Zhou Chengjian: "World Tailor" And "Internet Tailor"

August 28, 2011, yes. Shanghai Metersbonwe Zhou Chengjian, chairman of Limited by Share Ltd, is a special day.

On this day 3 years ago, he led the US state clothing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and raised more than 1 billion 300 million yuan. More than 10 years ago, the company was a small garment factory in Wenzhou. Zhou Chengjian led the company to light asset mode, rapidly rising in the domestic casual wear field.

After the listing, the American Apparel not only changed the single operation mode, launched ME&CITY, online brand AMPM, footwear brand Qi, etc., but also continuously enriched the Meters/bonwe product line to meet the needs of consumers of different ages.

In May this year, BrandZ released the list of the most valuable global brands, and Metersbonwe ranked the top 10 in the global apparel brand with the value of $1 billion 446 million.

But three years after listing, the company is not going smoothly. At the very beginning of its founding, ME&CITY worked as an independent business unit, and signed a large number of celebrity endorsements. With the increase in sales costs, rents and decoration costs, in 2010, the first quarter net profit fell 90% in the first quarter, and the net profit in the first half fell 83% year-on-year; in addition, the stock went up, and in the first quarter of 2011, the inventory exceeded 3 billion yuan.

Standing on such a time point, Zhou Chengjian warned himself and his team to "stick to this tailor". His goal has changed from "Chinese tailor" to "world tailor" and transformed the entire company with the spirit of Internet. One of his dreams is that his own electricity supplier website, the state purchase network, is equivalent to the level of the world's best seller in the world.

But he knows that perseverance is not easy; insisting on the same time, we must constantly sum up the past and continue to innovate in management mode, process and personnel training.

　 Reflection on gains and losses

Can not blindly innovate The present and the future will always be a coordinated and balanced development.

Can you share some of your thoughts and experiences in the past three years?

Zhou Chengjian: in the past three years, there are gains and losses. In general, gains are greater than losses. What we get is something that can be used for a long time.

In the past, Chinese enterprises only asked for scale and speed and did not really think deeply about internal management, including all of us over the years. Society is changing, times are changing, and consumer habits are changing. Over the past three years, I have become more aware of how to meet and adapt to these changes and do well.

With the opening of the retail industry to the international market, the Chinese market is slowly becoming competitive. Competition is not a speed issue, nor a scale problem. It is more about internal management and control capability. Over the past three years, I have thought more about product development, management process, talent team building, organization and business mode.

In addition, in the past three years, I have gradually changed from pure opportunists to a person with a strong sense of risk. In the past, I only had opportunities and no risks in my mind. Facing the fierce competition today, we must have enough risk awareness and do 360 risk thinking in everything we do.

What makes you strong sense of risk from a fearless state?

Zhou Chengjian: This is also the change brought about after the listing. Is it possible to achieve the ideal state of the market every time it announces its earnings to the outside world? Has it reached our ideal state? We will all analyze and think.

{page_break}

Many things are better done than done. Why do more? It is because there is no sense of awe, because you do not want to know clearly what the value of this thing is.

do ME&CITY Did you think clearly?

Zhou Chengjian: making ME&CITY is of great value to the whole company. It faces urban white-collar workers aged 22-35 and has strong complementary and support with the "Meters/bonwe" of the 18-25 year old student group.

But there are also regrets. At that time, it planned to make 2 billion sales in 2009, and invested heavily in marketing. The result was not done, the cost was already there, and the financial impact was great. If you did not go to a large scale shop at that time, you wouldn't expect to do more mass work overnight, such as selling 100 million -2 billion in 2008, 300 million -4 billion in 2009 and 500 million -6 billion in 2010. This is because there is not enough risk awareness, no fear, no fear. Next, we will do Kei and e-commerce.

360, consider risk, does it include financial performance?

Zhou Chengjian: of course.

If you consider financial performance, will you limit your bold innovation to a certain extent?

Zhou Chengjian: I don't think so. In recent years, our innovation work has not stopped, ME&CITY is doing it continuously, shoes brand is coming out again, e-commerce is also doing, always innovating. Of course, we should not blindly innovate. We emphasize that the present and the future will always be a coordinated and balanced development.

　 Be an Internet tailor.

This is a combination of traditional stores and e-commerce. It should be the carrier of the Internet in terms of ideas, culture, management processes, supply chain and the whole mechanism.

Lining and other traditional enterprises are already doing business. Your electronic business platform is purchased at the end of 2010. Is this the best time?

Zhou Chengjian: because I just felt it at this time, but I didn't really understand it. This feeling may not be right or wrong.

　 State purchase network What platform will it become?

Zhou Chengjian: I hope one day, at least in the market share and in this field, we will reach the leading level. This is a basic goal. The state purchase network should be China's Amazon.

Does it mean that the operation mode is as successful as Amazon, or is it also a platform based e-commerce company like Amazon?

Zhou Chengjian: it is the mode of operation. Amazon has been very successful in the world. We hope that in the future, the State Grid is equivalent to the best country in the world that Amazon has done in the world. This is my pursuit.

How many success do you have?

Zhou Chengjian: from my own strategic level, we should say that eight or nine is not ten. Tactically, we are still at the starting point. There are not many good mechanisms to support us.

What are we thinking about at the strategic level?

Zhou Chengjian: in the next 5-10 years, the whole enterprise should turn from a traditional tailor to an Internet tailor. The so-called Internet tailor is not only sold on the Internet, it is a traditional store combined with e-commerce mode, but in the concept, culture, management process, supply chain and the whole mechanism, it should be the carrier of the Internet.

{page_break}

This is what I want to do. I have been thinking and pushing this thing all the time.

I personally feel that people will really enter the life of the Internet in the future. Internet life includes media, business, social life and other aspects of life.

　 Supply chain management It is one of the most praiseworthy aspects of Amazon. What do you think the ideal supply chain is like?

Zhou Chengjian: from factory to consumer, it is 5-10 days, this is the most ideal state. Of course, this is part of the product, after all, we need to lay out the number of fields, the number of pre season, and finally the speed of the middle season, the fabric and so on.

Different speed has different costs, so long as you analyze from the market and what speed can match the market demand, it is reasonable. You can do it from workshop to consumer in 10 days, as long as you are willing to spend the cost. We have to build the mechanism around this direction.

The original origin of the original supply chain is in the design center and the planning center. The real efficient supply chain should be based on the store as the origin and the consumer as the origin. The two logics are totally different. Our past supply chain management is a supply chain management based on wholesalers, rather than a supply chain based on retailers. Now our supply chain management is done around the supply chain of Internet and retailers.

Understanding "team up and team"

People will eventually return to an instinct, which is important for managers and managers to trust each other first.

You have said more and more sense of importance of "team up and team". How do you understand it now?

Zhou Chengjian: first, for a job, people are Suitable or not The problem is not the ability or the strength. This is what we learned recently. It may have been blind to think that a person's ability is very good, but he doesn't know how to put him in the right place.

Second, managers support and assist managers, which is an important relationship between managers and managers. We didn't understand this at the beginning. It might be more of a kind of accusation or even curse at the beginning. The ability is not strong, is the ability to bring a team head, his incompetence is his incompetence, this is also myself over the years to sum up slowly.

Third, for managers, if success is the responsibility of others, then everyone will be happy to work with you. If success is your own and failure is others, then what is the strength of everyone working with you? Start with this idea from me, and gradually penetrate the whole company, so that the whole gas field will follow.

It may be more to think about problems before, and now more importantly, to think about problems. As long as the heart is careful, the other side will feel it, so that the team will be built, and things will go smoothly. It's not that complicated.

What are your more important leadership styles and elements?

Zhou Chengjian: career and concentration. There is a clear understanding of how to achieve goals and results in terms of management strategies and methods. But there are no specific ways and elements of leadership.

The deeper you understand management, the more you live and normalize. It's also the best way. You have to force a theory, a set of values, not necessarily suitable. People will eventually return to an instinct, which is important for managers and managers to trust each other first.

When a company makes a decision, does it last?

Zhou Chengjian: we are democratic centralism.

{page_break}

Now many decisions are made, first of all, discussion and research by various departments, and then submission of their own opinions. What is democratic centralism? Finally, the leader must be clapper. He can't draw lots. He can't draw lots.

A leader can not understand a lot of things, but he must be able to identify who is right or who is wrong. He must be able to decide which one is the main point from 35 points, or draw it out from it, and turn it into a point of view, guiding everyone how to do it. This is the ability that a leader must have, otherwise things can't be done well.