In April 2009, after the case of Haidilao was published in the Chinese edition of Harvard Business Review, several publishing houses successively asked me to write a book about Haidilao.But I was really not sure about writing Haidilao's book, and I was busy, so I turned them down one by one. At the beginning of 2010, my old friend Bian Jie, director of the special issue department of "Chinese Entrepreneur", brought Li Min, the executive editor-in-chief of "Chinese Entrepreneur", to Peking University to find me. I was tempted and called Haidilao Chairman Zhang Yong to write this book.

Zhang Yong was very hesitant. He said: "Haidilao is already well-known outside the world. It's hard to live up to the reputation. If I publish another book, I'm afraid it will be blown away." I said, "Think about it again, I'll call you in a few days. " On the second phone call, Zhang Yong agreed, but he put forward three conditions.He said: "Teacher Huang, first, if you want to write, write a real Haidilao. It is necessary to show the good and bad sides of Haidilao, the problems and confusion; as long as it is true, I don't mind.Second, I will not give you money to write Haidilao's book.Third, after you have finished writing, I will not review the manuscript. "

I said: "OK." Therefore, "Chinese Entrepreneur" sent me a big reporter, Ms. Sun Yanan, to accompany me in the interviews and help me sort out the materials. Eight months later, the book was handed over to CITIC Publishing House. This book is really difficult to write. Zhang Yong not only fully opened Haidilao to me, let me interview all the executives of Haidilao, but also allowed me to enter his family and his past; coupled with his sentence "I don't review manuscripts", it is even more so. Makes my pen extra tangled.Writing this book, I learned that being fully trusted is not a good thing, because it is too heavy.In fact, this is Zhang Yong's way of managing people, and I was actually "managed" by him once.

After finishing the draft of this book, I began to mutter: Should I let Zhang Yong read it?What if I write something inaccurate or wrong, which will have a bad influence on Zhang Yong and Haidilao?Later, I held back.The reason is: this is my book, and it is my perspective on Haidilao.The world is a kaleidoscope, and Haidilao is also a kaleidoscope. Everyone sees it from a different angle, so the patterns should not be the same. Therefore, if this book has a bad influence on Zhang Yong or all the people I nominated or not nominated in the book, I apologize in advance. The second difficulty in writing this book is technical. In what form should I write it?According to the novel, after writing 30,000 characters, I couldn't write any more.Written according to reportage, the beginning is also stuck.From the perspective of business management, it still doesn't work.Toss for three months, really uncomfortable!In the end, it was my mother who knew nothing about writing. One sentence made me calm down.I took my 79-year-old mother to Haidilao.After the old lady finished eating, she went out and said, "These rural children are really touching!"

Yes, just write out the things that moved me from Haidilao, no matter what style it is!Thus, there is this "four unlikenesses" composed of 62 short essays. First of all, I would like to thank Zhang Yong for the publication of this book.He let me into his world, and let me explore without restraint! Thanks to Zhang Yong's mother, Zhang Yong's wife, these two women who are the most important to Zhang Yong have opened their hearts to me. Thanks to Zhang Yong's childhood neighbors, Zhan Rongxiang's mother-in-law's family, they gave me a deeper understanding of Zhang Yong's history.

I would like to thank Zhang Yong’s best friend and classmate in his youth—Shi Yonghong who founded Haidilao together with him. I am moved by his frankness, generosity and tolerance. Thanks to Zhang Yong’s buddy and classmate in his youth——Yang Bin, who is now the head of procurement at Haidilao, he made me, a 55-year-old who thought he knew what people are like, have a new understanding of people . Thanks to Yang Xiaoli, a Sichuan woman, the only deputy general manager of Haidilao, her story made my wife cry three times. Thanks to Yuan Huaqiang, General Manager of Haidilao Beijing Region, who made me interested in studying Haidilao.

Thanks to Gou Yiqun, the chief financial officer of Haidilao, the most highly educated intellectual in this enterprise dominated by migrant workers, his thinking and logic made me feel fresh. I would also like to thank Xie Ying, Chen Yong, Lin Yi, Yang Hua, Feng Boying, Fang Shuanghua, Xie Zhanghua, Zhu Yinhua, etc. The stories of each of them have given me a new understanding of Haidilao. I would also like to thank all the Haidilao waiters who served me at the table and never ceased to annoy them with my questions every time I ate. In addition, I would like to thank "Haidilao Culture Monthly" and its editor-in-chief, Mr. Zheng Caoli.Not only did I quote a lot of stories published in Haidilao, the company’s internal journal, in the book, but this tabloid also became the only text file for me to understand the history of Haidilao, from which I gained insight into the changes in Haidilao.I am deeply grateful to the writers and providers of these stories.

I would also like to thank the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University and the students who have listened to my class in the past 9 years. They not only provided me with a platform, but also forced me to give a good lecture on the actual combat cases of Chinese shopping malls.In order to find better case materials, I set my sights on Haidilao. I also included my students' articles about Haidilao in the book, they are Li Yinzhou, Li Huiman, Jin Xiuzhen, Kuang Lin, Ouyang Yishi and Wang Tingwei, and I would like to express my gratitude to them! Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my wife, who passed the first pass of each article in this book.If any article did not move her, I would rethink it.

(The final draft was made on December 17, 2010 in Changchun, when it snowed heavily and the temperature was minus 23 degrees Celsius)