Chapter 69 Business Way 68 Imitate others and surpass in imitation

The essence of business: Wenshang understands the principle of surpassing in imitation, and always maintains the spirit of active innovation.However, Wenshang’s imitation is not just imitation for the sake of imitation, but surpassing in imitation, and always looking for breakthroughs in imitation-carefully observe other people’s experience, and at the same time find fault with others, and consciously make improvements. Wenzhou's leather shoes imitate Italy, clothing imitates France, and lighters imitate Japan... From imitation to innovation is the secret of many Wenzhou businessmen's fortunes.

It is the practice of many companies to imitate first and then surpass.To borrow a contemporary saying, this is called "crossing the river by feeling the stones".Needless to say, many Wenzhou-based businessmen started their business development from "simulation", which is now called "copying" and "cloning".The businesses of Wenzhou merchants are "hatched" from green vegetables, shallots, chickens and ducks, so there is no model or tradition.Things like buttons, leather shoes, clothing and lighters were all imitated at first.Buttons can be produced by removing a few buttons from clothes bought from other places or abroad, and carefully studying them.There are many compatriots in Wenzhou scattered all over the world. As long as they return to their hometown, clothing and supplies will become the targets of businessmen.What beautiful clothes, chic buttons, and fashionable lighters, once in the hands of Wen Shang, can be dissected in one night.When the compatriot is about to go abroad, he will see that the same lifelike and exquisite imitation of the things he uses has been placed in the window, which often makes people amazed.

Of course, most of Wenshang's leading products are simple, easy to dissect, and have certain manual skills, while products that are more difficult, such as computers, watches, and cosmetics, are not included in the imitation. In the 1990s, Wenzhou glasses enterprises developed to more than one hundred, and attracted many foreign businessmen with novel styles, high quality and low price.Statistics show that in 1997, the output value of Wenzhou glasses industry exceeded 1 billion yuan, and rose to 1.5 billion yuan in 1999, accounting for 1/3 of the global sales volume, and sold well in more than 20 countries and regions.Ye Zijian, the owner of Ocean Glass Company, became the "King of Glasses" through imitation. In 1982, after graduating from high school, Ye Zijian worked as an ordinary worker in the metal workshop of Wenzhou Candied Fruit Factory. At that time, many smuggled "gold wire" glasses flowed into the Wenzhou market.Ye Zijian felt that this kind of glasses was popular, novel in style, and there was bound to be a market, so he spent a month's salary to buy a pair of gold-wire glasses, then disassembled the frame, and based on his own understanding of metalworking, he split up to other companies. After processing by the accessories factory, and then assembling by ourselves, the first batch of "gold wire" frames were finally produced.Ye Zijian has since embarked on the life path of "King of Glasses".

In the production of shoe machines, Wen Shang is also good at imitating. Wenzhou Dalong Machinery Co., Ltd. boldly introduces and adopts the advanced technology of Italian shoe machine manufacturers, and carries out technological innovation on this basis.They call it "walking with giants". In 1994, they cooperated with Yihong Company, a Taiwanese shoe machine manufacturer, to produce accessories for it. Two years later, Dalong launched the shoe machine developed and produced by itself to the market.Only by making continuous progress can there be greater development. Later, Dalong aimed at Italian technology.They chose Italy's Sabah and BC as partners, and the Italian side provided international-level shoe machine drawings, while Dalong was responsible for the production and sales of shoe machines, and soon became one of the world's first-class shoe machine manufacturers.

Wenzhou people are good at pondering, looking from near to far.In this regard, Wenzhou native Liu Shiming is a famous example. No one would have thought that shortly after he was released from the labor camp, Liu Shiming, who knew nothing about making clothes, could make a fortune selling leather jackets.When he first came out of the labor camp, Liu Shiming's heart was also moved when he saw that the streets were full of colorful fake fashions, and many of his relatives and friends became rich because of this.But he is a typical layman. At that time, some people began to wear leather jackets, and most people could not afford them, and the sales were limited and the goods were in high demand.Liu Shiming, who went to Beijing to seek development at that time, saw this scene in his eyes.He thought about this and started making leather jackets—as long as there is no shortage of raw materials, its production process is actually very simple, and after it is put on the market, the sales volume is large and the profit is good.Liu Shiming soon became famous in various commercial buildings in the capital, becoming a fashionista in the business world who wins by leather jackets.More importantly, he started from imitation, quickly found a way, worked hard on design, and soon created his own brand.

Don't feel shy, "stealing art" success is a skill, especially in a new region or industry, you must be good at applying existing valuable products and commodity models. In 1990, Chen Ping, who had just arrived in Japan to study, was attracted by the weird "home delivery" cars all over the street.He inquired and learned that this was an express company transport vehicle called "Flying Leg" by the Japanese.Later, Chen Ping asked "Home Express" to deliver the goods once, which gave him a better understanding of it.When he returned to China after graduation, he decided to imitate Japan's "home delivery" and bring fast delivery services to mainland China.

In January 1994, Chen Ping's "Zhaijidelivery" company was formally established in Beijing. At that time, there was only an office of more than 10 square meters, 7 employees, and 3 vehicles. Their service slogan was: "Just a phone call, nothing to worry about! "However, two days before the opening of "Home Express", no business was received.On the third day, Chen Ping couldn't sit still anymore, and drove the driver and car onto the road to "sweep the street" (do business along the street).The first business they received that day made people laugh and cry: a passer-by mistook their truck for a minibus and wanted to take it to the Asian Games Village.Chen Ping earned one yuan from this illegal small business.

But Chen Ping did not lose heart, but persevered.In the following days, Chen Ping's "home delivery service" took over all kinds of work in order to survive, such as picking up clothes for others, repairing refrigerators, delivering roast ducks, picking up children, changing gas... Perhaps because the business philosophy of "Home Express" has impressed the citizens, gradually, the business volume of "Home Express" has increased. "Home Express" began to expand to the whole country.From the establishment of a branch in Shanghai in 1998 to the present, "ZJS" has opened more than 40 branches and business outlets across the country.

Chen Ping said: "Although Coca-Cola is only a soda seller, it can also sell to the top few of the world's top 500 companies, surpassing those companies that manufacture airplanes and cars. I only deliver goods for people, and I can also grow big." Today, the total assets of ZJS have reached 150 million yuan. In fact, imitation is the simplest kind of creativity. It is well known that Wenzhou people are good at imitating, but they are not copying rote.Their wisdom lies in their flexibility and innovation.Innovation is naturally indispensable in the success stories of Wenzhou entrepreneurs. The commonality of their innovations is that innovation is permeated with exquisiteness, practicality and economy.

If you walk into the workshop of Wenzhou Shunfa Plastic Factory, the largest manufacturer of colorful plastic woven bags in China, you will be amazed at the colorful world in front of you. This statement is by no means an exaggeration.This enterprise has fixed assets of 22 million yuan, and also has three super-large domestic most advanced fully automatic woven bag production lines.Its products have obtained the ISO9002 international quality system certification issued by China Import and Export Commodity Quality System Certification Center, and several major domestic feed production groups such as Hope Group and Chia Tai Group are its customers.

The secret to the growth and development of this enterprise is entirely due to an extremely simple idea.The boss Cai Fuji, like many Wenzhou merchants, was also a salesman.At the beginning of the establishment of the factory, he only produced ordinary white plastic woven bags. The fierce market competition made a woven bag only earn 3 cents.At this time, Boss Cai was inspired by other buyers and sellers and came up with the idea of ​​producing colorful plastic woven bags, because one of the main uses of the product at that time was as packaging for feed.There are various types of feed, and the feeds eaten by pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese all come from different formulas.At that time, the only way to distinguish different feeds was the foreign codes and Chinese characters on the feed packaging. Such signs made farmers who were not very literate very troublesome.Moreover, because the signs are not obvious, different feeds cannot be stacked together, which also takes up a lot of warehouse space.Boss Cai thought about it for a long time, and finally came up with a good way, which is to use color as a logo (of course, the text is not discarded), red for pig feed, green for chicken feed, yellow for duck feed... It’s easy to identify , Is it convenient to stack?Moreover, illiterate farmers can recognize colors, and using colors as signs can improve the efficiency of recognition. It is such a seemingly simple idea that made the produced colorful woven bags warmly welcomed by farmers as soon as they came out, and the company was able to quickly expand the market and promote development. Its output value increased from more than 10 million yuan in 1996 Developed to 68 million yuan in 1999, the equipment has also been replaced by 13 fully automatic production lines from ordinary iron turbines.In order to solve the problem of pure color and durability, Boss Cai also hired professors from Zhejiang University to adopt advanced nanotechnology.Today, Boss Cai’s colorful woven bags have considerable market power. He exclusively produces plastic woven bags of various specifications and colors. The products sell well in China and are exported to Asian and European countries. The profit has increased from 3 cents per bag to 7 cents per bag. horn.Whenever he talked about his colorful woven bags, the introverted and unsmiling boss Cai immediately smiled and became lively and talkative. Wen Shang understands this truth: when it is time to imitate, you need to imitate with all your strength and learn thoroughly, but when it is time to let go, you must not hesitate.Whenever imitating other people's products, Wenshang always tries his best to imitate boldly; when it is time to change, even if it is a good opportunity for development, they will spare no effort.They keep an eye on the changes in the market, never think about once and for all, and don't go to the dark by a small road, but know how to shoot in the right position - while imitating others and doing in-depth research, they must also pay attention to the changes in the outside world, drinking The rice porridge in the bowl should also look at the dry rice in the pot. Wenshang understands the principle of surpassing in imitation, and always maintains the spirit of active innovation.However, Wenshang’s imitation is not just imitation for the sake of imitation, but surpassing in imitation, and always looking for breakthroughs in imitation-carefully observe other people’s experience, and at the same time find fault with others, and consciously make improvements.They understand that sometimes even the smallest changes can have huge benefits in the marketplace.In short, from imitation to innovation, this is one of the secrets of Wenzhou businessmen getting rich.