Move quickly and seize the opportunity.
People often say that it is now or never. In the highly competitive business battlefield, everyone will encounter many opportunities, but business opportunities are often fleeting. The key to success lies in whether you can make a decisive decision in an emergency and seize the opportunity quickly. Only when it's time to make a move, the enterprise will grow from weak to strong, from small to big, and even change the fate of the enterprise, so as not to delay business opportunities and leave empty regrets.
Zhou Li, a Chinese-American businessman and writer living in new york, is famous for publishing the autobiographical novel China Woman in Manhattan. When he first arrived in the United States, he was almost penniless. One day, in order to make a living, she had to run around. While riding a bicycle on Fifth Avenue in New York, she suddenly found two door curtains strung with wooden beads on the ceiling of a department store. Zhou Li looked at it carefully and found that the curtain was made by a Korean businessman. Upon inquiry, he learned that its price was $30 each. At this point, Zhou Li thinks that the cost of Muzhu in China can be ignored. She immediately realized that this was a good opportunity to make money and quickly made a decision: to make a better and cheaper curtain than Korea! So she got in touch with the domestic arts and crafts import and export company and asked for custom-made door curtains with the same function. Later, the price was 6 yuan each. Even if it is imported into the United States, it will not exceed 20 dollars each, and it can completely win the sales market of Korean products at a lower market price. Later, as Zhou Li expected, the curtains exported from China to the United States were not only cheap, but also generous and beautiful. With these advantages, Zhou Li squeezed Korean products out of the market in just a few years, thus making a big profit.
The key to Zhou Li's success is that she can find opportunities from ordinary things, seize them and act immediately. Of course, she can seize the opportunity from the most common events because she knows something about the market. If she doesn't know how to compare the prices of Korean curtains and China curtains, it is impossible to find the hidden business opportunities. Maybe she's still running for a living.
Sometimes business opportunities are hidden in some bad things, but because people often see the bad side of things at this time, they seldom think about opportunities and miss them. 1in April 1986, a nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. The first reaction of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and other Gulf countries is to ban the import of European food to prevent nuclear radiation from adversely affecting people's health. Different from these Gulf countries, Australia and other countries took the opportunity to publicize the food they produced, which made the natural and hygienic characteristics of their food deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, thus occupying part of the market of European products and achieving good economic benefits. Japanese food manufacturers also seized this opportunity to develop anti-nuclear food, and also made a "nuclear disaster" windfall.
Therefore, being good at catching fleeting opportunities from some negative events, making decisive decisions, making quick decisions and acting quickly are the prerequisites for the success of every enterprise decision-maker. As Napoleon said: "Strategy is the art of time and space, the former is more precious, because space can be regained, and lost time is gone forever." It is this unrepeatable feature of time that makes opportunities precious.
First strike is strong, then strike is strong.
Jorge Posada believes that in commercial wars, the "preemptive method" adopted by operators is to take advantage of people's consumption psychology of "getting ahead of others" and adopt the "preemptive method" to preempt people, surprise them, attack them unprepared, overwhelm their opponents in momentum and strength, and gain the initiative in competition.
Sun Tzu's art of war says: first strike is strong, then strike is strong. Whoever occupies the favorable terrain first in the war will have the initiative in the war. So Napoleon once said, "Our army won the battle because it arrived five minutes earlier than the enemy." The business world is like a battlefield. Nowadays, commercial competition has reached a white-hot level. In the competition for commercial resources, whoever can take the lead and occupy the commanding heights of competition will win the initiative in the competition, win in the fierce commercial war and win greater returns with less investment. And those businessmen who follow in the footsteps of others will pay a high price if they want to surpass their opponents. This is the pre-emptive market strategy.
In the early 1990s, there were many domestic enterprises producing instant noodles, but the quality was generally poor, the packaging was simple and there were no famous brands. When Ding Xin Group of Taiwan Province discovered this good business opportunity, it did not hesitate to take Beijing and Tianjin as the first commanding height and took the lead in launching "Master Kong" instant noodles, which seized many markets in Chinese mainland. At that time, when Ding Xin Group made this move, many Taiwanese businessmen also took a fancy to the lucrative cake of Chinese mainland instant noodle industry, including the powerful Uni-President Group.
Facing the situation at that time, the first thing that Ding Xin Group's decision makers thought of was to act quickly. Because they know that once reunification takes the lead, it will be difficult for them to compete with it. Therefore, the high-level officials in Ding Xin are busy making a lot of preparations to seize the Beijing-Tianjin market quickly, hoping to gain absolute advantages in product quality, packaging and publicity, so that the latecomers can't catch up.
After several months of intense preparation, an instant noodle named "Master Kong" met with consumers. This brand of instant noodles is unique as soon as it comes out. It is not only of high quality, but also has a cup of noodles. At the same time, Ding Xin Group has stepped up the promotion of "Master Kong" instant noodles, and advertisements about "Master Kong" have appeared one after another in TV, newspapers, periodicals and other media, with amazing advertising density. After such "indiscriminate bombing", "Master Kong" instant noodles seemed to enter thousands of households overnight, and there was a frenzy of buying Master Kong instant noodles in Beijing and Tianjin. After gaining a foothold in Beijing and Tianjin, Ding Xin Group immediately expanded its market to all parts of the country. By 1994, Ding Xin Group has set up factories in major cities in China, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a daily output of 300,000 packets of instant noodles. In this way, Ding Xin Group seized the commanding heights of the fast food industry in Chinese mainland with its rapid attack and action.
While Uni-President Group, a leading enterprise in Taiwan Province's catering industry, is still investigating, Ding Xin Group has taken the lead and won the leading position in Chinese mainland's instant noodle industry. Seeing the huge profits of Ding Xin Group, Uni-President Group is unwilling to lag behind. It wants to catch up and get a share in the world's largest market, so it has increased the publicity of its products in various media in Chinese mainland, but at this time, "Master Kong" has taken the lead and its position is hard to shake.
From the comparison between Ding Xin Group and Uni-President Group, we can see the importance of preemption. Business opportunities are equal for everyone. Whether we can seize business opportunities and achieve the greatest success with the least investment depends on whether we act quickly or late. Especially for those weak enterprises that can't compete with their rivals by strength, it is very important to act quickly, preemptively and gain the initiative in the market.
As the saying goes, "first strike is strong, then strike is strong." In commercial competition, it is very effective to adopt the strategy of preemptive strike and preemptive strike. Pre-emptive strike is a kind of "gang black" skill to show strength, which requires courage, wisdom, strength, full mental preparation and foresight. Sometimes there is a 100-meter race between enterprises, which is explosive. Whoever has a strong explosive force will be one step ahead in the market competition and strike first.
A quick victory, a quick victory "Historical Records" says: "Soldiers are weapons." It means that you can't send troops unless you have to; However, once you send troops, you have to do it quickly. The same is true of business. The ever-changing shopping malls need the ability to act decisively, that is, to identify the market and act boldly. Hesitation can sometimes avoid some mistakes, but at the same time it also loses the chance of success. This is because if you are hesitant, timid and delay for too long, it will not only delay business opportunities, but also generate more and greater risks, and the chances of success will be greatly reduced.
Throughout the ages, people who can win in business wars are mostly the result of quick decisions.
Andrew carnegie, the American steel magnate, is a model of today's business elite, but also has the defect of indecision when starting a business. But with the increase of experience, he became more and more decisive and his career became more and more successful. In his view, the opportunity came suddenly and was as fleeting as lightning Shi Huo. This requires people to make decisive decisions when data, information and evidence are insufficient and there is no time to collect and analyze more. Otherwise it's too late to regret it. He did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to invest in railways, and he succeeded in one fell swoop.
After the end of the Civil War, the relevant departments of the US government and Congress first approved the Union Pacific Railway Company, and then approved three other transcontinental railway routes centered on the railway built by this company. In addition, government departments at all levels have also formulated dozens of railway engineering plans. Carnegie knew that this move would have a far-reaching impact on the American steel industry, which was a good opportunity to herald the railway revolution and the arrival of the steel age in the American continent.
In order to seize this good opportunity and monopolize the rails and iron bridges across the railway, Carnegie made a decisive and bold decision-spending huge sums of money to buy a patent for manufacturing rails by distributing steel on the surface of milled iron. This patent was invented by the Dodds brothers. At that time, there were serious defects in the manufacturing method of railway track, which led to insufficient elasticity and easy cracking. This is because it is necessary to cast raw materials into milled iron before manufacturing railway tracks, and the railway tracks made from this contain quite a lot of carbon.
Compared with the original manufacturing method, the steel invented by Dodds Brothers has good elasticity. In the manufacturing process, ore is first reduced in the furnace at low temperature to remove carbon and other impurities, thus increasing the purity of steel and greatly prolonging the service life of rail. Carnegie made a profit of about 5000 pounds of gold by buying this patent. Carnegie took drastic action, and after several years of hard work, he became a world-famous billionaire.
Goldlion Group Co., Ltd. is one of the famous enterprises in the clothing industry founded by Dr. Ceng Xianzi, a famous Hong Kong patriot. 1973 due to the adverse effects of the world economic climate, the Hong Kong market was once weak. Because of the serious shortage of consumption power, in order to reduce losses, major department stores have reduced their clothing purchases, leading to a decline in the tie market. Many tie manufacturers have to use the method of big price reduction to sell ties, which has led to a sharp drop in the price of ties in the Hong Kong market. Faced with such a market situation, there are two choices before Goldlion: one is to comply with the practice of most manufacturers, reduce the selling price, and maintain market share through partial profit loss; Another option is to lose part of the market and keep the original price unchanged. For Jin Li, these two choices are not easy. Although the first one can keep the market, it will cause the negative effect of "Goldlion products are unreliable" in consumers' minds. Although the second kind can maintain the high-grade brand of "Goldlion", it will cause certain economic losses. Ceng Xianzi weighed the pros and cons and decided to take the next step. So, he rented the counters of major department stores and sent people to set up stalls to promote his products. He took advantage of other manufacturers' shortage of goods and incomplete varieties, and constantly increased the variety of ties and improved the quality of products on the premise that the price did not drop at all, which made people feel that the Goldlion brand was genuine. In this way, although the economic crisis in Hong Kong temporarily brought certain difficulties to Goldlion, it was this crisis that further achieved the brand of Goldlion in the clothing industry, greatly increased its value and further expanded its market share. In the face of difficulties, Ceng Xianzi made a decisive decision with great courage and acted quickly, which changed the unfavorable situation.
The operators of Houhei believe that in the face of fleeting business opportunities or rapidly changing business situations, they must be good at quick decisions, quick attacks and quick actions. As the saying goes, if a person is indecisive, timid and afraid to take even the smallest step, rolling financial resources may be slipping away from your feet quietly, which will also put him in an extremely unfavorable situation and put himself in a passive position.
Of course, a quick decision is not the same as reckless action, nor is it impulsive or impulsive recklessness. It is also a bold act to stay put or retreat when necessary. It is also a decisive act to wait and see, and to retreat when it is difficult.
Dare to take risks and be the first in the world.
Laroche talked about bold but cautious, with holes and without holes. Not afraid of failure and frustration is "thick", and daring to do it is "black". With these two abilities, you will be superior and invincible in business wars. Therefore, you don't have to feel inferior because you are from a lower class, and you don't have to give up on yourself because you are poor. As long as you have perseverance, patience and hard work, you can still do great things.
Generally speaking, in the business battlefield where opportunities and risks coexist, the greater the risk, the greater the return if handled properly. Therefore, if you want to seize the opportunity, find another way and make profits, you must dare to take risks, take risks that ordinary people dare not take, have the courage to "eat crabs first" and be the first in the world. Only those who dare and are willing to take risks can win in the competition.
Dr. Hammer is a successful entrepreneur who dares to take risks that ordinary people dare not. When Hammer 19 was still studying in medical school, the enterprise founded by his father faced the crisis of bankruptcy because of poor management. Hammer knows that although the scale of the enterprise is not very large, the product market prospect is promising. The young hammer was very excited to take over the company, bravely accepted the first business challenge and became the winner in the business war. The United pharmaceutical and chemical company he runs has won the monopoly of ginger production in the United States.
Dr. Hammer's second adventure was during his trade with the former Soviet Union. At that time, the Soviet Union was vigorously developing agricultural modernization and needed a large number of tractors to put into agricultural production. After analyzing this situation in the Soviet Union, Hammer thinks that for the present Soviet Union, the farming method of animal pulling plough has long been unable to adapt to large-scale agricultural production, and mechanized transportation has become an indispensable substitute. At this time, the trade with the Soviet Union will gain great benefits. At this time, Hammer, who was not well-known in the business world, resolutely took courage and found Henry Ford, a famous figure in American industry at that time. Henry Ford was not sure whether he could trade with the Soviet Union, but Hammer took a brave step and got a high return.
Calm, decisive and adventurous are the biggest characteristics of a hammer. Still in the trade with the Soviet Union, he boldly made another decision. On one occasion, he found that the Soviet Union lacked all kinds of pens, and the Soviet Union could not produce them by itself, so he had to import them from Germany. He resolutely applied to the Soviet government for a pencil concession. After being approved, he learned manufacturing technology from German pencil manufacturing industry and began to produce throwing pencils, which not only met the needs of Soviet countries, but also exported to other European countries.
1956, 58-year-old Hammer bought a western oil company on the verge of bankruptcy and began to do big oil business. Oil is the most profitable industry, but Hammer began to know nothing about oil fields. In the face of fierce competition in the oil industry at that time, Hammer, who just entered the oil field, undoubtedly faced great challenges if he wanted to establish his own oil kingdom. But he resolutely set up his own oil company-Western Oil Company.
The first problem of the hammer is the oil source. 196 1 year, several major oil companies almost monopolized Texas, where oil production accounted for 38% of the total output of the United States, and weak western oil companies could not set foot here at all. Western oil companies that have spent $654.38+00 billion on exploration elsewhere have made no progress. After receiving instructions, Hammer went to the Las Rop concession in the Sacramento Valley to drill. Hammer raised a large sum of money and put it into this risky operation. But he didn't find a drop of oil after drilling 5600 meters here, but he persisted and succeeded. Later, he discovered abundant natural gas mines in nearby oil fields, so such an unknown western oil company obtained the same conditions for developing oil fields as those of famous big companies. Since then, Hammer's adventures have spread all over South America, Central America and Asia, creating another oil kingdom in the western world.
If you want to make a difference in the fierce business battlefield, you must take risks. Risk is directly proportional to income, and huge risk can bring huge income. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained", although taking risks and making progress can not always guarantee a person's success, but those who dare not take risks and be the first in the world will certainly not succeed.
Sometimes it is more important to dare to do than to be able to do it. It's better to try and fail than to fail without trying, not to mention not necessarily failing. Of course, daring to take risks does not mean blindly taking risks, but calmly and objectively analyzing possible risks and studying corresponding countermeasures to minimize the negative impact of risks, that is, winning the maximum return with the least loss.
Coincidence, surprise.
Li Zongwu said, "If there is a hole, you must drill it. If there is no hole, you must drill it. If there is a hole, it will expand. If there is no hole, take out the drill and open a new hole. " Market competition urges enterprises to take various measures to seek commercial profits. In order to achieve the goal of pursuing profits, operators often take opening up new fields and seeking novelty as a successful strategy to stand out from the competition.
Sun Tzu's Art of War said: "Whoever fights will win by right combination and surprise. War situation, but strangely positive. The change of odd numbers is positive and it is impossible to overcome poverty. Strange and positive are born together. If there is an endless cycle, how can we be poor? " This means that under normal circumstances, the enemy is blocked by "positive" soldiers and won by "odd" soldiers. The so-called "positive" refers to frontal and conventional operations, and the so-called "odd" refers to defeating the enemy with tactics and being good at changing tactics frequently. When it is applied to the commercial battlefield, it is necessary to combine conventional competitive means, business principles that have been tested in practice and various flexible and unique competitive means that break away from convention in order to win by surprise. Only by skillfully using these varied and strange methods can we greatly save manpower, material resources, financial resources and precious time and achieve twice the result with half the effort.
The development of every company is inseparable from the market. It is not impossible to develop the market by conventional methods, but the cost is high and the time is long, so it is impossible to cultivate the market in a short time. At this time, you can flexibly adopt some wonderful business methods that break the routine and achieve miraculous results. At the beginning of the 20th century, Mobil Oil Company saw that China had a vast oil market, a large population and huge profit potential, so it planned to open the consumer market in China and formulated corresponding business strategies. However, China people use very little oil. Only by developing this market potential will it bring rich profits. Instead of the traditional way of advertising everywhere, Mobil Oil Company first made a large number of lamps for ordinary people in China and sent them to all households in the form of free gifts. In order to use these free lamps, these consumers must first buy oil. With this circuitous and straightforward sales "odd" method, Mobil Oil Company has creatively opened up the vast fuel market in China, turning many ordinary people in China from potential consumers into real consumers, and the cost of manufacturing lamps is simply nine Niu Yi hairs compared with the huge profits that the company has obtained from the China market.
In commercial warfare, we must pay attention to the correct combination and win by surprise. If you step by step and behave yourself, you may never catch a favorable fighter and never get ahead. Therefore, it is necessary to have a whim and be good at using circuitous commercial warfare methods.
It is not uncommon to use circuitous commercial warfare methods. In the 1990s, cloth shoes made in China were very popular among Peruvian people. China cloth shoes are not only comfortable to wear, but also cheap, which has great market potential. However, in order to safeguard the interests of domestic workers, the Peruvian government has implemented a trade protection policy, which explicitly prohibits the import of textiles and footwear from China. As a result, the export of some China cloth shoes manufacturers to Peru was blocked, which not only lost the potential market space, but also the developed market no longer existed. Some China cloth shoe manufacturers are unwilling to lose such a considerable market. Considering that cloth shoe covers are neither textiles nor shoes, the Peruvian government can't ban them, so companies that have cooperated with Peru have reached a new agreement: China will export machinery and equipment for producing cloth shoes and cloth shoe covers to Peru, and then process them into finished products locally. In this way, China cloth shoes manufacturers cleverly avoided Peru's trade protection policy and regained the Peruvian market.
It can be seen that it is better to attack than to outsmart. When the conventional practice is difficult to achieve the goal, adopting the tactics of "combining the odd with the positive", that is, using the odd flexibly on the basis of the positive, can help enterprises better seize business opportunities and identify the market. Market space may exist in front of every enterprise, but the key to grasping business opportunities lies in whether the decision-makers of enterprises can formulate flexible strategies, so that they will not lose "one soldier and one pawn" and gain the greatest benefits. In business competition, there are many ways to win by surprise. For example, attractive advertisements, products that others have not produced, commodity pricing strategies, and opening up new market virgin land can all win commercial competition.
Of course, a surprise victory requires decision-makers to innovate constantly in strategy, so that people have nothing to do with each other, and people have everything to do with each other, instead of blindly following others' footsteps and imitating others' practices. In addition, in the actual operation of shopping mall competition, we should also pay attention to "surprise". As a means of warfare, "honesty" is always needed. We should pay attention to the "magic soldiers", but we should not forget the "honest soldiers", such as the "honest soldiers" who protect famous products and genuine products. In this way, the trick of winning by surprise will become the real way to get rich.