{Disarmed} How four "ignorant" managed to change the mobile industry: this is Xiaomi s book that reveals its secrets
That's what they call themselves, the first four founding members of Xiaomi. But although they could be defined as "ignorant" in many things, they were not fundamentally so: knowledge of business, engineering and technology was not lacking . Knowledge that shaped one of the strongest companies today. You may not have heard of this until today, but there is a book that reveals all the secrets of the company.
With cover art and editing by the same design team of some of the best-selling Xiaomi smartphones, "Going Forward: Lei Jun personally tells about 10 years of Xiaomi's blood" could be translated into Spanish as "From here: the personal story of Lei Jun about 10 years of Xiaomi ". A book in the code of an official biography that reveals some secrets and reveals new perspectives. We will tell you exclusively at xiaomist.
一往无前 ： 雷军 亲 述 小米 热血 10 年 海涛 著 小米 传记 完整 揭秘 小米 商业 模式 永远 相信 美好 的 事情 即将 发
Store little, distribute a lot
Today Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, is 51 years old. Appears youth; however, it is not without its scars. I want us to have a bit of context: When Microsoft forever changed the history of home computing, Bill Gates had just turned 40 - I mean, in effect, Windows 95. That same year he was already the richest man in the world. $ 3 billion above Warren Buffet, no less.
And by numbers we will start. Every time we report financial results we always think, with some zeal, that many of those figures published by Canalys do not refer to smartphones sold , but to copies distributed in stores. Which means, in short, that these mobiles have been pre-purchased by distributors but they are still a phantom sale, an assignment that will then have to be settled to present the real profit numbers.
However, this is the day to day of many great brands. And Xiaomi's secret trick for its blazing success. But let's not anticipate events. The book is structured in three parts and dozens of small blocks. And there is a lot of fabric to cut.
'Going Forward' begins by recounting the past of Lei Jun and, after a preface, places the birth of Xiaomi in the technology park. Then he goes on to review some milestones of his growth and stops at Jun's necessary restart as an entrepreneur. Chapter 1 closes with several anecdotes about the future focus of the brand , under the title "a Mercedes-Benz parked in front of the ramen shop." And special attention deserves your reading on agility and efficiency in industrial development. Go for it.
To sum it up a bit, Lei Jun considers that although the first 5 years of the company were full of challenges and problems inherent in a new company, no one teaches you which model to use for which work model.
And that is where they knew how to differentiate themselves: one of the keys to Xiaomi's success lies in the speed of production and the minimum accumulation of stock. Think mobiles, order materials, assemble them and go, to travel the world . Warehouses are rarely full and rarely for more than 2 weeks. Distributing at full speed is essential to give your potential users a smartphone that conveys that feeling of being up-to-date.
The inventory retention and stock-out technique usually works if you have the ability to bear the warehousing costs. Xiaomi stores up to 80% less than other brands . Its runs are more limited, its margins are thinner, but its production and supply flow is more constant, without fluctuation.
Stick it when you fly higher
Like Icarus, Xiaomi also experienced that moment where its waxed wings caught fire and nearly brought the mark down lower than they could ever have traced.
But let's get back to the book route. Chapter 3 goes back to the first steps of the brand, about the change of focus from software to hardware, the first agreements with Qualcomm, the rejection they received from many suppliers, the closed door of the first brands and how they had to ally with Inventec and Sharp, two seconds in that game of giants where Samsung and Sony led the market. It is not until page 75 when the Mi One appears , so that you have a perception of the importance that Xiaomi gives to its bases.
"A group of people who do not go home" is part of the episode that sums up this passion, this obsession to grow and study each step. Special attention deserves the fragment dedicated to the eighth founder and how he brought a smile to a lot of long faces. At this point, one of the lessons they learned was: " When you run out of money, try doing it yourself ."
In short, the 2013 Xiaomi was cool - dare you compare yourself to Gree, the 23-year-old star known to any k - pop fan - it was expanding. But "success is very easy to inflate and inflation will lead you to do a lot of stupid things."
What happened? That in 2015 the debts flooded the basement of the house. And, right at the moment of greatest expansion, in 2016 Xiaomi mobile sales fell more than 36% . Statesmen say that in such a fall it is impossible to survive. Nokia, Blackberry and Sony lived it. Companies like Nubia, ZTE or Meizu almost disappeared. Xiaomi survived, starting by losing weight, adjusting the internal organizational structure. Stocks continued to decline, confirming that confidence is a volatile good.
They were scared, but fair enough. Lei Jun bet everything on 5G and on a symbiosis between the smartphone and the AIOT (Internet of Things product ecosystem). The mobile would be the remote control of a new cosmos of smart gadgets. And they succeeded. You just have to take a look at that attractive fleet of products in off-white, with smooth lines and a carved M that are dropped every so often by Youpin , the crowdfunding platform that already has the same guarantees as the rest of the official stores .
The youngest Fortune 500
The definitive internalization (under the headline "more than one billion shares are in foreign markets"), the strategy through Mi Talk —with 70 million users in mid-2014—, the inevitable ecological awareness, apologies and weeks nightmare, the end of the label "imitators", settle with Xiaomi Home, the hunt for Lu Weibing ... the book contains collects more than 100 testimonies of key figures involved in the development of the company.
And there are scenes that would be well worth a Netflix miniseries. Like those " really frustrating " stages. For example, in the development of some terminals some batteries fail when the tests and all the tests say that they should not, sometimes the antennas do not fit well on their mold, millimetrically encapsulated in 3D. The tests are repeated and the failure comes back up . This led veteran engineer Yan Kesheng (current vice president) to seclude himself in a corner of the production workshop, squat down and burst into tears.
Other stories that, well, completely contradict the story about the coldness and Japanese distance with respect to personal relationships. They even reveal anecdotes of company dinners, ideas that emerged after routine meetings under the approach "1 point to think, 9 to learn" .
In summary, Going Forward is a book full of nostalgia, with some didactic passages and, above all, a lot of respect even for the most minority names, glossing in data and comparisons how Xiaomi is the company it is thanks to these names.
Who knows where they will be in another 10 years, when Xiaomi cars park next to our sidewalks.
一往无前 ： 雷军 亲 述 小米 热血 10 年 海涛 著 小米 传记 完整 揭秘 小米 商业 模式 永远 相信 美好 的 事情 即将 发
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The news How four "ignorant" managed to change the mobile industry: this is the Xiaomi book that reveals its secrets was originally published on xiaomist by Isra Fdez .
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