An enterprise is a living entity composed of people. Within a certain area, a large number of enterprises come together to form an organizational community, similar to a species in the biological world. When observing and analyzing the growth and evolution of enterprises, it is very enlightening and explanatory to adopt the vision and method of biological evolution.
Using the principles of evolution and taking into account the attributes and characteristics of the business organization, a number of strategic concepts and conclusions related to the growth of the enterprise can be drawn.
1.Enterprise growth is a dynamic process with a long cycle
First of all, enterprises should have a long-term concept and be committed to long-term development. At present, from the perspective of private enterprises, the biggest factor hindering the growth of enterprises is opportunism. This is related to the fact that China's private enterprises have been in a good market environment for a long time and have the characteristics of opportunity growth, and it is also related to the mental model of some enterprise leaders who are influenced by the traditional perceptual culture of small production. In the face of a more complex or difficult future, companies need to move away from short-term opportunism. We need to value opportunity, but avoid opportunism.
Second, companies need to look at the status quo from a future perspective. The future perspective is a broad, far-sighted, and contoural perspective, which is the cognition and insight into the long-term and fundamental variables in the environment, and the observation of the structural situation. Reverse observation can make us more aware of the gap between reality and the future, understand the impact of current difficulties on the future, and make current behavior more future-oriented.
Finally, companies should take a long-term view and prepare for short-term responses. But all short-term adjustments and actions do not contradict long-term goals and long-term effective policies. Businesses may seem to be changing every day, but they are actually changing. What changes is the environment and the specific practices of the enterprise, but what remains unchanged is the purpose and basic principles. The more long-termism a company embraces, the more important it is to pay attention to the top-level design for the future.
2.From a macro perspective, the rise and fall of any business is random
The rise and development of no business organization is certain and inevitable. Any enterprise that is considered to be successful, excellent or even outstanding at the moment is the product of many internal and external factors, that is, the lucky ones who are in the right place, the right place, and the right people. In the terminology of systems theory, it is an emergence, which is the result of multivariate integration, and it is contingent. Almost all businesses go through tough times more than once from the start-up period. Every time I get out of a predicament, there is more or less an element of luck. From the perspective of statistical laws, in a suitable environment, within a large sample range, there are always some companies that stand out, which is certain. However, when it comes to individual companies, it is uncertain whether they can succeed.
In general, it is a small probability event for a company to achieve a leap from 0 to 1 and sustainable growth. Because of this, the winners in the business competition should not be too conceited, and the disappointed should not be too frustrated. Successful people need to have a sense of awe. Due to the difficulty of entrepreneurship and development, we must pay enough attention and respect to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs.
3.From the micro **, happy organizations always have similarities, and unfortunate organizations have their own misfortunes
To a certain extent, these similarities contain some regularity and universal elements and routes related to the growth of enterprises. In an animal population, it is the individuals who are the first to mutate and evolve. Through the genetic mechanism and the elimination mechanism, the whole species will eventually change. In the enterprise group, there are always a few enterprises that find a way to adapt to the environment and embark on a bigger and stronger growth path. Their experience can be imitated, borrowed and learned from by other enterprises. Any experience that can be learned by other enterprises and proven to be effective in practice is refined and integrated into the algorithm (logic) for the growth of the enterprise. Unfortunately, algorithms and logical frameworks aren't complicated, but many businesses struggle to learn. Because the difference between specific situations and scenes, and the small differences in details, will cause major deviations in the learning effect. More importantly, many "pseudo-learners" do not have the mindset and ability to learn.
It can be concluded that under certain time and space conditions, the direction and path of enterprise evolution are often certain, but only a few enterprises can grasp this certainty. Different companies are at different stages on the road of evolution, some have a higher degree of evolution, and some have a lower degree of evolution. Therefore, the advantages and competitiveness of enterprises can be compared and identified.
4.The intrinsic factor that determines the growth of the enterprise and the key strategic transformation is the leader of the enterprise
For micro-business organizations, it's definitely heroes who make history. Sometimes, attributing the success or failure of a company to the external environment, or to internal factors such as organizational culture, is a roundabout argument that is not to the point. Under the governance and power structure of an organization, the cognition, mentality, philosophy, values, and leadership of enterprise leaders determine how far an enterprise can go on the road of long-term evolution.
For business leaders, it's often a matter of "survive or die" decisions. One thought of heaven and one thought of hell, the nervousness and anxiety of business leaders can be imagined. Through decentralization and democratic decision-making, the pressure on business leaders can be relieved and shared, but at critical junctures, there is still a need for a backbone and ultimate responsibility.
Organizations need great leaders, but they are people, not gods. They are always wrestling with their own desires and human nature, and they are always seeking to break through the limitations of cognition and wisdom. This is a thrilling process of transcendence (different cultures have different terms such as nirvana, enlightenment, and salvation, and our traditional concept is the cultivation of knowledge or conscience, stopping at the highest good). The level and realm of enterprise leaders determine the space and boundary of enterprise growth. The mechanism design of promoting good and suppressing evil and promoting clean and fighting turbidity in enterprise organizations can effectively influence the self-transcendence of enterprise leaders. However, these mechanisms are often also the product of the self-transcendence of the founders and subsequent leaders of the enterprise, and are a reflection of their personalities.
From a long-term and dynamic point of view, if the enterprise organization can form a programmed excellent talent generation mechanism, the long-term growth of the enterprise will be guaranteed. One thing is for sure, in-house family businesses are not optimal in many cases.
5.In the process of evolution, companies are always in a state of life and death
Existentialist philosophy holds that the deepest and most desperate pain of man is that death is inevitable and that people need to look to death for meaning. I don't like this kind of hypocrisy, disease-free moaning. However, it is true that life to die is the norm in the evolution of enterprises. Unlike the irreversible nature of human life, the life of an enterprise can be reborn and continued through change in the interaction with the environment. Therefore, it can be said that evolution equals change, and there can be no evolution without change. In the long-term evolution process of enterprise organization, entropy increase will inevitably appear, and unorganized forces will inevitably breed, so it is necessary to always make negative entropy efforts: openness, learning, and improving organizational vitality; We will continue to carry out the "five antis" campaign, namely the anti-rigidity campaign, the anti-slackness campaign, the anti-differentiation campaign, the anti-complexity campaign, and the anti-corruption campaign. Living to die embodies a strategic will and determination to recognize the essence and accept challenges, which is the inner strength of enduring and tenacious to dispel fear.
6.From a long-term perspective, the starting point of enterprise growth is not important, the key is to evolve and "move".
The ancestors of today's human beings, in those days, were not necessarily the most competitive group among the forest apes. But they took the right evolutionary course—walking upright, making cooked food, making tools, etc., and thus became masters of the earth. In the early 90s of the 20th century, I once visited the humble place where Huawei was founded, and who would have thought that today it has become a global leader in the communications industry.
The core content of evolution "Move" is to take customer value as the axis, so that opportunities and capabilities enhance each other: discover opportunities, enhance capabilities, and innovate value; Enhance capabilities, innovate value, and identify opportunities. In this way, the enterprise is evergreen and invincible in the competition. Under the premise that there are no major and subversive changes in the environment, the interactive structure of opportunities, values and capabilities is the internal mechanism and mechanism of enterprise evolution. In the interaction between the three, customer value is constantly incremented and continuously iterated, which is the normal state of enterprise evolution.
7.Businesses need to evolve to adapt to an uncertain environment, and customers are the most important environmental variable
In general, customer change is the main content of environmental change, and it is also the cohesion, refraction and embodiment of other changes. By grasping the changes in customers, we can grasp the basic situation of the uncertain environment, so that we can effectively respond to the external environment. In order to understand the changes in customers and their needs, on the one hand, it is necessary to develop external related big data and accumulate data assets in the business value stream, and on the other hand, it is necessary to truly integrate with customers, get along with customers day and night, and communicate in-depth. Just as the brand concept of a bank says, "change because of you", only by following the changes of customers and following the changes of customers, can the growth and evolution of the enterprise follow the right direction, with clear guidance and operational support.
Customer changes include relatively macro and explicit scale changes, internal structure changes, consumption trend changes, as well as relatively micro behavioral tendency changes, consumption motivation changes, and demand structure changes. Customer change at the micro level is the main problem we need to deal with. This change is often hidden, such as the depth of still water; It is also often gradual, starting at the end of the green. Therefore, enterprises should be sensitive, delicate and accurate in perceiving customers and needs.
8.Almost all businesses have a tendency to ignore their customers
For businesses, there is nothing without customers. If customers are so important, why do companies have a tendency to ignore them? The reasons are complex. In short, valuing others is a challenge to humanity and ability, as well as to organizational attributes.
As far as business leaders and related managers are concerned, integrating with customers, understanding customers, and serving customers require an open, equal, and humble mentality, a style of in-depth and hard work, as well as rich knowledge and superb skills (i.e., customer-oriented professional ability). For individuals (including business founders) who seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, after the difficult entrepreneurial stage that is unbearable, the intrinsic drive to value customers will naturally weaken. It's much easier to sit in an office and get a bit of subjectivity, formalism, and bureaucracy than interacting with customers.
As far as organizational attributes are concerned, with the passage of time and the expansion of scale, slackness, aging, and closure related to individual motivation and behavior will naturally occur, and not interacting with customers will become a culture and a corporate disease. Once a pathological culture is formed, a small number of individuals are powerless to change it. In the face of customer changes, many large enterprises are numb, indifferent, and sluggish. Therefore, the principle of customer-oriented is easier said than done.
9.Digital transformation needs to be organically combined with customer value innovation
Now, in various scenarios, business leaders, experts and scholars are talking about digital transformation, which can be said to make people panic. Many business owners feel that there is no future if they don't try digitalization, but how to achieve digitalization faces the "three nos" dilemma: no goal dilemma, no path dilemma, and no talent dilemma. The most common anxiety among enterprises today is digital anxiety.
Digitalization is of course important and is one of the directions of enterprise evolution, but it is a means for enterprises to create customer value. Once the customer value is clearly defined, the digital picture will naturally emerge. Customer value is the satisfaction of customer needs. Customers need personalized and customized products, and the operation of the value chain must be a flexible and intelligent system; Customers need to understand the knowledge behind the product, so they need to arrange an immersive experience in the virtual space; Customers need to grasp the data of a certain function of the product (such as the detection data of physical health status), which can be provided through the mobile terminal; Customers participate in value creation, and their rights and interests can be confirmed and protected through blockchain technology. With customer value innovation as the center and main line, digital transformation will come naturally, and digital construction will have a blueprint and construction plan, and there will be no waste and no detours, and it will be beneficial and effective.
10.Design customer value creation mechanism with ecological concept
If enterprises have the ability and conditions, they can design and operate value networks, value creation platforms, and business ecosystems. The basic model is: in the internal and external value chain (whole industry chain) and the extended value network, grasp the dominant resources, technologies and standards, or define the needs and values of the final customer, design and operate the collaborative rules and mechanisms for value creation with the participation of many internal and external subjects, as well as the sharing incentive mechanism of internal and external subjects, so as to generate transcendent customer value.
The so-called transcendence refers to surpassing competitors and having solid market barriers and resource and technology moats; At the same time, exceed customer expectations and create customer needs. The more external participants in its value creation, the larger the scope of the ecosystem involved, and the greater the degree of transcendence of customer value. There are very few such ecological organizers. Most enterprises can only embed in the external ecology and become the ecological, but this does not mean that they do nothing. Enterprises can improve the degree of contribution and irreplaceability to the value of the end customer and the value required by the service object through ecological location positioning, advantageous value proposition and core expertise, so as to have a certain degree of pricing power and benefit sharing power. In addition, some enterprises have ecologicalized their own diversified businesses through vertical industrial chain integration and horizontal related diversification (multiple businesses are interrelated and mutually beneficial), which is also an ecological strategy.
11.An important task in corporate evolution is to improve organizational functions and cultivate a foundation of customer value creation
On the one hand, companies need to make their core strengths and competitive advantages longer and bigger. The so-called core strengths are the strengths related to the core values of customers. On the other hand, enterprises need to make up for key shortcomings according to the concept of overall competition and systematic growth. The so-called key shortcomings are the defects that can easily lead to defeat. Just like a good football team, you need to be able to organize in the midfield, and the strikers can score goals, but also have no obvious holes in the back line. "The Art of War" cloud: "With the right fit, with the odd victory." "Playing to your core strengths to ensure offensive success, while at the same time, making up for key weaknesses and avoiding defensive failures. The carrier of enterprise capability is people and knowledge - knowledge is created by people, and in the final analysis, it is still people.
Enterprises need three kinds of people: brave and energetic student soldiers, professional and skilled understanding people (experts), and wise and inclusive leaders. Talent training and team building are the sustainable, basic and primary tasks in the long-term growth process of the enterprise. Some people say that big bets are the key to big wins. This sentence may not be appropriate for the large-scale expansion of the business, but it is appropriate to use it for the pressure of human resources. Excellent enterprises need to build a "high human capital-high performance" cycle mechanism, build a human capital incremental return mechanism, and build a talent generation and endless cultivation mechanism. These tasks and actions involve corporate culture, management system (institutional mechanism, process system), leadership behavior (knowing and employing people), etc., and require systematic efforts.
12.There can be no doubt or fluke about deterministic things and environmental variables
The southeastern part of the country is hit by several typhoons with varying degrees of damage every year, and the ones that should come will definitely come. Unless you move out of this area, you can only prepare in advance and actively resist. For Chinese enterprises, the deterministic long-term variables in the environment, from a global perspective, include the new technological revolution, the restructuring of the first chain, changes in international relations, etc.; From a domestic perspective, it includes demographic changes, industrialization and urbanization, regional development trends and competition, and certain structural factors......
In this context, stock market competition, global competition, alternative competition, value network beyond enterprise boundaries and ecological competition will become the main forms of enterprise survival. The challenges of the environment ahead may be even more severe. Further, if the company really encounters a black swan event, are entrepreneurs ready? (Author: Shi Wei, leading expert of Huaxia Cornerstone Management Consulting Group, chief tutor of Huaxia Cornerstone Master School).
Text|Shi Wei. Editor: Wang Yu WeChat: sophiewangyu