One of the most well-known phrases in the Bible is that "there is nothing new under the sun" (I have never read the Bible). Although there have been many changes in history from ancient times to the present, there are some things that have not changed and are always repeated, and that is human nature.
Ancient philosophers have always had a dispute between the theory of good sex and the theory of evil sex, and there is no conclusion until now, but the author believes that there is no good and evil in human nature, but human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.
As the former British Prime Minister famously said: there are no eternal friends, and there are no permanent enemies, only eternal interests. Of course, ordinary people's understanding of this sentence is limited after all, because they are limited by their own experience environment and cognition, but in the world of the elite class, the drama of competing interests is staged almost every day.
Back to the topic, between Dong Yuhui's small essay incident, the story behind it will not be elaborated here, the core issue should be a balance issue, that is, the balance of Dong Yuhui's fame, fortune and value contribution.
In fact, something similar happened ten years ago, that is, the story of Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin, two shareholders of Independent New Coal, who parted ways.
In this, we will first share Luo Zhenyu's case analysis from the "Tao" and "technique" of equity distribution:
From the perspective of corporate governance, it is more stable and controls the preference, but from the perspective of the company's operation, it is the risk appetite and embraces uncertainty. Therefore, the good "quietness" of equity and the good "movement" of business are inherently conflicting. If the major shareholders do not know how to "balance", once they encounter a strategic choice, conflicts will break out, and serious ones will part ways.
At the end of 2012, a knowledge-based ** talk show called "Luo Ji Thinking" became popular on the Internet. Riding the free ride of the information age, Luo Ji Siwei has won millions of fans while becoming popular all over the country, and it took less than 1 year to extend from an Internet product to a new Internet community brand.
Speaking of the birth of "Luo Ji Thinking", I have to mention a pair of ** partners Luo Zhenyu and planner Shen Yin.
Luo Zhenyu used to be a TV station (hereinafter referred to as"CCTV"Producer of the financial talk show "Dialogue". In 2008, Luo Zhenyu resigned from CCTV to join Yicai's "China Operator". In 2010, Luo Zhenyu left the position of host of "China Operator". After experiencing the role of planner and consultant, Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin jointly registered and established independent new media (Beijing) information technology in April 2012"Independent New Media")。Shen Yin is also a senior financial expert, who was the executive editor-in-chief of China Entrepreneur magazine and the first editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur.
On December 21, 2012, the program "Luo Ji Thinking" launched by independent new media was officially launched. However, just as "Luo Ji Thinking" became a miracle of the Internet knowledge economy, in May 2014, there was news that Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin parted ways.
What is it that makes two people who used to be close to each other forget each other?Let's look at the shareholding structure of the independent new media company that year, Shenyin's shareholding ratio was 8235%: Luo Zhenyu's shareholding ratio is 1765%。
Why does Luo Zhenyu, who is well-known to the public, occupy a small share, less than 1 5?
The reason is very simple, although Shenyin and Luo Zhenyu are both shareholders, their relationship is more like that of an agent and a star. Shen Yin used the strength of the whole company to push Luo Zhenyu, quite like a brokerage company and an actor who was not popular, Shen Yin accounted for a large share, and Luo Zhenyu accounted for a small share, which was naturally the most appropriate distribution logic at that time.
But the only constant in this world is change.
Luo Ji Thinking" became popular at a speed that the founders did not expect, and the popular "Luo Ji Thinking" will"Independent New Media"Push to a strategic fork in the road to the left or to the right:
Continue to make a big self-** copy n "Luo Ji Thinking", or upgrade "Logical Thinking" from self-** to community business?
If you choose to go to the left and continue to follow the old path, then Luo Zhenyu, the bearer of the charismatic personality, will inevitably feel that the potential value is contained, and if you choose to go right and upgrade to community business, then it will bring great challenges to the ability and mentality of the original operator Shenyin.
At this critical juncture, we see the fundamental contradiction brought about by the deformity of the shareholding structure. When there is a conflict between the majority shareholder and the minority shareholder in the choice of the company's strategic direction, the proportion of shares should theoretically be used as the basis for the final distribution of power and interests.
However, the problem encountered by independent new media is that with the increasing potential of Luo Zhenyu to influence users, the company's core value has been transferred from Shenyin to Luo Zhenyu, but the equity is still in Shenyin's hands.
The inversion of value contribution and equity structure will inevitably lead to disagreements between the two people.
Moreover, the greater the value of Luo Zhenyu's personal brand, the greater the autonomy and development space he hopes to obtain, the higher the frequency and intensity of the contradictions between the two sides, and it is also an inevitable outcome to fall apart.
On April 19, 2012, Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin jointly established an independent new media and began to stand together through thick and thin
On June 17, 2014, Luo Zhenyu and his new partner Li Tiantian registered and established Beijing Thinking Creation Information Technology Co., Ltd
On July 4, 2014, Luo Zhenyu completely withdrew from the equity structure of independent new media, and so far, the cooperation between Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin was dissolved!
Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin can be said to be typical of thousands of scattered partners, the root cause of which is that in the early stage of entrepreneurship, the business model is still in the stage of trial and error, whether it is the strategic direction or the interest mechanism, there are uncertainties.
Once the shareholding structure is solidified, but the business model is constantly adjusted, and the value contribution is transferred between different shareholder entities, when the major shareholders cannot take the initiative to adjust the shareholder mentality and equity structure to get rid of the shackles of solidified equity, cracks begin to arise and expand step by step.
The breakup of Luo Zhenyu and Shen Yin should be a peaceful war, the gentleman broke off his friendship, did not make a bad sound, and the two broke up with dignity.
However, in reality, how many partners have terminated their cooperation, but the equity is still unclear, so that the equity imbalance continues until the first shareholder can no longer bear it.
As a result, the ** shareholder moved on to register a new company to transfer the assets of the joint venture company, and finally escalated an equity dispute into a criminal case.
At the end of the day, equity is about shareholders"Balance"of wisdom.
Balance"It is the appearance of things in the stage of quantitative change, and the temporary, relative stillness manifested in the absolute, eternal motion. If there is imbalance, it will be unstable, and if it is unstable, it will not last.
Realizing this, entrepreneurs will truly understand that the most difficult thing to start a business is not necessarily a breakthrough in technical problems, nor is it necessarily a road of trial and error in the model.
Although the basis of cooperation between Luo Zhenyu and Shenyin is different from Dong Yuhui, the core contradictions are similar, Dongfang Selection was brought to fire by Dong Yuhui, Dong's current role is almost the same as Luo Zhenyu's role at the beginning, and the core value of Dongfang Selection is Dong Yuhui.
At present, I only know that Dong is in the list of equity incentives, as for the number of shares, it is unknown at present, the only difference is that Dong does not seem to have the capital and strength to compete with Dongfang Selection, but Dong's Internet celebrity value has given him many ways to choose.
To sum up, whether this incident was done by someone maliciously, or jealousy caused trouble, or uneven distribution, or a change in mentality, etc., it is still the same sentence:
Human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, as a public figure, it is necessary to keep the bottom line, only to go long, go further!Encouragement!