Fundamentals - Simple movements practiced to perfection become ultimate skills

Author: Yi Fazhou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: This book is the first in the "Yi Fazhou Management I Ching Trilogy." It is Yi Fazhou's transition work following "Success is Certain" and "It's Not Impossible." This is a story-based management book. The protagonist, "Ying Xiangli," is a homophone for Yi Fazhou's "Influence Company," and the main company in the book, "Company 21," metaphorically represents the basic form of Chinese enterprises in the 21st century. This book is a work of management insights from Yi Fazhou's operation, management, and operation of Influence Company, as well as an experience of his personal growth. The abundant personal cultivation and management reflections in the book are all summaries of Yi Fazhou's 10 years of hands-on experience in the training and consulting industry. A young man named Ying Xiangli joins Company 21 for an internship and undergoes a transformative change within a year, all thanks to an old man... The incredible "fundamental skills" enable an ordinary person to achieve extraordinary things, and a group of ordinary people to accomplish a series of extraordinary feats. Creative management style, inspiring management concepts, and immersive growth simulations—this is a book unlike any other, offering a reading journey that shakes the soul. In real life, more than 5,000 famous companies have applied the concepts from this book to guide their work... In the following time, I assisted Li Yiran in completing the entire integration of the Coca-Cola distributor system. Unbelievably, things unfolded exactly as my mental simulation roadmap had indicated: Company 21 decided to fully upgrade its software upon signing the second contract, turning it into a standard software for the beverage industry. After two months of non-stop development, the company's R&D department delivered the upgraded version. Over approximately six months, half of the 26 Coca-Cola distributors signed product purchase contracts with Company 21. At the same time, Company 21 also signed financial software contracts with 10 other companies. The total contract value amounted to over 30 million yuan. For Company 21, with an annual output value of 500 million yuan, this wasn’t significant, but its value was immeasurable: Company 21 had broken into the beverage industry, setting a benchmark. The remaining task was for sales staff to wield these successful promotional materials to sweep through the beverage industry. It’s worth noting that within the entire industry, Company 21’s technology ranked only 8th, yet its performance was among the top three, proving that its sales power was unmatched. Once an opportunity arose, Company 21 could unleash immense nuclear-like energy, turning disadvantages into advantages and establishing a dominant position. If calculated based on the market scale of Coca-Cola, the total value of the contracts was around 100 million yuan. If based on the entire beverage industry’s market scale, the related value could be calculated to 500 million yuan. If projected further, "Seven Swords Software" could expand into the entire field of daily consumer goods companies, and the related value could skyrocket to 5 billion yuan! Li Yiran is a very generous person. He belongs to the type of person with a broad perspective and keen insight but lacks explosive strength in specific areas, while I could complement him perfectly. He often attributed many of the credits to me, which made me appear as a "highly capable young person" in the eyes of Company 21’s President Zhou Gongji. My collaboration with Li Yiran was excellent. Every day, he would work until midnight or even 1 or 2 a.m., and every morning, he would enthusiastically describe his vision to me. I could always translate his vision into tangible strategies and tactics on paper. At Li Yiran’s strong suggestion, the company’s board of directors held more than ten meetings to discuss the strategic transformation of the company. Although I wasn’t qualified to attend many of the meetings, most of Li Yiran’s proposals were drafted by me, and through several rounds of discussions, I had been involved in some of the content. Li Yiran strongly advocated allocating 60% of the company’s R&D resources to "Seven Swords Software," transforming Company 21 into an industry software company. However, a faction led by Vice President Wang Youfu opposed such a radical company transformation, arguing that the success of "Seven Swords Software" was at most a single contract with high profits. If the company were to shift its focus to such profitable contracts every time, where would its fundamental value lie? My strong risk-taking spirit infected Li Yiran. In fact, as early as when working for a real estate company, I dared to do things without knowing anything, which was already a bold move. Now, with such a large platform as Company 21 and such a great opportunity, the restless side of my nature was increasingly unleashed, and this restlessness also spread to Li Yiran and even Qi Lao. Li Yiran is very good at absorbing and sharing, and by nature, he is a born leader: he has a very strong ambition for success, a deep obsession with power, and at the same time, he is good at learning the strengths of others. Although, in terms of talent, he doesn’t belong to the category of brilliant, spark-producing leaders. I remember on the way back from Hangzhou to Shanghai, one of the questions Li Yiran asked me was: Who is John Kotter?