SEPPES Door Industry guest Su Chamber of Commerce Live Interview
Today in Suzhou, the old enterprises are in the head camp, and the new generation of enterprises is also emerging. How can the new generation of entrepreneurs compete to be the leading innovators when there are “top students” in the front and “new forces” in the back? On October 29th, “The Sound of Yu” focuses on Suzhou, the “strongest prefecture-level city”, and talks with Huang Jianyong, Chairman of Shengji Supply Chain Group and a student of the second phase of Our Way, and Yang Zhongchao, Chairman of SEPPES Door Industry (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. and Yang Zhongchao, Chairman of SEPPES Door Industry (Suzhou) Co.
The Origin of Suzhou
Q：Would you please briefly talk about the development history of your respective enterprises?
Zhongchao Yang: This is the 11th year of our business. At that time, there were no industrial special doors in China, and the market was basically monopolized by foreign brands. As a local enterprise, we used sincerity and quick response to slowly accumulate some customers. I always believe that things are in people, Chinese enterprises can compete with international brands. After all these years of growth, we have established a mid-to-high-end market position and developed towards branding. At present, we have more than 3,000 cooperative companies, including more than 60 of the world's top 500 enterprises, but also includes large state-owned enterprises, listed companies, and slowly opened up the popularity in the country. Then to catch up with the victory, more than three years ago began to enter the field of foreign trade, at present our products are exported to more than 50 countries and regions, the brand is also slowly recognized by the market. In a word, our mission is “to make global factories in and out of smarter”, and our vision is “SEPPES brand, serving the world”.
Jianyong Huang: Our company's main business is logistics, which started in 2000 in Suzhou, with logistics + supply chain as our advantage, and digital technology including digital logistics, intelligent logistics, software development as our main business. The long-term goal of the company is that it must grow at a rate of 20% per year, and we are currently maintaining and exceeding this value. After years of exploration, we found that logistics is the main in the supply chain, now many do procurement, collection, trade business involves logistics, but do not understand the operation, resulting in high supply chain costs. This requires logistics people to plan, we then really move these experiences to every detail, every node, every cost.
Q: Both of you are handsome young men who left your hometowns or some other large or medium-sized cities and ended up in Suzhou, can you tell us how you both got involved with Suzhou?
Yang Zhongchao: I was a soldier in the Armed Police Force in Beijing a long time ago. The year I retired from the army, I received a strange phone call from Suzhou to Beijing, and then I realized that I had made a mistake, the other party was a girl from the south who dialed the wrong number, and that attracted my attention. Later, we often communicate on the phone, and then fell in love, and finally got married and started a family. For this Suzhou girl, I gave up my career and life in Beijing and came to Suzhou. When I first came to Suzhou, it was quite bad for a while. The media environment in Suzhou was not as good as in Beijing, which made it difficult for me to start from scratch. Then by chance, I came into contact with the manufacturing industry and industrial special doors, and then I entered this industry.
Huang Jianyong: I started at the age of 17, the first station is in Shenzhen, Shenzhen was developing faster, we are not familiar with the place, a lot of pawns, ate a lot of losses, and then ran to the development of Shanghai, but the Shanghai logistics is more mature, it is not so easy to cut into, and then into the Kunshan very close to Shanghai. At that time, our first customer was the Unified Instant Noodles in Kunshan, and the cooperation with them laid the foundation for us to develop well in Suzhou, and then we moved our headquarters to Suzhou.
The 20th National Congress in My Eyes
Q: The successful conclusion of the 20th Party Congress has aroused a strong reaction among the majority of Suzhou businessmen. Our “Suzhou Chamber of Commerce” public number has also launched the “20th National Congress” feature, focusing on entrepreneurs' feelings and thoughts. What did Mr. Huang and Mr. Yang feel most after listening to the report of the 20th CPC National Congress? Can you share with us what inspired you the most in the report of the 20th National Congress?
Zhongchao Yang: The greatest feeling is the greatness of our motherland, as a superpower with a population of 1.4 billion and 56 nationalities, we have achieved great progress and development in the fields of science and technology, economy, system and culture through the unremitting efforts of several generations. In particular, the report of the 20th National Congress mentions that we have accomplished the strategic goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and put forward the new goal of building a socialist modernized power in all aspects, which makes me feel very excited, and makes me full of confidence in the country, full of faith in the development of the society, and at the same time, full of confidence in the future of my own enterprise, because with the country's backing, we only need to comply with the general trend of the country's development, be active, work hard, and innovate and develop. We only need to follow the trend of national development, be positive, work hard, innovate and develop, and then we will definitely be able to make a difference.
Huang Jianyong: On the day of the opening ceremony of the Twentieth National Congress, we listened to the whole report seriously and were deeply touched. In the report of the 20th Congress, General Secretary Xi cared about every aspect of the matter. General Secretary Xi said that the people are the most important thing, and to fight is to keep the people's heart. How the contents mentioned in the report can be transferred to our enterprise, we have had a discussion about it. For example, how to guard the hearts of employees? How to give the welfare of employees? Are we bosses or entrepreneurs? These question marks are played out, asked out after the heart has a new concept, a new positioning. Next we have to seriously study the spirit of the 20th National Congress and insist on more changes.
Q: Mr. Huang, the report of the Twentieth National Congress proposed to accelerate the construction of “transportation power”, “accelerate the development of the Internet of Things, build an efficient and smooth circulation system, and reduce logistics costs”. Modern logistics is an important content of “transportation power”, and Shengji also introduces the concept of “Internet of Things +”, and strives to build a community of destiny in the industry chain and ecosystem. Can Mr. Huang share with us how Shengji contributes to the industrial chain and ecosystem of the national manufacturing industry through the continuous improvement of the enterprise itself?
Huang Jianyong: We have experienced China's entrepreneurial dividend period, and this 20-year dividend period has also laid the foundation for the development of the enterprise. In the next 20 years, I think that the logistics supply chain is beginning to have a new height and competitive mechanism, it is the future of technology + ecosphere, will reduce costs and increase efficiency through the supply chain of digital logistics and intelligent logistics. In the future, we will continue to improve the power of science and technology to reduce costs.
How exactly will the company really last in the future? The service industry is cost-driven, and we need to have the ability to control all aspects of costs in a comprehensive manner. Our core is to help the manufacturing industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency, I believe that the future of logistics is logistics + manufacturing, they are common and interdependent. The future of the manufacturing industry is the main focus of R & D and production of the two blocks, other links can be completed through logistics and supply chain. Because the factory as long as seriously responsible for R & D and production, the rest can be handed over to professionals, so that the product instead of competitive. I think cost reduction is the supply chain and logistics system to do things, because they have sales channels, with the advantage of capturing the market, for the market front consumers, logistics people catch the fastest information. As long as we link up with factories and enterprises to share these data and establish cooperative relationships, then the management costs on the business side will go down, and we can increase revenue more.
Q: Mr. Yang, the report of the 20th National Congress proposes to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, enhance the endogenous power and reliability of domestic circulation, and improve the quality and level of international circulation. Xilang's products have been exported to more than 50 countries and regions. Now there is a saying that Made in China is slowly losing its comparative advantage, what do you think? What do you think? How do you think our enterprises should find the new advantages of Made in China?
Yang Zhongchao: I don't particularly recognize this statement. I've read some news before that some foreign companies are pulling out of China and going to Southeast Asian countries, and I think this is a phase. If the foreign capital really wide-scale departure, indicating that the environment of China's manufacturing industry may not be too suitable, but I happen to see some authoritative media, including the opening day of the twentieth session, Kunshan Municipal Party Secretary in an interview came up with some very accurate official data, indicating that the number of foreign investment in Kunshan into the number of annual increase, indicating that foreign enterprises still like China.
Secondly, China's manufacturing industry has advantages, foreign trade data is growing year by year, which also proves that China's manufacturing industry not only has advantages, but also has a lot of room for growth. The 20th report puts forward “accelerate the construction of manufacturing power”, I was very excited when I saw it, from the national level, China's manufacturing industry not only has the advantage, and is constantly developing, and in the future can even lead the world, and many excellent manufacturing enterprises in China already have some technology and products in the world's leading position.
Finally, the situation of our enterprise, so far, our enterprise's foreign trade revenue than last year's annual growth of more than 50%, from this micro-data can also be seen, our foreign trade has been growing, China's manufacturing is still very advantageous.
How to find new advantages in manufacturing? First of all, we can not be stuck in the old ways, the domestic manufacturing enterprises to work in technological innovation, management of intelligent and digital, product customization, but also to do branding, absolutely not engage in price wars, otherwise it will prevent the healthy development of enterprises.
Q: Mr. Huang, what can China's logistics do in the process of helping China's manufacturing to compete in the international market?
Huang Jianyong: Logistics in the manufacturing industry is very important, manufacturing and logistics have a lot of similarities. I think that the future of logistics must not be what we see now as such, in recent years, the entire logistics industry is in the change, innovation, innovation is change, all the links, including intelligent, unmanned, data, etc. are operating in large quantities, these will change the traditional logistics system, but also change the traditional manufacturing model.
How to realize benign growth
Q: Regarding the issue of intelligence, Shengji has been promoting intelligence in the field of logistics and warehousing for a long time, and the development concept of Xilang Door Industry is also “making intelligent factory more efficient”, so what do you two think is the real significance and value of “Intelligent Reform and Digital Conversion” for enterprises? What are the main challenges in the promotion process?
Yang Zhongchao: We have been paying attention to this area, and we are also making some attempts, but it is not perfect yet. What do we need to look at in “Smart Change Digital Conversion”? First, it depends on the stage of development of the enterprise, and secondly, it depends on the actual demand for the product. Undeniably, “wisdom to digital conversion” is the trend of the future, if the general direction of the country so go, then the industry and enterprises to really get the development, we must keep up with the situation, otherwise it will be eliminated by the times. The future direction is to do, but what stage to do, different enterprises have different implementation steps, in front of the major changes, we have to seriously think, to change, and gradually complete the smart change system.
Huang Jianyong: Intelligent and digitalization of these two pieces of our enterprises are involved, for their industries, I think the results are remarkable. For example, once the formation of unmanned technology, logistics costs will be greatly reduced, because human resources is the core of logistics costs; porters may also be replaced by machines, the cost of this piece will also be saved. Another example is warehouse management, if a warehouse all rely on automation, systematization to manage, then the cost will be greatly reduced, the competitiveness is also stronger than ordinary warehouse. So for the manufacturing and logistics industry, intelligence plays a big role.
What can digitalization bring us? It is actually cost reduction and efficiency. Digitization to save as the center, all the data are gathered together, aggregated into big data, and then turn it into a twin, to process, and ultimately become a real value, the value out of it can be realized, it can help reduce costs and increase efficiency, the core of the digitalization is here. Of course, after long-term accumulation, digitalization will also play a big role in production management and other aspects.
Q: In the past few years, what is the most difficult or painful thing you have encountered in the process of running a business? What are the biggest bottlenecks and obstacles you have encountered in business management?
Zhongchao Yang: For small enterprises, every family has its own problems, and different development periods may encounter different problems, but since we chose to start a business, we chose a road that has been solving problems. After 11 years of development, our enterprise is positioned in the middle and high-end, and toward the direction of branding, the next is the brand to go one step up, so many years we have been working hard, and hope that we can compete with the major international brands, which is a direction of our future development, so we have been constantly exploring and thinking.
Secondly, the core of an enterprise's development lies in talents, team and organization. For Xilang, we attach great importance to the construction of team rejuvenation, every year we will recruit a batch of new talents, such as the post-90s before, now the post-95s and even the post-00s, who have already entered into the enterprise, and some of them grow up very fast. But then there is a new problem, because of the age difference, the relationship between middle management and its team members in the style of doing things, values and other aspects of the existence of some differences, which leads to the development of the whole team has been affected by some of the problem, which is the current problem we encountered.
Huang Jianyong: I use one word to describe the change of “change”. There is a saying that “the only constant in the world is change.” Whether it's management, learning, leadership or work experience, it's all changing. We have to keep changing ourselves. How can we become better? I think about it every day. I think about the things we learn from various sources and the new developments that are happening in the company. What I'm thinking about is “change”, how to get it right, how to get it better, how to get it perfect, I'm thinking around the word “change”, and my company is brainstorming around the word “change”. I am thinking around the word “change”, and my company is also brainstorming around the word “change”.
Q: What do you think is worthwhile for young people to learn from or pass on to the older generation of entrepreneurs? Compared with the old generation entrepreneurs, what kind of comparative advantages do the young entrepreneurs of the new generation have?
Huang Jianyong: The spirit of hard work and simplicity of the old generation of entrepreneurs, as well as many of their fine traditions, are worth learning from the younger generation. The difference between the young generation and the old generation lies in the vigor and thoughts of the young people. The younger generation has a more comprehensive knowledge, for example, they play the script to kill, in order to open up the intellect, broaden the horizons, it is purposeful, while the older generation of entrepreneurs do not understand. The older generation will only do business, they may not be able to sing or dance, but the young people can come up with more than a dozen kinds of skills, which shows that the young people have a very strong learning ability, and the older generation has to learn from them in this regard.
Yang Zhongchao: I still position myself as a new force. I'll keep it simple and talk about the label, first of all, the old generation of entrepreneurs have some qualities, the first is practical, they have the spirit of practical; the second is focused, many well-known enterprises of the old-timers, a number of years as one day to focus on a field, an industry; the third is very wise, they are not very sound in the case of the market economy, and use their wisdom to achieve a pioneering victory; and the last key word is Dare to be first, many older entrepreneurs in Jiangsu engaged in an unprecedented business, but they dared to be first, and eventually realized the goal.
Besides, the qualities of the new forces, the first is down-to-earth, I contacted the younger generation of entrepreneurs are still more down-to-earth; the second is the courage to fight, our generation caught up with the good times, because there are a large number of old-timers have helped us to set the standards, set up benchmarks, there are role models in front of us, so we can only continue to move forward; and the last two key words are aspirations, aspirations.
Guests asked each other questions
Yang Zhongchao Q: As an entrepreneur, the company's daily affairs can be said to be very busy, so in your daily life, how do you balance the relationship between career and family?
Huang Jianyong A: My career and family are actually mixed. If you want to accomplish something, you have to make sacrifices. Your family, your personal hobbies may have to be sacrificed, and you only have one thing, which is your career. Especially in such a competitive market, where there is still room to think about other things. In my opinion, in order to do a good job, the leader of the enterprise must be their own dedication, their own dare to sacrifice, and play a role model.
But it's not that there is no family concept at all. My wife also serves in the company, and on weekdays during the double holidays, we will go out to eat together, travel, and sometimes organize family activities. I think that sacrifices must be made, give up must be made, but find opportunities to get together, the family's feelings together, which should also be there, just the question of more or less time.
Huang Jianyong Q: Because Mr. Yang is always in the manufacturing industry, I would like to ask you how do you see the future?
Yang Zhongchao A: There are a lot of uncertainties at the moment, before there was no such situation, we can do three-year planning, five-year planning and even ten-year planning, but if we are still thinking in this way, obviously it is not very effective. As an entrepreneur, if all of our development direction, all of the growth trajectory of the enterprise is completely in accordance with the first set to develop, then there are not so many ups and downs of the memory. So we have to embrace change, first of all, to accept change, and secondly, to find opportunities in change.
From a small direction, we have to see whether our business is running along a normal trajectory, which is the core of our business. When the unknown future is too unknown, as an enterprise navigator, first of all, we should be based on the present, and practice internal strength to improve the competitiveness of the enterprise's market; at the same time, we should go all out to continue to innovate, and meet the future challenges with a positive and sunny mindset, and make adjustments and responses according to the current situation, and believe that tomorrow will be better!
