From 65438 to 0999, 34-year-old Fan Min met three people in Lulu Restaurant: Shen Nanpeng, then an executive of Deutsche Bank, Liang Jianzhang, the consulting director of China District in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and Miracle, who founded many high-tech enterprises.
At that time, it was the time when the second internet wave swept across the country. Ma Yun founded Alibaba in Hangzhou, and Li Guoqing, an individual bookseller, and his returnee wife Yu Yu jointly founded Dangdang. Young Chen Tianqiao started a grand game with 500,000 yuan, and Sina, which was born in the first Internet wave, went public. This year, E-Dragon Travel Network was established in Beijing.
Fan Min (1999) has become a heavyweight in Shanghai tourism. 1990 After obtaining a master's degree from the School of Management of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fan Min entered the tourism industry, and 1999 became the general manager of Shanghai Travel Agency.
For Liang and others, it is "a corner in the encyclopedia", but for me, it is a platform that needs years of theory and practice urgently. The two sides hit it off, and the Ctrip Dream Team was born.
After Ctrip was founded, the advantages of the Dream Team were brought into full play. The four people have a clear division of labor: Liang is responsible for the company's strategic determination and management, Shen is responsible for financing, quarterly report is responsible for technology, and Fan is responsible for specific business and market.
However, after integrating the information on the platform, four people found that it is impossible to make the enterprise bigger by advertising, which is too popular and must make concrete and tangible products. At that time, nearly 300 travel websites had been born in China, and only a few of them, such as Ctrip and E Long, first realized this and successfully transformed themselves.
Since 2000, Ctrip has changed from simply providing information services to providing products, supplemented by providing information. The first product they decided was room reservation, and they began to finance the acquisition of Hyundai Express, the earliest and largest traditional room reservation center in China. This strategic shift is considered to be a key step for Ctrip to achieve rapid development and establish the status of "one brother" in the industry. Unfortunately, Ctrip's plan happened to meet the surging Internet cold wave in 2000. However, the genes of the dream team are doomed to Ctrip's firmness and conformity. The four partners calm down and overcome it bit by bit. They should concentrate on technology, manage it well or strictly, and all those who can raise money dance outside. Ctrip stood out after more and more peers were submerged by the turbulent bubble. Fan Min said, "We really should thank our dream team for avoiding the robbery. Because looking for venture capital, you must first pull your team out for others to see. Whether the career can develop, the team is the first. "
Internet legend
In March, 20001year, Ctrip has become the largest hotel distributor in China, and announced its profit in June 10.
In March 2002, Ctrip took the key second step: acquiring the air ticket business along the coast of Beijing, and built the largest air ticket reservation center in China in June, 5438+ 10. As an internet company that survived the robbery, Ctrip made a choice that puzzled the industry: instead of waiting for the arrival of the "online shopping era", it began to expand the call center that was later called the number one in Asia. Fan Min said that the decision was well thought out. Since then, the call center with standardized service has become the core competitiveness of Ctrip. "After all, we live in China, and the tradition of China people still believes in direct communication."
When SARS hit in 2003, the national tourism market was deserted, and more than 0/000 employees of Ctrip Call Center/KLOC-were all retained. It is these fresh forces that have enabled Ctrip to attack the city in the market with a strong rebound after the end of SARS.
On February 9th, 2003, 65438, Ctrip was listed on NASDAQ, becoming the first overseas Internet listing in China after the cold winter, and Ctrip reached the first peak of its legendary journey. Fan Min said that employees are Ctrip's most valuable assets. Every employee has to go through a three-month training period to cultivate "service DNA" and "ideas, systems and technologies so that things can be done in place." Just focus on one thing.
70% of Ctrip's business comes from traditional call centers. If you call Ctrip's free reservation number, you will feel that the same person answers the phone every time: the call is connected within 20 seconds, with a soft tone, and the reservation can be completed within 180 seconds. Of course, this traditional call center is not simply answering the phone, but supported by a high-tech reservation network platform. Ctrip is the first in the same industry to realize instant booking. Sun, vice president of Ctrip. Com, what operators say, what they say and how long they say are all determined after a long discussion. "At the beginning, we recorded the conversation of the operator, and several high-level people gathered around and listened repeatedly, considering word by word, and finally formed the current standard." 10 Fan Min has been engaged in tourism for many years. S's understanding of this industry is: how do you answer the phone, how do you take things from others, how do you hand them to others, and how do you say thank you? These details pile together, which reflects whether you have the core competitiveness of sustainable development.
People who have more contact with Fan Min have heard the story of udon noodles.
It's a small udon noodle restaurant in Osaka, Japan, with generous and neat decoration. The waiter inside is the "big sister", wearing a traditional Japanese kimono, and it can be seen that the clothing fabric is very good. "The service here is very polite and makes you feel very warm, because the old lady serves you and feels at home. The lighting is also very soft, and the shop is neat and clean, which makes you feel very comfortable. The noodles are neat and delicious, and everything makes you feel impeccable. " What makes Fan more sensitive is the owner of this noodle restaurant. He has been cooking for 20 years, and all his dreams are to make his udon noodles the best in Osaka. "In China, if this noodle restaurant is still alive after five years, maybe the boss will go to real estate right away." In Fan Min's view, the service concept contained in this store is exactly what Ctrip has been striving for: to do simple and subtle things to the extreme.
Fan Min emphasized that Ctrip's success is not because it has created several major profit points such as hotel reservation, air ticket reservation and holiday business, but because it only focuses on one thing. First bury yourself in the hotel business, and then develop the air ticket booking and holiday business after success.
Ctrip's principle is to ensure that the existing business is perfect before launching new projects. "If these projects were swarmed at the beginning, Ctrip would definitely not be able to do it now."
Only work 50 hours a week.
Fan Min is famous for his carefulness throughout the company. At a company management meeting in July, he learned that some regional directors worked nearly 60 hours a week, and immediately pointed out: "According to your position, you should work 40 hours a week and I should work about 50 hours a week."
The next day, including these regional directors, the related employees in this department distributed all over the country reduced their workload by nearly 1/3. Because after checking the workflow, Fan Min found that the work of several supervisors was repetitive. The solution is also simple: these duplicate projects are collected by Shanghai headquarters, completed by special personnel, and then copied to branches all over the country.
In fact, it is a magic weapon for Fan Min to improve efficiency by constantly modifying the workflow and making the huge company system run more smoothly. Today, Ctrip is vigorously promoting the concept of "Service 2.0".
Obviously, Ctrip in the Fan Min era has gone through a passionate entrepreneurial period, and has begun to transform into a service-oriented enterprise that pays attention to management, and continues to maintain rapid development. This is a new butterfly change in China's Internet economy with 12 years' growth experience: with the improvement of application, Internet enterprises began to return to tradition. On February 2, 2003, Ctrip announced the appointment of Liang Jianzhang as Chairman and CEO of the Board of Directors. Fan Min, the former CEO, serves as the vice chairman and president of the board of directors, and concurrently serves as the chairman of Ctrip Travel Holdings Limited, responsible for Ctrip travel-related business. This appointment will take effect on March 20 1 year 13.
Fan Min said: "I am very excited about the potential strategic investment opportunities that Ctrip can explore in the future. In my new post, I will continue to participate in the company's strategic direction and new business development. I will continue to work hard to contribute to the future growth of Ctrip. "