Li Weiwen: Only in the need of innovation can we have a future

Dongguan Zhongyuan City Logistics Park, in a remote corner, from a creaking freight elevator to the fourth floor, is Dongguan Langteng Industrial Co., Ltd. A not too spacious aisle leads to the office of General Manager Li Weiwen, and there is a row of unopened machines lined up along the aisle. This is a customized production line for a major customer.

Interactive topic: When will Chinese manufacturing stop following the trend?

Like all small, growing businesses, this company is humble and cluttered, but full of energy. Since its establishment in 2011, it only took 3 years to achieve the first sales in the field of MHL (mobile phone video line), and also signed well-known customers such as OPPO and Xiaomi. Now, the selfie sticks produced by this company are affixed with the logos of various brands, and they are hot | selling on eBay, Amazon, Tmall and other platforms.

Li Weiwen graduated from the Chinese Department in his early years. He has been immersed in shopping malls for 10 years, and he still has a strong bookish spirit. He likes to use Xiaomi as a benchmark: "Xiaomi sells mobile phones, it's popular; it sells routers, it's popular; it sells millet boxes, it's also popular. I can even sell 200,000 sockets. I was shocked at the time."

Why is Xiaomi selling all kinds of small things? "Because it finds innovation in the rigid needs," Li Weiwen understands, "this is also the road that Langteng will take in the future.

From chaos to "fun"

Although MHL and The selfie sticks are all products that Li Weiwen is proud of, but Langteng's original products are connectors. "The factories that produce this kind of components belong to the very downstream manufacturers in the industry chain. Coupled with the competition from some big factories, we worked very hard at that time, and the turnover in the first year was only 8 million. "

Li Weiwen said frankly: "At the beginning of our business, our thinking was not very clear. After groping for a year in this chaotic state, he and his entrepreneurial partners wanted to go to the upstream of the industry chain to have a look, so the company began to transform into connecting lines. At that time, the digital interface specification MHL used to output high-definition images of portable terminals It is rapidly popularizing, and its application has expanded to TVs, Blu-ray disc players, A|V amplifiers and other fixed-type products, as well as in-vehicle terminals, in addition to portable terminals such as smartphones and tablet computers. A rigid market is taking shape, but domestic However, there are very few manufacturers.

Lonton seized the opportunity and quickly broke into this field. At that time, Langton's factory had only 40 workers, and the average daily production of data lines was less than 2,000, but the return was Amazing, "almost triple the profit. "The company's turnover has doubled, from the initial 8 million to 20 million, and reached 36 million in 2013.

"When we made the selfie stick product, it was very fun. It is really just needed, and there is a popular Internet language at the moment: If you don't take pictures when you eat, the concubine can't do it. "The jokes circulating on the Internet made Li Weiwen smell business opportunities.

But this is a rigid market that big factories are unwilling to set foot in and small factories are powerless to do. "Because its supply chain is very complicated, with plastic keys and sensor chains. , with springs, hardware keys, and stainless steel tubes. "After entering this field, Langteng found that there are many big customers, and the customer's "density is very high".

Langteng's first order for selfie sticks was 50,000 yuan, because the delivery time was 50,000 yuan. It was too late to open the mold, so "some people in the company flew to Zhejiang to look for poles, and some people drove cars in the Pearl River Delta every day to find plastic keys." Due to the shortage of raw materials, the company could not be selective, but "even if it was bought back Re-select one by one", and finally it can be worth the fare, which shows the considerable profit at the beginning.

As one of the first companies to bring selfie sticks into China, although Langteng has done a very good job in selfie sticks, Li Weiwen is not optimistic about its future. He expects that the selfie sticks will still have at most three years. market life. Recently, major attractions around the world have imposed bans on selfie sticks, which may cause them to wither faster.

In fact, Langten started planning for a day without selfie sticks three years ago: the company has already started producing Apple's peripherals, and has become an authorized supplier of Apple accessories, as well as custom-made for major customers. several production lines. After the selfie stick, it may only be a matter of time before Langteng finds the next immediate need.

Why win?

Lonton's core value is win. How to win? It's not just finding the just need, Li Weiwen believes that it is necessary to innovate in the rigid need. The same is the socket, why can Xiaomi sell 200,000? Because it's done beautifully and simply, that's innovation.

Lonton makes selfie sticks in various shapes, even into heart-shaped necklaces that can be worn around the neck. "We have half of our energy in developing new styles, new trends. The best-selling selfie stick is an aluminum alloy selfie stick, which is very light." Langten also tried to make it shorter and shorter. It can be put into the pocket to solve the portability problem of the selfie stick.

Innovation is not only reflected in product design, but also in the management of capital chain and production capacity.

In the production of MHL, many factories are reluctant to accept orders because customers' orders are often small batches and diversified. But Langteng accepts customization, accepts mixing and matching, and even accepts orders for 50 pieces. Fragmented orders will inevitably lead to rising costs. Langteng's response is to prepare materials in large quantities. "It's July now, and maybe our materials for August have already entered the factory. Suppliers usually give us a 60-day billing period, but our customers only give cash, and they pay when they place an order, so our funds are also There is plenty.” “In our industry, a factory with 1,000 people can make about 100 million a year. Our factory has less than 100 people, but it has achieved more than 30 million.” Li Weiwen once made a rough estimate and concluded that The conclusion is: Langteng's per capita output value is the highest in the entire industry.

The secret is automation.

A customer once asked Li Weiwen: Your company is so small, if my orders increase exponentially every month, how can you guarantee the quality and delivery of the products? When visiting the factory, the customer found that the important processes of ensuring quality on the production line are all done by machines. "We use machines as much as we can without people. If we order now, we will use one robot. If the customer places three times the order, I will buy three such robots." Li Weiwen replied to the customer.

Because of ensuring high efficiency and low cost in production, and the product can be surprisingly successful, the company can certainly win.

The troubles from small and micro enterprises to small and medium-sized enterprises

But in 2014, Langton encountered the troubles of growth.

Before 2014, the company's operating mode was no different from before: "We will do whatever the customer wants, and if the customer doesn't ask for it, we will make some inventory and wait for him to buy it." But Li Weiwen found that , "We can't move anymore".

The company expanded its scale in 2014, and the plant has grown from 750 square meters to more than 6,000 square meters. At the same time, operating expenses have also risen rapidly.

"With the current scale, we will definitely not be able to make orders like 50 or 100. When a factory has 30 people, it can be done and still make money; when there are 100 people, it will not necessarily make money. 300 If you take this order again, you will only lose money. The original profit is high because your management cost is low and the company's operating cost is also low. After your cost increases, the original triple gross profit will pass through the market. There may only be 50% of the baptism left. In other words, such customers can no longer support our large-scale operations.”

This may be the reason why many small and micro enterprises have successfully upgraded to small and medium-sized enterprises. problems that the company will face. It turns out that the boat is small and easy to turn around, and what is sold is easy to sell. The extensive production method can also make double profits. However, when the company grows to a certain scale, it needs to put more effort in management.

"It turns out that Amazon sold hundreds of sticks in the last month, and we also made tens of thousands of sticks, but in the end we found that we couldn't make seafood and fried rice at the same time." Li Weiwen put the company Like a restaurant, in the end, you have to decide whether to be a high-end restaurant or a fast food restaurant.

Li Weiwen's choice is naturally the former. "We are now investing a lot of money in equipment and talent training." Langteng, who was always willing to come, also began to select customers, "We hope to serve some higher-end customers, who have their own product ideas and products. It is no longer so sensitive. It is very helpful for us to be an Apple licensee."

Li Weiwen's plan for Langton is also in line with the development path of Made in China. He said: When I started sales 10 years ago, the industry was basically Taiwan-funded, and the factories in the mainland were very inconspicuous, and they all made accessories and OEM. Great changes have been made in the past ten years, and Chinese companies have now accumulated a lot of power.