The shop called Suning sits on top of the top 500 of China's private enterprises

1990 A cold winter, an area of 200 square meters of air conditioning franchise shop opened in Nanjing Ning Hai. 23 years later, the "shop" called Suning sits on top of the top 500 of China's private-sector companies, with 232.7 billion of its total revenue outpacing Lenovo and Huawei.

1998, Weimin resigned from the University of Nanjing University to join Suning, become Jindong Assistant, he was 35 years old. From the summer of 2004, Suning landed in Shenzhen to now, Weimin has been deputy chairman of Suning.

15, Weimin participated in the three decades of Su Ning two times transformation, and witnessed suning from a small and medium-sized enterprise development as a big business process. The entrepreneurial spirit, Weimin says, is the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial spirit is a kind of dissatisfaction with the status of the ambition and ambition, and the spirit of innovation is to find ways to meet the needs of customers.

In a recent interview with the first financial daily, Weimin said that the enterprise innovation is not an easy thing, the need for a large number of resources to support and cooperate, Suning can go to today, the most let him Thanksgiving is the consumer, but also very grateful to Huaxia Bank in Suning or small and medium-sized enterprises to give support, accompanied to today.

Two transitions from attitude to ability

Suning is the industry first set up "distribution, installation, maintenance" Integrated service system marketers, this timely door-to-door for the customer free installation of air-conditioning services so that Suning quickly occupied the Nanjing market. In the first three years of its existence, Su Ning relies on the dual "control" of customers and manufacturers, so that Chunlan air-conditioning nationwide sales of the first large, relying on a single product, single brand annual sales reached 300 million yuan scale.

The ten years since 1990 is the first stage of the development of Suning, becoming the largest air conditioner wholesaler in China. "Off-season play, season sales" mode needs a lot of financial support, Suning and the bank began a close cooperation.

Nanjing's eight state-owned shopping malls joined hands to kill Suning, a major market competition in Suning's pioneering phase. Suning to "Use scale management, low-cost sales, quality service to win the market" This simple belief won the battle.

"This belief has not changed, we always put the service as Suning's only product, that year's service is more refers to the service attitude, today's service refers to the service capacity, service strength and service in the consumer experience to meet what is innovative and unique things." "Weimin said.

Su Ning in the past decade, the greater challenge is that China's economy from the supply stage into the oversupply stage, the wholesale margin is getting lower, the market space has been the upstream manufacturers to subdivide the squeeze, and similar companies have changed careers or closed. But Suning still insists on the main business and begins to explore the overall transformation from wholesale to retail.

"wholesale business is very comfortable, sandwiched around to drink and drink, the business has become, doing retail is a very hard thing." Weimin said, this transformation in suning inside also some objections, jindong with "who against who to leave" strong attitude to promote the internal unity.

Since 2000, Suning has entered a "comprehensive retail chain operation" as the symbol of the second decade, suning from a medium-sized enterprise development for China's largest commercial enterprises, the successful listing, the logistics background, talent team and information and other construction.

Suning was walking is a let peer baffled the expansion of the road, to Nanjing as the birthplace, which place from Nanjing far from where to open a shop, which place than Nanjing's fierce competition to open shop. The farther the distance, the weaker the brand influence, the worse the management control ability, the general enterprise will not choose such a way.

"We walked a path that was wrong now, but in fact it was this seemingly wrong choice that finally made us successful," he said. "Weimin said.

Suning completed the layout of the national strategic market in 2005, and cooperated with IBM and ICP to upgrade the information system platform, and built a set of information system about people, assets and financial management. This huge set of shared platforms provides a material basis for the future large-scale expansion of suning. Under the support of the system, 2008 years later, Suning basically opened 300 stores a year, the highest peak of the time opened 465 stores.

Weimin said, Su Ning in the process grew into a big enterprise, during which the most important question is small enterprises and large enterprises the biggest difference is what. He concludes that small businesses are personal, and that the management of large enterprises relies on specialized and standardized management structures and systems.

Su Ning's first transformation was successful, but the challenge came soon-e-commerce entered a substantial stage of development and the entire market has been impacted, which makes the traditional entity of the retail industry, Su Ning very not adapt. However, the historical trend is not the people's will for the transfer, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis after the decline of foreign peers, Suning decided to make a complete transition, embarked on a comprehensive electric business road.

In Weimin's words, the biggest challenge of this transformation is not attitude, but a capacity problem, no longer "let who leave" can be solved, including his A hundred thousand of suning people, must continue to learn, change ideas, improve ability.

O2O Love and Pain

In full accordance with the Internet E-commerce mode of operation of the easy to buy is suning in the road to explore the electric business, although easy to buy is a completely independent of the new company, but Suning will still be controversial inside, worry about the purchase of physical channels will have impact.

Weimin clearly said that the impact is affirmative, "if others impact that is actually to get rid of our heads, the impact of the easy to buy, at best, the problem of losing a hand."

For Su Ning, the transformation of the electricity business is a stones process, easy to purchase independent operation three years later, the company's management and operation of the Internet business has a clear understanding, to the beginning of this year, the future of the development of Su Ning is defined as "technology transformation of wisdom services."

From then on, Su Ning takes a kind of refusal posture to walk in the electric business road, although it still retains some traditional taste, for instance it is called "the business suit of electronic commerce company" in the industry. In Weimin's view, whether to wear a suit is not important, Su Ning is not no internet gene. As early as 1999 Suning first transformation has been concerned about E-commerce, and finally selected the entity chain, and now the time is ripe, Suning entered the third decade of the new stage.

February 2013, Suning Bulletin said, because of the changes in the operation of the enterprise name changed to Suningyun Group Co., Ltd., more than 700 cities more than 1700 chain stores will be renamed as "Suningyun business." The name of Su Ning is to create a new model, new image and the embodiment of the new organizational structure, the direction of transformation is to achieve line under the fusion of O2O mode, offline entity stores and online dealers are no longer two independent companies, but a platform.

This June, Suning introduced the line of the same price policy, Weimin said it is to give customers "with a Su ning, the same experience, the same price" impression and feelings. A few months to run down the biggest challenge is not from the interior of Suning, but external suppliers-suppliers to its entire channel to be combed to eliminate the artificial market segmentation brought about by price differences.

Although Su ning internal in the transformation road reached a consensus, but the profit year-on-year decline has become weimin have to face the problem. "Businesses will always wander between immediate and long-term interests, and if I can live well in the future and live well in the present, this is definitely the best choice." But sometimes the objective of the fish and Bear's paw really can not be fully. "Weimin said.

Su Ning finally chooses the long-term interest. Weimin that in the current transition period, the future of the business model is the core of Su Ning to consider the issue, I hope investors do not take the growth of Suning's profits to evaluate the listed companies, and the success of the transformation of Suning to evaluate the development of today.

Adhere to the main retail business

In the recent year, Su Ning in the capital market, telecommunications, financial fields frequently shot, causing concern in the industry, but also have the view that Suning's innovative measures appear to be disorganized, is to see the performance of the road ahead.

Weimin said that Suning has always positioned itself as a retailer, but also only retail, and the content of the retail is refined, before the physical goods, now have virtual goods, future services will also become a commodity, such as telecommunications data services, financial services and so on. Based on this suning will do virtual telecom operators, will do easy pay financial management, will apply for the establishment of banks.

"These innovations are focused on the retail business, on the one hand to do product extension, on the other hand to do channel extension." Weimin said that retailers are always doing merchandise flow, that is, logistics, information flow and capital flow, around the three-flow efficient turnover is the core of suning business. Now goods, information, money in the transformation of the electronic, suning must seize the trend, which has become suning to enter financial services, the biggest power.

Suning's financial services revolve around three aspects, one is the combination of settlement payment and member data, the other is the credit product to promote consumer consumption, and the third is to provide financing services to suppliers. These financial services are carried out around the retail business. The aim is to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

When it comes to how companies should look at "making money", Weimin said earnestly, do not talk about earning money is hypocritical, but why to make money, how to earn money, these two problems many enterprises may need to do more thorough and long-term thinking. Otherwise, the money earned, the enterprise aims to achieve, people have no motivation.

In his opinion, Su Ning now earns more is to talk about the way of earning money, hope through the change of the way of earning money to bring the change to the whole industry and society, this is more to them than earning this thing itself have bigger incentive effect.