These eight management theories will mislead your company

1. Internet thinking and Internet enterprises

? Internet thinking and enterprises? It cannot be called a theory in itself, but its misunderstanding of the concept is so serious that it cannot be ignored.

Historically, it is often revolutionary tools that change the world and then change the mode of thinking, rather than the so-called thinking that brings about social changes? Except for individual inventors and philosophers.

Before the advent of automobiles, the main means of transportation was horse-drawn carriages. Established automobile companies such as General Motors all transformed from horse-drawn carriage manufacturers, and the power of their vehicles is also marked in horsepower. The United States is known as a "country on wheels". Compared with the era of horse-drawn carriages, the "car thinking" has changed greatly, including speed, safety and industrial support.

Unlike the steam engine that brought mankind into the industrial age and the computer that pushed the world into the information age, many of the changes the Internet has brought to society are invisible and unpredictable. Therefore, Internet thinking has become mysterious.

Lei Jun proposed a "seven-character formula": focus, perfection, reputation, and speed.

And word of mouth?

Perhaps, user experience and participation, collaborative consumption and sharing, precise matching and positioning, the unprecedented functional improvements brought by these Internet tools are the essence of Internet thinking.

Except for HP, Dell and Lenovo, we are just computer users and must not be confused with computer companies. The so-called Internet companies only refer to companies that produce mutually beneficial network products and supporting facilities, including gateways/routers, servers, etc., and we are just using Internet tools or facilities.

Indiscriminate labeling not only confuses the public, but also misleads others and harms oneself, leading to superficial competition and a huge waste of social resources.

Jack Ma insists: We are not an Internet company, but a commercial transaction service company, and the Internet is just a tool. In the future, if everyone thinks it is more convenient to do business on the moon, Alibaba will build rockets. Will we become a rocket company?

Therefore, Xiaomi is neither an Internet company nor one that utilizes Internet technology. It is a service platform (MiLiao can be ignored); it is just a company that is relatively good at using Internet tools and has advanced Internet thinking. It is nothing more than a provider of mobile phones and smart consumer products.

The new clothes on Master Lei’s body are falling off.

2. Business model

The so-called business model is, in short, a sustained profit model based on meeting customer needs.

However, the “innovate or die” business model is rapidly moving towards its opposite. The relevant theories are becoming increasingly complex, including the six transaction structures of stakeholders and the nine dimensions of the business model canvas, which has become an all-encompassing business model.

At this time, people are beginning to get tired of the business model: Why do companies that have been built for a long time never talk about business models? Why do Yahoo and Google both make their core businesses free and rely on advertising to make money, but the endings are very different? Why do companies that are keen on business model innovation become "shooting stars"?

In the world's "Fortune 500" rankings, Wal-Mart has always topped the list. Its secret is just to make retailers unrivaled. .

In 1987, Walmart spent US$400 million to launch the world's first commercial communications satellite by Hughes. This largest private database covers information on the source and flow of goods, warehouse management, customers, equipment investment, management expenses and other information. In 2004, Wal-Mart took the lead in using smart label technology (RFID) to replace traditional bar codes.

Wal-Mart knows very well that the essence of retail is purchase, sale, inventory, supply chain, efficiency and price difference. Long before the advent of the Internet, they solved the problems of operating big data and managing intelligence. Wal-Mart, which never engages in marketing advertising and is insulated from business model innovation, can compete with its core competitiveness?

What is the essence of business? Essence? This is the form of business? Enterprises exist in the industrial chain organizational form.

In the real estate industry, in order of the value chain, it covers investors, designers, developers, builders, sales agents and property management service providers. In the manufacturing industry, business forms include processors, manufacturers and providers.

3. (Marketing) Positioning Theory

Since the outbreak of the world-famous "herbal tea war", Jiaduobao has lost the Wanglaoji trademark, advertising language and red can packaging, with a total of 21 consecutive losses. The scene is really a tragedy that is rare in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad.

By quickly building the red can Wong Laoji, which had an initial sales volume of only 100 to 200 million yuan, into a domestic herbal tea giant, Jiaduobao has created a classic myth of marketing positioning. But it just reflects the low-level mistakes of its corporate strategy, and even ignorance.

As we all know, positioning theory comes from the field of communication. Reese and Trout were partners in the advertising company at that time. It is necessary to plan the product image and occupy a unique and favorable position in the minds of consumers. The best marketing positioning is to make it synonymous with a certain type of product.

In fact, positioning theory helps companies focus on products in the early stages of development, but it cannot face the expansion needs of becoming stronger and bigger. If there is superstitious belief that dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and mice’s sons can dig holes, how can Chinese companies that mostly started out as OEMs upgrade and transform? How can they talk about becoming one of the world’s top 500 companies?

Can’t Denying that, even if Jiaduobao and Hongdao Group could not acquire the Wong Lo Kat brand, they could still buy out Huang Zhenlong, He Qizheng, etc., and there would be no protracted brand dispute.

It can be seen that due to its control of strong market channels, Jiaduobao was not crushed by the loss of the Wong Lo Kat trademark. The real crisis is that even with sales exceeding 20 billion yuan, it is still dominated by a single herbal tea. After the market share exceeds 50%, can you still double sales?

In June this year, Hongdao Group took the initiative to reach a strategic cooperation intention with Beijing Enterprises Group, involving the commercialization of the sports industry, real estate and health care, Food and beverage, mixed-ownership reform, football club and other five major aspects. This diversified expansion obviously has a sense of urgency. Recently, Jiaduobao has experienced negative news such as layoffs and suspension of production of some lines.

Charging sky-high consulting fees and relying on the strategy of "raise high and fight high" leads to extremely high marketing expenses, channel profits and extremely fragile product performance-price ratio. The marketing positioning theory cannot be careless about the harm to Chinese enterprises.

We can’t only see products but not the industry.

4. (Product) Competitive Strategy

Michael Porter, who became famous with his "Competitive Strategy Trilogy", is known as the leading strategy master today and was awarded Harvard's "Competitive Strategy Trilogy". University professor?.

In short, Porter’s core ideas include:

(1) Strategy is a distinctive competitive method and a choice. The problem is that it is easy to give up in practice, but how do companies progress and expand? What are the paths and rules?

(2) As the core of strategy, the essence of strategic positioning is to choose operating activities that are different from those of competitors. The question is, are there so many differences? And there are no unique competitive strategies or operating methods, which are trade secrets that are difficult to imitate between companies.

(3) The "general strategy" consisting of cost leadership, differentiation and focus can be used as a representative activity of strategic positioning.

The question is, does the general strategy have nothing to do with the size of the company? Small companies are easy to focus on, while large companies have unshirkable responsibilities in terms of taxation, employee benefits and social responsibilities. Where does the cost competitive advantage come from?

? Good air conditioners, made by Gree? , as the global leader in the air-conditioning industry, why did Gree break out of the stereotype of a single product and get involved in other white home appliances such as refrigerators and household appliances? Recently, the increasingly anxious Sister Dong has been playing with smartphones and investing in new energy vehicles. This kind of diversification What is the probability of success in the global expansion path?

It should be admitted that Master Porter, who has only methods but no direction, is not unrelated to the endless price war and bottom-line product war. The consequences are:

First, industrial development? Paradox?: As long as the Chinese enter an industry (mainly manufacturing), others will be out; soon, the Chinese themselves will no longer be able to play.

Second, the competition strategies are similar: large and small enterprises work together to compete externally on prices and control costs internally.

In fact, competitive strategy is closely related to industry status: small companies focus on competition and price because they lack market influence; large companies focus on alliances and cooperation, firstly because the society has image requirements, and secondly because they can pass Integrate industries (chains) and even collude to win supernormal profits.

5. Benchmarking/catch-up strategy

The essence of benchmarking management is to find and study the best practices of first-class companies in the same industry, and use this as a benchmark to compare with the company, so as to continuously It is a cyclic process of improvement, entering or catching up with first-class companies, and creating outstanding performance.

McKinsey Consulting is a typical spokesperson: it takes benchmark companies as the target to catch up and promotes best practices generally.

Needless to say, the disadvantages of benchmarking management are:

First, it leads to the convergence of enterprise competition

Since enterprises are encouraged to learn and imitate each other, products, quality and services are all inconsistent. Much the same, resulting in increased operating efficiency but declining profit margins.

The second is the trap of benchmarking.

Continuing benchmarking simply to catch up with the advanced will inevitably fall into the trap of falling behind, benchmarking, falling behind again, and benchmarking again.

In fact, benchmarking is a catch-up strategy, and having a late-mover advantage is a prerequisite for its success.

In 2008, General Motors of the United States was hit hard by the financial crisis and gave up its global sales championship that it had held for 77 years. Japan's Toyota, known for its lean production, "overtaking in corners" was followed by its fiscal year net loss of US$4.5 billion, the first loss in its 71-year history.

What’s even more bizarre is that from October 2009 to May 2010, Toyota recalled a total of 9 million cars worldwide, creating a miracle in the industry.

Toyota family? Three rich generations? Akio Toyoda has made a profound review: the strategy of catching up with General Motors and going all out to become the world's largest automaker is wrong.

No coincidence. In 2014, Germany's Volkswagen overtook Toyota and became the new hegemon in the global automotive industry. The following year, the "fraud scandal" broke out, putting Volkswagen in danger. The "curse" of the industry boss has appeared again?

Like benchmarking, the catch-up strategy will inevitably intensify homogeneous competition and overcapacity. Its guiding ideology is to confuse corporate development goals, operating indicators, etc. into strategies Direction, such as sales exceeding 10 billion yuan, industry status entering the top three, etc.

This is not only a typical confusion between goals and means, but in practice it often drags companies into a collapse track.

One more question: What is the strategic goal after becoming the boss?

6. Amoeba model

The amoeba model is to integrate the enterprise as a whole It is divided into a number of organizations with independent accounting and independent management, and this subdivision can continue to fission indefinitely like an amoeba.

In recent years, Chinese companies have been flocking to amoeba, but almost no one in Europe and the United States cares about it. Why? In fact, its prerequisite constraints are very obvious.

(1) In addition to independent accounting, Amoeba cannot do without corporate philosophy.

Japanese companies generally implement the "lifetime employment system", and the Yamato nation's sense of shame and team spirit are rare in the world. They have been self-disciplined since childhood not to cause trouble to others. It is their own fault that they drag down the collective and fail in their careers.

In the final analysis, management is the management of people, and any model must be suitable for employee characteristics and cultural atmosphere. The ideological genes that allowed Amoeba to gain a foothold are not only far from Westerners, but also difficult for the Han people to accept.

Therefore, after Amoeba arrived in China, many changes occurred: the principle of spiritual encouragement degenerated into "linking performance appraisal to material rewards", and smart Chinese people resorted to fraud to deal with difficult accounting problems.

(2) Failure to change will inevitably destroy the integrity of the business, making it difficult to conduct independent accounting

Amoeba has three major elements: first, independent accounting, second, integrity of business links, and third, the need for independent accounting. Follow company strategy.

Regarding the issue of profit distribution between marketing and production systems, Mr. Inamori advocates the "market force method". After the Amoeba continuation changes, how will the interests of various workshops and teams be divided? Mr. Inamori advocates repeated negotiation of reasonable costs or prices based on ideological consciousness, which is undoubtedly too difficult in practice. Obviously, after the business chain of the operating entity loses its integrity, independent accounting becomes a problem.

(3) Must we build divisions first and then amoeba?

Since the organizational reform of General Motors in the United States in the 1920s, the division system has become a global universal a management model. After World War II, Panasonic took the lead in implementing the divisional system in Japan, and it soon spread to all major companies. Mr. Inamori has been promoting amoeba since the 1970s and 1980s. Currently, there are only more than 300 companies implementing it in Japan. What does this mean?

There is no accounting basis for the business unit system, and even smaller operations Where does the unit's interest accounting begin? Without the boss delegating power to managers, where does the business unit's independent management rights come from? Without strategic management methods after decentralization, how far can Amoeba go?

Don’t you see that Japanese companies with lost corporate strategies and weak industrial competition are not intrinsically related to the excessive pursuit of lean production and extreme focus?

7. Groupization/control

? Group management and control is a hot topic. It is difficult to achieve a clear breakthrough in theory, and it rarely helps in practice. In fact, it is an out-and-out false proposition. Has anyone seen related works in Europe and the United States? This is incredible in the crowded business management world.

In fact, there are two paths for enterprise development: one is to continuously open branches, and it will always be an independent enterprise no matter how large it is; the other is to establish a joint venture with other investors, and to breed through marriage ?When a subsidiary or subsidiary company appears, it becomes a group company.

The two models often overlap in practice, and specific companies just have different emphasis. Therefore, the essence of group management and control is a scale management issue, regardless of whether the subordinate enterprises are local or foreign in terms of geography, whether they are sole proprietorships or joint ventures, holding shares or equity participation in terms of property rights.

Secondly, the operation of the board of directors in the parent-subsidiary system is crucial. Modern enterprises mostly start as joint-stock joint ventures or partnerships. After reaching at least a certain scale, they either need to provide equity incentives to managers or introduce strategic investors to seek listing. Corporate governance has become a common issue.

Management itself is similar, not to mention that the scale boundaries between large and small enterprises are not clear. Even if the group management and control proposition is established, it must be broken down into at least five major modules: strategy, organization, process, compensation and culture. Scientific research is inseparable from continuous differentiation.

In addition, industry-leading companies need to seek strategic alliances to consolidate vested interests, and multinational companies should hold high the banner of social responsibility to integrate and utilize international resources.

In other words, it is not that the subject of group control is meaningless, but that large-scale operations of enterprises have their own logic. If we do not proceed step by step in a down-to-earth manner, why sacrifice the good and chase the last?

The purpose of group control There are two major reasons for the "China fever": First, the impulse to scale first and group expansion, and second, the misunderstanding and misleading of the concept of Japanese enterprise groups.

Originally the corporate group system that Japan was forced to swallow after its defeat in the war still lingers in China today. The root cause may be: avoiding the "minefield" of property rights reform, maintaining the "marriage" with the planned economy, and satisfying people's "Great Leap Forward" mentality.

Business management is an eternal topic, especially after it reaches a certain scale.

8. Mission and Vision

We know that Mission describes the purpose and reason for the existence of an organization or an individual, or the value of its existence; Vision (Share Vision) refers to the organization Or the ideal picture that a person hopes to achieve or create by putting his mission into practice.

However, in practice, people often suffer from subject inversion errors in their understanding of vision. It should be noted that the subject that achieves the so-called ideal state is by no means the organization/individual itself, but the customers you serve or the society you contribute to! In other words, the ideal vision (Vision) is to be shared with customers or society. ), what the latter gets or enjoys is definitely not for the entrepreneurs or companies to enjoy themselves.

For example, it is a doctor’s mission to “save lives and heal the wounded” and to treat diseases and save lives. His vision is by no means “to be respected by others” and “to become bigger and stronger”, but rather to treat everyone equally in the face of disease and make him a doctor. Do all people in the world have their illnesses cured?

It is precisely the common misunderstanding of vision refinement in corporate practice that makes it difficult to publicize and implement the "high-level" vision and cannot be connected with strategic management. It is not enough to motivate employees to work together, let alone attract consumers. or social support.

In the beginning, cars were just a luxury product. Old Ford was determined to produce a car for the masses so that people could roam freely with their families on the land given by God.

To this end, Ford invented and vigorously promoted the assembly line, which reduced the bicycle production cycle from 12 hours in 1908 to 93 minutes in 1913, and even to 15 seconds in 1925. At the same time, Ford lowered the price of the Model T from $900 in 1909 to $440 in 1914 and $290 in 1924. At that time, the daily wage for unskilled workers in the United States was generally US$1 and for skilled workers US$2.50, but Ford paid the workers US$5.

The old Ford did not shout "revitalize the national automobile industry", nor did he work hard on business model innovation and marketing planning revolution. However, the company's car sales increased rapidly from 58,000 units in 1909. By 1916 there were 730,000 vehicles. By the time the Model T was discontinued in 1926, Ford's annual output had reached 2 million vehicles, and within 20 years, 15 million Model T vehicles would be produced.

Only a simple vision can be realized and greatness can be achieved.

The fundamental reason why the above eight major management theories have obvious limitations is that they pay attention to product competition but ignore industrial development, only have competition methods but lack strategic direction, and focus on enterprise competition but ignore alliance cooperation.

Can’t establish without breaking, and at the same time, neither establish nor break? The breakthrough point lies in establishing the true strategic positioning.

After years of theoretical research and practical exploration, the author took the lead in proposing a groundbreaking definition of strategic positioning: strategic positioning is the development direction of an enterprise, expressed as a certain choice of expansion path; it is a decision between the internal and external aspects of the enterprise. Based on the analysis of the competitive environment, determine the industry boundaries, business form and competitive position of the enterprise, and lay the necessary foundation for strategic management.

The following is the trilogy of strategic positioning.

First, industrial boundaries and dynamic expansion

Industrial boundaries are the industries covered by the products/services provided by the enterprise The breadth of the category, or the span of involvement in the industry chain.

Generally speaking, there are three key points in establishing industry boundaries:

First, the understanding of the industry cannot start from the professional or technical characteristics of the company itself, but must be based on the customers it serves. angle.

Secondly, it is relatively rare to control the entire industrial chain. Identifying and controlling the key links of the industrial chain is the magic weapon for success.

Third, industry boundaries are dynamic. Enterprises in the start-up and growth stages must be highly focused. After becoming the first camp in the industry, they must pay attention to opening up and integrating the industrial chain, and promptly broaden the industrial boundaries or initiate industrial upgrading.

Because of its excellence, Southwest Airlines has become a classic case in strategic research.

From the perspective of marketing and product positioning, Southwest Airlines caters to the needs of customers who are price-sensitive and do not deliberately pursue enjoyment. It uses a single aircraft model and provides point-to-point direct flight services.

Let’s take a closer look: Why can Southwest Airlines, and only Southwest Airlines, achieve the above model? Using low cost to explain low prices is actually a circular argument. Southwest Airlines, which has a good reputation for service quality and safety records, has maintained an astonishing level of profitability for a long time. Is it possible to engage in a price war like this?

Company founder Keller has a thought-provoking saying: We will no longer compete with airlines. Competition, our new opponent is highway traffic, we want to move the passenger flow on the highway to the sky.

This means that Southwest Airlines has a different understanding and definition of the industry it operates in: air transportation is nothing more than a popular passenger service industry.

In 1946, Soichiro Honda began to produce rudimentary mechanical bicycles, and developed the first motorcycle the following year. In 1959, he withstood the pressure from Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and resolutely entered the automobile manufacturing industry.

In 2006, Honda Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which had been in preparation for many years, was officially established. The experimental mass-produced aircraft No. 4 successfully made its first flight in May 2012, and the first aircraft was officially delivered to the customer at the end of 2015.

In addition, as early as 2000, Honda launched the world's first two-legged robot.

In this way, Honda's industrial boundary started from the manufacturing of motor vehicles (motorcycles/cars) and has been continuously extended and upgraded to "personal transportation system solutions".

Second, business form and transformation and upgrading

Business form refers to the organizational type of an enterprise in related industries and its existence form in the industrial chain. The so-called "formats" in the retail field refer to different forms such as department stores, supermarkets and specialty stores; their organizational models are different, but there is no substantial difference in the final products and services provided.

It should be pointed out that business form and business model are fundamentally different. The latter refers to the profit model of an enterprise based on maximizing the interests of its customers. The correlation between the two is that business form determines business model, and business model reacts on business form.

No matter what kind of industry or specific link in an industry, there are generally multiple business forms. In the real estate industry, there are business forms such as developers, investors, designers, contractors (construction), decorators, (sales) agents, and property management companies.

For manufacturing, business forms include the following three categories.

(1) Processors

One does not have an independent marketing system, and the other does not have its own product brand. It can only produce finished products under OEM brands, or produce semi-finished products, etc. for middlemen. Spare parts become someone else’s processing workshop.

(2) Manufacturer

Also known as a manufacturer, on the one hand, it produces finished products and sells them itself (direct sales or distribution), on the other hand, it only sells its own products. The so-called self-produced products Self-marketing. They have independent marketing systems and brand building, but they have heavy asset risks due to their reliance on their own production capacity.

(3) Provider

Enterprises provide products and services, and to a large extent rely on subcontracting and outsourcing. In industries with considerable technological added value, companies can provide system solutions to customers.

In 1988, South Korea's Samsung launched its "second venture" and announced that it would no longer serve as an OEM for Japan's Sanyo, thus becoming the world's largest consumer electronics provider today.

What is ironic is that in the late 1990s, Sanyo began to abandon its own brands and turned to OEM for other large companies. At the time when Japan's economy was in recession, Sanyo was making huge profits by relying on its OEM strategy. The Japanese industry once specially invented the term "3S" to refer to Sanyo, Sharp and Sony, which stand out, with annual profits exceeding 50 billion yen each.

As the saying goes, "This is the time, the time is the other", the OEM strategy will inevitably ignore brand building and technological innovation. Although Sanyo's R&D funding increases every year, it is actually only used for production line improvements. In the first half of fiscal year 2005, Sanyo's net loss reached US$1.3 billion.

In March 2006, the Izhi family was forced to sell its controlling stake in Sanyo and sadly exited the company that had spent more than half a century on it. Subsequently, Sanyo repeatedly performed the tragedy of disintegration, fire sale and reorganization. In 2012, Sanyo, which once ranked 277th among the Fortune Global 500, completely disappeared.

It is not sad to make wedding clothes for others. What is really sad is to be willing to make wedding clothes for others.

Third, competitive position and alliance cooperation

Competitive position refers to the relative status or position of an enterprise in the (competitive) industry.

We know that industries are generally composed of enterprises with different competitive positions; they can generally be divided into control (setting rules), dominance (determining prices), leading (leading trends), and advantages (controlling the pattern) There are six categories: maintenance (affecting the intensity of competition) and struggling (forming the industrial ecology).

Small businesses are focused on competition. Because they lack the leverage to cooperate with others, they compete for price and service in order to get a share of the industry chain. Low cost and focus are almost mandatory competitive strategies; Large enterprises attach great importance to alliances because their own comprehensive operating costs will inevitably be high, and price wars will lead to "price drops". Everyone understands that oligopoly (monopoly) profits are much higher than competitive profits. Integrating industry resources, controlling key links in the industrial chain and seeking strategic alliances are the advantages. Of course, the leader cannot take the initiative to make mistakes to leave opportunities for the pursuers.

In recent years, Gree is finally no longer satisfied with being the leader in the global air-conditioning industry. Dong Mingzhu, who has always been strong, has entered smartphones with great fanfare. Of course, Gree's mobile phones may be aimed at deploying smart home appliances and homes, but mobile phones are not the only ones that serve as smart control terminals. The more important problem is that Gree insists on going its own way in smart home appliances and never has good resource accumulation and partners.

At the end of 2014, Midea signed a strategic cooperation agreement with JD.com and introduced Xiaomi Technology as a strategic investor at a cost of 1.26 billion yuan. At the beginning of this year, Midea launched the M-Smart smart ecological plan, which aims to provide overall solutions for smart life. It is expected that smart life services will be fully online and operational by 2017.

At present, the results of the opening and implementation of Midea’s smart life operation service platform include: First, it has reached the first strategic cooperation in smart home and Internet of Vehicles applications in China with SAIC-GM OnStar; second, it has cooperated with Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, TCL, LeTV, OnStar, iFlytek, etc. have completed open connections; third, they have formed a "brotherly alliance" with IBM, Alibaba Cloud, Amazon, etc. to jointly achieve intelligent and cross-functional after-sales services, individual equipment, and system operations. Scenario linkage of category equipment, including smart applications in various scenarios such as home security, power supply, lighting, etc.

The basic feature of the market economy is competition, but the premise for its emergence is social division of labor and cooperation. There is no doubt that enterprises with market (core) competitiveness are excellent enterprises. In the era of globalization, informatization and networking, knowing how to integrate resources and lead industry development through division of labor and cooperation can greatly reduce social and economic surplus. This is the characteristic of an outstanding enterprise. From competition to cooperation, from excellence to excellence.

The connotation of the so-called ecosystem is interdependence and win-win cooperation, and the sharing economy is inseparable from cooperation and trust.

Of course, for ordinary small and medium-sized enterprises, survival is the most important thing.