2023 is an extremely important year for all daily chemical distributors, standing at a crossroads of development, facing new choices and challenges. Looking at the decades-long history of the daily chemical industry, both brands and distributors have adapted and grown within cycles, breaking through them, though some may have lost their way. The industry faces a hurdle every 10 years, where one must either achieve new heights or decline and exit amid the tide of change. Recently, many distributors have communicated with me about how to win the post-pandemic opening battle and achieve new rise. I have distilled three cautions and eight capabilities for distributor innovation and transformation. The three cautions are meant to remind distributors not to fall into the maze of conformity or self-doubt, but to forge their own bright path. Don't blindly follow trends Some distributors always see others doing well here and there, thinking that if others succeed in e-commerce or live streaming, they should too. In reality, only by leveraging your own strengths can you build a strong future. Don't blindly envy others; understand yourself and the reality of fragmented online traffic. Instead of competing for a share of the online market, focus on cultivating your own field. Other distributors feel that distribution is too tiring and think it's better to directly create brands or products for higher profits and more stable long-term returns, not realizing that brand management is multi-dimensional, requiring the right genes and professional team operations. More importantly, brand growth and success require significant investment and a long cycle. Investing in a brand can not only drain your energy but also deplete your finances. Blindly following trends often stems from self-denial or panic about an uncertain future, lacking inner calm. Don't sit on the fence Some distributors have incomplete channel structures, with core business and management concentrated on one or two brands or channels. If unlucky, the focused brand may be task-oriented, emphasizing absolute target completion, requiring you to stock up on excessive inventory while ignoring market liquidity. Some distributors operate channels that were once super hypermarkets but are now major headaches, with long-term non-payment, arbitrary fee deductions, and shaky business. In such a state, distributors are like sitting on the fence, unsure which way to go, unable to tackle their own business. Often, they continue to sit on the fence, taking one step at a time. This fence-sitting is like boiling a frog slowly, leading to gradual failure. Only by making decisive cuts, acting quickly, abandoning vanity about sales volume, and embracing practical management can they escape the dead end. Don't be like Lord Ye who loved dragons but feared them, or be overly concerned about gains and losses Some distributors love learning, listen to various opinions, and have many ideas, thinking each has potential, but when it comes to implementation, they find risks or lack of capability. They think daily but dare not act; they want change but never change; they fear entering new channels, taking on new brands, hiring new teams, or investing. They waver among various thoughts, anxious in constant hesitation, leading to more confusion. A person who achieves sustained success must have their own opinions and ideas. Others' advice is only for reference; only by integrating external excellence into what you truly want, dare, and can do can you find your definite course of action and achieve results. The three cautions are the mental traps that daily chemical distributor bosses should avoid, needing to build long-term confidence and a clear transformation strategy. The eight capabilities are the guarantee for distributors to find a certain future. The eight capabilities are actually eight practices; through practical combat, capabilities strengthen, thinking clarifies, and small successes lead to big successes. First, have the ability to self-inventory and analyze Use data and facts to speak, where data includes your current sales and financial status, and facts are the foundation, key points, problems, and opportunities of your current business. Inventorying yourself requires rational data and emotional awareness. Rationality shows the surface, but truth often relies on emotion. Distributor bosses should combine rationality and emotion to analyze themselves, clarify work direction and methods, and know 'who I am, where I am, where I want to go, who helps me go, and how to go.' Second, establish a win-win matrix of multi-brand alliances Distributors serve as a link between upstream and downstream, maximizing multiple brand resources upstream and enabling multiple channels to support multi-brand sales downstream. Some distributors like to negotiate with companies for policies and more investment, while others prefer not to communicate with brands, thinking they can manage their own business. These approaches are fine in stable times, but in this era of change, it's crucial to think about how to change together. Distributors must understand the brand's strategic thinking, channel planning, and product strategies. By aligning with brand ideas and forming their own practices, they can continuously have innovative operational tactics. When distributors and brands unify their thinking and pace, they can achieve maximum resonance and win-win in strategic alliances. Third, develop new methods for promotion and sales promotion In the current daily chemical industry, the proportion of holiday node promotions is increasing, but the efficiency of original promotional activities is declining. Whether it's the human wave tactic of multiple promoters or large-scale campaigns with comprehensive displays, they may only be effective in local markets. Distributors should adapt to local conditions, combine with new promotional designs for terminal channels, and make promotions simple and effective. Of course, promotional capabilities require continuous trial and testing. Only through constant practice can distributors gradually form diversified promotional approaches, achieving one policy per region and per store for effective sales. Fourth, create the ability to adapt to new retail models New retail lies in the word 'new', whether it's multi-channel traffic diversion online and offline, community private domain promotion, or concentrated promotion of hot products. Distributors need to actively participate and co-build with brands. Although new retail may be immature and fragmented, only by participating can they form a new three-dimensional marketing model with terminal new retail. Fifth, build a new matrix of upstream cooperative brands Sticking only to old brands immerses you in the past; only new brands lead to sales instability due to lack of scale. Only by combining both can distributors have a healthy operational structure. Brand portfolio is not just about category differentiation but also forming a new proportion of traditional and new brands, clarifying which brands drive volume, which focus on profit, which bring novelty, which bring momentum, and which fill gaps. Build a new pattern of brand cooperation matrix with a long-term investment and cultivation perspective. The more reasonable the new-old structure, the greater the distributor's future driving force. Sixth, adapt to channel changes and actively expand new channels The future direction of daily chemical channels must be refined, community, trendy, and convenient, i.e., refined hypermarkets, community medium-sized supermarkets, trendy daily chemical specialty stores, and convenience stores. These four channels reflect four consumption changes and trends, fully embodying centralized, nearby, and trendy consumption. Most daily chemical distributors originally focused too much on hypermarkets or cosmetic specialty stores, possibly over 90%. However, with the rise of new channels and iteration, distributors need a forward-looking perspective in expanding cooperation and business models with new channels, using a proactive attitude to cooperate early, quickly, newly, more, and well. Cooperating with new channels may cause some discomfort, but absolutely do not fear or retreat, because in new channel operations, doing well is not as good as doing cleverly, and doing cleverly is not as good as doing early; those who act first succeed first. Seventh, build a new operational mindset and system for the team In the new era, if you don't change your thinking, change your people. Distributors should restructure their organizational structure, professional capabilities, compensation incentives, and daily management methods according to business changes. These tasks are familiar to distributors, but two points should be noted: first, form management around business, focusing on practical results; second, appropriately promote personnel turnover, replacing stubborn and backward salespeople if they truly form a 'snake effect'; introduce new talent for new brands and new retail as needed. Eighth, build and drive informatization and data capabilities Most distributors lack the ability to build, use, and drive data systems, staying at the level of inventory and financial management, without discovering business problems and opportunities from data. Data capability is a step in refined management for distributors. How to form data linkage with upstream and downstream, and how to drive better and stronger business development through in-depth data analysis, are long-term improvements every distributor needs to strengthen. Each distributor's current situation and operational strength vary. The eight capabilities shared here are not requirements for every distributor to achieve all. True market management should combine with market reality, doing what you can and implementing what you should. Sometimes, focusing on building the capabilities where you have the most opportunity or strength is also a form of operational wisdom.