How can enterprises survive for a long time?

Through the research and analysis of a large number of enterprises, the enduring enterprises generally have the following five characteristics: (1) a sense of winter; He is not only good at pulling a cart with his head down, but also looking up at the road; A sound or even slightly conservative financial structure; Have core competitiveness; Keep betting on the future.

1. It feels like winter

In the past 30 years, although enterprises in China are also facing various challenges, such as intensified market competition, policy adjustment and local financial crisis. Thanks to the rapid economic growth in China, the shift of manufacturing industry caused by economic globalization, and the fact that the global economy (especially the developed economies) has always maintained a high level of prosperity, China enterprises generally have a good life and have never experienced a real economic crisis. Compared with those European and American multinational companies that have survived many economic winters, our enterprises. Therefore, when this sudden crisis comes, most enterprises in China are not ready for the winter, and many enterprises even continue to look forward to making great strides. However, when these entrepreneurs continue to slam on the accelerator, the road ahead is already stormy. For these enterprises that have not prepared cotton-padded jackets and slowed down, this crisis is undoubtedly a disaster.

On the contrary, we can see that some enterprises with winter consciousness often have stronger viability and development ability. The key for these enterprises to survive many crises is to always have a sense of urgency and always prepare for the possible "winter".

Huawei, a telecom equipment provider founded in Shenzhen in the late 1980s, has achieved rapid growth in just 20 years with its unique wolf culture. Relying on its technology of pursuing Excellence, the R&D capabilities of many R&D centers around the world ensure that they will not lose in the face of international giants such as Cisco. In 2004, we cooperated with Siemens, reached a global procurement framework agreement with Vodafone in 2005, and then cooperated with famous telecom operators in the United States, Spain and the Netherlands. In 2007, Huawei became one of the three largest mobile networks in the world, trying to compete with the established network provider Ericsson. It is such a Huawei that looks smooth to outsiders. In fact, as early as 200 1, it already had a "winter consciousness". In March of 20001year, when Huawei's business was developing well, President Ren of Huawei published an article entitled "Winter of Huawei". In his letter, he didn't mention personal achievements, but "for ten years, I have been thinking about failure every day, turning a blind eye to success, having no sense of honor or pride, only a sense of crisis." So I lived for ten years. The day of failure is bound to come, and everyone should be prepared for failure. This is my unshakable view, and this is the historical law. In the letter, Ren made a request to Huawei employees. "Let's all think about how to survive together. Perhaps only in this way can we survive for a long time. " When Huawei's sales reached 22 billion yuan in fiscal year 2000, and its profit ranked first among the top 100 electronics companies in China with 2.9 billion yuan, it was obvious that Huawei had a strong sense of crisis when it talked about crisis and failure. Alibaba, a star enterprise that has attracted worldwide attention in recent years, has opened the door to wealth under the leadership of Ma Yun, a little "heterogeneous". In 2007, Hong Kong H-shares 165438+ 10 were successfully listed on October 6, and Alibaba's market value reached HK$199.6 billion, making it the first company in China's Internet industry with a market value of over US$ 20 billion. But at that time, Ma Yun said, "No matter how high the market value is, Alibaba is still a small company today. He is only 8 years old and still a child. " This small enterprise, which has escaped the cold winter brought by the disillusionment of Internet myth, is always so sensitive and one step ahead of the crisis. It is with this sense of crisis that Alibaba was able to avoid the last crisis, put forward the wintering theory first when this crisis came, and has already reserved enough "cash" food.

Similarly, Bill Gates has always stressed that "Microsoft is only 18 months away from bankruptcy", and Zhang Ruimin has been "walking on thin ice" for more than ten years. Liu Chuanzhi pointed out, "We have been establishing a mechanism to prevent our operators from taking naps. Take a nap and your opponent's chance will come. "

And the pride of the Chinese community-Mr. Li Ka-shing, who has always maintained the title of "Li China's richest man", obviously has a deeper understanding of this. This China business legend started his business on 1950. In the past 57 years, after two oil crises, the Cultural Revolution and the Asian financial turmoil, his enterprise has not gained a firm foothold, but has continued to grow and develop. At present, its business has spanned many industries and spread over 55 countries, and it has never been set up. When asked by the reporter of Business Week about the secret of his success, Li Ka-shing replied: "Think about how to deal with Typhoon 10 (representing the intensity of typhoon in Hong Kong, and 10 is equivalent to a strong typhoon) on a sunny day. Suppose you leave Hong Kong with an ocean-going ship driven by wind. Although the weather is fine, you still have to estimate what you will do if a typhoon strikes before the storm leaves. In the face of possible bad situations, I will continue to study the possible problems of each project, so I often spend 90% of my time thinking about failure. " Obviously, Li Ka-shing attributed his 57-year unbeaten performance to his risk awareness and cold winter.

From these vivid examples, we can easily find that these omnipotent industry darumas all have a profound sense of crisis, which is in line with an old saying of China, "Born in sorrow, died in happiness". Obviously, whether yesterday or today, or even in the future, only enterprises with a sense of winter can live a long and wonderful life.

He is not only good at pulling with his head down, but also looking up at the road.

Enterprises that can survive the cold winter must have solid internal strength, which not only comes from beautiful market sales figures, but also comes from the strategic system and corresponding strategic organizational framework that can lead the long-term development of enterprises. A careful observation of the enterprises in China, which are deeply mired in this crisis, reveals that the good market economy environment makes most enterprises in China only know how to grab the speed, occupy the market and diversify their operations, but forget to look up at the road when pulling carts. I don't know the direction of the cart, and the result is either spinning in the same place or hitting the south wall.

As Ali Deheis, the author of Longevity Company and a famous economic management scientist, mentioned, "Longevity Company, which has experienced countless winters, seems to always open its tentacles and calmly face everything that will happen in the future after experiencing the baptism of war, economic depression, technological and political changes. In short, they are good at learning and adapting to the environment. They are very sensitive to the environment, can keep pace with the times, pay attention to changes, adapt to the market and adapt to external needs. "

Swarovski's agent has long realized that the European and American markets are saturated, so he went to explore the Arab market. When the financial turmoil came, orders in Europe and America dropped by 60%, but emerging markets brought him 70% growth, and the total volume increased by 10%. Many gift enterprises in Guangdong have closed down, while the gift industry in Wenzhou has shown amazing ability to resist the "cold". Because Wenzhou gift merchants found that foreign consumers used to buy high-end gifts, but now their expenses are shrinking, many people turn to buy low-end products, so they have increased the development of low-end products. At the 104 Canton Fair, many Wenzhou gift merchants received more orders than in previous years.

Li Ka-shing, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Changjiang Group, who pays attention to long-term interests, pays more attention to grasping the economic future and managing and forecasting the strategic direction of the enterprise. As he said, he often spends years or even ten years thinking about things, which is the guarantee for Li to lead the Yangtze River Group to gain huge benefits from repeated depressions, crises and financial tsunamis. In the turbulent 1960s, Li Ka-shing once again showed his insight and foresight, when the credit crisis broke out in banks, real estate prices plummeted, people's hearts floated and all walks of life were depressed. On the one hand, he expanded the "Changjiang Industrial Co., Ltd." in the rear area and continued to maintain the leading position in the plastic industry; On the one hand, we quietly turn factory profits and property rents into cash, collect relevant information through different channels, make full use of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and use cash with confidence to buy the land and old buildings of "knowledgeable" people who are eager to get rid of their properties and are in urgent need of cash at the lowest price. That is to say, from 1959 to 1969, during the turbulent years when Hong Kong's economy experienced several ups and downs, when people rushed to sell a lot of land and real estate, Li Ka-shing, who was not eager for quick success, took appropriate risks on the basis of leaving room for himself-"Changjiang Industrial Co., Ltd." and a lot of real estate. He uses cash in a planned and step-by-step way. In the end, Li Ka-shing once again became a winner by accurately predicting and grasping the future development of Hong Kong's economy.

3. Steady and even slightly conservative financial structure.

Most long-lived enterprises that have experienced many economic crises have one thing in common, that is, relatively stable and conservative financial policies and financial structures. None of these enterprises has achieved rapid development through a large amount of debt; Their pursuit of profit is also relatively steady, and will not be too ups and downs. Enterprises can organically link the allocation of funds with strategic objectives.

Changshou company never takes risks with its own capital easily, and its good capital allocation makes it enough to meet the needs of enterprise growth. On the contrary, many enterprises have no long-term strategic goals. When they have plenty of money, they waste it blindly, and when they need it, they are short of money. This shows that they don't know how to use funds and don't understand that long-term interests are more important than short-term interests. Holding cash can support enterprises to seize opportunities in time or better cope with crises. As the top 500 enterprises, P&G and Cisco both said that maintaining a reasonable asset-liability ratio has become one of the magic weapons for these enterprises to survive the major crisis.

Microsoft is a good example. Microsoft not only has no debt, but also has $50 billion in cash. In the low tide of IT industry, this software giant has become more invincible. It is chilling for Bill Gates to enter any new field. In the war of capital consumption in emerging industries, whether it is to invest money in R&D to compete or to directly acquire competitors, Microsoft seems to be comfortable.

In the face of this crisis, Hutchison Whampoa, the flagship company of Li Ka-shing, has established the strategy of "holding profits to protect Thailand" and adopted a consistently conservative financial management method, holding US$ 2.21billion (about HK$172.4 billion), of which 69% is close to HK$10/90 billion, which is deposited in cash. The management of Hutchison Whampoa has repeatedly stressed that there are no investment corporate bonds, structured investment instruments and accumulated option products. It has been proved many times that a steady investment strategy is the only magic weapon for Mr. Li to win for a long time.

In China's real estate industry, enterprises generally pursue debt management, and the debt ratio is as high as 80% ~ 120%. Different from these enterprises, a few enterprises, such as Vanke and China Resources Land, maintain a low debt ratio, while the latter has a debt ratio of less than 50% and tens of billions of cash reserves. It is these previous "idle money" that provided a solid reserve for the two companies to spend the winter. On the contrary, those enterprises that rely on a lot of debt to expand are now tasting the bitter fruit they have planted.

Throughout the history of enterprise development, we find that those financial conservative enterprises that are often criticized or even ridiculed often have longer vitality. The principle they believe in is always stability first, and stability is the premise of sustainability. Obviously, the weather is unpredictable. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, and once the crisis comes, only enterprises with healthy financial basis can have more and better chances of survival.

4. Have core competitiveness

Those enterprises with a history of 50 years or even 100 years still maintain super competitiveness and occupy an important position in many industries. What makes these "monsters" still rejuvenate after a hundred years? What makes them invincible? The answer lies in the core competitiveness of these enterprises.

The concept of core competence is 1990 C.K.Prahalad, a professor at University of Michigan Business School, and Gary, a professor at London Business School. GaryHamel first proposed it in the book "The Core Competitiveness of Companies". Their definition of core competitiveness is: "knowledge and skills that have been integrated within an organization, especially about how to coordinate multiple production skills and integrate different technologies." Porter, a master of competitive strategy, once described it like this: "The core competitiveness is the ability of enterprises (talents, countries or individuals participating in competition) to gain long-term competitive advantages. It is a technology or ability that is unique to the enterprise, can stand the test of time, has extensibility, and is difficult for competitors to imitate. "

In this round of economic winter, except for a few extreme radicals, most of the fallen enterprises are actually enterprises that lack or even have no core competitiveness. Enterprises without special skills and unique skills may be able to make a living when the economy is good, but once the economic environment is bad and the market declines, they are often the first enterprises to fall. Wang Yang, secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, is obviously deeply aware of this. He once said that all closed enterprises were eliminated because of backward production capacity. The government should properly arrange laid-off workers, but it can't save backward production capacity.

When most ordinary enterprises are teetering in the tsunami of this century, we also see that other enterprises have maintained steady growth by virtue of their long-term core competitiveness. Zhuhai Gree is such a company. 2008 is a veritable "cold year" for the air-conditioning industry. As a leading enterprise in the industry, Gree Electric achieved an operating income of 24.952 billion yuan in the first half of 2008, a year-on-year increase of 24.44%. The net profit was 654.38+0004 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 654.38+004.67%. On June 8, 2008, 10, Gree Electric joined hands with Lenovo, Huawei and other industry giants to settle in Roland, an international management consulting company. Berg and Global Entrepreneur magazine jointly selected "the most globally competitive China company in 2008". This is the second time in a row that Gree Electric has won this honor in the top 20. At the same time, Gree Electric is also the only professional home appliance manufacturer among the top 20. When talking to reporters about the impact of the financial crisis on enterprises and why Gree acted against the trend, Dong Mingzhu, vice chairman and president of Gree Electric, said that enterprises still had their own core competitiveness before the financial crisis, which was the key to a smooth winter. At present, many enterprises are facing great problems, including some enterprises constantly laying off employees and reducing production, which to a great extent shows that there are some problems within these enterprises themselves. Gree obviously has its own core competitiveness. When we encounter the financial crisis, we feel that although there are problems, we can survive it.

The business world is a world of value competition and value exchange, and the core competitiveness is the value basis of the existence of enterprises. If you can't beat your opponent in ability and complete the value exchange with customers, then in fact you don't have much value. Even if you don't want to quit, the market will eliminate you. Obviously, for an enterprise, the key to your business value and sustainability lies in what kind of core competitiveness you have. Wang Yang said well that it is useless to save an incompetent enterprise. Sooner or later, it is the law of nature. Nature can't be said to be affectionate or heartless, and winter goes and spring comes only as a rule; Market economy can't be described as enthusiasm or indifference, and survival of the fittest is the law. Only if you really have the core competitiveness to cope with all difficulties can you "let it blow, rather than walk around".

5. Keep betting on the future

Why are some enterprises always ahead, while most others are not? After some research, we found that the transformation of leading enterprises usually occurs in two situations: first, the emergence of new technologies replaces old technologies, such as digital technologies in the field of mobile communication replacing analog technologies, and digital cameras in the field of personal photography replacing traditional film cameras; The other is that the rise of new business model makes the traditional business model decline, such as the influence of large chain stores on general department stores, the impact of internet business on traditional business, and the substitution of lean production model for traditional production model.

Every time an industrial change occurs because of the emergence of a major new technology or business model, enterprises that are slow to respond and short-sighted will pay the price. Motorola's slowness and hesitation in the face of mobile digital technology has made Nokia; Microsoft's early misjudgment almost ruined itself when the Internet came. Apple turned a blind eye to the open and modular operation mode in the field of personal computers, and as a result, it once withdrew from the mainstream market.

Although it is very difficult to accurately predict every industrial mutation and change, it does not prevent enterprises from preparing for these sudden changes that may occur at any time. The most important preparation is to pay attention to and cultivate new business and continue to bet on the future. We find that those enterprises that seize the opportunity at every wave of industrial change are those that continue to bet on the uncertainty of the future. Although old Watson was not optimistic about minicomputers, he made a bet on the project through little Watson after all. Therefore, when the minicomputer market was booming, IBM minicomputers naturally followed the trend, keeping up with DEC, the leader of the industry at that time. Although Microsoft bet on the Internet late, it was not too late, but it finally caught the tail. For companies like IBM and Microsoft, the most important thing is to participate in the competition, hear the gunshots, and not fall behind completely. Their running skills on the way are excellent, and their initial backwardness will not have much impact on their final race results.

Obviously, in the face of the increasingly complex and changeable business environment, even the most successful companies today must be fully prepared for sudden changes. Constantly paying attention to and investing in new businesses and models will undoubtedly greatly increase the strategic flexibility of enterprises and further enhance the success rate of strategic transformation of enterprises. And those enterprises that refuse to bet on the future and indulge in current success are doomed to fall in the future one day.