Creative shelf slogan

Source/bento finance (ID: daxiong fan)

The three squirrels who fought very hard handed over the worst report card since they went public. On August 20th, the semi-annual report of Three Squirrels showed that the company's net profit decreased by 29.5 1% year-on-year, and the operating cost of main business increased by 69.73% year-on-year. While achieving a revenue of 5.2 billion yuan, the net profit of this Internet snack company is only 65.438+0.8 billion yuan.

In Wuhu, the three squirrels are one of the most competitive enterprises: after 20 17, the lights of the headquarters building of the three squirrels never went out before 22:00 at night.

"No one dares to leave on time at 18:00."

An internal employee carefully told bento finance that after the CEO of three squirrels and their father Zhang Liaoyuan flew into a rage on 20 17, the "little squirrels" quickly learned new survival skills: really working overtime or pretending to work overtime until after work.

Within the three squirrels, all employees are collectively referred to as "Little Squirrel", and the boss Zhang Liaoyuan is respectfully called "Squirrel Dad", which is a squirrel empire under the "rule" of Dad: Dad is not only a respectful name, but also the only criterion for "seeing".

The personal fable, Zhang Liaoyuan, is based on the miracle of three squirrels starting from 20 12. This internet food company, which rose in Wuhu residential building, ranked first in the sales of the Double Eleven e-commerce platform for seven consecutive years. 2065438+July 2009 12, three squirrels were successfully listed, becoming the first snack in e-commerce.

The old squirrels who followed Zhang Liaoyuan in the early days became the main force of the "God-making Movement" in the company. They will tell the newcomer's father the extraordinary thing: give up the million-year salary to start a business, and start a business not to make money but to create opportunities for young people. After shaving their heads, they will lead the team to smash the store the next day, from middle school students to the richest man in Anhui. ...

But do these old squirrels really know dad? Perhaps the years have caused them to have memory errors? For example, Zhang Liaoyuan is not a secondary school student but a secondary school student. He shaved his head before smashing the shop.

But this does not prevent the deification of Zhang Liaoyuan. Almost all squirrels can tell the story of their father's entrepreneurship. Newly hired squirrels must learn "the spirit of their father", which is some "philosophy" of Zhang Liaoyuan summarized by three squirrels, and there are many shadows of Ali.

"Every little squirrel knows that his father worships Ma Yun." Inside the three squirrels, the flower names of employees are composed of "mouse+nickname". Much like Ali, the three squirrels also adopted the model of commander+political commissar. A story that is regarded as a "compulsory course" among three squirrels is that in 2009, the 33-year-old squirrel father Zhang Liaoyuan went to Hangzhou to attend the celebration of Alibaba 10 anniversary. Ma Yun's speech made Papa Squirrel awake and ambitious.

"But now the three squirrels are nothing like Ali." Bao Xiao (a pseudonym), a "mouse" who once worked for three squirrels and has now left his post, said, "The wishes of the elderly have not been implemented at the grassroots level."

An old squirrel recalled an old story: On the Father's Day of 20 19, three squirrel employees had screened "Nickname+Happy Father's Day to Grandpa Squirrel" in the nail group. It was the "political commissar" department within the three squirrels that launched this movement. "Do you think Ali's political commissar would do such a thing?"

"Rat Prime Minister" is a joke played by the employees of three squirrels, which is often used to describe the middle and high-level people who pursue "formalism" inside three squirrels. Since Zhang Liaoyuan discovered that no one was at the workstation around 20 17 18:00, overtime exercise has become a new policy of the prime ministers.

"The outside world doesn't know that some departments of the three squirrels will specially arrange the meeting after 18:00 in the evening." However, an employee who did not want to be named revealed that Zhang Liaoyuan, the squirrel's father, was losing his understanding of the company's grassroots. "There are many things that Mr. Zhang didn't mean, but the following changes have taken place in the implementation."

For example, during the epidemic, the product department of three squirrels set up a "volcano commando" to keep working through online office. What Zhang Liaoyuan didn't even know was that the families of these employees were pulled into several WeChat groups by the "political commissar" of relevant departments. Every day, these family members are responsible for sending photos of employees working online to the group to punch in.

"Before going public, Dad always had a direct dialogue with front-line employees. At an earlier time, every employee could always find Mr. Zhang to express his thoughts and feelings, but today's squirrel father is moving away from the little squirrel. " Since moving into the Three Squirrels Building in Jiang Ge District, Wuhu City, Zhang Liaoyuan has gradually been keen to close the factory.

The office is Zhang Liaoyuan's first secluded place. Sometimes he would stare at the calligraphy in the office and meditate: "Long tassel in hand, smile at the grave, grass is king."

There is a whole row of bookshelves in Zhang Liaoyuan's office. All the new products launched by the three squirrels will be delivered here in the first time. Sometimes this squirrel father will shut himself in the office and stare blankly with a pack of snacks in his hand.

During meditation, his mobile phone will go into silent mode. Subordinates who are familiar with Zhang Liaoyuan seldom disturb him suddenly at this time. "Dad is thinking about a big event."

When Zhang Liaoyuan thinks he has gained something, he will stand up and walk out of the office quickly. At this time, his eyes are bright, and any employee can easily be infected when he sees him. He has a premonition of winning. "This means that dad has come up with a new art of war. "An old squirrel recalled.

Home is Zhang Liaoyuan's second treasure of "closing the country". Zhang Liaoyuan is a heavy smoker. He can even smoke one cigarette after another during meditation, smoking and drinking tea. "Heavy smoke, red wine and strong tea" are the three treasures of Zhang Liaoyuan's seclusion. He eats very little and is not a snack lover. Even the most popular snack recommended by employees, he only takes a few bites.

After the listing of 20 19, Zhang Liaoyuan closed his eyes and meditated many times. He found three bottlenecks encountered by the three squirrels: the cost pressure brought by the e-commerce platform, the weak offline layout and the slow process of product diversification. A person familiar with the three squirrel executives said that Zhang Liaoyuan said in a private chat that "I am not willing to cooperate with the e-commerce platform at present."

"The three squirrels are completely tied together by JD.COM and Tmall." A securities analyst in the food industry told Bento Finance that JD.COM and Tmall were the biggest sales channels for the three squirrels. The sales of the two companies together account for more than 80% of the total sales of the three squirrels.

But this is by no means a free lunch. Based on e-commerce, the three squirrels not only have to pay the platform service fee, but also bear some logistics costs. With the increase of e-commerce traffic cost, platform service fee and logistics cost, the cost pressure of the three squirrels has increased sharply.

In the first half of 20 19, the service fee of the e-commerce platform for the three squirrels accounted for 18.9% of the sales expenses, which became one of the biggest cost items for the three squirrels. By the first half of 2020, this proportion has risen to 39.8%.

The high platform service fee directly eroded the profits of the three squirrels. For snack enterprises, the net profit rate of sales is an important financial indicator. Xi Shi Candy Company is an enterprise owned by Buffett for more than 40 years. One of the reasons that attracted the stock god in that year was that the net profit rate of Xi Shi Candy could reach 6.63%( 1972).

By studying Xishi Candy Company, Buffett found that controlling expenses is the key for snack enterprises to obtain high net profit rate. However, since 20 17, the sales net profit of the three squirrels has decreased continuously: 5.44%(20 17), 4.34%(20 18) and 2.35%(20 19).

In order to reverse this situation, Zhang Liaoyuan proposed two solutions: expanding the number of offline physical stores and self-built logistics. In April 2020, Anhui Hamster Logistics Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 50 million yuan.

But this self-built logistics model is not optimistic. Zhu, a food industry analyst in China, told Bento Finance that this was "losing watermelon and picking up sesame seeds". In Zhu Pengdan's view, "Although the three squirrels have a mass of 654.38+0 billion yuan, such a mass is nothing to the platform."

In terms of expanding offline, squirrel dad also found himself "late". At present, Liangpin Store, the biggest competitor of Three Squirrels, has more than 265,438+000 offline stores, while the number of stores in  in 2065,438+08 has reached 2,500.

However, as of the first half of 2020, the number of offline stores owned by the three squirrels is 6 17, of which the number of directly operated stores of the three squirrels is only 139, and the rest are franchise stores in franchise mode.

Acnielsen's research shows that with the gradual disappearance of e-commerce dividends, the opportunities in China's snack market have shifted from online to offline. With the upgrading of logistics and supply chain system, the food price of stores can be the same as that of online stores, and the experience, cultural added value and diversified services provided by stores are incomparable to online stores.

"Channel is king, and this sentence is also true in the snack industry." A person who has worked in the snack industry for more than 20 years said that entertainment value is the real opportunity for snack shops now. "The living museum model and the experience hall model are opportunities for these stores, and the stores themselves are also an important part of online logistics."

Zhang Liaoyuan is not unaware of the value of offline stores. In the public interviews in 20 19 and 2020, he put forward the plan of Wanjiamen Store. In the first half of 2020, three squirrels opened 38 new restaurants, with a growth rate of 37.6%; There were 209 new franchisees, with an increase of 77.6%.

However, troubles followed. Because the scale effect has not yet formed and the supply chain system is still evolving, the sales revenue of all offline stores of the three squirrels currently accounts for only 8.89% of the total revenue.

In fact, as early as 20 16, Zhang Liaoyuan began to try the offline store model, but unlike the pioneering work in 20 12, the three squirrels facing the offline transformation already had bloated bodies, which eventually led to a slow transformation.

Squirrel father is loved by almost all the little squirrels, including those who have left.

"Dad will not look down on people with low academic qualifications, and even the most ordinary employees can hear his encouragement." A little squirrel who has left his job thinks Zhang Liaoyuan is full of charm. This is an energy that can even be called magic, especially for those young people aged 18 ~22-this is the common age of three squirrels.

"20 12 Zhang Liaoyuan can make people fight for it." An old squirrel who has left three squirrels thinks that Zhang Liaoyuan has changed. In 20 12, 36-year-old Zhang Liaoyuan became more grounded. He will eat at the same table as the founding team members. He will drink and chat in front of children aged 65,438+08, and then plant the seeds of success in everyone's heart with an extraordinary heroism.

At this time, Grandpa Squirrel even led a team to participate in the war. 20 12 Three Squirrels During the First Double Eleven War, Zhang Liaoyuan and his team took stock, wrote express orders, served as customer service and moved goods.

At this time, the future Three Squirrels Company will not have so many "red slogans full of slogans". "Zhang Liaoyuan's example is the best slogan."

Some people still remember the firecrackers at the inauguration ceremony of the Three Squirrels Building in February 20 14. "This seems to tell everyone that an era is over. It seems that after moving here, some tastes have gradually changed. " An old squirrel who finally chose to leave on 20 16 missed the three squirrels before 20 14, but he still insisted that he hated others rather than the squirrel father.

After the headquarters building was completed, Zhang Liaoyuan didn't often stay in the headquarters building. He often meets with investors and the media. From March 20 14 to September 20 15, three squirrels completed three rounds of new financing with a valuation of 4 billion yuan. With the squirrel's father getting busier and busier, new employees will not "move the express box" with his father like the early old squirrel.

What follows is the change of organizational operation mode. Squirrel dad began to decentralize, and he focused on the company's marketing, brand and core values. For the supply chain management that he thinks he is not good at, Zhang Liaoyuan chooses to trust others.

"This is the root of all the problems of the three squirrels in the future." A retired old squirrel, who did not want to be named, said that during the period of 20 15~20 17, the "clean flow" department within the three squirrels company began to become more and more important.

What a three squirrels once announced is quite representative: an old squirrel who joined the company in 20 13 was fired in 20 17 because he took a kickback of 45,000 yuan from the company's factory renovation. On 201July 20 12, Zhang Liaoyuan led a team to smash the store with three squirrels. "The decoration of the store is extremely poor, which is completely out of dad's expectation. If someone hadn't tipped him off, dad might still be in the dark. "

Previously, Zhang Liaoyuan had repeatedly stated in the company that he wanted to unify the decoration style of the store and maintain the high quality of the three squirrel stores. The store that was smashed by the squirrel's father is actually the third offline food store opened by three squirrels.

"In 20 16, the whole company knew dad's expectation and concern for this store, but it happened when the third store just opened."

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Industry analyst Song Qi (pseudonym) visited the foundries of several snack brands. According to him, foundries living around e-commerce snack brands often have the behavior of "reporting complaints with morality". "This is not a case of one or two brands, but a general situation. The order volume of e-commerce brands is often half a year or even a year for a small factory. These factories all want to fight for such opportunities. "

"Torre's vision and ability are extremely high, but his energy is limited. If product research and development, stores and diversified businesses are completed by countless Zhang Liaoyuan members, three squirrels will no longer be the current pattern. Unfortunately, we only have one squirrel father. " Xiao Ni, a mouse, left her job before the epidemic, and she participated in the product development process.

She remembers an interesting story vividly. When Zhang Liaoyuan began to pay great attention to product research and development, the team brought a new product consisting of "nuts and pumpkin seeds", and the reason for adding pumpkin seeds was because of its "healthy value". At that time, the team members were very proud of this idea and thought it was the main selling point of medical care. But this product was finally "killed" by squirrel daddy. The reason given is that "pumpkin seeds will make consumers feel that products are cheap."

But Zhang Liaoyuan could not devote himself to every aspect of the three squirrels. With the expansion of business, Zhang Liaoyuan can't even clearly understand the "grassroots dynamics" of the three squirrels. When he decided to go offline and diversify, the three squirrels were not as powerful as they were in 20 12 years: the high communication cost, the disunity of ideas in decentralized mode and the complicated supply chain system made it impossible to change them easily. ...

Various reasons have become the bottleneck of the transformation of the three squirrels. No one even thinks it's time to change. All the little squirrels are immersed in the aura of "the king of Internet sales". "It was an era of constant victory." An old squirrel said.

Hidden dangers have actually appeared. Taking the communication cost as an example, the intersection between the squirrel father and the grass-roots squirrel is gradually decreasing. There are not many opportunities for the grass-roots employees of the three squirrels to talk directly with Zhang Liaoyuan, and dad's mailbox is one of them.

Zhang Liaoyuan once said at the staff meeting that employees can send their suggestions and ideas to their father's mailbox without scruple. However, a letter from 20 19 changed this tacit understanding: a suggestion letter that weekend breaks should be changed to weekend breaks was labeled as "violating core values". After this incident, many squirrels who originally wanted to write to their father were watching.

Zhang Liaoyuan doesn't want to change. For example, after 20 18 closed-door thinking, he adjusted the core values of the three squirrels. The core values are the important "philosophy" inside the three squirrels. Every once in a while, three squirrels update their core values. The latest version is the "new values" put forward by Zhang Liaoyuan in 20 18 and implemented in 20 19.

The biggest change is the introduction of the 36 1 performance model: within one year, 30% people were promoted, 60% people could get a salary increase but were not promoted, and 10% people were eliminated. Zhang Liaoyuan even carried out the largest power division since its establishment, and the business units of the three squirrels were refined from 20 1 1 in 8 years to more than 20. And the general manager of each business department reports directly to the squirrel father.

"In order to decentralize management, we split the business department into smaller parts. We used to put too much responsibility on a person with limited ability. " Zhang Liaoyuan said in an interview on 20 18. After the reform, the three squirrels will become more flat, and there will be no more cases where one person concurrently holds multiple departments. Zhang Liaoyuan tried to strengthen the company's leading position through such changes. "Recreate three squirrels with strong execution and high efficiency."

In fact, this change of squirrel father is inseparable from the change of the big environment. With the rising cost of e-commerce platform, offline stores have become an indispensable new market for three squirrels. Besides nuts, the three squirrels also seek more diversified development paths.

However, the rapid rise of competitors such as good shops, herbs, and Laiyifen put the three squirrels under great pressure. In 20 17, the total online sales volume of Baicaowei and Liangpin shops was equivalent to that of three squirrels, which was unimaginable before 20 15.

Facing the pressure, Zhang Liaoyuan had an idea: he longed for a vigorous expansion and made great achievements in one battle after another.

Squirrel daddy Zhang Liaoyuan is no stranger to Qing Dynasty tycoon Hu Xueyan.

In Jixi, Anhui, their birthplaces are adjacent. On July 20 19, after three squirrels went public on July 2/kloc-0, Zhang Liaoyuan became the richest man in Anhui, and this throne was held by his hometown Hu Xueyan 60 years ago.

Both of them graduated from "Social University". After graduating from technical secondary school at the age of 65,438+09, Zhang Liaoyuan moved to the street to drive motorcycles and resell VCDs. At the age of 65,438+03, Hu Xueyan left his hometown and began to make a living in Jinhua Ham Store and miscellaneous grains store.

Both Zhang and Hu are fans of Mencius. Zhang Liaoyuan took Mencius' famous saying, "Therefore, heaven will demote to a great post, and people will be determined by it first ..." as his motto, while Hu Xueyan made a plaque with the word "benevolence" in Mencius and hung it on Hu Qingyu's gatehouse.

These two Jixi people are also full of gambling and pursue scale expansionism. In the five years from 2020 to 2025, Zhang Liaoyuan plans to increase 750 three squirrel feeding shops and 9000 squirrel shops; In the most famous gambling in Hu Xueyan, he hoarded more than 1 1000 packages of raw silk for more than 5.7 million taels of silver in six months, and quickly occupied 17.5% of the raw silk market. ...

In addition to the expansion of the store, the three squirrels also planned a larger territory for themselves, covering the new three squirrel empires of kimchi, baby food, pet food and gifts. On April 2, 2020, three squirrels established four wholly-owned subsidiaries in one breath. However, this diversified gameplay is being questioned by insiders.

"Many companies are eager to diversify, but they don't have the ability to diversify. I am not optimistic about the diversity of the three squirrels. " Zhu said to me.

Yuri, an analyst specializing in the pet products industry, believes that it is not a good idea for three squirrels to enter the pet products market. "Pet products seem to have a low threshold, but this is only the level of competition for low-priced products. At this level, there are already too many brands in the market to compete, and it is difficult for three squirrels to win opportunities in this red sea. "

In the high-end market, the OEM+OEM mode of three squirrels is not mainstream. With the improvement of consumers' quality requirements in the market, "those pet products companies with years of research and development strength have formed a brand effect."

But father squirrel is confident in diversity. A little squirrel revealed that in the internal meeting, Zhang Liaoyuan was very optimistic about the pet market, and even thought that the pet market and the store business of the three squirrels could be organically connected.

"Kimchi, baby food, pet products and gifts are actually part of the store strategy. "Liu Bin (pseudonym), an analyst who has been tracking and observing three squirrels for many years, specially visited the shops of good products, Laiyifen and three squirrels after the epidemic.

"Snacks alone cannot support the profitability of the store. Diversification and sceneries are the basic logic of the development of snack shops. Zhang Liaoyuan's thinking is actually very clear. He hopes to activate three squirrels with the strategy of offline expansion. "

In the eyes of the industry, the offline expansion logic of the three squirrels may be based on the scene service: people are attracted to the store by cultural and entertainment projects, and the longer they stay in the store, the greater the chance of buying snacks and supplies. Babies, pets and other industries can increase the cultural connotation of the three squirrels themselves, and even provide more scene services based on this. "But such a project needs more efforts in the early stage."

There won't be much time left for squirrel father Zhang Liaoyuan. With the further increase of the cost of e-commerce platform, if there is no greater business increment, the profits of the three squirrels will be eaten up one day. In the layout of offline stores, good shops and Iraqi shops with first-Mover advantage occupy favorable positions in many cities.

But what worries Grandpa Squirrel most is actually the expansion cost: in the process of store expansion in the first half of 2020, the company's management expenses increased by 56.05%, and the financial report shows that the accounts payable of the three squirrels still exceeded 600 million yuan in the first half of 2020.

With the expansion, the three squirrels are also expanding their recruitment. During the financial reporting period, the salary of employees jumped from 38.74 million yuan to 6 1.66 million yuan. At present, the problem that the squirrel father Zhang Liaoyuan faces is: How can three squirrels find another spring safely?

In 20 19 and 12, there were as many as 64 shareholding institutions of the three squirrels, but today there are only eight. Shareholders NICE GROWTH LIMITED and LT Growth Investment IX (HK) Limited both reduced their shares in July this year. ...

This time, what kind of squirrel art of war will grandpa squirrel brew after his retreat?