What is the slogan that profit is king?

In 2000, the color TV industry in China was hit hard.

Wang Baojun

In 2000, the color TV industry in China was hit hard. The CEO of a color TV company concluded: the continuous heavy rain of the price war ruined the performance of the color TV industry this year. The voice did not fall, and the bad news followed. On June 3rd, 65438, Xoceco made a loss in advance, followed by the news that the color TV industry lost money for the first time, which made the color TV market, which should be booming every year, become cold.

The flood of price reduction flooded domestic color TV sets, but foreign color TV sets flooded for several years surfaced, and their market share increased from about 65,438+00% in the past to more than 30% in 2000.

Hollow giant

Playback 10 color TV war, the price war has changed from the initial helpless strategy to the routine of color TV industry. Since 1996, there have been eight famous price reduction actions, and there are countless other price reduction actions in Mao Mao. After the last madness was staged last year, the books of color TV companies were all red. Director Zhang Qi of the Ministry of Information Industry revealed that the price war loss data was 654.38+047 billion yuan; The boss of a color TV company said that at least 20 billion yuan is still a conservative estimate.

Three months later, the price war made China's color TV industry pass by the core technology, and the R&D funds of color TV enterprises were seriously lacking and the innovation was weak, which made them become the hollow giants today. In the analog era, there is not much technical gap between us and foreign brands, but when the digital era comes, China enterprises busy with price wars can only carry out some conceptual wars, but they can't come up with real things; Blindly pursuing single economies of scale and simply expanding market share, product profits are declining year by year, and innovative research and development has become a "cook without rice", so we have to repeat "yesterday's story" and continue to spend huge sums of money to buy the core technologies of multinational companies. As early as in 1997, Dr. Wang Xiaoqiang from the Economic Research Institute of the State Council Development Research Center issued an early warning of "Where has the capacity of 30 million color TVs gone?" in view of the huge analog technology capacity of China color TV industry. Regrettably, the cries of scholars were drowned in the price reduction frenzy in the color TV market, and no one cared.

Li Dongsheng said that if the initial price war consolidated the market share of domestic color TV sets, and played a role of "securing the inside before the outside", then the price war in the late 1990s became "a wrong price war launched at the wrong time and place".

After the last madness, the color TV industry was collectively silent at the end of the year. The ship finally capsized, and the whole industry fell into the abyss of loss from the era of meager profit. Zhang Qi's prediction unfortunately said: "Everyone becomes a porter, works hard to produce them, and finally even sells them at a price lower than the cost price. Free handling, to go at a loss ... "

However, Wu, the boss of Lehua, said in an interview: "We are fighting a bloody battle. If it doesn't fall, it won't sell. There are always people in this industry who are taking the lead in reducing prices. "

It took 28 billion yuan from the country, returned 450 billion yuan to the country, and provided more than 200,000 jobs, making China the largest color TV country in the world, which is a real contribution (Zhang Qiyu). However, the annual production capacity of 87 color TV enterprises is 50 million sets, the actual annual production and sales volume is about 35 million sets, and the annual export does not exceed10 million sets. "A multinational company can buy all the color TV enterprises in China with $20 billion. "(Xoceco CEO Guo.

We have to admit that we have devoted too much national feelings to the color TV industry, and our glory has passed away. The cruel reality makes the giants of China color TV industry begin to put their profits on the table.

Zhang Qi's criticism of the current situation of color TV industry is as follows: First, the technology is weak, the R&D ability is not strong, and the investment in R&D funds is seriously insufficient; Second, core technologies, especially some chips and key components, still rely on foreign countries, and their independent innovation ability is not strong. This year, the spot check results of color TV price reduction market organized by the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision also confirmed Zhang Qi's description. The overall technical content of price reduction color TV is low, and there are few additional functions. Some color TV sets with reduced prices were even designed ten years ago, and 50% of them are single-chip computers with relatively backward technical level. The mystery of these "problem color TVs" has not been unveiled so far.

Zhou Qiren, a famous economist, once said: "The mistakes that China government and enterprises often make are common sense mistakes." For various reasons, we have thought of many things, but we can't always do so.

China's color TV industry now needs a sense of urgency and rational action. Liang Yugu, an associate professor at the School of Business and Technology of Renmin University of China, said in an interview that the external troubles of the color TV industry in China are more serious than the internal troubles. With the imminent accession to the WTO, the competition to take off the emperor's new clothes will be naked.

Foreign brands: stronger wolves

Just when the price war in the domestic color TV industry was in full swing, foreign-funded color TVs that had already taken root in the domestic market took advantage of it and gained a lot. The market share rebounded to over 30%, and the sales volume was about 50%. In the past few years, foreign brands have quietly completed the localization in China market: technology research and development and transfer, localization talent strategy, localization market network construction, and completed localization production. Last year, foreign-funded color TVs that were "acclimatized" turned into stronger wolves and began to fight back in an all-round way.

The price sword that we once regarded as a "patent" is no longer an exclusive secret. In July and August this year, when the domestic color TV industry was diving and bungee jumping, many foreign color TVs also joined in, conveying the same meaning: I am not afraid of price wars.

With the internationalization of China market, competition has become an international local market. Japan's Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Hitachi and Sanyo have their roots in Shanghai, Jinan, Dalian, Nanjing, Fuzhou and Shenzhen, South Korea's LG and Samsung have their roots in Shenyang and Tianjin, and Philips has settled in Suzhou. After years of hard work in China, multinational companies have become Buddhists.

First of all, the control of the core technology has formed the advantage of leading technology; Secondly, advanced scientific management, strict and standardized system and cheap domestic labor force make its production cost strictly controlled; Thirdly, the western humanistic culture absorbed the essence of China culture, combined with capital advantages, attracted a large number of localized talents. Through the organic integration of Chinese and Western cultures, multinational companies formed their own core competitiveness.

When we shouted "standardize the market and clean up the door" again and again, foreign color TV sets were doing their duty as businessmen to "make the biggest profit". In the first two months of this year, Shanghai Sony achieved its annual profit target. Liu Zhongxin, manager of TCL Guangzhou, said: "In the Guangzhou market, TCL's sales volume has always been the first, about twice that of Sony, but in terms of sales volume, we only occasionally surpass Sony." This made Li Dongsheng feel very painful. "The source of an enterprise's ultimate profit is sales, not sales."

Like Sony, Philips adjusted its "leadership team" again this year and recalled Zhang Yaping, the former general manager of Philips VCD in China. As soon as he took office, Zhang Zhongmou led the team to hold exhibitions of new products such as Philips color TV in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. Not long ago, Toshiba also convened hundreds of dealers in Beijing to showcase its new products. Even Sharp, who has been silent for many years, made a comeback with LCD TV sets and made a "high-tech" sign. When Sony first introduced the "Guixiang" flat-panel color TV, the price of this 29-inch flat-panel color TV once exceeded 1.2 million yuan. Insiders say Sony still has a high profit when it drops to 6000 yuan. Tian of the Home Appliances Department of Sony China Co., Ltd. said: "In the future, Sony will no longer compete with China brands in low-end products. Our development direction will be high-value-added high-tech products and more competitive in price."

Guiding the market with high technology is the market competition strategy of foreign color TV sets. Using the advantages of new technology, China color TV industry can only follow the "Handan toddler". Therefore, when we get the "imported" flat-panel color TV, the price of foreign color TV will be greatly reduced, forcing you to lower the price. When domestic enterprises reduced the price of 29-inch flat-panel color TVs to 4,980 yuan on 1999, foreign color TVs had a big release, and the price dropped to 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. Foreign color TV sets selling flat color picture tubes alone earn much more than China enterprises selling complete sets. If you lower the price, I will use despicable means to "knock off your soup pot". The bully is that you don't have the production technology of flat color tubes. Market analysts pointed out that one of the black hands behind the price reduction of domestic color TVs is foreign color TVs.

Innovation is the sword, and profit is king.

It's not that I don't understand The world is changing rapidly. When we have the largest color TV production scale in the world, the global economy has changed direction. Everyone began to pursue the ultra-high monopoly profit of "speed economy".

Guo's theory of $20 billion acquisition of China color TV enterprises is not groundless, but the bigger crisis is our lack of innovation ability. Fu Ju, deputy general manager of Gome Electrical Appliances Company, said: "We know that competition is a means to standardize the market and optimize the allocation of resources, but imitative competition and creative competition; Homogenization and specialized competition are worlds apart. In this regard, some foreign brands have given us a good demonstration. " Encouraged by a blind national sentiment, we achieved the first place in the world in scale, but there was no profit. Without the bounden duty of businessmen, how can we "take the revitalization of national industries as our own responsibility"? How can you "dance with wolves" without profit? How can we change the unprofitable situation of "love outside the core" Without profit, how can we fulfill the promise of "who rises, who is the sun" in the new century?

I hope the home appliance industry can leave the madness to the past and let the rational light illuminate the new century of home appliances in China.

265438+20th Century Business Herald 200 1 65438+ 10/0/5.