The new era of invisible champions has arrived. I want to find it for you.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ Advance Finance ” (ID: jinbubo), author Shen Shuaibo.

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Please answer 2020.

Answer: A new era has arrived, as if crossing the monsoon and ocean currents.

Here it is. With a new attitude.

Here it is. Expanded a new pattern.

The old empire is still strong, but the new empire has risen. The curtain of the commercial warring States period has begun.

A number of companies with the core goal of dominating the world are debuting. They used to hide under the water.

But today, we need to face up to the invisible champions that have grown under the soil with Chinese characteristics.

Today we will launch the first article of the “Finding Invisible Champions” column, which will be the focus of 2020 long-term column operation.

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First, what is an invisible champion?

In the book “Hidden Champions: A Pioneer of Future Globalization,” Herman Simon defines a company with the following characteristics as a hidden champion.

1. Reputable in the industry, but not known to ordinary consumers;

2. They are leading the world in their industry;

3. Survival time is more than 30 years, and some even have hundreds of years of history;

4. Intensive cultivation in a narrow market until the “Only-One Company” in the global industry is achieved.

This is the past definition of the invisible champion in the academic world. It is very precise, clear and applicable worldwide.

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After 40 years of rapid development, China’s economy has formed a unique and independent characteristic. The uniqueness of its market has made it impossible for us to use all western theoretical logic to settle China’s problems. (It’s not that the global logic is wrong, it can’t completely wrap around)

For example, in the context of the Chinese market, invisible champions cannot be completely taught by Simon.To teach the logic to nest.

The uniqueness of the Chinese market at this stage reflects two important characteristics-regional rise and county economy.

First look at the overview of county economy.

We see that the GDP of many top 100 counties (county-level administrative units) even exceeds the GDP of a province, such as Kunshan’s GDP of 387.5 billion, exceeding Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province; Kunshan’s per capita GDP is as high as 234,000 Shanghai is around 100,000.

Longgang City in Zhejiang Province is China’s first town to be transformed into a city, with a population of 382,000 and a GDP of 29.95 billion, exceeding the GDP of prefecture-level cities in the western region. Because the scale of towns in some developed areas has exceeded many prefecture-level cities, more and more towns will be changed to cities.

Based on so many counties in China and so many small and independent economies, we believe that there are several major directions in the automotive aftermarket, hotels, home furnishings, retail, catering, and electric vehicles. It is a company beyond our imagination.

Look at the rise of the region.

Why is China a particularly regionalized market? Because he is big enough, China’s area is close to the whole of Europe (10.16 million square kilometers, excluding the Asian part of Russia).

The culture, customs, personality, tastes, and habits of each region are completely different, so several independent markets have been formed.

Regional brands are not necessarily weaker than national brands. Many local brands have a solid competitive advantage in the region. Many national and even international companies can only enter through mergers and acquisitions of local regional enterprises, or they cannot even enter.

In China’s TOP10 convenience stores, at least five are regional brands. The family is actually a regional brand. There are 2181. Because they are concentrated in major first-tier cities, especially Shanghai, everyone mistakenly thinks he is a national brand. The third place is 11,659 Meiyijia, mainly located in Guangdong.

Some brands that you think are national, just because they appear frequently in your life, in fact, they are a regional brand. For example, CoCo milk tea, people who stay in the first-tier cities (especially in the south) always feel that CoCo is a national brand, but it is not.

Laoxiang chicken has more than 800 directly-operated stores across the country, deeply cultivating the Anhui market, and radiating Jiangsu and Hubei.

For example, the sinking version of Home Inn-Shang Ke You Hotel has 4,300 in the country, but the front-line basically does not know him.

Redefined

What is the concept of 4,300 hotels? There are only 2863 county-level administrative regions in China.

Approximately, if it is a flat cake, there are 1.5 excellent customers in each county-level administrative district. Note, however, that Shangkeyou is currently in a leading position in Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and other provinces, and the distribution density of other provinces is relatively low.

According to our actual research, we found that the density of Shangkeyou in Shandong is 4.7 stores in each county. What is this concept?

The four corners of each county and the center form a net, enclosing a county. And desperately blocked the opponent.

So, are Shandong and Jiangsu saturated? Actually, there aren’t. Let’s look at the maps of Jiangsu Province and Shandong Province.

However, I don’t see any flowers in this way. Let me sort out the data.

The total area of ​​Jiangsu Province is 107,200 square kilometers, with 13 prefecture-level cities, 55 municipal districts, 22 county-level cities, 19 counties, and a total of 96 county-level divisions, with a total population of 80.507 million people.

Shandong Province is 1579 thousand square kilometers. 1579 square kilometers governs 16 prefecture-level cities, a total of 57 municipal districts, 27 county-level cities, and 53 counties, totaling 137 county-level administrative districts, with a total population of 104.47 million people.

It means that these two provinces, put into Europe, are equal to the total population of the two big countries.

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Above, the “new invisible champion” in Chinese context appears loomingly.

That is, they are not necessarily the To B company that Simon said. HeThey do not rely on front-line advertising or media exposure. They are not in the elite’s perception, but they are category leaders in the market. This is the new stealth champion in the Chinese context as I understand it.

After months, I tried to sort out a context.

When you do n’t understand, but when you do n’t look at it, it ’s because of arrogance and prejudice.

The new stealth champions, they may be in different industries, they may have started in different small places, but they all have some amazing similar characteristics.

1. They all have their own core bases and base camps, and most of them are not on the front line.

2. On the surface, the industries they are engaged in are not so high-end and sexy. In the past, they have not been blessed or cared by capital, and they are rarely known by the public and reported by the media.

3. They have been established for more than ten years, and already have core staff, channels, customer systems, supply chains, and moats.

4. Most of their business coverage has penetrated to the county and township levels.

5. To a certain extent, they have a rigid need and are relatively less affected by the environment.

6. In the early days, the rapid occupation of the market was the main, and the brand building was relatively lagging, so the popularity and attention of the public was not high.

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In the first part below, we will use Ma Yingyao and his Shangke You Hotel as examples to explain how the new invisible champion was born.

Part of the content was mentioned in our annual summit, but this article has made a comprehensive supplement and comprehensive combing.

Ma Yingyao once said, “If we think that the upper limit of China’s economic chain hotels is 10,000, then this game Home, Hanting has won. But if the upper limit is 50,000 or more, then the game is just Get started. “