The financial crisis may not bring people all the "crisis", but also "accident." At least it makes people realize that: running fast, does not necessarily run smoothly. Whether it is the investment community or the entrepreneurs of the business world, it seems that they have completed the baptism of a basic business principle before the crisis. The stable growth of enterprises is more normal than the rapid development of high speed. On the road to growth, I am afraid that no one does not want to be able to reach the other side of success smoothly. Among the gods of ancient Greece, Mercury, the son of Zeus and Maia, was the god of commerce and transportation. Therefore, when the Europeans went out, they always prayed that Mercury would bless himself to arrive safely. Goodyear Asia Pacific CEO Pierre Corvard also told The Contemporary Manager about the Mercury logo. As the world's largest tire and rubber manufacturer, Goodyear's logo "adding the image of Mercury God means using Goodyear products to ensure that you arrive safely," which is probably not only the best wishes for all drivers. It is also a summary of the whole development process of Goodyear. “Safety†is the most inspiring one among all driver-related vocabularies. In the financial crisis today, it has become the best expectation of all entrepreneurs for their own business development. In the 100-year history, Goodyear’s understanding of this is even more profound. Looking at the development context of its 15 years of entry into China, one can see that “smooth and rhythmic development†is the key to its current market position and brand influence in China. Like Mercury in the logo, Goodyear, while allowing each car to arrive safely, is also allowing him to reach one goal after another. "Contemporary Manager" dialogue Goodyear Asia-Pacific CEO Pierre Coward, share the experience and experience of this Fortune 500 company's development process, and how to maintain the company's steady development strategy in a new market environment. Conversation Pierre Coward Bottleneck and Breakout Pierre Coward: We have encountered three major bottlenecks. The first bottleneck is production, then the brand, then the market, and the establishment of the best team in the industry. In fact, from 1994 to 2004, we succeeded at the same time, we also clearly felt the problem of insufficient production capacity. In 2008, there was a shortage of Goodyear tires for several months, so capacity expansion has lagged behind demand. This crisis gave us a good opportunity to start expanding our production capacity. Once the demand is restored, we have enough power to prepare for the production capacity. In addition, we have encountered difficulties in branding and marketing. In 2003, the key factor for a tire company's success in China was to maintain customers like automakers because they were the major customers of the tire companies. During this time, Goodyear has established a good cooperative relationship with major automakers active in the Chinese market. However, in 2004, we found that the frequency of replacement of tires by drivers was getting higher and higher. In these people's minds, Goodyear was not able to establish its own brand as a depot, nor did it have a national brand store. To meet the needs of this part of the user. In 2004, in order to overcome this bottleneck, Goodyear changed its business model in China and devoted itself to building the largest monopoly sales network for automobile tire brands in China. Now that we have achieved this goal, we have 750 authorized service centers, which greatly increase the share of Goodyear in the replacement tire market. The next bottleneck we encountered or what we need to work hard to do is to create the best team in the industry, whether in the market, sales, manufacturing or leadership. We found that there are certain difficulties in the talents that are well-stocked in this industry in Dalian, and we moved our headquarters in Shanghai to Shanghai. “Contemporary Managerâ€: Goodyear's 750 authorized service centers were established between 2004 and 2005. The speed is indeed very fast. Therefore, there are evaluations that Goodyear sells films like Kodak to build retailers. Pierre Coward: This argument makes sense. I mentioned above that in 2003, Goodyear found that it neglected to replace the market of tire customers, not a strong dealer network, so the goal we proposed was to establish a brand store network at the fastest speed. . It was also at that time that I invited a managing director of Kodak (China) to Goodyear to help us build a network of such brand stores in China. His work was excellent. The goal of 800 brand stores is reached in 2007. Today we are very satisfied with the scale of the sales network, but the quality of these stores needs further improvement. So at present, our priority is not to add more brand stores, but to make each existing store more mature. "Contemporary Manager": "Price war" has been used as a magic weapon by many companies. There is also a "price war" in the tire industry. How do you personally view the "price war" competition? Pierre Coward: Goodyear never participates in price wars but can benefit from price wars. Because we are not relying on price, but product differentiation. Chinese consumers have become more and more mature, and they will analyze what kind of products they themselves are truly "high cost" products. In addition, what I have called “benefit from the price war†means that we have established a large national procurement center in Shanghai and also have sufficient cash flow. This way, many tire companies have a chance to compete in the price war. Buy a very good product at a low price. The harvest in crisis Pierre Coward: First of all, the Asia Pacific region is a combination of different markets and different countries. The situation in China and India is not the same as Japan and South Korea. Actually, for the Asia-Pacific region, we are very fortunate. We have better time to prepare for the arrival of the crisis. Europe and the United States have experienced market decline in the first half of 2008 and become very serious in the second half of the year, while the Asia Pacific region is under 2008. Only half a year began to decline. Goodyear had predicted the advent of this crisis long ago and was ready. We expect that the arrival of the crisis will surely lead to a sharp drop in demand; customers, suppliers and employees may experience anxiety. As the demand is expected to decline, the response is to reduce their own costs, close down factories in Australia, including layoffs in several countries, and adopt more advanced planning processes between sales forecasts and schedules. The tool, which adjusts weekly schedules based on sales forecasts for the factory, can reflect the rapid changes in market demand and keep our inventory above low levels. Second, we gave customers more time so that they could pay for Goodyear's accounts, because accounts receivable is one of the important indicators for assessing sales performance and determining sales employee rewards. After the advent of the crisis, we helped customers find bank loans and arrange bank financing for customers so that they can afford to pay for Goodyear. In addition, in order to eliminate the unrest caused by the crisis to employees, suppliers, and customers, we communicated with them through a large number of e-mails, open letters, and other methods. A lot of meetings have also been held, such as sitting down with suppliers and giving them long-term forecasts so that they can understand how they work together. Also make every effort to help customers, so that customers can be minimized by the impact of the crisis. As a result of these measures, Goodyear Asia Pacific's 2008 annual performance was the best in history. "Contemporary Manager": Many multinational CEOs have expressed great pressure in 2009. As a Goodyear Asia Pacific CEO, do you feel pressured? Pierre Coward: There are indeed many pressures, and there are many uncertainties in the future. This makes it very difficult to plan. However, one of the most important pressures I face is how to organize and prepare: once the economy resumes growth, it can immediately grasp the market opportunities; and when the recovery of economic growth does not appear for the time being, it can ensure a strong competitive position in the market. . The Asian market is better than the rest of the world, especially China and India. If you are in a better area, you have a great responsibility to help other areas that are not in a good situation. This is my second pressure. In addition, China is a very key market and will play a more important role in the future at Goodyear Global. We continue to invest in building a brand new factory near Dalian, but this also puts pressure on me. I will do my best to ensure that the construction of this new factory will be completed on time, on budget, and on time. "Contemporary Manager": At the end of 2008, Goodyear wholly acquired Dalian Goodyear. What strategic consideration was taken when acquiring Dalian Goodyear? Pierre Coward: The original Chinese shareholders of Dalian Goodyear proposed to sell their shares to Goodyear, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goodyear. In addition, Goodyear has established a very good partnership with the Dalian municipal government for many years. The continuous expansion and development of Goodyear in Dalian is also due to its good cooperation in the region. If it is not out of such trust, Dalian will not invest in building new factories in the current situation. The new plant invested by Dalian is Goodyear's most advanced factory. "Contemporary Manager": After becoming a wholly owned subsidiary, has Dalian Goodyear been adjusted? Pierre Coward: There are no adjustments or changes. Because, before our wholly-owned acquisition, Dalian Goodyear’s Chinese investors only made financial investments and financial investments, so after the sale of their shares, we did not make any changes in management or corporate structure. Excellent needs team Pierre Coward: First of all, we must have the best team. We must hire the best team and we can promote the best people. The second is speed. I emphasize rapidity and cannot waste any time. We must pay attention to speed in the process of decision-making and investment. Third, to allow everyone on the team, no matter what point of view is expressed, it must be supported by facts and data. Fourth, as leaders, they must be highly involved in their work so that the whole team can become more involved in the work and must set an example. The last and very important point is that we must have a vision. We must explain to everyone how everyone needs to make adjustments and challenges in order to achieve this vision. The vision and the way to achieve it are recognized by every employee.
"Contemporary Manager": What bottlenecks did Goodyear encounter in the development of China? How was it resolved?
“Contemporary Managersâ€: Goodyear’s headquarters launched three major measures in the context of the economic crisis. These include reducing costs and managing cash flow, as well as pushing for growth. How are these three measures implemented in Asia?
"Contemporary Manager": In your resume, have you found out that you have special research on helping companies turn losses and how to make the company active?