**: Recommended by Lao Sun.
Author: Sun Liping is a professor in the Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University
The small essay incident of Dongfang Selection seems to be over, and the surging public opinion should also come to an end after experiencing the seven-day law of communication.
But in fact, this is not the end of the story.
I mean, the latter problem is not really solved, and it seems that in terms of immediate significance, it can only be considered a balance. Yes, the number of fans of Dongfang Selection is recovering, and even at the beginning**; Dong Yuhui has been given a new arrangement, and his position in the company has a new positioning; Sun Dongxu was removed from his post and assumed responsibility for the incident. But is that the end of it?
This incident has a deep impact on both Dongfang Selection itself and the relationship between Dongfang Selection and fans. Although Yu Minhong's later series of responses have been recognized by people, for Yu Minhong himself, the area of psychological shadow may be huge; Dong Yuhui was appointed as the cultural assistant to the chairman of the board of directors of New Oriental Education and Technology Group and the vice president of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group, which is not so much a good knowledge of people as a reassurance; Although Sun Dongxu is to blame in this incident, what is the relationship between Yu Minhong and Dongfang Selection in the future? Also, how does the capital market see the future of Oriental Selection?
So I said, this thing hasn't really passed. And the reason why this matter has not really passed is not completely that, but that the deep problems behind it have not been solved.
What is this underlying problem? I think it's a matter of the corporate system
In the surging public opinion, right and wrong, and even moral issues have become the focus of the world. Actually, this matter is not a moral issue at all. Yu Minhong, with my limited understanding of him, is a person with feelings, responsibility, experience, and wisdom. Dong Yuhui, I don't know, and I haven't bought anything at Dongfang Selection, but it shouldn't be for nothing that everyone likes him, and people seem to agree that there is nothing wrong with his response in this incident.
As a matter of fact, the substantive problem reflected in this incident is the issue of the relationship of interests and the issue of the institutional arrangement of the enterprise for the relationship of interests. Of course, the issue of interests I am talking about here does not mean that there is any interest dispute between Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong, but that there isThe current structure of Oriental Selection cannot make proper arrangements for the substantive existence of interest issues.
Just when people are arguing about the right and wrong of thisThe first thing that comes to mind is the fragility of the Oriental selection enterprise system.
This vulnerability is highlighted by the fact that a company with an annual gross merchandise transaction volume of 10 billion yuan is highly dependent on a top anchor. Although you can say that behind the anchor is the team, the role of the anchor is irreplaceable. This is the characteristic of this type of live streaming e-commerce company. So far, there is no conclusive evidence that Dong Yuhui has a stake in the company. As a result, there is a lack of a mechanism to bind the streamer to the company. Splitting up in two is theoretically something that can happen at any time. In fact, like Guo Degang's Deyun Club, there are similar problems.
But now things seem to be starting to change. The latest news is that Dong Yuhui's identity has changed from "anchor with goods" to "senior partner of Oriental Selection".
But what is a senior partner? Outsiders had questions, and the company didn't make them clear. Someone even asked Dongfang Selection about the specific situation of the "senior partner", and the other party also said that he would not respond for the time being. Yu Minhong's statement is: The senior partner selected by Dongfang is not the concept of "senior salaryman" as everyone says, and the senior partner has the right to speak about the company, which is equivalent to the status of VP (vice president) and has the color of shareholder identity. This statement is also quite vague, and perhaps the dust has not yet settled.
What is the concept of a senior partner? Is it a concept of position or management structure, or is it a concept of honor, or is it a concept of equity? Judging from Yu Minhong's statement, it should not be the first two alone. But this problem may not be a simple equity issue, and even in the sense of equity, it has its particularity, because the popularity of anchors is changing rapidly, while the equity structure is relatively stable.
It reminds me of some other industries or fields. A troupe may also rely on one or more famous actors, and a team may also rely on one or more stars. But the relationship between these celebrities and the troupe or club is not maintained by equity. The most typical is the athlete transfer system in commercial sports. In this transfer system, the rights and interests of all parties, the timing and procedures of transfers, etc., are clearly stipulated. These rules strike a general balance between the mobility of the players themselves and the relative stability of their relationship with the club.
Finally, a few words on the issue of the enterprise system. Some people believe that the establishment of the limited liability company system has played a crucial role in the process of industrialization. Without it, even the importance of the invention of the steam engine and electric power technology would be greatly diminished.
It is said that the first limited liability company in human history was the New World Exploration Merchant Company, which was founded in 1553 and had 250 shareholders at that time. A company has 250**, there are a series of problems that need to be solved: after the company has been operating for a period of time, what if some shareholders want to continue to operate, and some shareholders want to break up and share the money? If there is a disagreement between shareholders with different intentions, how can the company be able to operate indefinitely? With so many shareholders, how do they make decisions, and if something goes wrong, who will be held responsible?
How can these problems be solved? What is needed is a new set of institutional arrangements, such as share transfer system, board of directors system, legal person system, limited liability system, etc. It is precisely these institutional innovations that did not exist before that have enabled the solution of a series of complex problems raised by large-scale industrial production.