Make fun in pain, as long as you persist, there is hope!
“I don’t know if I should be happy or sad for a while”
A friend sighed to me so much after receiving a notice from the boss to postpone the start of work, and most of this is the voice of most friends. When the epidemic replaced the stubborn marriage proposal of previous years and became the mainstream voice of the social platform, the holiday that was never too long was inevitable.
As the topic of the first day of construction #nailnailEnterprise WeChat Collective Collapse # became a hot search, the epidemic not only raised questions such as “when to resume work” or “how to go online” for Internet companies with employees in many provinces and cities. Work “and many other tests;
The far-reaching impact is not just as simple as attendance and work and rest. It is as small as reserve materials, adjusting the system to reduce the possibility of infection, and as large as the psychological construction of employees and the company’s strategic adjustment after a business hit. Grounded the clockwork for many startups.
We interviewed 7 senior executives from multiple industry startups, which may provide some more specific and emotional knowledge to entrepreneurs who are also in anxiety.
01
Easy Passenger Transport: consider undertaking software outsourcing development projects
“Ninety percent of the losses.”
In response to our question on “approximate business losses during the Spring Festival Transport,” Xu Jing, assistant general manager of Yilai Passenger Transport, told us so. Unlike Didi Travel and Cao Cao Travel, which are mainly based on the city’s C to C scenarios, the Easy Travel Passenger Transport, which is invested and established by Sichuan local transport companies, uses intercity buses, short-term chartered cars, scenic express trains, shuttles, etc. B to C is mainly for long-distance travel business.
The business itself is more affected by the off-peak season, and the new crown epidemic has greatly affected Yilai Passenger Transport.
According to Xu Jing, the platform currently only maintains a custom passenger route from Chengdu to Xichang (the capital of Sichuan Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, located in western Sichuan), and all other intercity lines and chartered lines have been closed.
Compared with other more “retreat” Internet industries, the Internet + passenger transport project is more difficult to transition to online office.
Even though there are no employees of Hubei nationality, Yilai Passenger Transport has convened the heads of various departments on January 26, submitted an online office emergency plan, and started online office on the 31st. However, until the statutory resumption of work on February 3rd, the productivity of Yilai Passenger Transport only returned to about 5% of its normal state.
Internet + passenger transport itself is more about booking tickets online and providing specific services offline. Affected by the new crown epidemic, the entire business is currently in a suspended state, and the lines have been shut down, not only reducing the workload of the business and administrative departments, but the current online office is only preparing for the later reopening. At present, Yilai Passenger Transport has begun to consider open source and cost reduction: the development department is ready to undertake software outsourcing development projects.
But it seems that it will not take long for Yilai Passenger Transport to return to normal status.
After all, passenger transportation is a social need for public travel. Compared to traditional passenger buses, the point-to-point trolley service of Yilai Passenger Transport not only has great advantages in terms of safety, convenience, and comfort, but also has more advantages. Conducive to the development of epidemic prevention work.
02
calmthink: Take this opportunity to promote online office
Compared to the resistance encountered by Yilai Passenger Transport’s transition to online work, Huo Renhe, the founder of calmthink, sees this epidemic as an opportunity to promote the team to adapt to online collaboration. He revealed that the team used to pass word and excel documents back and forth, which was inconsistent with various online collaboration tools, but it was not difficult for small teams to switch.
He revealed that he is an efficiency control, he likes to research and use various latest tools and software, Evernote, Omni Family Bucket, Xmind, Teambition, including the latest flying books, he has research and use. “Good tools can double people’s efficiency.” He always felt that the team was still too slow to learn how to use the tools, and this time there was a chance to force everyone to make a great leap forward in online office.
The calmthink, which recently completed an angel round of financing, is in the growth phase. Its main business is to provide silent office products that eliminate sound interference for open office environments. As a company providing experience upgrade products, calmthink felt the chill directly.
On the one hand, the silent cabin has high requirements for the post-service links. Logistics, installation, and delivery all involve a large number of necessary offline contacts. The arrival of the epidemic has greatly affected the service links; on the other hand, it is Typical non-rigid demand products belong to the category where the company’s budget is most likely to be cut when its efficiency is low. The epidemic will affect it after it spreads to all walks of life.
Obviously, for calmthink in the office services track, the impact of the outbreak will be far-reaching. In a way, this is why Huo Ren and the team hope to adapt to flexible office and improve efficiency. On the one hand, the annual plan set at the beginning of the year is a commitment to itself and investors. It cannot be shaken because of the epidemic, but the pressure has increased a lot. The environment is not good and can only be supplemented by efficiency if possible. calmthink will be in the stage of adaptation and adjustment to the new situation in the next 2 ~ 3 months. Although small teams are flexible, they also face tremendous pressure and challenges.
But on the other handThe epidemic has also made calmthink face some new opportunities, and medical products that have already been approved are one of the directions. The silent cabin itself has the characteristics of sound insulation, ventilation, etc., and calmthink hopes to speed up the launch of the product through joint development with medical institutions, to tilt the product line from office use to medical use, and improve its ability to resist risks.
At present, all the staff of calmthink have officially started work online in a healthy manner, and the only colleagues from the affected area have not affected the efficiency, and work from home. However, Huo Renhe thought that the requirement of double salary for delaying the resumption of work in Shanghai was ridiculous and ignored as a small startup team.
03
Baby palm: the industry has reached a fork in the road
For the palm baby who has its business rooted in the SaaS tools track, online office collaboration itself has not become a stumbling block. So although there are a lot of employees in the field, and the health and work status have not been affected by the epidemic situation, for the sake of safety, the state of online work will continue until early March. More, it is facing the situation of “half seawater and half flame” at the business level.
Baby palm is an “AI homeland education platform”. In short, it provides kindergarten attendance, personnel, educational affairs, school affairs, conservation, parks, fees and other management functions. The outbreak will have a significant impact on Palm’s income in February.
How will the impact of this trend be? Dai Zhenguang, founder of Palm Baby, said that it is not easy to judge because the industry is currently going to a fork. On the one hand, kindergartens across the country have implemented delayed start of the school to varying degrees, which means that existing service scenarios will be greatly compressed; for example, the hardware sales business will face difficulties such as failure to deliver goods and extension of time limit.
On the other hand, under the pressure of the epidemic, the kindergarten’s higher requirements for informatization, such as information collection and statistics, personnel access management, temperature detection, etc., may cause more attention to the remaining business lines of Palm Baby According to Dai Zhenguang, this part of the business has seen a significant increase, and the temperature monitoring module has been sold.
Despite the uncertainty, Dai Zhenguang made it clear that the direction of the palm baby is relatively clear: first of all, to stabilize people’s hearts and promise not to lay off people due to the epidemic; secondly, to clarify the mission, and then aim at the realistic scenario where large-scale schools cannot be run as soon as possible Landing plan to help kindergarten solve problems through online solutions
04
Ace Technology: Back to the first year of entrepreneurship
Compared to the palm baby who has a plan for the next business direction, Aisi Technology, which has just started the “cloud office”, is in a more anxious state. Under the influence of the sudden epidemic, co-founder He Jing described the current state as “back to the first year of entrepreneurship.”
Ace also to B, but Ais mainly providing technical solutions for enterprises80% of its customers are traditional companies, and since last year, it has been mainly catering new retail that has been most affected by the epidemic, so it is facing a situation of “cold teeth”.
On the other hand, although most of the employees are very calm, but there are also Hubei employees who have not returned home. They need to spend hours comforting their families every day. Not only are they almost collapsed, the management is also very uncomfortable .
So, despite the past few years, Ace Technology has been serving the whole country, and remote collaboration + online office has been practiced lightly. However, the situation has changed drastically, making it difficult for Ace Technology to get back on track. He Jing said that the biggest difference compared to this time in previous years is that in the previous years, we discussed where to go on the weekend, and now I think that the balance on the account can last for several months.
For the next strategic direction, He Jing said that she will “cherish cash, control costs, open source and reduce expenditure” and suspend some projects.
05
VFine Music: Keep company colleagues busy.
Different from the above-mentioned companies’ emphasis on offline, VFine Music, which is mainly engaged in music commercial licensing, corporate services and distribution, is mainly online, which makes VFine Music as vice president Chen Xin said “the short-term will not hurt Muscles and bones. ”
On the one hand, the impact of the epidemic on VFine’s productivity is still under control. Although there are many employees who live in the affected areas in Hubei, either they have given up the situation in advance and abandoned the plan to go home, or they insist on staying at home. One of the designers based in Beijing also told us that his work was largely unaffected.
In Chen Xin ’s opinion, the biggest problem with cloud office is that it is unable to communicate face to face, which affects the granularity of work. Although there have been frequent collaborations among colleagues before, this is the first time that large-scale cloud office has optimized the reporting mechanism and communication methods as much as possible, plus the cooperation of online collaboration tools.
On the other hand, the outbreak caused VFine’s online business to grow instead.
Similarly, in the economic downturn, lipstick sales in the United States will rise instead. Holidays where people across the country can only spend time with entertainment content, the demand for institutional customers such as MCN and advertising creatives has clearly increased.
So, despite the loss of public broadcast customers (customers with all music playing needs in public venues) and the cancellation of offline performances, VFine is actually a lot busier than the same period in previous years. Chen Xin revealed that many businesses have been promoted since the beginning of the fifth year. In order to keep colleagues from working in vain, the company insisted that it resume work on February 3.
Compared to the wait-and-see attitude of other circuits, VFine obviously tries to turn passive into active. On the one hand, we will strengthen the expansion of customers whose main business is online content such as short videos and advertisements;, To offline live performance online in the form of online live, live broadcast and so on. In response, Chen Xin pointed out
“People are social animals, and interaction is inevitable. You cannot meet offline, and there will definitely be new additions based on the status quo online.”
06
HIFIVE: the market will inevitably be affected in the medium and long term
HIFIVE, which also specializes in music video copyright management, music production, and live performance, has a relatively small direct impact on the epidemic. Its co-founder & CEO Zhou Qian said that some of the businesses that had been negotiated before would change due to the impact of the environment, but most of them are still advancing.
It is understood that HIFIVE has two teams based in Chengdu and Beijing respectively, so it has always had experience in online collaborative office. Therefore, after the epidemic broke out, HIFIVE not only settled the work basically without being affected much, but also quickly implemented a series of protective measures to meet the protection needs of employees after resumption of work.
Such as ample masks and alcohol reserves, as well as time-sharing meals, door temperature monitoring, and return journey tracking. According to Zhou Qian, HIFIVE has a high rate of return to work. Although there are very few employees working from home, HIFIVE’s current work efficiency has not been affected by the epidemic due to the departmental meetings in advance during the holidays and the implementation of their respective work arrangements.
During the long vacation, the surge in online content demand has also driven HIFIVE’s performance from a certain angle. For example, positive energy music has seen a significant market growth. In response, HIFIVE will increase its Customer Expansion.
But Zhou Qian also pointed out that although it has not yet been directly affected, the music copyright market will inevitably be affected in the medium and long term.
She believes that the impact of various industries is also reflected in the most direct revenue level, which will be transmitted to the music copyright industry through budget cuts and other methods. For example, HIFIVE has clearly slowed down the expansion of hotel customers, and has instead focused on industries less affected by the epidemic.
07
Last
In fact, we also interviewed Hou Yisen, CEO of Qinghefang Wine. Compared with the Internet-related industries, it can also rely on accumulated technical, R & D, and product advantages to adjust its strategic direction in a timely manner to adapt to changes. The strong dependence of the beverage industry on consumer scenarios such as parties has made Qinghefang a “open bow” “No turning arrow” situation.
In addition to flexible office work and insisting on the laying of online channels, Hou Yisen is also in a “suffering” state. But despite this, Hou Yisen’s optimism left an impression on us, and also encouraged many entrepreneurs by his words:
“This situation is irresistible by manpower. There is no way to adjust your mindset and enjoy yourself. You can hope as long as you persist!”