Wang Yang: The future belongs to resource integrators

"Look, they can be sucked together to form a small sound column, separated into two small speakers, and can also be sucked on the refrigerator." In Yuanding Technology's slightly cramped office, Wang Yang Showing off the company's latest products with great interest.

Connect to the phone via Bluetooth, and the clear music will flow out like a spring. Best of all, the music seems to be right in front of you no matter where the two speakers are placed. "There are very few products that can achieve this kind of true stereo effect." The 84-year-old boy with two small tiger teeth when he smiled, founded the Trendwoo brand in 2012, and sold Bluetooth speakers made in China to all over the world.

He focuses on the narrow field of outdoor bluetooth speakers. The products must be waterproof, dustproof, and drop-proof, without losing sound quality. In Hong Kong Apple Store, Singapore Airport and other audio stores, speakers marked with the company's LOGO are displayed side by side with products from international brands such as Bosch and JBL. When a consumer said that they could hear a more beautiful background sound than they had ever heard from a speaker called beat it sold by Yuanding, Wang Yang felt an unprecedented joy.

The development path of this company seems to be contradictory: it does not have its own factory, but it has established its own brand; as a trading company, it has set up a research and development team in Los Angeles, USA. If it is explained by the famous smile curve, this may indicate a trend - made in China, accustomed to working hard in the production process, is trying to move to the two ends of the smile curve. In Wang Yang's own words, "I am good at using other people's longboards to make up for my own shortcomings."

"I am the biggest product manager"

After 2008, domestic electronics manufacturers generally felt that business was difficult. In previous years, foreign buyers carried cash and waited for shipment at the factory gate. , I am afraid it will only appear in dreams in the future. "On the one hand, it is true that the cost is too high, but the biggest reason is that your product is not good enough." Wang Yang interpreted this phenomenon in this way.

Yuanding's products are generally 10%-20% higher than similar products produced by domestic counterparts, "but we have no shortage of buyers". Wang Yang's confidence comes from the product. The Beat it mentioned above was evaluated by consumers as "the sound quality can be comparable to Bose!" on Amazon.

"An excellent product must solve the pain points of consumers. Our entire development team will improve the product from the user's point of view, and I am the biggest product manager." The company once produced a A flashlight-style bluetooth speaker called Freeman that can be placed on the handlebars of a bicycle and originally had a display. But when the product was upgraded, Wang Yang insisted on removing the screen.

"Is it bad to have a screen?"

"Of course not! Do you have eyes to see the screen when you are riding?" Wang Yang laughed and said: "And You will also worry that the screen will be broken.” After removing the display, the user experience is improved, and because the process is not as complicated as before, the defect rate of the product is also greatly reduced.

"We do addition by experience, and subtraction by function." Wang Yang often regards himself as a user and draws out design drawings. He first sees which functions are necessary and which functions need to be subtracted. After the factory makes the sample, it has to go through its own trial and use, and only when it is satisfied can the mold be opened and put into production.

The whole process may sound lengthy, but in fact, smaller companies like Yuanding often have the ability to react quickly and gain an upper hand in the market. In Yuanding, it takes no more than two months for a new product to go from idea to launch. On Wang Yang's product development schedule, there were 11 new products under design throughout June, and they maintained a frequency of 3 new products per month. .

After a certain exhibition, a customer complained to Wang Yang that only two companies were constantly launching new products in the whole exhibition. Yuanding is one of them. Why are many powerful companies holding back? "Because they don't know what new products to develop, although they don't lack funds to produce products," Wang Yang thinks.

In order to "know what new products to develop", Yuanding has a R&D team in Los Angeles, USA. This R&D team was originally Yuanding's customer and consisted of seven speaker enthusiasts. They often gave Yuanding's products some suggestions, and if they saw something new in the United States, they would also ask Wang Yang "can it be made". In 2013, Wang Yang wanted to "sublime" this loose relationship, so he simply "incorporated" this customer and turned it into his own R&D team.

"The Chinese are still too Chinese in their work." And this overseas R&D team contributed some less "Chinese" ideas to the company. There was a research and development staff from the United Kingdom, who was inspired by the small and exquisite handbags popular among British women in the 1950s and 1960s, and provided a product idea with a handle, an ultra-thin appearance and a retro feel.

In line with this idea, the company specially made ultra-thin speakers and reprocessed the sound. This product was launched at this year's exhibition and attracted the attention of many buyers, and a customer from South Africa placed an order on the spot.

Creativity often does not come from such a flash of inspiration, and the R&D team usually has to do a lot of homework: "First of all, they love this product; then they will go to the market to see what trends are there; I will also often do some research, go to the store, go to Amazon, see which similar products have better sales, and also obtain reports from some professional institutions for analysis.

"We are as close to our suppliers as family"

"Each of us has our own shortcomings, and we must be good at using others' strengths to make up for our own shortcomings. The future must belong to A resource integrator, not a one-size-fits-all person." In Wang Yang's view, the company's biggest shortcoming is production, "We don't touch production, but we find a factory with strong quality control and good cooperation. In-depth cooperation with them. And we focus on product development and sales."

This is a common practice of trading companies. In the last wave of "light companies", many companies also rushed to The production link is outsourced, and only the design and brand are retained. Although this allows the company to travel lightly, it also magnifies the risks of each link in the supply chain. The companies that are trapped by this have PPG before and Vanke after. In order to ensure product quality, PPG has repeatedly sued suppliers, and finally ended in 2009; and according to media reports, Vanke CEO Chen Nian is still running between various foundry factories to solve long-standing quality problems .

"We are tied to suppliers, we are actually one family." Wang Yang described the relationship with suppliers. "We don't just place orders for him, but sometimes also invest in shares. We are even willing to pay him a reward for a supplier who has done well. If the supplier's product exceeds our expectations, we will take a sum of money. For example, each product is 50 cents or 1 yuan, and let suppliers reward their R&D and QC teams. We will not eat the profits of suppliers, but the entire cost will be disclosed, and everyone will earn a portion of their own.”

"We will also strictly inspect the factory inspection process and control the QC." Wang Yang believes that this in-depth cooperation can not only ensure that the supplier and the company have a dialogue on the same channel, but also Can help suppliers grow.

When selecting suppliers, Wang Yang values his R&D team the most. He found that the engineers of some suppliers often have "blind eyes", "such engineers are basically exhausted, and it is difficult and unwilling for them to change, but every month when the day comes to get their wages, there will be no Good work." Wang Yang once handed over a very creative new product to a supplier for R&D and production, and was confident to launch it at a large-scale exhibition. For this reason, the entire booth revolved around this product. product to design. But after the product was formed, Wang Yang found that this product is what engineers want, not what consumers want.

"In addition, there are some engineers who will make the product very complicated, such as a simple flashlight speaker. He may also want to add a lot of unnecessary functions, and it takes half a day to write instructions and teach consumers. At this time, I think this product has basically failed. Our thinking is that if a child can use a product, it will be a success.”

Along the way, Wang Yang also We are constantly screening suppliers, hoping to grow together with those high-quality suppliers.

"It's not that difficult to be a brand, the key is the product"

Do you want to be a brand? Regarding this issue, although there are different voices in the industry, Wang Yang found that after launching its own brand Trendwoo, the company has become more profitable: on the one hand, products with their own LOGO will be more expensive; on the other hand, large-scale production makes Standardization increases, and the company's production costs actually drop.

In 2012, Yuanding launched its own brand Trendwoo, and now there are 16 global first-class brand agents. Wang Yang's original intention was to "do a career": "There are two purposes for starting a company. The first is to do business, and the second is to do business." But Wang Yang doesn't want to be the kind of company that buys with the left and sells with the right and only cares about the price.

"At first we talked to the agent about making a product of our own brand, but they were also very worried. From the design to the production of the product, we constantly communicated with them, kept proofing, kept on We will confirm with them, and we will not launch it until the agent thinks it is perfect enough." Seeing the good response in the market, Wang Yang, who has been worried all the time, was relieved, which made him feel that "it's not that difficult to be an independent brand. , the key is the product.”

But at the same time, he found that things became more fragmented and complex, and there was a lot to consider. Not only the product, but even a USB cable, and even the cable ties on the cable, are all related to the brand image. Wang Yang took out a white data cable. This flat data cable is soft and flexible. The binding wire is a white rubber band, not the thin iron wire commonly found in the market wrapped with a layer of rubber. stabbed".

"You do a lot of things, it may not be beneficial to the brand, but if you don't do it, your brand will be killed quickly." It is precisely in these details that Wang Yang hopes to bring the brand breakthrough. "If the product is scored out of 100 points, our product can be scored 75 points. In fact, everyone can achieve 70 points, and the extra 5 points is because my products are somewhat different from others. But now, We need to score from 75 to 80 points, and these 5 points must come from the details, and these 5 points are very difficult."

Channel development, marketing costs, and even inventory management are all issues that Wang Yang has to consider. From OEM to self-owned brand, the market risk that enterprises have to bear is obviously much greater. In his view, this tests not only the production and manufacturing of enterprises, but the overall management ability.