Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a 100-meter sprint. To succeed, a solid foundation is required.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ CEIBS Business Review ” (ID: ceibs-cbr), author: Cao Xinbei. Original title “Five Key Factors to Make a Startup Successful”

After leaving the No.1 store in 2015, for a long time, the co-founder of No.1 store Yu Gang almost disappeared from the public’s perspective. If you search the Internet for relevant news, there are only a few scattered articles such as “Why did I leave No. 1 store” and “A letter from Yu Gang and Liu Junling to all No. 1 store employees”, briefly mentioning that they are Due to the involvement of capital, China gradually lost its right to speak and left with reluctance.

Four years later, Yu Gang and Liu Junling led the parent company 111 Group of 1 Yaowang.com again in front of the public. From the No. 1 store in the past to today’s “China’s Internet medicine and health industry’s first listing in the United States”, to outsiders, Yu seems to be born with a halo of success. .

But it just seems that starting a business is far from simple. This is more like a marathon, and going public is just a milestone in the entrepreneurial process, a new starting point. What the outside world sees is the moment of high light, and if you really want to start a business, anyone who succeeds must endure torture, stand up to loneliness, stand up to temptation, and constantly prove themselves. How can I win the crown on the thorny road of entrepreneurship? How can we make the impossible possible?

We were fortunate to interview Yu Gang and asked him to use his past entrepreneurial experience to talk about the key to successful entrepreneurship.

The following is organized based on the conversation with Yu Gang.

Yu Gang: 5 key elements for successful entrepreneurship

Yu Gang, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of 111 Group

01 Element 1: Control is very important

When we operated the No.1 store, we paid tuition fees because of our shallow understanding of capital. During the financing process, we gradually lost control. Entrepreneurs would rather slow down when they raise funds than lose control. Sometimes, the rush is not achieved. The company thinks that the introduction of investors will lead to faster development, but investors often do not agree with the founder’s development strategy, which actually results in stagnation in growth and difficult implementation of strategies.

When a company is financing, try not to have a veto. Once there is a vote of veto, it is easy to be impossible to achieve because of a vote of veto in the future if it is necessary to conduct acquisitions and mergers or other important decision-making matters.

The entrepreneurial process allows us to deeply understand the importance of control, because it directly determines the speed of the company’s strategy implementation and decision-making, and whether the company can develop healthily for a long time. If it is restricted by capital too early, then the company will May lose the ability to achieve ambitious vision. Therefore, we set up the super voting right when we created 1 Yaowang. We chose to list in the United States and set up AB shares, which ensured the founding team’s ideal realization.

When I left the No.1 shop, it was as if the child I had raised for many years suddenly ran away. It was very uncomfortable. But at the same time I also know that if my wisdom and ability cannot be fully utilized, I must find a new circuit to create greater value. According to the capital structure and decision-making mechanism of the No. 1 store at that time, the growth rate of the company’s business development has slowed sharply. More importantly, if there is no decision-making power and rapid decision-making system, you cannot be a winner in the fierce market competition.

Yu Gang: 5 key elements for successful entrepreneurship

02 Element two: correct industry + appropriate positioning

Why choose the pharmaceutical industry? Because this is an industry that is always sunny and never set. At present, China’s economy is constantly developing, and per capita disposable income is rising at an annual growth rate of more than 8 percentage points. When people’s incomes increase, what is the first investment? Health because everyone wants to improve the quality of life. The second investment is education, because to learn more, not only to grow up, but also to care about the growth of children. The third investment may be travel and entertainment to make life happier.

In this, the body is the most important. Without the “1” of the body, adding “0” after it is useless. Since everyone has to invest in “1”, we are right. China’s medical and health industry is developing rapidly at an annualized growth rate of 12.1%, much higher than the growth rate of GDP. The market size of the medical and health industry has almost doubled in the next five years. In China, it is difficult to find such a high growth rate. The rapid industry also illustrates the value and importance of the medical and health industry.

But the Internet medicine and health industry is difficult and deep. It is because of this “difficulty” that we are given the opportunity to conquer it. After successful conquest, there will be a sense of accomplishment and a moat. If it’s just a simple model, or someone else has already stepped in, it won’t leave us an opportunity at all, or it will be easily copied and hard to produce great value.

Can Internet medicine and health solve all problems? Definitely not. There are a large number of diseases, especially the first ones, that require patients to go to the hospital for examinations. The hospital can provide various tests such as blood tests, X-rays, and CT. Traditional Chinese medicine also needs to check the pulse. This is a problem that the Internet cannot solve.

So from the beginning, you need to be clear about your company’s positioning. We are positioning to focus on chronic disease groups that need to be continued, and this market is already large enough. Because of China’s three major chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cardio-cerebrovascular disease), each disease has more than 100 million people.

03 Element 3: Solving the pain points of the industry and creating core elements

What do we think are the core success factors in this industry?

First of all, engaging in Internet medicine and health requires an efficient intelligent supply chain. China has more than 6,000 pharmaceutical companies, more than 480,000 terminal pharmacies, and more than 14,000 intermediate distributors. The largest chain drug stores account for less than 2% of the market. In the United States, the three pharmacy giants account for more than 85% of the shares, and all three distributors have a share of more than 90%. But if you add up the market share of all the largest distributors in China, it is less than 30%, and the industry is highly fragmented. Drug sales include distribution, wholesale, doctor, hospital, retail and other links, but as end consumers, it is impossible to know how much each layer was wasted, and what caused inefficiency and opacity.

What we do is improve the efficiency and transparency of the supply chain. The 111 Group has an efficient intelligent supply chain in the industry. We first collect directly from pharmaceutical companies and then provide it directly to patients or retail terminals, eliminating all intermediate links. Using our App, we can find that there is an average 10% -20% difference between the price of our “1 Yaowang” and the price that we usually buy from a pharmacy.

Second, make full use of data and technology. We will give customers more than one hundred labels, know the customer’s behavior and portrait, can achieve precise marketing and personalized service, which greatly improves efficiency. Do you know how long it takes an average patient to go to the hospital? Three hours. How long can I see a doctor? On average, seven minutes, half an hour to do various inspections, all the rest of the time is waiting, or on the road. Another example is if the patient is out of town and wants to see a doctor in a tertiary hospital in a big city. If the patient has a chronic cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease or has a heart stent, he may need to take his medicine for life. If you take the medicine every time, you have to go to the hospital for a long time and ask your doctor for a prescription. The validity of each prescription is only 30 days.between. Obtaining electronic prescriptions through the online diagnosis and treatment of Internet hospitals, and purchasing medicines for delivery to the home, saves all the invalid time and costs in the middle.

Yu Gang: 5 key elements for successful entrepreneurship

Again, to engage in Internet medicine and health, we must have professionalism and seize the opportunity. The internet medicine and health market is huge, and it is still in a very early stage. The competition has not heated up, and it is still in the cake making stage. It is still a good time to develop the cake. On the other hand, medical health is highly specialized, and not every company can immediately defeat other companies as soon as it enters the pharmaceutical industry. For example, if we want to carry out strategic cooperation with international pharmaceutical companies, there is no one, a half, or two years, and we can’t be sure. International pharmaceutical companies have complete processes and compliance requirements, and must agree with internal departments. When it comes to specific cooperation details, international pharmaceutical companies will also perform detailed due diligence, look at the data, systems, and processes over and over again, and wait for the final confirmation of the cooperation. At a glance, it is found that time has passed a long time. This is a must. process.

We have now reached strategic cooperation with 150 well-known domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, etc., each of these companies, we have spent several years to communicate. No matter if it is Ali, Tencent, or Amazon, whoever wants to get involved in this field, it will take these time, and it is not something that can be obtained by spending money or the scale of the enterprise.

04 Element Four: Do everything to the extreme

I am a person who pursues perfection and believes that everything must be done to the best and the best to show the true ability and reflect the knowledge and experience accumulated over the years. I have always been like this since I was a kid. I want to win everything. If I don’t do my best, I will be very uncomfortable. When I used to play basketball, I was very hard on the court, playing too hard and even breaking my leg.

If it was in the war years, I might be a general on the battlefield. I am very familiar with the scenes of war, without any fear, and like big scenes. The competitive environment can inspire nature. I have a very strong sense of competition and I want to win everything.

I have the same requirements for my subordinates: do everything to the extreme. If you come for a job instead of a career, don’t come to us, the company is not a nursing home, not a charity. At 1Yao.com, if someone meets to say something very illusive, for example, when it comes to the goal for next month, someone says “I try my best, I work hard”, and everyone will laugh at it.

What we want is a real report with data support. For example, we cannot say that there has been a significant increase this quarter, butTo say that compared with last month, this month’s turnover has increased from A to B. Compared with the previous period, the increase rate has been higher or lower. Whether it has reached expectations. The reasons include one or two and three. My actions for unfinished tasks have Those ones. I often ask everyone at the meeting, don’t put up a ppt or empty talk, but first talk about the highlights, shortcomings, and what to do. We have given enough power to managers at all levels to listen to the final results and action plans.

I have done most of the front-line work, including warehouse receipt, warehousing, shelves, picking, sorting, packaging, delivery, I have also done customer service, and the company’s ground push. To lead everyone to start a business together, I hope to understand each link as much as possible, to have a good idea, and to understand the front line can also help me make informed decisions. On the battlefield, even if the soldiers have more passion, they will not be allowed to die in vain. When the little friends know that we can win the war, plus everyone has the ultimate professional ethics and passion for entrepreneurship, we can form a very good atmosphere.

05 Element 5: Complete the meeting within half an hour

Efficient is important. I used to work at Amazon, where I learned how to manage small teams quickly and flexibly. Amazon calls the small team “Two Pizza Team”, which means that two pizzas can feed a team. Generally speaking, each team does not exceed 12 people. Each pizza team is responsible for one thing for a long time, and is responsible for making the best of it. For example, if a team is responsible for inventory optimization, it will always do inventory optimization; if a team manages network optimization, it will always do network optimization; there is a team Responsible for customer commitments, we have always insisted on how to make the promises more accurate and the service better. Each team has its own decision-making power, and it is not necessary to ask the superior for important strategic decisions.

Before the Amazon meeting, the convenor of the meeting should write a topic of less than six pages to discuss, including the content of the meeting, as well as the main issues and suggestions. This document is usually read for the first 5-10 minutes of the meeting. After reading, everyone spent 20 minutes to discuss and come up with a solution to the problem to ensure that the meeting was completed in 30 minutes.

I also worked at Dell. Amazon does not use PPT for meetings, and Dell uses PPT for communication. However, Dell stipulates that the PPT must finish all the main content in three slides, and the rest is added as an appendix. If others ask it, turn it over and skip it. Dell’s efficiency is also very high. Any decision made by the top management at headquarters will be communicated to all employees around the world within 24 hours.

The management and execution of Dell and Amazon are first-rate. The 111 Group is still in its infancy. Although it has been established for nine years, Jun Ling and I have only devoted ourselves to only four years. Better, including whether all goals must be fulfilled, and whether to say the same. Of course in the industry, the implementation of 111 GroupThe ability is good. In the company, the requirements for convening a meeting are: no preparation is needed during the meeting, and the theme of today’s meeting is directly stated, including what questions, suggestions, and elements need to be discussed. For the appropriate solution, we will move forward, and if it is not appropriate, we will give suggestions. We also often stand in meetings and make quick decisions.

“I will create value in my life”, “It is because of this” difficulty “that we are given the opportunity to overcome it. Only after we succeed in it can we have a sense of accomplishment”, “Everything must be done “Extreme”, “Half an hour to end the meeting” … In the dialogue with Yu Gang, he can clearly feel his fighting spirit and unending passion for his career. He is like a fighter. The market is like a battlefield. He leads employees to overcome obstacles. He strives for perfection and treats himself and the company with the “highest” standards. He emphasizes that efficiency is gold and pays attention to every minute and every second. It was non-stop preparing to start the next meeting.

Extreme and efficient, coupled with precise judgment of the pain points of the industry, and a more mature and rational attitude towards capital, it is precisely the superposition and overlap of these factors that have produced a “chemical reaction”, allowing Yu Gang to not Possibility becomes possible, leading the entrepreneurial team to success.

Yu Gang: 5 key factors for successful entrepreneurship