Hubei Yasi Du Xiaoyi： Preference for front-line employees will lead to higher loyalty.
Yasi, Hubei, is headquartered in Yichang, Hubei Province, on the bank of the Yangtze River.
In 1996, a daily chemical store started from 50 square meters, and now it is a physical retail scale with annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan;
From 2001 to 2005, we successively acquired commercial properties and completed the capital accumulation of Yasi’s asset development strategy.
Joined SPAR in 2005, laying the foundation for the improvement of store management technology;
In 2007, Hubei Daji was established, involved in commercial real estate development and operation, and officially entered diversified development;
Nowadays, it has formed a diversified development pattern in Yichang, Xiangfan, Jingmen, Yidu, Dangyang and its surrounding areas, with commercial real estate development as the guide and physical retail business as the core, and involved in finance, hotels, entertainment, catering, tourism and other fields.
Yasi, Hubei Province: A Multi-landscape along the Three Gorges.
In May this year, members of a delegation composed of more than 10 CEOs of retail enterprises rushed to Yichang, Hubei from Beijing, Henan, Guangdong and Shanxi.
Gao Jiancheng, editor-in-chief of China Business Daily Supermarket Weekly, personally led the investigation, and the purpose of this trip is to inspect Yas International Plaza in Yidu, so as to explore the secrets of how Yas has diversified and multi-format layout in Yichang, Xiangfan, Yidu and other surrounding areas.
The newly opened Yidu Yasi International Plaza this year is another masterpiece of Yasi Group’s independent operation from the early real estate project development to the later investment operation. In terms of the format combination of the shopping center, Yasi’s third-generation boutique supermarket, Yasi Food City and other formats independently operated by Yasi Group are all included.
It can be said that Yas International Plaza in Yidu, to a certain extent, is a new combination of Yas Group’s diversified and multi-format development, and it is also a concentrated expression of Yas Group’s diversified comprehensive management strength from starting from a 400-square-meter food supermarket to successively acquiring commercial properties with heavy assets and multi-format development mode, joining the international SPAR to upgrade its management technology, and getting involved in commercial real estate, hotels, restaurants, finance, entertainment and tourism.
On the banks of the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges, what kind of business development model is Hubei Yasi using to interpret the road map for modern regional retail enterprises to become stronger and bigger by opening up new businesses?
Asset-oriented model development gene
From the current high rental cost in the industry, more and more enterprises have to close their stores because they can’t afford it. The asset-oriented development model has become an important embodiment of the core competitiveness of enterprises.
In fact, in this respect, Yas Group has had more than ten years of development experience.
"In September 1999, we opened the first 390-square-meter chain store, which also marked that Yas officially embarked on the enterprise development model of chain retail." Du Xiaoyi, chairman of Hubei Yasi Group, told the reporter that in August 2000, Yichang Yasi Discount Plaza with a business scale of 5,000 square meters was officially opened, which also laid the foundation for Yasi to develop chain retail.
Subsequently, from 2001 to 2005, it was a period of rapid development of Yas’s chain retail business. During this period, Yas successively acquired several large commercial properties in Yichang and its surrounding areas, which enabled the chain retail scale to expand rapidly.
For the retail business that quickly formed a heavy asset model before 2005, Du Xiaoyi said frankly that it benefited from the favorable big business environment at that time. "On the one hand, the chain retail industry was a sunrise industry that was very popular with consumers at that time, and the retail market was not yet open to foreign retail enterprises on a large scale, and the growth environment of domestic retail enterprises was still very relaxed; On the other hand, the operating costs such as rent and labor were still at a low level, which was very important for the retail enterprises of labor-intensive enterprises.
After the chain retail industry has formed a certain scale, especially after the country opened the retail market to foreign capital in December 2004, the domestic retail enterprises that are still in their infancy are facing the market threat of "wolf coming". In fact, many retail enterprises have really become standardized and mature since this period.
How to balance technology and strategy?
"In 2005, Yas officially joined the international SPAR, which was known for its own brand and management technology at that time, and it was also the third enterprise in China to join the organization." Du Xiaoyi told reporters that enterprises should find different development priorities at different stages of development, especially for entrepreneurs, which is a challenge to strategic choice.
In 2007, after the chain retail business has entered the stage of stable development, Yas established the independently operated Daji Real Estate Co., Ltd., specializing in commercial real estate development and commercial property management.
As a result, Yasi Group has gradually formed a dual-core driving operation mode with commercial real estate development as the guide and commercial format combination investment operation as the core.
Looking back on the development of Yas Group for more than ten years, from the acquisition of commercial properties in the initial stage of business to joining the international SPPAR, from the development of commercial real estate to the extension of the upstream supply chain and diversified businesses such as hotels, finance, catering and tourism, every strategic decision of enterprise development directly injects new impetus into the business growth of Yas Group.
"As an entrepreneur, blindly pursuing perfection at the technical level will often make entrepreneurs lose their grasp of the timing of corporate strategic decision-making and lose their keen market insight." Du Xiaoyi said frankly that joining the international SPAR has indeed brought obvious improvement to the management technology of Yas supermarket stores, but if an enterprise focuses too much on the improvement and innovation of specific technologies, it will inevitably affect the decision-making of the enterprise’s big strategic direction, because the market environment, consumption environment and big economic environment are changing rapidly.
In fact, it’s not hard to see that the double-core driving mode of commercial real estate and commercial operation has continuously expanded the market in Yichang, Xiangfan, Jingmen and other regions in the past two years. Du Xiaoyi’s big store strategy, diversified and multi-format business extension mode are promoting the arrival of a new round of rapid growth period of Yas Group.
This also explores a reference model for regional retail enterprises to continue to be stronger and bigger for the whole traditional retail industry in the period of slow growth.
Front-line employees are more loyal.
No matter how advanced the store management technology is, the entrepreneur’s strategic choice is correct. If there is no staff team that can stand the test of the market, where can the enterprise develop? Especially at present, China has entered an era of high labor costs, and the demographic dividend is no longer the advantage of retail enterprises.
However, for more than ten years, why has the staff team of Yas Group had a very high loyalty and cohesion? "Work is life-oriented, life is happy." Du Xiaoyi told reporters that his main job now is to think about how to make employees happy every day.
In order to make front-line employees feel the corporate culture of Yas’s "big family", Yas often organizes front-line employees to carry out some collective activities, or go out for a trip, or hold some entertainment activities. Even if they just watch a movie and just get together to chat, Du Xiaoyi will personally ask the relevant person in charge, and the employees are not satisfied with the activities.
Du Xiaoyi also made no secret of his preference for front-line employees. In his eyes, front-line employees are even more important than his "right-hand man", which is also inseparable from the business philosophy of Yas "big family" that Du Xiaoyi is willing to give and share with employees.
"Whether it is a senior management or a front-line employee, the salary offered by Yas must be guaranteed to be the highest among local retail enterprises. First of all, it must be given to employees materially." Du Xiaoyi told reporters that being good for employees is actually good for the development of enterprises. When employees feel the love of the enterprise, they will naturally cherish their work more, and their enthusiasm and initiative will naturally improve, which will enter a virtuous circle of mutual understanding with employees.
(China Business Daily Supermarket Weekly Liu Chaolong)
■ commentary
Transplanting Yasi landscape
The timely timing of enterprise development strategy has contributed to the diversified and multi-format development pattern of Hubei Yasi today, which is attributed to the strategic vision and management wisdom of Chairman Du Xiaoyi.
Perhaps some enterprises will question, how much of Yas’s experience can be suitable for their own enterprises? The author believes that at least three points are worth learning from the regional retail enterprises that want to become stronger and bigger.
Take how to operate a commercial complex as an example. In the past two years, more and more enterprises have tried to develop and operate commercial complex projects, but it seems that these are all strong enterprises. Then, can regional leading enterprises and enterprises with a scale of 300 million to 100 million operate commercial complex projects? How to try this new business field?
According to the author’s understanding, a retail enterprise in Shandong with an annual sales of 500 million yuan and a community supermarket as its core business has already planned to operate a commercial complex, which actually represents the next development idea of a considerable number of regional retail enterprises. At present, what everyone lacks most is experience in this field.
In this regard, Yas’s development model has accumulated mature operational experience for some regional growth enterprises interested in expanding in new business areas. In this regard, Du Xiaoyi will also share Yas’s operation mode in this respect with the industry based on the commercial complex he is currently operating.
This reminds me of the 3rd China Community Business Development Forum, which was hosted by our newspaper in Tangshan in April this year. At that time, more than 300 business operators from all over the country were eager to learn the curiosity suitable for their own model, which made me admire it very much, and also made me understand that the more grounded and similar the market environment, the more worth learning.
This year, Yas has opened a third-generation boutique supermarket in its own commercial complex. The management orientation of its third-generation boutique supermarket is not to engage in market competition, not to distribute posters, to refuse price wars, to pursue high gross profit rate and to adopt more targeted and precise marketing. During the newly opened period, the average sales volume of the store increased by nearly 30% compared with the same-size stores.
Its greatest success is to explore a set of systematic store-opening models with different business styles and market positioning according to the characteristics of different business districts.
Doing business in partnership between enterprises and employees is another innovative highlight of Yas’s management. This is forbidden in many enterprises, but Yas dares to let some employees with ability and resources boldly develop the business resources needed by the company.
In fact, Yas has formed a mature management and operation mode in terms of loyalty building for front-line employees, expansion of new business areas, combined operation of commercial complexes, etc. The rest is to see if our enterprise has a pair of wise eyes and a heart of learning.