In China, New Oriental is almost a household name.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ 桃李 财 ” (ID: xiaozhangcaijing ), author: Kaja
In the 26 years since its establishment, New Oriental’s development can be described as “a setback”. Yu Minhong also followed the company through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. By January 20, New Oriental’s market value was 21.5 billion US dollars.
Revisiting the 26-year entrepreneurship road, Yu Minhong went straight to the core of entrepreneurship, pointed out the key issues that must be followed, and provided 12 entrepreneurial guides for entrepreneurs who were struggling on their own.
Tao Li Finance and Economics, Industrial Thoughts, Part 02.
01 I can’t figure out how to make money, and start my business sooner or later
Entrepreneurs must understand that any startup that does not make money is a “rogue”. Any ideal and dream is based on the unbearability of reality. It cannot bear the unbearability of reality. It is difficult to talk about dreams and feelings.
Now, many young entrepreneurs come to me for investment and they always like to talk about feelings. Entrepreneurs can talk about feelings, but failing to figure out how to make money means that you have no business acumen. Entering the business field in this state, sooner or later, you have to finish it.
So, the first thing that entrepreneurs need to consider is to really think about their business model, find people who recognize your business model, find people who are willing to invest in you, and let them live first.
Entrepreneurs must have a deep understanding of business. For example, many people rushed into the education industry and wanted to use Internet thinking to subvert traditional education. However, if they do not understand the nature of education, the idea of subverting traditional education by the Internet is one-sided. Only the combination of the two can produce a new model in the field of education.
In a way, the genes of the founder determine the connotation and culture of the company.
02 The vision of the founder determines the success or failure of the company
The life and death of an enterprise is the norm. In the midst of life and death, there is a continuous wave of sand and sand, and the greatest enterprise is the last one.
The key to success and failure is the vision of the founder. In a way, the genes of the founder determine the connotation and culture of the company.”Vision” is an essential quality for founders in the development of an enterprise. The founders of any successful company in the world have dreams and visions.
For example, Ren Zhengfei, when everyone was reselling foreign technology, he put all his first money into research and development, and finally gained research and development results. At that time, China did not use his products, he went to Yugoslavia to make the first order, so its start has laid the foundation for Huawei to become a world company. Ren Zhengfei dared to go out because he learned three foreign languages very early, so the talent of entrepreneurs is closely related to the development of enterprises.
However, the vision of the founder is not achieved overnight, but it is continuously extended as his ability improves. I am a peasant without any vision, and later grew into an entrepreneur and educator with a certain vision in the Chinese education industry.
The reason why I have been in the university for three consecutive years is definitely not to have the “vision” to see that I can become the largest education group in China in the future, but because I know that if I am admitted to the university, my life will Ever different. In this sense, “dreams” are part of “visions”.
But farsightedness is not enough. It takes work. People have differences in IQ, family background, and appearance, but as long as one thing appears, it will make you progress at every level of society, and that is hard work. Efforts are not made stupidly. A pig eats too much and can only be slaughtered. Efforts are not brute force, but wisdom.
“What is the purpose of you to be New Oriental?” My answer is to help more children grow up.
03 The founder must adhere to three business principles
(1) Come near and far. Take your current customer service first. If you serve a customer well, you must come to two, two services must come to four, and four services must come to six.
The customers in front of you don’t have good service. It is impossible to succeed if you go to serve customers far away.
Serve New Oriental’s current customers first, don’t be busy with advertising, don’t be busy with marketing. This is the death order I gave New Oriental 4 years ago.
(2) Start with the end. What is your purpose in doing this? What kind of person do you want to become through this matter? Write your purpose and original intention on your notebook and blackboard, and see if you do something that violates your original intention every day.
I asked myself, what is your purpose of being New Oriental? My answer is to help more children grow. So to help more children, in addition to helping the city people, do you want to help the rural people? So 60% of my energy now has been used to educate children in mountainous and rural areas of China.
Because my ultimate goal is to help children grow up. Therefore, if I start with the end, I can launch it. If the New Oriental is oriented to rural and mountain children, how should it help them?Business, in fact, is equivalent to rebuilding a line. This is the discontinuous development model of business-only by making continuous leap forwards can a company grow. If New Oriental insisted on training only for the national examinations, it would be at most billions of dollars today, and New Oriental reached the current scale because of the changes in business development models and the emergence of new business systems.
However, New Oriental also encountered many problems in its business layout. For example, the computer training business was because the position of vocational training in New Oriental’s future strategic layout was not considered well, and adequate market research was not done. In the end, insufficient investment in resources and talents led to the development of new business.
In addition, this business does not have much to do with New Oriental ’s main business. The target groups do not overlap, and the business model and business model are different. Finally, a completely independent development situation has been formed. Therefore, if the business you want to do and the main business do not have much to do, and you cannot interoperate in the resources and industry chain, you must be careful.
Resolving crises and finding opportunities from crises are also the capabilities that an entrepreneur should possess.
12 Finding opportunities in crisis
The mall is like a battlefield. A company will inevitably encounter setbacks and even crises in its growth and development. Therefore, to resolve crises and find opportunities from crises is also an ability that an entrepreneur should possess.
Entrepreneurs do n’t have the mentality of losing again. Don’t pray for a successful start-up. One success is usually not achieved, and it is only a small company. So entrepreneurs don’t need to be afraid of the unsuccessful first venture. Although they have failed, they will win more later.
In my opinion, people’s thinking is divided between the poor and the rich, and entrepreneurs must have the rich. Rich people think that everything they encounter is regarded as an opportunity, and poor people think that even if they encounter a beautiful girl who chases me, they are worried that she will pay attention to my money.
In the development history of New Oriental, the muddy water company’s attack is arguably the most famous crisis event. After the attack, New Oriental’s stock market trembled, and its market value directly decreased by 60%. At this critical juncture, corporate managers need to have a calm and clear response strategy. At that time, I turned to friends from entrepreneurs such as Ma Yun and Liu Chuanzhi to help New Oriental’s stock price reverse the adversity. Then I used this crisis to issue three-year options to New Oriental backbones, which saved the company’s core while retaining the core backbone. .
Therefore, it is a good way to respond to changes in a timely manner by being able to look at problems from different angles and actively seek breakthroughs. The business path has never been determined, so the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to lead the team to find a deterministic path in the middle of uncertainty.
Reference material: “New Oriental 25 years, Yu Minhong’s 10 pit avoidance guides for all entrepreneurs”, Lao Yu gossip: “Yu Minhong: the key to entrepreneurship, technology, Capital, Policy, Competition “, Note Man:” Yu Minhong: Do well in front of you, everything will be fine “, Zhenghe Island:” Yu Minhong: One thing must be understood when starting a business, or sooner or later you will be killed “, i Dark Horse: “Yu Minhong: Four things are the most important thing for a boss to be a human being”, Chaos University: “Yu Minhong: The road is incompetent, the career must be mediocre”
The life and death of an enterprise is the norm. In the midst of life and death, there is a continuous wave of sand and sand, and the greatest enterprise is the last one.
The key to success and failure is the vision of the founder. In a way, the genes of the founder determine the connotation and culture of the company.”Vision” is an essential quality for founders in the development of an enterprise. The founders of any successful company in the world have dreams and visions.
For example, Ren Zhengfei, when everyone was reselling foreign technology, he put all his first money into research and development, and finally gained research and development results. At that time, China did not use his products, he went to Yugoslavia to make the first order, so its start has laid the foundation for Huawei to become a world company. Ren Zhengfei dared to go out because he learned three foreign languages very early, so the talent of entrepreneurs is closely related to the development of enterprises.
However, the vision of the founder is not achieved overnight, but it is continuously extended as his ability improves. I am a peasant without any vision, and later grew into an entrepreneur and educator with a certain vision in the Chinese education industry.
The reason why I have been in the university for three consecutive years is definitely not to have the “vision” to see that I can become the largest education group in China in the future, but because I know that if I am admitted to the university, my life will Ever different. In this sense, “dreams” are part of “visions”.
But farsightedness is not enough. It takes work. People have differences in IQ, family background, and appearance, but as long as one thing appears, it will make you progress at every level of society, and that is hard work. Efforts are not made stupidly. A pig eats too much and can only be slaughtered. Efforts are not brute force, but wisdom.
“What is the purpose of you to be New Oriental?” My answer is to help more children grow up.
03 The founder must adhere to three business principles
(1) Come near and far. Take your current customer service first. If you serve a customer well, you must come to two, two services must come to four, and four services must come to six.
The customers in front of you don’t have good service. It is impossible to succeed if you go to serve customers far away.
Serve New Oriental’s current customers first, don’t be busy with advertising, don’t be busy with marketing. This is the death order I gave New Oriental 4 years ago.
(2) Start with the end. What is your purpose in doing this? What kind of person do you want to become through this matter? Write your purpose and original intention on your notebook and blackboard, and see if you do something that violates your original intention every day.
I asked myself, what is your purpose of being New Oriental? My answer is to help more children grow. So to help more children, in addition to helping the city people, do you want to help the rural people? So 60% of my energy now has been used to educate children in mountainous and rural areas of China.
Because my ultimate goal is to help children grow up. Therefore, if I start with the end, I can launch it. If the New Oriental is oriented to rural and mountain children, how should it help them?Business, in fact, is equivalent to rebuilding a line. This is the discontinuous development model of business-only by making continuous leap forwards can a company grow. If New Oriental insisted on training only for the national examinations, it would be at most billions of dollars today, and New Oriental reached the current scale because of the changes in business development models and the emergence of new business systems.
However, New Oriental also encountered many problems in its business layout. For example, the computer training business was because the position of vocational training in New Oriental’s future strategic layout was not considered well, and adequate market research was not done. In the end, insufficient investment in resources and talents led to the development of new business.
In addition, this business does not have much to do with New Oriental ’s main business. The target groups do not overlap, and the business model and business model are different. Finally, a completely independent development situation has been formed. Therefore, if the business you want to do and the main business do not have much to do, and you cannot interoperate in the resources and industry chain, you must be careful.
Resolving crises and finding opportunities from crises are also the capabilities that an entrepreneur should possess.
12 Finding opportunities in crisis
The mall is like a battlefield. A company will inevitably encounter setbacks and even crises in its growth and development. Therefore, to resolve crises and find opportunities from crises is also an ability that an entrepreneur should possess.
Entrepreneurs do n’t have the mentality of losing again. Don’t pray for a successful start-up. One success is usually not achieved, and it is only a small company. So entrepreneurs don’t need to be afraid of the unsuccessful first venture. Although they have failed, they will win more later.
In my opinion, people’s thinking is divided between the poor and the rich, and entrepreneurs must have the rich. Rich people think that everything they encounter is regarded as an opportunity, and poor people think that even if they encounter a beautiful girl who chases me, they are worried that she will pay attention to my money.
In the development history of New Oriental, the muddy water company’s attack is arguably the most famous crisis event. After the attack, New Oriental’s stock market trembled, and its market value directly decreased by 60%. At this critical juncture, corporate managers need to have a calm and clear response strategy. At that time, I turned to friends from entrepreneurs such as Ma Yun and Liu Chuanzhi to help New Oriental’s stock price reverse the adversity. Then I used this crisis to issue three-year options to New Oriental backbones, which saved the company’s core while retaining the core backbone. .
Therefore, it is a good way to respond to changes in a timely manner by being able to look at problems from different angles and actively seek breakthroughs. The business path has never been determined, so the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to lead the team to find a deterministic path in the middle of uncertainty.
Reference material: “New Oriental 25 years, Yu Minhong’s 10 pit avoidance guides for all entrepreneurs”, Lao Yu gossip: “Yu Minhong: the key to entrepreneurship, technology, Capital, Policy, Competition “, Note Man:” Yu Minhong: Do well in front of you, everything will be fine “, Zhenghe Island:” Yu Minhong: One thing must be understood when starting a business, or sooner or later you will be killed “, i Dark Horse: “Yu Minhong: Four things are the most important thing for a boss to be a human being”, Chaos University: “Yu Minhong: The road is incompetent, the career must be mediocre”
The mall is like a battlefield. A company will inevitably encounter setbacks and even crises in its growth and development. Therefore, to resolve crises and find opportunities from crises is also an ability that an entrepreneur should possess.
Entrepreneurs do n’t have the mentality of losing again. Don’t pray for a successful start-up. One success is usually not achieved, and it is only a small company. So entrepreneurs don’t need to be afraid of the unsuccessful first venture. Although they have failed, they will win more later.
In my opinion, people’s thinking is divided between the poor and the rich, and entrepreneurs must have the rich. Rich people think that everything they encounter is regarded as an opportunity, and poor people think that even if they encounter a beautiful girl who chases me, they are worried that she will pay attention to my money.
In the development history of New Oriental, the muddy water company’s attack is arguably the most famous crisis event. After the attack, New Oriental’s stock market trembled, and its market value directly decreased by 60%. At this critical juncture, corporate managers need to have a calm and clear response strategy. At that time, I turned to friends from entrepreneurs such as Ma Yun and Liu Chuanzhi to help New Oriental’s stock price reverse the adversity. Then I used this crisis to issue three-year options to New Oriental backbones, which saved the company’s core while retaining the core backbone. .
Therefore, it is a good way to respond to changes in a timely manner by being able to look at problems from different angles and actively seek breakthroughs. The business path has never been determined, so the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to lead the team to find a deterministic path in the middle of uncertainty.
Reference material: “New Oriental 25 years, Yu Minhong’s 10 pit avoidance guides for all entrepreneurs”, Lao Yu gossip: “Yu Minhong: the key to entrepreneurship, technology, Capital, Policy, Competition “, Note Man:” Yu Minhong: Do well in front of you, everything will be fine “, Zhenghe Island:” Yu Minhong: One thing must be understood when starting a business, or sooner or later you will be killed “, i Dark Horse: “Yu Minhong: Four things are the most important thing for a boss to be a human being”, Chaos University: “Yu Minhong: The road is incompetent, the career must be mediocre”