Morning News (March 28, 2006)
"Our company is simply the' Whampoa Military Academy' in the outdoor development field in Wuhan, and I am the principal of the' Whampoa Military Academy'." In an interview on March 20th, Chen Daoyun introduced himself with a smile. "Sixty-seven employees and students who went out from our company set up more than 10 development companies".
Chen Daoyun, 39, a native of Wuhan, is the general manager of Wuhan Yeshan Sports Leisure Company, a member of chinese mountaineering association Outdoor Sports Professional Committee, and one of the first sports agents in Hubei Province to obtain national certification.
Chen Daoyun went to Shanghai from 1997 as secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee of state-owned enterprises, and entered the outdoor development industry from 1999. "Chen Daoyun is a local explorer in this field," said Minister Zhou Quping of Social Sports Management Center of Provincial Sports Bureau.
After two crises, Chen Daoyun decided to be a "long-distance runner". In 2005, because of pioneering work in the field of outdoor development, I was invited to be one of the three drafters of the National Standard for Outdoor Development Sites.
Give up the profitable business and do what you like.
Chen Daoyun 1989 After graduating from Correspondence University, he joined a state-owned pharmaceutical company and started as a palletizer, that is, the head of a porter. After several years of hard work, his work has been affirmed and he was promoted to secretary of the Youth League Committee. Compared with his previous hard work, he has more energy and spare time. Because of interest, he taught himself a bachelor's degree in sports psychology.
In addition to studying, Chen Daoyun also uses his spare time to "earn some extra money" and "receive advertisements outside, do some small business and earn tens of thousands of dollars". With a business mind, he finally couldn't bear the loneliness, and resigned in 1997 to start a wholesale business.
At the beginning, he was divided into two ways: on the one hand, he opened a home appliance accessories store on Qianjin Road; On the other hand, he is optimistic about Beijing's outdoor equipment market and opened a store in Beijing. His interest was in the latter, but due to lack of experience, he soon lost tens of thousands of yuan. Unexpectedly, the sales of accessories in Wuhan were very smooth, which made him earn more than 65,438 yuan.
Continue to do things that make money, or do things that you like? Chen Daoyun chose What I Want. The market in Beijing is mature, but it is still blank in Wuhan. He said, "In Wuhan, people's awareness of outdoor expansion is not strong, and there are business opportunities if there are gaps!" After reluctantly giving up the home appliance accessories business, Chen Daoyun devoted himself to outdoor development.
"Pioneer" is in danger, and "Martyr" innovation stands firm.
1In May, 999, Chen Daoyun founded Wuhan Yeshan Sports and Leisure Co., Ltd. ... Like all pioneers in the industry, he faced the problem of cultivating the market.
How to cultivate? Advertisements and leaflets are only the main means of training. Chen Daoyun keeps organizing large-scale forums, planning large-scale outdoor activities, and participating in relevant activities organized by the media as a professional. Soon, Chen Daoyun, who claimed to be a "single-horse cart" in Wuhan, attracted enough attention, with more and more fans and participants. After the difficult initial stage passed, in the second half of 2000, the operating conditions of Yeshan began to improve, and with the needs of business development, its scale expanded rapidly.
But it didn't last long. 200 1 In the first half of the year, an employee left his job and started his own outdoor sports club "quietly". The power of "example" is considerable. Since then, employees have left the barren hills one by one to go it alone.
"The gap in the market means disorder, the threshold is not high, and everyone can share a piece of it." Chen Daoyun said helplessly, "Some lines we have developed have become the shared resources of many companies. I have been sitting in the position of' President of Whampoa Military Academy' since then. "
Outdoor development companies "rush headlong into action", and Chen Daoyun's early market cultivation has also become "marrying for others". In the homogeneous market competition, Yeshan is facing a crisis. "The only countermeasure is innovation!" Chen Daoyun's tone is deep and powerful, which makes it easy to imagine the "chaos" of the market at that time.
In the following year, Chen Daoyun continued to develop new outward bound training programs and routes, and gradually left imitators behind. He said: "Wild Mountain is a never-ending train. People keep getting on and off, but we are always advancing in innovation."
According to Chen Daoyun, 67 people who went out from Yeshan were engaged in outdoor development, but most of them lacked innovative consciousness and copied Yeshan's route and training plan. Only five or six development companies have survived.
Blindly expanding and failing, determined to do "long-distance running"
Shortly after the first crisis, Yeshan faced difficulties again.
At that time, a travel company proposed to cooperate with Yeshan by mutual equity participation. Chen Daoyun, who is too optimistic about the market, thinks this is a good opportunity for expansion. Soon, the two sides reached an agreement.
With the company's capital injection, the scale of Yeshan continues to expand. Hiring employees, setting up new office locations and developing new production lines, Yeshan has continuously increased its investment.
At that time, Yeshan exclusively developed the Longtan Gorge tourist route, the predecessor of Mulan Tianchi, which was very popular and attracted widespread attention. "We were confused about this case, but we didn't realize that the whole market was far from mature." Excessive expansion leads to bloated institutions and personnel, rising costs, increasingly chaotic management and unstable people's hearts. Chen Daoyun said, "At that time, we had four general managers in four offices in Wu Hanyou, including me. The number of resigned employees has gradually increased. " Poor internal management has caused the market to shrink. In the emerging markets of various small expansion companies, Yeshan has begun to lose its advantage, and the innovation of lines and projects has also stagnated.
Facing the immature market, we should choose to be long-distance runners. Half a year later, Chen Daoyun decisively terminated the cooperative relationship between the two sides. As the other party has decided to change its business direction, Chen Daoyun repurchased the shares held by the other party and started to operate independently. After a period of glory, Yeshan entered a temporary low point.
Re-segment the market and embark on expanding Zhang Zhilu.
In order to get rid of the predicament, Chen Daoyun began to explore new expansion space. He noticed that the initial outward bound training was mostly carried out in the wild natural environment and belonged to the low-end training stage. However, the goal of this low-end training is to cultivate team spirit and team responsibility, but it fails to achieve the purpose of team functions such as division of labor and cooperation, running-in degree and so on. He explained: "In the true sense, outward bound training is to help trainees reach the initial stage of training, change their attitudes and behaviors, and benefit both individuals and entrusted enterprises."
In order to meet the needs of different customers, Chen Daoyun divided the outward bound training from low to high into four training stages and training methods: outward bound experience, outward bound training, innovative training and magic pull training, and completed a preliminary market segmentation.
On the internal mechanism, he divided Wild Mountain into three parts: Wild Mountain Outdoor Studio, Wild Mountain Outward Bound Training Institution and Wild Mountain Club, which were dedicated to low-end, high-end, member outward bound training and training base construction.
After 200 1 year, in order to lock in the core customer base of the Wild Mountain Club, Chen Daoyun changed the original free membership system to a fee system. There were many objections at that time, but time proved that his decision was correct, and the company soon entered the stage of stable profit. At present, there are more than 6,300 individual members of Yeshan.
Absorbing foreign countries to join the "long-distance running" has achieved results.
In recent years, Yeshan has successively established its own training bases in Yinzhihu Lake in Caidian, Wuhan, Qiandaohu Lake in Yangxin and Longquan, and has undertaken several training base projects, such as Nanhu Bay in Hubei, CCTV Film and Television City in Foshan, Guangdong, Lingshan in Hebei and Taihang Tianhe Mountain. Its business scope is based in Hubei and radiates across the country. By the end of 2005, 500 well-known enterprise groups had received experiential development and special conference training.
Good wine is not afraid of deep alleys. In 2003, many foreign companies took the initiative to find Shenye Mountain to discuss joining matters, which gave Chen Mengsheng the idea of establishing joining system. By the end of 2005, Yeshan had initially identified five franchisees, namely Jiangyin in Jiangsu, Zhuzhou in Hunan, Wanzhou in Chongqing, Pingdingshan in Henan and Dalian in Liaoning. Chen Daoyun said: "We want to promote the brand of Yeshan from Central China to the whole country, and recruiting franchisees is a better way."
At the end of 2005, due to some pioneering work in the outdoor development industry, Chen Daoyun was invited to be one of the three drafters of the National Standard for Outdoor Development Sites and the only drafter engaged in the industry. He revealed that a large part of the draft will be based on Yeshan's base construction standards.
[Peer review]
Manager of Wuhan Compass Sports Consulting Co., Ltd. He: Our company and Yeshan were both established on 1999, which are the earliest two companies in Wuhan outdoor development industry, but Mr. Chen's company is earlier than mine. Besides being competitors, Mr. Chen and I are also good friends. In the field of outdoor development in Wuhan, Mr. Chen plays the role of a pioneer and is a person worthy of respect from his peers. Because of his rich experience in training base construction, he was naturally invited to be the drafter of the National Standard for Outdoor Development Sites. Of course, in the process of starting a business, he also experienced great setbacks. For example, two years ago, Ye Shan merged with another company, and later parted ways because of different ideas. The other party took away a group of key coaches from his company. Faced with the blow, Mr. Chen's strength made his peers admire him.