The first adventure: the collapse of the giant
From the eighth richest man to "China's first loss"
Fearless Shi Yuzhu has acrophobia. This year, he bought a piece of land with a length of 1 km and a width of 1 li in Songjiang, Shanghai, built his headquarters and moved all his business there. The house here has only three floors at most.
A staff member who has been with him for a long time said that this "illness" has a lot to do with the "great success" of his first venture.
At the age of 27, Shi Yuzhu borrowed 4000 yuan to start a business. He took advantage of the time difference between advertising and collecting money in the newspaper computer world, and spent all 4,000 yuan to make an advertisement for his 9-month M-640 1 desktop typesetting and printing system for 8,400 yuan. 13 days later, Shi Yuzhu got 15820 yuan; A month later, the advertisement of 4000 yuan has been exchanged for a return of 65438+ 10,000 yuan; Four months later, the new advertising investment earned him 6,543,800 yuan.
This year, Shi Yuzhu had the idea of starting a company. He thought, "IBM is an internationally recognized blue giant, and my company will become the IBM of China. It is better to name the company with the word' giant'. "
199 1 July, Giant implemented a strategic shift and its headquarters was moved from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. Zhuhai Giant New Technology Company was quickly upgraded to Zhuhai Giant High-tech Group Company, with eight branches. This year, the M-6403 desktop printing system sold a total of 28,000 sets, with a profit of 35 million yuan. By July 1993, the number of wholly-owned subsidiaries of "Giant Group" had grown to 38, which was second only to "four".
Tong Company is the second largest private high-tech enterprise in China, with five major products such as M-6405 Hanka, Chinese notebook computer and handwritten computer.
At the beginning of the following year, the Giant Building broke ground. The building with 18 floors was originally planned to be built. With the enthusiastic encouragement of the leaders, it was continuously raised, from 18 to 38th, 54th and 64th floors, and finally to 70th floor. Known as the tallest building in China at that time, the investment also increased from 200 million yuan to1200 million yuan. Shi Yuzhu basically raised funds by raising funds and selling uncompleted residential flats, raising more than 654.38 billion yuan. Although the money he brought at that time could only drive a few piles for this building. Liu Chuanzhi, president of Lenovo Group, described Shi Yuzhu at that time as follows: "He was in high spirits and asked us for advice, which was nothing more than a modest attitude. There was no need to talk to him more. And he is still impetuous, I think he will make a big mistake sooner or later. " It is under such worries and predictions that this huge building soon collapsed. "When I really feel weak, I am completely relaxed!" This is also Shi Yuzhu. Others are in debt for 200 million and can't avoid collapse. At that time, Shi Yuzhu was powerless, and he didn't pay employees for several months. However, none of the core cadres in Shi Yuzhu actually left. With the support of loyal team, Shi Yuzhu is determined to make a comeback.
At the same time, Shi Yuzhu began to March into Zhang Zhilu. He concentrated his future industries in three areas-software, medicine and health care products. 1995, the giant launched "three major battles". This year, Shi Yuzhu launched 30 new products in three fields, and spent 1 100 million yuan on advertising.
The return is also very rich. Later, brain gold, a well-known health care product, actually replaced Hanka and became the most profitable product of the giants. At the peak, the annual net profit contributed by Brain Gold was 654.38+0 billion yuan.
Also in this year, 33-year-old Shi Yuzhu reached the peak of fame. Forbes, a world-famous financial magazine, published a list of the richest people in Chinese mainland, and he ranked eighth.
Shi Yuzhu at this time is undoubtedly a realistic model of young people's dream of wealth. Shi Yuzhu's ideal at that time was to "show the elegance of intellectuals in another field", which was a declaration with a strong imprint of the times and greatly inspired the younger generation at that time.
In fact, the seeds of the crisis have sprouted quietly, but Shi Yuzhu didn't notice it.
During the period of 1996, the giant building was in financial emergency, and Shi Yuzhu decided to transfer all the funds for health care products to the giant building. Due to excessive "blood drawing" and poor management, the health care products business flourished and declined rapidly. The giant group is in danger Brain gold sales reached 560 million, but there were more than 300 million bad debts.
At the beginning of 1997, the giant building, which is only equivalent to a three-story hall on the first floor, stopped working, and creditors from all sides came to the door one after another, and the giant's cash flow was completely broken. The financial crisis of the media "carpeting" giant. Within 30 days, thousands of reports overwhelmingly interpreted the realistic version of From Heaven to Hell, and praise and cheers suddenly turned into aggressive questioning and accusations.
Shi Yuzhu has become "the first burden of China" with a debt of 250 million. Soon, he left Guangdong sadly.
Why did the giant fall when he said that? There are two conclusive analyses. First of all, there were major investment mistakes, mainly the 70-story giant building, involving 654.38+0.2 billion yuan. From1February 1994 to1July 1996, Shi Yuzhu did not apply for a bank loan, but only relied on his own funds and the money from selling the house. This self-owned fund is the giant's bioengineering and computer software industry. However, the giant's industrial strength in health care products and computer software is simply not enough to support the construction of the 70-story giant building. When Shi Yuzhu put all the production and advertising funds into the building, the Giant Building drained the blood of the giant industry.
Shi Yuzhu's sentiment
"I wish I had fallen two years earlier."
Talking about the feeling of starting a business for the first time, Shi Yuzhu said in his plain Cantonese: "Don't wear such a big hat with such a big head." This is his greatest gain from the "famous failure" of 10 years ago. He said: "The most precious wealth in my life is the experience that I will never forget."
"At that time, it was poor, creditors forced debts, lawsuits were entangled, and all accounts were seized."
"Poor to what extent? All the mobile phones that have just been allocated to executives have been taken back for sale. I'm the only one in the company who has a mobile phone. Everyone has not received a penny salary for a long time. "
However, Shi Yuzhu was glad that he had "that fall". "Covering up the truth is a worse result. We think we can do anything. " He even regrets that autumn came a little late. "It would be better to fall in 1995."
Second venture: selling health care products
Pay off all debts within one year.
Fortunately, Shi Yuzhu, which has been hit hard, seems to lack everything except money-the management team of more than 20 people in the company persisted in the most difficult time, and no one left.
And Shi Yuzhu has two projects to choose from, one is melatonin, a health care product, and the other is the software he started.
Shi Yuzhu calculated an account. Although the profit of software is high, the market is relatively limited. If we want to pay off 200 million, it is estimated that it will take 10 years. The market of health care products is not only large, but also just started. It takes up to five years to make melatonin.
From 65438 to 0998, Shi Yuzhu, who was at the end of his tether, borrowed 500,000 yuan from his friends and started to operate melatonin.
With only half a million dollars in his hand, Shi Yuzhu can no longer be as cocky as before. In the end, he took Jiangyin as the base for his comeback. Jiangyin is a county-level city in Jiangsu Province, which is located in southern Jiangsu with strong purchasing power, close to Shanghai and Nanjing. Starting in Jiangyin, the advertising fee will not exceed 65,438+10,000 yuan, and 65,438+10,000 yuan is not enough for a Shanghai advertisement.
Before starting the Jiangyin market, Shi Yuzhu made a "Jiangyin survey". Wearing sunglasses, he walked from village to village and searched door to door. Because young people go out to work during the day, old people are at home, and they haven't seen anyone for a long time. When Shi Yuzhu went, they were so happy that Shi Yuzhu moved a bench to sit in the yard and chat with them.
During the chat, these old people will tell Shi Yuzhu, "I want to eat this product you mentioned, but I am reluctant to buy it. I am waiting for my son to buy it! "
Shi Yuzhu is keenly aware that there are many things to learn. He took advantage of the trend and launched a well-known advertisement, "This festival does not accept gifts, only melatonin."
The effect is surprisingly good. In 2000, the company created a sales miracle of 654.38+0.3 billion yuan and became the champion of health care products. It has a huge sales network with more than 200 sales points all over the country, surpassing the giants in its heyday. This year, he quietly paid off all the debts he owed.
This advertisement has undoubtedly become a legend in the advertising history of China. Although it has been criticized for being utilitarian and tacky for countless times, it has been broadcast for 10 years, and its cumulative sales have exceeded 10 billion yuan. Either of these two points is enough to make it difficult for you to find your opponent.
The popularity of melatonin did not satisfy Shi Yuzhu. He immediately began to ponder over several other products in his hand, such as reducing blood fat, resisting cold, enriching blood, treating stomach diseases and vitamins. In the end, Shi Yuzhu decided to push the mixture of vitamins and minerals-"golden partner".
200 1, the golden partner went public, and the advertising words prepared by Shi Yuzhu were almost as tacky as melatonin-"The golden partner sent the elders, with good waist and legs and good spirit; Gold and gold partners send ladies, delicate, ruddy and shiny; The gold partner sends the children, who are tall and study well. "
Driven by Shi Yuzhu's skillful advertising strategy and mature channels, The Golden Partner quickly became popular in the national market.
These two products have become evergreen trees in the health care products market, and they still cannot maintain the substantial growth of sales for many years. In the first half of 2007, the sales volume of melatonin increased 160% compared with the same period in 2006!
In the health care industry, it is very dangerous to put all the eggs in the same basket.
Shi Yuzhu started the second thing in his later life-capital layout. In 2003, Shi Yuzhu sold 75% of the intellectual property rights of melatonin and gold partner and their marketing network to Stone Electronics, a Hong Kong listed company under Duan Yongji. The total transaction price is 65.438+0.24 billion yuan, including 636 million yuan in cash and the rest are four-way electronic convertible bonds.
With hundreds of millions of cash lying on the account, Shi Yuzhu began to invest in industries other than health care products, and the banking industry with stable returns was the first choice. In 2003, Shi Yuzhu spent 300 million yuan to buy legal person shares of Huaxia Bank and Minsheng Bank. Earned more than 12 billion in three years!
Shi Yuzhu's sentiment
"Be prepared not to fail"
When talking about the feeling of starting a second business, Shi Yuzhu described it like this: "It feels good to have a down-to-earth sleep!" He said that the giant incident taught him not to fight uncertain battles and "don't rush forward". The first project was stable and safe, and then the second project was done. Shi Yuzhu insisted, "Don't pursue sales, pursue profits." .
"I used to be a famous loser. I am afraid of failure. I can't stand failure, so I can only be prepared not to fail. " Shi Yuzhu said.
Shi Yuzhu cares about saving for a rainy day. Therefore, he actively invested in the banking industry. His investment logic is: with the increase of scale, the return on assets will gradually decrease, which is the "curse of scale"; Banks are the opposite, because the proportion of their own capital is very low, and the left hand absorbs savings and the right hand issues loans, which is actually a lever to make money with other people's money. Therefore, with the increase of scale, it will not only reduce the rate of return of its own assets, but will increase its rate of return.
Shi Yuzhu, who is always worried that the company will go bankrupt tomorrow, now holds more than 654.38 billion yuan of assets that can be realized at any time. No wonder he told reporters: "With cash in hand, sleep soundly." He finally found the long-awaited sense of security.
The third venture: developing online games
Entertainment has become the secret of making money.
Shi Yuzhu, who started by selling software, is naturally familiar with computer games, but he really likes computer games at 1996. At that time, the giant had a financial crisis, and creditors came to Shi Yuzhu one after another, which made it impossible to work normally. Therefore, behind closed doors, Shi Yuzhu regarded computer games as his only pastime.
At the end of 2002, Shi Yuzhu began to play the online game Legend developed by Shanda Company in Chen Tianqiao, and soon became addicted. At that time, he spent four or five hours a day on legends, spending more than 50,000 yuan a month and investing hundreds of thousands in a top-equipped account.
In the game, Shi Yuzhu is an addicted player, but he has never lost his sense of smell and acumen as a businessman. He realized: "there is milk and honey flowing here!" "
One day after the Spring Festival in 2004, Shi Yuzhu called several senior executives together to discuss whether it was too late to re-enter the online game industry. At that time, the online game industry in China had developed at a high speed for three years, and three domestic companies, Shanda, Netease and Jiucheng, showed a tripartite confrontation. Games from Japan and South Korea also occupy a large market share, and the market competition situation is not optimistic. But Shi Yuzhu convinced everyone. In June 2004, Shi Yuzhu Zhengtu Company was formally established.
When I heard that several R&D personnel of Shanda had plans to start a business, Shi Yuzhu did not hesitate to spend a lot of money on collective recruitment.
In 2005, the journey was launched in June 5438+065438+ 10. In the past two years, the number of online games has soared, and now it has become the third online game in the world, with an online number of more than 654.38+00,000. In 2006, the sales of Journey reached 626 million yuan. This year, the monthly sales income has exceeded 65.438+600 million yuan, and the monthly profit is almost 1 100 million yuan.
"He (Shi Yuzhu) often locks himself up and plays games day and night, and then suddenly holds an emergency meeting to tell the R&D department what defects the game needs to make up." Tang Min, vice president of Giant Network, said that he can always find all kinds of problems in the game, some of which are discovered by himself, and some are the results of discussions with other players.
Shi Yuzhu promotes online games by selling health care products and other traditional industries.
Shi Yuzhu, who sells melatonin, has a set of personal philosophy about marketing, which can be summarized as "the air force cooperates with the army" (advertising plus the promotion of ground marketing power). In order to seize the number of online players, Giant Company can charter 50,000 Internet cafes nationwide for players to play online games of Giant at the same time.
Shi Yuzhu also has many ways to attract attention. In March this year, Shi Yuzhu announced that Giant would become the online game with the largest number of beautiful women players. "The ratio of male and female players in the giant must be at least 6 to 4, so that all male players can find their wives in the game." According to the new rules of the game, male players can hug female players in the game. As long as a female player carries her ID card to the giant network office all over the country for on-site authentication, and reaches the eight-character standard of "good facial features and well-proportioned figure", she is recognized as a "beauty" and gets a game recharge of 6,000 yuan.
Some people commented that in order to attract players, Shi Yuzhu did not hesitate to throw "seduction".
Fortunately, Shi Yuzhu succeeded again. In the 2008 Forbes Global Internet Rich List, Shi Yuzhu ranked seventh with a value of $2.8 billion, which Forbes called "the richest man in Shanghai".