Be a brave entrepreneur

Former US President Truman's life changed completely when he was 33 years old when he joined the military, participated in World War I and was sent to France to command an artillery company. A smoke bomb thrown by the Germans fell on the position, and the company thought it was a gas bomb and fled. In the frenzy, Truman stood motionless, slamming his men back to their posts with all the foul language he had ever heard. They regrouped and persisted all night.

According to the historian McLough, Truman, who never thought he would become a leader, discovered two crucial qualities of himself that night: First, he was full of courage. ; Second, he is good at leading others. He also learned that courage is contagious: if a leader shows courage, others will understand it. McLough went on to write: "And war is a melting pot".

The story that appears in the preface to American management guru Warren Bennis' famous book "Geeks and Geeks" links courage and leadership, and Bennis goes on to propose "The Melting Pot Theory." Thinking of an intense, transformative experience of change is at the heart of being a leader.

Twelve years ago, a cake shop appeared on the street of a small city in Sichuan. Today, it has developed into a kingdom called "Hollywood", with 529 stores in 58 cities across the country, more than 8,000 employees, and an annual turnover of 1.2 billion. Currently, Hollyland is entering a new round of rapid expansion, with 160 stores opened in 2004. The one who created this legend was Luo Hong, the president of Holiland. When looking at the growth process of Luo Hong and Hollyland, we thought of the "melting pot theory". We found that leadership is made in this way.

Melting Pot: Building Walls and "Seizing Power" as a Team Leader
Insight: Courage is the source of leadership

When trying to find the critical moment that completely changed Luo Hong's life, we stumbled upon his early life an interesting thing. In this incident, Luo Hong discovered for the first time that he had leadership. Similar to Truman's story, he discovered that leadership came from courage.

When she was in her second year of junior high more than 20 years ago, Luo Hong used her summer vacation to work and study, and joined the team building walls for the factory. There are more than 30 children in this team, many of them older than Luo Hong. After working for a week, Luo Hong felt that he could no longer work: he found that everyone was "grinding foreign workers". Luo Hong was in a hurry, he didn't want the precious summer vacation to pass by like this.

One day at noon, when everyone was resting, Luo Hong said, "I want to ask you a question, what are you doing here?" Everyone thought it was very strange---"I'm making money, so I don't need to ask. !" Luo Hong then asked the team leader: "How much can you earn for a month like this?" The team leader said: "30 yuan." Luo Hong said: "I can let you earn at least 60 yuan per month, but only if You let me be the team leader." Luo Hong pointed to the current team leader and said, "Although he is a good person, he cannot lead you. I will give you one minute, and then we will raise our hands."

One minute has passed. Yes, Luo Hong said, now raise your hands to vote. He himself raised his hand first. Slowly, three or four people raised their hands, and finally most of them raised their hands. Luo Hong said: "Okay! I'm not the team leader today. From tomorrow onwards, you have to listen to me." Back that night, Luo Hong formulated 12 rules and regulations overnight. The next morning, many people came slowly after working hours after 8:00. Luo Hong said: "Now let's discuss the rules and regulations. I will read them one by one. If you disagree, raise your hands." The 12 rules and regulations were passed one by one and posted on the wall. The first is "work on time".

In the first week, 10 people left - too tired to work, they couldn't adapt to the 12 rules and Luo Hong was fired. Luo Hong's parents and these children's parents are both working in the same factory, and they are even under pressure because of it - how could this be? But after a month, all the people who stayed were allotted 120 yuan, which caused a sensation in the whole factory.

When Luo Hong mentions this now, she still remembers her heart pounding when she proposed to be the team leader. Some of the children in the group were five or six years older than him and much taller than him. He didn't know where he got his so much courage. Just because he doesn't want to waste time, he needs to prove himself.

After this incident, Luo Hong felt that she was different from before. He found himself the most influential person in the class. Even after transferring schools, in less than 10 days, he would become the invisible "head" of the class.

The Crucible: Tear Down Layoffs
Insights: Love Your Employees

Warren Bennis believes that the melting pots that make leaders come in all shapes and sizes: Sometimes the melting pot is an uplifting and even joyful experience, Like video game expert Jackie Sley performing dazzling magic at a friend's birthday party in second grade; sometimes the melting pot is a tragedy, such as famous journalist Mike Wallace losing his eldest son; sometimes the melting pot is grim challenges, such as the culture shock that Motorola VP Elizabeth Altman encountered at the Sony factory in Japan. It is both an opportunity and a test. Bennis said, "Whether this ordeal is scary or not, everyone uses it as a turning point in their life, from which they can embark on a long-awaited or destiny."

Many people's lives will be Having encountered such a critical moment more than once, for Luo Hong, 1999 was a very difficult and long year. Holiland was originally just a small shop on the streets of Ya'an, Sichuan. In 1992, Luo Hong persuaded his wife to sell the house in Chengdu and raised funds to seek greater development in Lanzhou, where there is no foundation. The business area of 200 square meters is the model of the front shop and the back factory. It has changed the impression of a small workshop that always makes cakes, and achieved great success. Luo Hong was not satisfied, and he took a fancy to the huge market in the Northeast. In 1994, it entered Shenyang, and soon achieved success. Hollyland has gradually become a well-known brand in the three northeastern provinces.

In 1999, however, Hollywood's operations hit a low point. The reason is that there was a superstition circulating in the Northeast at that time, saying that 99 is the biggest number, and you cannot celebrate your birthday in this year, otherwise disaster will come. Who would have known that the disaster hit Luo Hong first. The common people were not on their birthdays, so the cake business of Holiland would naturally plummet. Without layoffs, companies cannot support themselves.

Luo Hong reluctantly laid off 800 people. At the meeting, Luo Hong wept. He said to the employees, if you want to go to the south, you can go, but if you think Hollyland is very important in your life, I will pay you 300 yuan per month for living expenses, and you will come back when we get through the difficulties. Although the economy was very tight this year, Luo Hong still insisted on paying 300 yuan per month to employees who returned to their hometown, and 75% of the salary to employees who stayed in the Northeast. What moved him was that the business went well in the second year, and 784 of the 800 employees returned.

Luo Hong said, as you love your employees, your employees will love your customers. Hollyland set up a training school in Shenyang in 1996. Students come in, eat and live, and give 200 yuan in pocket money every month. After three months, the company will spend 5,000 yuan on each student. After the study, if the students do not want to work in Holiland, they can leave. When this decision was made, the company's executives felt that it would be a disadvantage to do so. However, Luo Hong said that if the trainee did not agree with the culture of the company after finishing his studies, then his work in the company would definitely have a negative impact, and the losses caused by this would actually be more than 5,000 yuan. After the final implementation, the vast majority of students voluntarily stayed after the study.

Luo Hong has always believed that entrepreneurs are the best teachers for employees, and they are responsible for establishing the values of a company and instilling them in employees. Winters in the Northeast are cold, and cakes are sometimes broken from their bikes, and customers come back to ask for repairs. Once, Luo Hong heard a heated argument between a front-office employee and a back-office employee. The reason is how much money should be charged for repairing the cake, the front-office employees are charged less, and the back-office employees are reluctant, because repairing the cake is almost equal to redoing.

After thinking about it, Luo Hong called a meeting with the staff to discuss how much money should be charged for repairing the cake. Everyone had different opinions, and Luo Hong finally stood up and said, "I think it should not be charged." Everyone was stunned. Luo Hong said: "If it was your birthday, would you break the cake easily? If the customer breaks the cake, it is already very sad. If you pay extra, it will be even more sad. We repair it for him free of charge. , is it the cake that is being repaired? We are repairing a heart!" There was no sound from below, and after a while, a burst of applause broke out.

Luo Hong said, firstly, we must love our employees, and secondly, we should cultivate their love with this communication method. If it's just an executive order saying it's free to mend the cake, the back office staff must think you're disrespecting him. And since then, it has been an unwritten rule of Hollywood to fix cakes for customers for free.

The melting pot: tearing down the newly built factory
Inspiration: Doing things right, doing it first, and doing it forever

Management guru Dulac said that the first is to do the right thing, and the second is to do the right thing. Luo Hong also cares about doing the right thing, and he always keeps this sentence in his heart: Do things right, do it at the beginning, and always do it—if you do the right thing at the beginning, you must persevere.

In 2001, the Nanjing Guanshengyuan moon cake stale incident occurred, and the entire baking industry fell into a crisis of trust.

Luo Hong recalled the scene like this: The director of the factory called: Many manufacturers have reduced production, what should we do? As soon as Luo Hong heard it, he said on the phone at the time that he was running at full power, people could change, but the machine could not stop. Produce as much as you can!

On the third day, Luo Hong drove an off-road vehicle to a field for photography.

Sure enough, more than 200 of Holiland's mooncakes were sold out in one week before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it jumped to the third place in the national mooncake industry with sales of 110 million.

People in the industry say that Luo Hong is daring, but in fact, only Luo Hong knows in her heart that her chance has finally come. Because of their hard work over the years and strict requirements for product quality, the foundation has been laid for this leap.

Luo Hong, a modern moon cake factory in Shenyang, has been built twice, and the first time it was built, it was torn down: In 2000, Luo Hong invested 40 million to build a moon cake factory. After the completion, he asked the State Bureau of Technical Supervision and other units people to visit. After they visited, they said that it was great! I have never seen that pastry factory production workshop without water, oil, and clean, just like your chain store. Luo Hong said, unfortunately, the factory will be demolished and rebuilt soon. Everyone is surprised, why? Luo Hong said that after our own testing, the product has not yet reached a high standard, and there are still some problems.

When Luo Hong found out that the product could not meet a high standard, she was very confused: I am so concerned about hygiene, how can there still be problems? He started looking for experts, who carefully analyzed the production process and determined that the problem was the air—the air entering the workshop was not filtered. Experts have designed a new plan to introduce Japanese air purifiers. Some people say that it is not enough to rebuild the factory? Luo Hong said, I have also asked experts if they can change it. They said that only by knocking down and rebuilding can we be 100% qualified. In this way, Luo Hong resolutely demolished the newly built factory and invested 60 million yuan to build a new factory again. He said that building the factory for the first time was an empirical mistake and expensive tuition. But in the end, it was worth it for a high-standard product.

Luo Hong believes that although she is engaged in a "sweet career", it is also a dangerous career. The food industry is a high-risk industry, which is related to people's health and safety, and one mistake cannot be tolerated. Since the start of business in Lanzhou, the employees have known what the CEO attaches to the most—sanitation. At that time, if Luo Hong was not greeting customers at the front desk, he must have been wiping the floor and the table in the background. Luo Hong's store is always bright and clean. He started off with a strong sense of hygiene, which he thought was "the right thing to do", and has insisted on it since then. When training employees later, for the first week, Luo Hong asked them to take a bath, change clothes, and wash their hands many times every day, and let them see the bacteria on their hands under a microscope without washing their hands, all to strengthen their hygiene consciousness.

Luo Hong first set foot in moon cakes in 1993. The moon cakes made at that time were too high-end and were not accepted by the market. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are still 120,000 yuan of mooncakes left to sell. Some people think that the moon cakes can be broken into cakes. Since the shelf life has not yet passed, it is understandable to do so. But Luo Hong believes that this obviously cannot have high product quality. In order to let employees establish a strong sense of quality, he decided to pour 120,000 yuan of moon cakes into the Yellow River to feed the fish. Three trucks filled with mooncakes, and many citizens stopped to watch. Talking about this now, Luo Hong said with a smile that he didn't have such a strong awareness of environmental protection at the time and should not have been thrown into the Yellow River. But that action gave employees a deep quality awareness lesson.

Therefore, when the mooncake industry suffered a crisis of confidence in 2001, Luo Hong felt that the industry's problems were exposed, which was actually a support for regular enterprises. It's time. Some companies have withdrawn from this market, and Hollyland should buck the trend and occupy this market.

Also because of the importance of reputation and food safety, Hollyland's expansion adheres to the principle of not opening franchise stores, and all stores are directly controlled by the headquarters. Luo Hong’s explanation for this is: If you open a franchise store, the other party will provide venues and funds, and Hollyland will provide technology and people, and Hollyland’s expansion will be much faster than it is now. However, it is difficult to control the quality of franchise stores, and different franchisees have different values, which can easily lead to differences. So Luo Hong would rather sacrifice the speed of expansion. In 2001, Luo Hong felt that the cultivation of talents could not keep up with the speed of expansion. He would rather stop the pace of expansion and spend great efforts to cultivate talents. By 2004, Hollywood's expansion accelerated again.

In 2002, Luo Hong invested another 150 million yuan to build a large-scale moon cake production factory in Beijing. When her colleagues heard that there were 8 light disinfection procedures, they felt incredible. After they visited the factory, the secretary general of the Baking Industry Association said: You have raised the bar for the entire industry.

The Furnace: Debris Flow in Distress
Insight: Infinite Scenery on the Dangerous Peak

In 2000, Luo Hong and a few friends went to Mount Everest to take pictures. On the way back, they encountered a mudslide. There are only two options: either go back, and I don't know how many days will be delayed; or rush in. They finally decided to rush over and let one person drive an empty car in front of the road, with the others and equipment in a car behind. Because Luo Hong's driving skills on mountain roads are very good, he took on the important task of leading the road ahead. At that time, the mudslide covered most of the wheels. At last they burst out. Luo Hong now talks about this experience and still feels very thrilling.

Someone asked Luo Hong, "Are you afraid?" He said, "Why aren't you afraid. However, the infinite scenery is at the perilous peak!"

Liu Ji, Executive Dean of China Europe International Business School, suggested that entrepreneurs should take risks, Courage—that is, courage quotient, he believes that MBA education should pay attention to cultivating this ability. Luo Hong felt a little surprised: "Could courage be cultivated? I think it's innate. For example, my two sons, the eldest son is very courageous like me; the younger son is just like his mother, but less courageous. "However, when we observe Luo Hong, we can clearly see that many of his practices are exercising his own courage. The American Fast Company magazine opened a special issue of "Finding Courage" and said: Courage is like a muscle, the more you exercise, the stronger.

Photography is Luo Hong's favorite, and he often goes to places that are considered intimidating by ordinary people, such as Mount Everest and Ali. He entered African photography seven times. As soon as she entered Africa, Luo Hong was very excited. I wake up on time at 5:30 every day, and I can go to bed at 12:00 after finishing the information at night. Several vice presidents of Hollyland also followed Luo Hong to two African photography trips. Half of them were unwilling to go the third time, and no one was willing to go the fourth time—it was really tiring. . Even the strongest black driver was exhausted.

Many CEOs are submerged in daily things and have no spare time, but Luo Hong has a lot of time for photography. He sees this as an opportunity to empower and train his subordinates.

Luo Hong believes that what the president really needs to do is to "discover talents and cultivate talents". He said that real talents may be very "alternative", and sometimes they have to pay tuition fees to cultivate them.

When I was in Lanzhou, several vice presidents of Hollyland thought that a kind of ice water would sell well and wanted to use this product very much. Luo Hong thought that Holiland should not be involved in this field, but the vice presidents all wanted to do it, so Luo Hong let them do it, and finally failed. But Luo Hong didn't blame them either. He said that it would cost 5,000 yuan to train an employee, not to mention a manager! It's easy to trust yourself, but it's hard to trust others, but how can you make things bigger if you can't trust others?

Another hobby of Luo Hong is equestrianism. He now often rides and jumps over obstacles - which is actually a dangerous sport. Luo Hong said that now Holiland has grown bigger and bigger, and he can no longer "lead troops to charge" on the front line like before. Only on horseback can he experience the fighting spirit of the start-up stage. He didn't want to give up.

Management believes that everyone has a psychological "comfort zone" where they feel stable and in control. To a certain extent, the "comfort zone" is everyone's "cover", preventing them from stepping out to seek breakthroughs and progress, and stepping out of the "comfort zone" is actually an adventure. When we observe Luo Hong, we find that he has always maintained a passion for continuous improvement and the courage to accept challenges. It can be said that his "comfort zone" is in the "melting furnace", and his leadership is forged and grown in this "melting furnace". .

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