As an inevitable product of the market economy, competition has always been the norm in all walks of life, providing a steady stream of motivation for the development of enterprises and industries. Cooperation is an inherent requirement for the development of a market economy and exists along with competition:Whenever the market enters a cold winter, companies will strengthen cooperation and work together to tide over the difficulties; especially in recent years, at home and abroad, In an environment where the economy is facing a cold wave, the phenomenon of group gatherings for warmth has frequently appeared in all walks of life.
A recent case occurred in the automotive industry. On December 23, the eve of Christmas Eve, SAIC Motor and GAC Group suddenly dropped the ball, officially announcing that they were "holding hands" with each other and signing a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement", which was considered a "strong alliance" to keep warm.
The phenomenon of teaming up to keep warm seems rare in the ceramics industry. Not really.
Today, Brother Chan will talk about the things that the building and ceramics industry holds together to keep warm.
01
Different industries form an alliance
On October 10 this year, Dongpeng Ceramics, Nature Flooring, NVC Lighting, Sophia Wardrobe, Vanward Electric, Mousse Bedding, Midea, AIA Ceiling, Duohai Children's Furniture, Huangpai Doors and Windows, Lanshe Silicon The Champions League, composed of pan-home furnishing brands such as Zaoni, joined forces with NetEase Home to launch a NetEase Thinking Dinner with the theme of "Top Ten Brands Talking about Ten Years" at the Dongpeng headquarters in Foshan to review the wonderful ten years of the Champions League and discuss the alliance model. A new decade. Ten years ago, in 2009, it was for the purpose of uniting to deal with the financial crisis that Dongpeng Ceramics and other pan-home furnishing brands created the Champions Alliance.
Let’s not talk about whether this cross-industry alliance can directly improve performance, but the brand influence and derived cross-border symbiosis value it brings cannot be ignored; although this kind of organizational form is not rigorous enough, Cross-industry alliances await further development.
The above is about the cross-industry alliance at the upstream manufacturer level, and there are more cases at the downstream terminal level.
During the terminal research process of China Ceramics Network, many dealers lamented that various forms of promotional activities have been done badly, and one of them, the cross-industry alliance, is also difficult to be effective. But despite this, many dealers are still optimistic about cross-industry alliances.
For example, Yu Xiang, a post-80s Yantai dealer of Jinai ceramic tiles, is doing well in the cross-industry alliance of the Guojin Home Furnishing Expo Center where his store is located. His sales performance has been among the top three among all alliance brands for several consecutive months. . Looking through her WeChat Moments, we can see that she often forwards activity advertisements for her allies, which shows the vitality of this cross-industry alliance.
For example, Zou Guohong, a Suzhou distributor of Laideli Ceramics and vice president of Suzhou Shishan Materials Chamber of Commerce, brought together more than ten pan-home brands to create Chuangbo Hui Pan Home Elite Living Center (Chuangbo Hui Pan Home Group) to realize resources Consolidate and share to reduce costs. Later, he launched a project called City Partners to recruit young people (such as designers) with skills but no capital in the form of shares. Their exhibition halls are all common, with only category divisions, and the office area is also completely open. Although the employees on this platform have different bosses, they are very much like a group and implement unified management.
Another example is Melco marble tile Yantai & Weihai distributor Huang Huangshui, who boldly innovated the form and content of cross-industry alliances, rented a multi-story store with an area comparable to that of a building materials and home furnishing store, and built a large home ecological chain platform to integrate Ceramic tiles, doors and windows, ceilings, lighting, furniture, whole house customization, kitchen appliances and other building materials and home products, creating a cross-industry alliance with corporate management. After a year of hard work, this big home ecological chain platform has achieved initial results and is developing in a benign direction.
It is said that colleagues in the same industry are enemies, and alliances between different industries have become a grouping in the building and ceramics industry.The most common form of heating. As for its effectiveness, it often depends on the mentality and ability of the “big brother”, as well as the management level of the organization, that is, the rationality of the system, team execution, etc.
02
Opponent becomes ally
The building ceramics industry is a highly fragmented industry. The number of companies has remained around 1,500, and the number of brands is even more astonishing. It is conservatively estimated that there are no less than 10,000 for a long time. So many companies and brands, regardless of their respective strengths and industry status, are each other's competitors in a broad sense, or more pointedly, they are each other's enemies.
Since we are rivals, there must be more competition than cooperation, and more hostility than unity. Therefore, it is remarkable in the construction and ceramics industry that former opponents have become today's allies.
For example, Xinghui Ceramics Group and Xinjincheng Ceramics Group "joined forces" to stay warm. On December 16, at the former's 2020 National Dealer Conference, the two parties signed a strategic cooperation agreement to achieve new trends in capital integration, large-scale production capacity, and product innovation through "joint vertical and horizontal" efforts. Before this, the latter actually had the experience of holding together to keep warm, but it was just unsuccessful.
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said: "There are no eternal friends or enemies on the international stage, only eternal interests." This also applies to the construction and ceramics industry.
The starting point and fundamental purpose of turning an opponent into an ally is naturally common interests, but the premise is that both parties can devote equal amounts of capital to the cooperation project, that is, both have merits. Only when we are well-matched, we can truly learn from each other’s strengths and make up for each other’s weaknesses. Think in one place and work hard in the same place. Otherwise, it will easily evolve into a situation where they may appear to be keeping together but inwardly they may say their own lines.This leads to a breakup or even one party annexing the other, and ultimately the original intention and meaning of holding together for warmth is lost.
03
Robbery turns into a group fight
In recent years, cross-border integration or simply cross-border competition has become common in various industries, but it is still a very rare phenomenon in the construction and ceramics industry. With channel fission, consumption upgrading and increased environmental protection, it has become an indisputable fact that business operations are becoming more and more difficult and profits are getting lower and lower. Therefore, many people in the industry believe that it is unlikely that external capital will cross-border plunder the construction and ceramics industry. Instead, the construction and ceramics industry should cross-border plunder other industries, such as using capital to get involved in decoration and large home furnishings, and using slate to cross-border furniture and stone.
I never imagined that cross-border robbery by external capital would come so quickly.
The first is Country Garden’s cross-border bathroom products in the first half of this year: In February, it started construction of a modern Zhumei green smart home industrial park in Xinyang, Henan Province, preparing to produce its own bathroom products, with an estimated annual output value of 5 billion yuan; in April, it cooperated with Chaozhou City The People's Government signed a 5 billion yuan smart sanitary ware industry cooperation agreement and plans to build an intelligent sanitary ware industrial park of about 1,000 acres locally to mainly produce smart toilets and other products. This marks its layout in the large-scale customized home furnishing industry and its transformation from a real estate enterprise to a technology enterprise.
Although Country Garden has crossed over into the bathroom industry, many people in the industry still insist that ceramic tiles are different from bathroom ware after all. External capital has the ability to make bathroom ware, but not necessarily the ability to make ceramic tiles.
However, reality soon hit them in the face.
On December 23, listed home furnishing company Haiou Residential and Champion Building Materials signed a "Cooperation Intent Agreement". The former plans to acquire no more than 60% of the equity of the latter's wholly-owned subsidiary to carry out ceramic tile production and operation cooperation.
Seagull Residential and Champion Building Materials have reached a cooperation intention, announcing that external capital is robbing the ceramic tile industry.is becoming a fact. It is foreseeable that more external capital will enter the ceramic construction industry in the future.
It can be seen from this that for external capital in an environment of slowdown in the development of all walks of life, although the profits of the construction and ceramics industry have dropped significantly and operating difficulties have continued to rise, it still has the value of attracting external capital to cross-border robberies. . In other words, robbery may also be a way to keep warm. External capital needs to find new outlets, and some companies and brands in the construction and ceramics industry actually need to rely on external capital to transform and upgrade.
Of course, there are more ways and cases of teaming up to keep warm in the building ceramics industry. This article will not go into details one by one, but it must be emphasized that in the historical facts of the Three Kingdoms, Shu Han and Soochow, who once regarded each other as life-and-death enemies, faced each other. Everyone will hold together for warmth and unite to fight against Cao; in the world of science fiction, the American "Avengers" who all have special skills and even great powers must also hold together for warmth and jointly deal with the enemies of the earth. Companies, brands and dealers in the ceramic industry are far from seeing their competitors as enemies, and they are far from being strong enough to solve all difficulties alone. So why can't they use an open mind and altruistic attitude? How about hugging each other for warmth?
Meituan and Dianping merged to form "Meituan-Dianping" in October 2015. Oceano Ceramics was successfully listed in July 2017 through the acquisition by Emperor Sanitary Ware. Xiaomi Technology invested in TCL Group on January 4 this year. …Those companies that have taken the lead on the road of teaming up for warmth and win-win cooperation have already left their peers far behind.
The Internet age is no longer suitable for working alone, it is wise to stay together as a team. In the economic downturn, the first to die are likely to be those companies that work alone. In today’s world, it’s often not your competitors who kill you, but the person who succeeds you may also be the person who robs you.
With the thinking of teaming up for warmth and cross-border integration, the construction and ceramics industry may also be able to cultivate its own Alibaba.
