On the afternoon of May 10, Board Chairman of TIANDI No.1 apple vinegar Co., Ltd. and Guangdong No.1 Food Co., Ltd. Chen Sheng gave a lecture about his experience of starting a business in Room 103, Teaching Building 9. He reminded the participants that “traditional industry is the main battlefield for most entrepreneurs.” Before the lecture, vice president of GDUFS and dean of School of Business, He Chuantian, issued a letter of appointment for Mr. Chen Sheng as a visiting professor.
In addition, General Manager of No.1 Food Co., Ltd. Li Xiaobing, Deputy Dean of School of Business Zhu Wenzhong and Yuan Denghua and Secretary General of the Alumni Association Xie Weiguang and other guests attended the lecture. The lecture was hosted by Professor Zhu Wenzhong.
Professor Chen Sheng pointed out that in the emerging Internet financial industry, there emerged many familiar Internet outstanding people: Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Liu Qiangdong and so on. In fact, their success was only a case. There were countless people who suffered failure. However, with the help of media, we often mistakenly thought it was normal. Experience of starting from nothing to making great fortune overnight often let entrepreneurs excited. He reminded: “The high tide is coming, which means the chances are slim.” There are many opportunities for emerging industries, but when people get involved in emerging industries, the competition will be very intense. The reality is not often perfect as imagined.
In contrast to traditional industries, such as catering and beauty industry, they need a long time for preparation but come out with strong effect. It needs several years for those industries to make an impact. Fortunately, these industries have a “queuing effect” which means that “a generation of new people will excel the old people,” can be pass down. This in fact provides a more reliable opportunity for the entrepreneurs.
He said that there exists a lot of “key points” in the traditional industry to be overcome steadily, at the same time, one needs to “grasp the outlet” and break through the traditional pattern with “micro-innovation”. He took his two companies as an example and said about the industry situation he faced with and corresponding strategies. In 1997, Premier Li Peng added mature vinegar into Sprite, called it Li Peng No.1. This unique beverage quickly became popular. Chen Sheng seized business opportunities and took immediate action. It took only 45 days from the research and development of vinegar beverage “TIANDI No.1” to the production and marketing. This kind of beverage is health and served as food accompaniment. Thanks to these two innovative points, “TIANDI No.1” now has become one of the country's largest vinegar beverage manufacturers. In addition, he found the lack of quality pork in the city, so he entertained the idea of establishing “No.1 Local pork” Food Co., Ltd. Similarly, he also seized the opportunity and solved many problems of "key points" in practice. Now, “No.1 Local pork” has become the largest domestic enterprises of pig breeding and sales.
In Q & A session, he also explained to the students some details of communication with farmers in the operation of “No.1 Local pork” and answered the question on how to seize the opportunity.
After the lecture, President of GDUFS Zhong Weihe met Professor Chen Sheng at the Yunshan Coffee Shop and extended warm welcome. He congratulated Mr. Chen on becoming a visiting professor of GDUFS and hoped that there would be more opportunities for cooperation and communication in the future. He also shared students from GDUFS with fresher entrepreneurial experience.
