Macaulay Beichun: Hoping to become the most redundant person in the company

21st Century Economic Report Sheng October 26, 2010, Mai-Lin landed on Nasdaq, became the first share of China's business concept. This is dramatic for Macaulay, 14 years ago. Founded in 1996, Macaulay was the first foreign-owned enterprise in China to be approved by the government for a mail order business, and in the following years it grew to be the largest catalog mail-order company in China. There is more drama than that. October 26, in Nasdaq for the listing Bell, is the largest shareholder of the Sequoia Capital China fund Shen and CEO Beichun, and they, in Macaulay, are "later." 1996, the Warburg Pincus investment set up Mai Lin, 2008, because the fund expires, Warburg Pincus to more than 80 million U.S. dollars of the total price of all of its holdings of Mai Lin to the Sequoia Capital China Fund, and Beichun from 2001 only to join the Mai Lin and as CEO. Before and after the IPO, the proportion of Gu's shares in the Macaulay was 13.8% and 11.6% respectively. As he said, he "has no founder (founder) status, now not much, but also not less", but he has never regarded himself as a "professional manager", and more willing to think of himself as an "entrepreneur." In fact, in the last 10 years, Beichun "director" of the Mai Lin from the brink of bankruptcy to the "first stock" role conversion. 10, the day of the launch of the wheat Test forest, the investor Shen to Beichun and his team; as early as the end of 2008, Warburg Pincus to more than 80 million U.S. dollars to transfer all the shares to the Sequoia, Beichun received a long letter Chang, thanked him for saving the 8 years ago the company nearly failed. In the years that followed, Macaulay was just a company that sold women's clothes entirely by catalogue, and, unlike now, the international management team was not familiar with the Chinese market, and the clothing sold was "very much in line with the tastes of the elderly in Europe" and sold poorly in the Chinese market. In April 2001, Beichun from Bertelsmann Airborne to Mai Lin, he was in Chang highly recommended only joined, at that time, Macaulay need to find a person who understands the Chinese market to turn the situation around. Originally, Gu is planning to find Chang financing, oneself prepare to create a catalogue mail-order company. Chang Hope Gartner save Mai Lin. At that time, the Beichun took over a mess: The company had only 2 million dollars in cash, only enough to pay one months ' wages; For Beichun, the task is tricky. At the beginning of the alliance, he first inspected the core department of Macquarie's call center, and found that the so-called core department, the operator only more than 20, and the entire company's managers, but more than 200. The same day, he and Human resources department launched a job cut 100 people. Then, he cut off the traditional clothing product line, but found some ornaments from the market, the use of Mai Lin's direct marketing channels brought about by the price advantage of sales; Most importantly, he will consume the target consumer group from the countrysideTo the white-collar workers in the first tier city. By virtue of the price advantage, these small ornaments have been welcomed by consumers, in less than a year, Macaulay turned the situation. Since then, Macaulay Forest gradually embarked on the "multiple products, multi-channel" sales track. The current product line, has long been extended from jewelry to household items, repositioning of women's clothing, health products, children's supplies and men's. In the catalog sales, in 2004, along with the network to buy the tide, Macaulay Forest and timely promotion of wheat network, open network sales channels. According to the prospectus, in 2007-2009, Macaulay's online business contributed to 92.2%,86.% and 72.8%, followed by stores, "the catalogue has become a supplement to the Internet". In 2009, when the economic crisis, Beichun decided to expand the offline entity shop, and High-profile announced that the next 3 years, the number of stores to reach 2000. Today, Macaulay's physical stores have become an important part of the "24-hour shopping circle" they want to build. In the "open source" at the same time, Beichun has been focusing on cost control, "24-hour Shopping Circle" mode is also out of the advertising effect to maximize the consideration. At present, in the television, newspapers and other media, you do not see the Mai Lin ads, Beichun said, they almost all cast online advertising, and each spend a penny of advertising, can calculate the advertising effect according to its database. However, before joining in, the Mai Lin once because of large-scale advertising and lead to venture capital funds soon burned out. In 2007-2009, the net revenue from Macaulay grew from 61.4 million to $177.7 million, and the annual compound growth rate (CAGR) reached 70.2%. Over the same period, its net profit rose from 4.1 million U.S. dollars to 7.2 million U.S. dollars, CAGR to 32.4%. "Become the most redundant" on Wall Street, Macaulay received about 30 times times more than a raise. But at home, there is a mixed reaction. Kongkong, president of the network, said that Macaulay's listing, a milestone in China's online retailing, is a good sign for Chinese e-commerce practitioners and investors. But there are also people in the industry said publicly, as the first stock of E-commerce, "online business scale, the proportion of the entire company is not high, growth is not high." According to the "2010 China E-commerce Business Investment Research Report" released by the Qing Branch, in 2009, one of the Mai Lin Channel's income is 349 million yuan, in the domestic E-commerce market share is 1.6%; Jingdong Mall is the highest, Occupy 16.5%, followed by the Amazon and when, respectively, 9.4 % and 8.5%, the same as online sales of the main clothing customers, 2009 revenue is 1.22 billion, accounting for 5.4%. According to Macquarie's prospectus, its 2007-2009 online sales of net revenues were 56.568 million, 92.438 million, and 129.362 million dollars respectively. "Online includes the results of pure online orders and telemarketing orders," Beichun admits, before 2009,The net's turnover is indeed lower than the sales of telemarketing, but in 2010 the situation has reversed. Since it is hard to tell whether a consumer's phone order is due to a catalog or a view of the network, Macaulay is no longer looking at the directory as a separate channel, "just the internet supplement." Today, Macaulay's call center is about 900 people, which is seen as a necessary ancillary department for the Wheat network. "Telephone is to provide customers with better service guarantee", Beichun that, in particular, selling fashion non-standard products, customers must be communication, the best is someone to communicate directly, Taobao Consumer-to-consumer business is also the use of Ali to achieve the same purpose. To create a fashion class of the consumer electric platform, "The introduction of more Third-party brands," is the Beichun will be big, and maintain the growth of the key step chess. Over the next 3-4 years, Macaulay plans to invest more than 100 million dollars to build it and logistics systems. As of September 2010, Macaulay Shanghai Warehouse Center has the ability to handle 38,000 orders a day, the company in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou Warehouse Center can handle 12,000 orders per day, "the future plan to increase to 250,000 or so." 2 years ago, Shen to Gu's evaluation is, "very concerned about the details, from product design, inventory management, procurement to call center management, all familiar with the chest." But Gu told reporters, "I do not look at the end of every detail of this style," he did more, "see more feedback every day," to assess the position of each manager has to be able to keep every detail to the extent. Beichun said he most want to see is, after the listing can have more capable to join Macaulay, let oneself become the company's most redundant person.