content is closer to rice wine. (Hou Xiaohai at the expert evaluation meeting for the "Beauty of Nature" listed scenic spots, with strong support from Guizhou Provincial Tourism Bureau and Provincial Media Group) Focusing on ethnic minority areas, targeting young people, with wide coverage and strong promotion. Colorful caravans drove happily to Miao villages, and famous scenic spots like Guizhou's Fanjingshan Mushroom Stone were printed on 5 billion bottles of Snow Beer, named "Beauty of Nature," to capture local mindshare. Snow successfully opened a large beer market in Guizhou, where Moutai led and baijiu dominated. ("Beauty of Nature" product group photos) "From a marketing perspective, being the first to launch, to change, to take the initiative, and create a market—that's your market," Hou Xiaohai said. (Various delivery methods, adapting to local conditions to open up the "last mile" in the Guizhou market) Starting in 2009, as Budweiser, Yanjing, and others aggressively entered the Sichuan market, Snow's market share in Sichuan declined year by year. As one of Snow Beer's largest "red zones," Sichuan had long been the region with the highest profits and market share for Snow. National brands swarmed in, and international brands also set up in Sichuan—Sichuan's competition became multi-brand and national. Damage to Sichuan's position would directly affect Snow's national strategy. Hou Xiaohai, returning to headquarters from Guizhou, volunteered to fight in Sichuan. "Returning from Guizhou to headquarters to head the marketing center was neither attractive nor fulfilling for me. After reaching a high point, I lost interest, and I didn't cling to the position. I like constant change and a different self." Sing different songs on different mountains. In Guizhou, he went with the flow; in Sichuan, he made every effort to correct course. Military routes changed, management models changed, all for the frontline. Parachuting from headquarters to the region and immediately finding faults, Hou Xiaohai inevitably faced resistance. "What is popular support? Victory is popular support, success is popular support, everyone doing well is popular support. When business improves and results get better, everyone will be convinced." (Hou Xiaohai during his work in China Resources Snow Sichuan Region) Hou Xiaohai's method of driving work is frontline visits. "No matter how senior a manager you are, if you don't walk the market, don't go to the factory to be with employees, see how each product is made, and how each facility operates, you can't lead a team to victory." He circled visit points on the map, decided where to eat and stay himself, "maximizing efficiency." Carrying a backpack, he walked into restaurants, grocery stores, supermarkets, small shops, and small bars. Shop owners, workers watching the store, and restaurant waiters all loved chatting with him. "Your packaging should be six bottles. Now it's such a big pile; customers can't carry it easily after buying." Some were complaining, some offering suggestions. There were also a few who tried to fool him to cope with inspections. (Hou Xiaohai walking the market during his work in Sichuan) "It's too hard to fool me. If the beer boxes in the store aren't opened; or opened but the freezer is empty; or the freezer has them but no empty bottles... You can tell at a glance that the product has been in the store for no more than three days. They just put it in for you. But it doesn't matter. If they keep up the fake, the product will be covered." Macro correction, frontline promotion. When he left Beijing for Sichuan, there was a saying within Snow: When you go to a declining regional company, it takes at least three years to stop losses. Hou Xiaohai was unconvinced: "Three years is too long. I stabilized in one year, grew in the second, and in the third, I broke Snow's historical sales record in Sichuan." (Hou Xiaohai conducting training for the Sichuan regional company) What he's most proud of is that now, with his management team, stopping losses in one year has become the standard. "Some people are diligent like oxen. I'm diligent too, but I'm diligent like a monkey," Hou Xiaohai said. Reaching the Summit Years of planning, one move. In 2016, the Guizhou and Sichuan branches had become model markets for China Resources Snow. In an open competition within China Resources Group, Hou Xiaohai, with impressive results, fought his way back to headquarters to take charge of China Resources Snow. Finally, he could realize his value in this CEO position he had dreamed of for years. Hou Xiaohai asked himself: What can truly shake your soul? What can give you strength? What do you want to change? What do you think might happen but hasn't yet? When you delve deep into your heart to find desire, what do you see? "I see my strong desire for change for this company—hoping China Resources Snow becomes stronger and stronger. This is a particularly, particularly big wish in my heart. At the same time, there's my own pursuit of personal career and achievement." This is the origin of foresight and motivation. In his first year as CEO, Snow Beer's 3+3+3 nine-year reform began. (In 2018, the first core product after China Resources Snow's brand reshaping, Brave the World superX, was officially released, with Hou Xiaohai delivering a speech) "The high-quality development of beer has become a mainstream trend. If we still use price and promotion strategies, we will have no competitiveness in the future, and we won't even qualify to compete." First, use three years to shed burdens, strengthen foundations, and accumulate energy. In these three years, playing the "tough role," Hou Xiaohai closed 25 breweries and reduced staff by nearly 30,000. "From my personal perspective, I put the first 3 years in the most important position. With this 3, the company became one that can fight and win battles. But such large-scale reform comes at the greatest cost and sacrifice. It requires scraping the poison from the bone and turning the knife inward." Many people cursed Hou Xiaohai. "In such major changes, it's normal to be cursed. If you close factories and the local government doesn't curse you, then it's definitely not doing its job. If you cut people's positions and take away their rice bowls, won't they curse you? Are you kidding? But I don't feel anything about it." Subordinates' flattery, superiors' praise, outside cheers or insults—these have "extremely, extremely small" impact on Hou Xiaohai. "I only focus on the goals I want to achieve. You're realizing your own ideals, but also the ideals of a group and an enterprise." From 2020, the middle three years focus on fighting high-end, improving quality, and increasing efficiency. In the first year of the high-end battle, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. With the loss of consumption venues, the beer industry was hit hard. Snow had nearly 30,000 employees and 72 factories. From February to March 2020 alone, China Resources Snow Beer faced losses of nearly 600 million yuan. Starting in March, Hou Xiaohai himself took the lead in "going against the flow." He visited more than 20 provinces including Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shandong, Guangdong, Anhui, and Hebei, understanding frontline difficulties and promoting grassroots sales recovery. Under his leadership, China Resources Snow was united, with everyone "walking the market." (During the pandemic, Hou Xiaohai "went against the flow" to walk the market) Based on frontline visits, Hou Xiaohai stabilized morale on one hand: proposing to treat the difficulties as a great opportunity, choosing to overtake on the curve, and decisively setting the tone of "strategy unchanged, goals unchanged, investment not reduced, resources concentrated"; on the other hand, he innovated to break through: Snow was the first in the industry to announce unconditional handling of downstream customers' "near-expiry beer," sharing difficulties with liquor merchants; exploring sales innovation, opening stores in communities and social groups, and implementing contactless delivery... (During the pandemic, Hou Xiaohai "went against the flow" to walk the market) Compared to the sudden pandemic, the bottleneck in industry growth was a more structural dilemma. To this end, the process of fighting high-end not only didn't slow down, but instead leveraged the situation, achieving overtaking on the curve during the pandemic and shortening the strategic process. In May 2020, China Resources Beer's high-end product matrix added another strong player: Heineken Silver, targeting young people with a smooth, refreshing taste. (Heineken Silver: a high-end beer targeting young people with a smooth, refreshing taste) Focusing on high-end, combined with the results of the first 3 years of "major reform," at the end of the year, China Resources Beer's net profit in the pandemic year grew by as much as 60%. Employee salaries generally increased by 40%–50%. This has become a legend in the industry. (In 2021, Hou Xiaohai continued walking the market) In 2021, with the first place in the comprehensive voting of buyers and sellers in the global capital market, Hou Xiaohai once again won the "Asia's Best CEO (Consumer Staples)" honor from the authoritative international financial magazine Institutional Investor. (In 2018, Hou Xiaohai first won "Asia's Best CEO") The acceleration against the flow stems from the momentum gathered by strategic foresight. "We are no longer a company earning one or two billion; we don't know exactly how much we can earn, but we know next year will be more than this year, and the year after more than next year." Hou Xiaohai's not knowing his income is not showing off, but his confidence in the future. The Next Summit From 2023, use another three years to win high-end, dual benchmarking, and become first-class. This is the next summit in Hou Xiaohai's eyes. Born fearless, fight to the end. From the impoverished mountains of Yimeng, he has journeyed half his life. From a hot-blooded youth who "defeated whoever he met" to challenging and subverting himself, Hou Xiaohai still possesses that strong upward and outward expansion force within. But now, it has changed from a roaring fire to a slow simmer, from martial aggression to effortless ease. Through the years, like the boy on the ridge, he sees mountains as mountains and water as water. (At the first Channel Partner Conference, Hou Xiaohai said "Snow's high-end battle is just in time") In his office, two calligraphy pieces show the fusion of two forces brought by time: one by Fan Di'an, "Sailing Ten Thousand Miles," ancient and vigorous; one by Huang Yongyu, "Joy in It," full of childlike fun. "Let the company achieve high profits and high market value, let our employees earn proud incomes, let this company gain industry recognition and respect, and become a leading enterprise in Chinese consumer goods... On that day, I will be satisfied and have no regrets about this life." As he said when competing for the CEO position at Snow: "This position, my fortune to have it, and also Snow's fortune. We owe each other nothing." Source: Toutiao Yi (toutiaoyi)