The entrepreneurial story of Rural Foundation

Chongqing Entrepreneurship Goddess Li Hong

Chinese catering has a long history, but unfortunately it has not been able to give birth to world-class giants like KFC and McDonald's.

Although many companies have made bold claims to build "China's McDonald's and KFC", more of their ambitions have long since disappeared with the collapse of the companies: the red sorghum has been planted, and Adeya has been closed. , Ronghua Chicken was withdrawn, and Chinese fast food staged a tragedy of "one after another".

Now, another company has raised the banner of challenge.

On November 1, 2007, Ji Yue, vice president of Sequoia Capital China, and Gong Ting, head of Haina Asia Venture Capital, signed a contract with Chongqing Rural Fund and jointly invested US$20 million (approximately RMB 1.5 100 million), intends to build Countryside into the number one brand of Chinese fast food in China, and plans to package and list it overseas.

The two major venture capital firms do not participate in the daily operations of Rural Foundation. Their main job is to make the management of Rural Foundation more international, formalized, refined and large-scale, with the goal of becoming "China's McDonald's".

The miracle of rural base is not just that.

Rural Base is also the fast food brand with the highest market share in Chongqing, setting a record of the highest customer turnover rate in a single store and receiving more than 2,800 customers during peak hours. "We can open wherever KFC and McDonald's open." Only Rural Base has such confidence. During peak hours, the traffic volume far exceeds that of the two ocean brands.

At a time when the concept of chain franchising is very popular in Chongqing and hotpots are being opened all over the country, Rural Base has never engaged in franchising to make money, never borrowed money from banks, never advertised, and never engaged in publicity to become famous. It has been unknown for 11 years and has opened 46 restaurants, and has successfully entered Chengdu, Xi'an, Changsha, Guiyang, Kunming and other cities. Wal-Mart, Beijing Hualian, Carrefour, Chongbai, and New Century are vying to invite it to join the cooperation, and Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are competing for it. The right to supply comes at any cost.

Management “lock” in the process

In Countryside’s restaurant, each dish has a clear ingredient list, and the weight of the ingredients is all accurate to the gram. Only ingredients are allowed. There is a margin of error of 2. What the operators did was to strictly follow the standards and even use special graduated measuring cups and spoons to measure the condiments.

Because the purchase amount of each vegetable and condiment can produce how many dishes according to the standard, there are preset theoretical values. When taking inventory every day, you only need to compare the actual value with the theoretical value to know the standard. The level of operation is high or low.

In order to ensure the standards of raw materials, Village Foundation also attaches great importance to the selection of supplier networks. It usually adopts the form of bidding, publishes its own requirements and standards online, and then selects suppliers that meet the standards. They have established a strong distribution network with New Century and Chongbai.

At the same time, Rural Foundation also introduced a unified IT platform. With the support of the IT system and the "standards" of the information system, every raw material must be entered into the system when it is put into storage, and every sale is also processed through the system, ensuring accuracy and allowing management and management to Standardization has made it easier to move to a higher level, effectively eliminating the "run-off, leakage" phenomenon that catering companies are most worried about, and reducing the risk of opening a store.

In order to keep abreast of consumer feedback, Village Foundation has also set up an online forum for everyone to provide opinions, and there are also awards specially set up for providing opinions. In this way, all consumers are mobilized to become supervisors and improvers of the company's products and services, and such opinions will be fed back to the product R&D department and management department, forming a positive interaction.

Enterprises are actually about making culture

Even with the injection of venture capital, Li Hong is still cautiously optimistic about the development of rural infrastructure.

After introducing foreign capital, Li Hong’s first action was to repurchase the shares of the joint-venture restaurant, and decided to only operate direct operations in the future to further strengthen his control. In Li Hong’s own words, this is : "We must ensure that the rural foundation never changes!"

As for speed, Li Hong's first consideration is quality and control. Although capital has certain requirements for the enterprise, she still puts stability first. One person said that in the future plan of Rural Foundation, going out of Chongqing is only the first step, and the nationwide layout has become the focus of the future - "It is planned to open 15 restaurants in 2008, 20 in 2009, and 25 restaurants in 2010!" ”

In fact, she deeply understands the nature of fast food. Products are only the basis of competition, but they are definitely not the commanding heights of competition, because fast food is not a meal that simply satisfies people’s appetites. It is also a carrier that condenses corporate culture. Just like clothing, the cultural heritage carried by different brands leads to differences in market competition.

McDonald’s slogans of “I just like it” and KFC’s slogans of “With KFC, life tastes good” may sound a bit mysterious, but they project a comfortable and real feeling in the hearts of consumers. When people are tired from shopping, they go to McDonald's or KFC and sit there for a few minutes, because this is a place for leisure and enjoyment.

Competition based on a solid foundation is the fundamental step for rural areas. As for the definition of industry, Li Hong also has new thoughts: "The catering industry as I understand it should belong to the fashion industry! And the newly developed rural base has little accumulation in this aspect."

This It is Li Hong’s thinking and her exploration. In fact, in recent years, rural foundations have been making up for the shortcomings in this aspect.

The Village Foundation arranges the atmosphere of the restaurant according to different festivals, and there will be some changes in employee clothing, the contents of the plate paper will also be changed regularly, and communication with consumers will continue to be strengthened .

A father once recorded the experience of a rural girl on the Internet: "My 12-year-old daughter originally loved Western fast food such as McDonald's and KFC, but after I tasted CSC, she was attracted to the delicious food. The jokes and anecdotes on the plate are tempting. During the holidays, the greatest joy is going to CSC for the "Tooth Beating Festival". When I was 11 years old, the birthday party was held at CSC, and the culture of CSC penetrated into the children's hearts."

When people have feelings for each other, they become friends, so they care for each other; similarly, when the service industry establishes feelings with customers, there is "loyalty." Wal-Mart will set up an open space for children to play, and KFC will also make great efforts to build a children's paradise. The purpose is to enhance emotional communication with consumers, and Countryside is working hard to catch up.

If the brand is the corporate culture projected to the outside, then the organizational atmosphere of the company is the internal light of the brand. "If the atmosphere of a team is unhealthy and an employee is unhappy inside, how can he pass happiness to consumers?" This is how Li Hong understands the projection relationship of culture.

In fact, after 11 years of accumulation, Rural Foundation has continued to advance along this path.

In the interview, we saw that Village Base expressed the purpose of the company in this way: "Country Base aims to provide the most outstanding quick service restaurant experience, while also giving employees a caring sense of family belonging, so that all employees "People", "customers" and "organizational growth" are the three major strategies for China Rural Foundation to achieve its vision, and people are Rural Foundation's most important assets. Rural Foundation's products are delivered through people. To customers, so Village Base aspires to become a people-oriented enterprise.

At Rural Base, you can feel the charm of this humanistic culture at any time:

Rural Base is the catering company that uses the most migrant workers, 90% of whom are migrant workers, and provides employees with In order to obtain satisfactory treatment, for dishwashers alone, the monthly income will not be less than 1,200 yuan, and the company takes the initiative to apply for pension insurance without employees’ requirements. All employees pay the pension insurance entry cost according to regulations every month. What does this mean for the 90% of migrant workers who have never enjoyed the benefits of public ownership?

Even when making decisions such as introducing venture capital, Li Hong took the interests of employees into deeper consideration: "We did not take the initiative to find venture capital, but they convinced me. The most important reason is that we can Solving the worries of the management team through listing. "It is precisely because of the broadmindedness of the leader that he has led Rural Foundation through one dangerous shoal after another, and Li Hong also sees hope for the future from the enthusiasm of the employees.

“At the 10th anniversary celebration, I saw a joint dragon dance performance by four stores, and they simply used their break time to rehearse on the construction site, using old rice bags. As a prop. I was very moved after learning all this." This kind of passion and loyalty from the heart is the core of the sustainable development of an enterprise.

“A good company can be seen clearly at a glance.” The same is true for rural foundations.

Here, you can feel the power of this culture from every one of their employees, and their light has not only infected consumers, but also infected venture capitalists.

The heads of Sequoia Capital and Haina Capital went to Chongqing Village Fund for a meal and were moved by the sight of customers queuing up to eat. At that time, they looked for the person in charge of Village Fund, but could not find him. A few months later, the two parties got in touch by chance. Unexpectedly, the heads of the two major investors happened to be in Chongqing, so it was "love at first sight" between the two parties in just 6 months.

“Run away when things get tough”, this is the motto of Liu Chuanzhi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lenovo. This rule applies not only to established companies like Lenovo, but also to sharp and dynamic emerging companies like Countryside.

In Countryside, we not only hope to have the brilliance of Mengniu’s speed, but also hope to see a company that wants to be a century-old store.

Rural foundation, have a good journey!