this man is not calm

Chapter 315 Be prepared for danger in times of peace
After living together for almost two years, Li Xuan learned a lot about her boyfriend Jin Shang's preferences, living habits, and personality.

In essence, Xiao Jin is not a particularly strong-willed person. He is smart and capable, and he is also easily affected by external factors and does irrational things.

It seems that many business plans are based on the long term, and the short-term benefits are not very good. Of course, the timing of getting involved is not the best, and many of them are just done on a whim.

I'm a little greedy, but fortunately I'm not attached and I know how to reflect.

Just like the development of the home game console Venus 2 plus, the personal will of many bosses was involved.

In terms of style, they also tend to be comfortable and enjoy themselves. They don't pay much attention to Chinese clothes and follow the comfortable and leisure route. However, they are still quite enthusiastic about food and drink. Of course, it's not that particular. When other ideas occupy the commanding heights of thinking, it won't make sense.

In front of him, Jin Shang was thinking and chatting with Li Xuan. While eating rice, his chopsticks were only extended to the dishes at hand. From time to time, his considerate girlfriend calmly exchanged the positions of the plates. , let Xiaojin eat more nutritious food.

"I made a big mistake when finalizing the second-generation game console product. Whether it is adding networking functions or built-in VCD playback functions, it cannot be achieved by weakening its gaming attributes. Once its product positioning is not clear enough, the current Hot sales data conceals the crisis, and the next generation of products will explode even more violently.”

Success is sometimes more terrifying than failure. It paralyzes decision-makers' thinking and misses opportunities for improvement.

"In short, if the sales are good, it can be regarded as a turnaround, sweeping away the decline of the first-generation machine."

"That's it!"

The consequence of the boss's frequent intervention is that it violates the laws of the market and prevents the opinions of professionals from being reflected in business services.

Jin Shang kept this lesson in mind and drew inferences from one example to another, thinking about what he had done in the past, which ones he did well and which ones he did poorly.

For example, the resources of "Oriental Manke" and Huixin Bookstore are used too frequently, a lot of efforts are made for so-called IP development, and multi-platform synchronization is insisted on.

It is definitely not wrong for the cultural industry to take the big IP route, but regardless of it, without preconditions or market research, it blindly rushes in, which is relatively inefficient in resource utilization and actually causes serious waste.

"It's inevitable."

"Originally, the next generation of products was going to add Blu-ray playback function and go further in the field of high-definition video. Now that I think about it, it is still too advanced. Once more functions are added, the cost will be uncontrollable. If the networking attributes are also upgraded, it will inevitably make people lose money. An already bad situation has become even worse.”

No matter what, the video playback function of the Venus series of game consoles will stop at DVD high-definition, and there is no need for more.

In the end, a home game console can only be a game console. It is feasible to add other functions for the sake of gaming experience, but to expand in other fields, it is better to start from scratch and launch a new product.

In fact, it is unknown whether the development of a cultural product will be successful before it is released. Even if it is a popular work in the previous life, it will inevitably change in a different time, a different place, and a different world. In case of cold.

"In the past, the company was small and there weren't many people. I was busy all by myself, which was undoubtedly more efficient. But now, what is needed is collective strength to directly manage a business entity with thousands of people and indirectly radiate tens of thousands of people. Even if I am too busy to vomit blood, I can't manage it. It is said that there is a lack of independent talents, but talents are not born. If we don't give everyone the opportunity to work hard, it is not advisable to recruit senior executives from outside. "

Returning to home game consoles, no matter how advanced the equipment is and how powerful the functions are, if there are no fun games, which player will support them?

In any case, this cannot be denied. The increase in revenue also gives the company the opportunity to solve problems more calmly. Fortunately, Jin Shang was not fooled by the appearance.

If compared with the configuration of a pop band, technology and hard work are like a drum set, which is the skeleton and foundation of a popular song; user needs and product design are like a bass, which is attached to the muscle texture, even if it is not so majestic and muscular. You can also make yourself passable by dressing up, but if you can do your best and be perfect, that is the ideal state; guitars, keyboards, and lead singers are like cultural products, equivalent to dressing up in fancy clothes and singing and performing, which raise the upper limit The essential.

"It's not yet time, but it's definitely time to relax a bit."

"Being greedy for perfection may be one of my weaknesses. When selling DVD players, I focus on making DVD players. When selling entertainment audiovisual notebooks and tablets, I focus on assembly and production. When selling set-top boxes, I focus on researching transmission and decoding functions instead of integrating all applications. Integrated into the game console. The product positioning is not clear, which is a serious mistake. It seems that this is not the first time I have made this mistake.”

"Video players should still have four or five years of development, but...that's all. Digitalization is the general trend. The further we go, the more we will compete in the Red Sea of ​​stock games. I don't plan to go too deep, I will just take a look at the video game." The bonus of album release still needs to be kept up with, and it may be used at some point, but the key to profit lies in content production, which must be polished.”

If the drum set is not played well, the rhythm will be messed up, and everything will be in vain; the bassist will pretend to pose, even if it is not electric, many laymen will not be able to hear it, and there is no sense of existence, but its role is unquestionable, top-notch The band must have a top bassist. The bassist in a band that is not good enough is just a make-up. The guitar and vocalist are the bright and glamorous top performers, and they are often the key to attracting fans.

"Do you think that your desire to control is too strong, which has led to the employees not being motivated, their abilities not being fully utilized, and not getting exercise?"

Jin Shang agrees with the girlfriend's words.

"Are you ready to delegate power?"

If it is an ordinary boss, as the founder, he must have strong control over the company, and he must guard against challengers.

But for Jin Shang, it's different.

In the final analysis, Xiao Jin is also a man with an "ancestral golden finger". This is the biggest difference from ordinary entrepreneurs.

The foundation passed down from my father and ancestors is enough for me to wait until death, and I can even spare part of it for young people to start their own businesses. The starting point is very high, skipping the most difficult stage of primitive accumulation, and the first pot of gold requires almost no effort. Just got it.

Just like Planet Intelligent Manufacturing, a new company, Jinshang can pay more attention to a few key projects, but there is really no need to get involved in product design in detail. It is enough to provide usage requirements and accept the final results.

"You……"

Li Xuan stretched out her finger, tapped Jin Shang's forehead, sighed and said,

"In the past, you always worked hard with the intention of achieving your goals in life. However, from the perspective of the boss, the model of doing things yourself, taking the lead in the work, and leading many employees to move forward is not bad. But when you reach a certain level, you have to change your mentality. As a well-deserved boss of a big company, you must have enough vision and courage, be ruthless enough to ignore your relatives, treat everyone equally, and only do things that your subordinates cannot do or shouldn't do. If someone can do it, I will never do it. Count how many things you are satisfied with?"

Hearing this, Jin Shang giggled happily and shook his head slightly.

"I understand, but are you willing to work under a boss like that, or have such an impersonal boyfriend?"

"Emotionally speaking, I definitely want you to be more 'warm'. If your boyfriend is selfless and merciless, I will be very embarrassed. But intellectually speaking, a man is like a machine, leading the company to move forward bravely and integrating many things. A boss who manages everything in an orderly manner and who is judged only by his ability and merit seems to be more worthy of following, unless he has a good personal relationship with his boss and can receive special care. "That is to say, as a part-time worker. Boy, I hope to meet a boss who is easier to talk to. But for those who really have big ambitions and big goals, a great future and the realization of personal value, or in other words, making more money, is better than playing house with the boss and colleagues. House wine is more important.

A good bird roosts in a broken tree. The boss chooses his employees, and the employees also choose their boss.

A layman boss who only makes a lot of unrealistic demands based on market research and user needs is not necessarily worse than a technical boss who knows a lot and is proficient in everything. From the standpoint of employees, they prefer expert leaders, but in fact, layman bosses who are based on the market, are more down-to-earth, and mess around outside the so-called technical framework are more likely to succeed.

You can’t not understand everything at all, but understanding too much and too deeply will affect your thinking pattern, which is often counterproductive.

Of course, this is looking at the problem from a purely commercial perspective. If we look at the problem from the perspective of a scientific researcher and measure it from the perspective of extending history, scientists who are obsessed with the laboratory are the leaders who truly promote the advancement of human history. Those who are obsessed with the so-called scientific research return rate or achievement conversion rate and commercial monetization ability are prone to various problems.

Jin Shang has no interest in academic pursuits. Instead, he is involved in the wave of future development as an entrepreneur. Naturally, he will judge his own direction from an entrepreneur's perspective.

The meaning of Li Xuan's words is very clear, that is, Jin Shang's concept has not changed from the "leader" of a grass-roots team to the boss of a large company, at least in a short period of time, he has not fully adapted to it.

"It is developing too fast, we have not kept up, our employees are not well trained, our capabilities are not up to standard, and the integration is not smooth. In short, there are various reasons. This time the product positioning of home game consoles has deviated, which is just a symptom. I have to say Fortunately, the fact that the sales of game cartridges were not as good as expected was noticed, which gave me the opportunity to make timely adjustments.”

Not only does company management need to be flawless, but also technical development needs to be micro-managed and adjusted, and it also needs to be done personally and dictate the specific creation of cultural products. No matter how energetic Jin Shang is, it is impossible to cover everything. What's more, with Jin Shang's ability, It's impossible to be watertight.

Electronic communication technology, hardware manufacturing and Internet product development, etc., it is the limit to understand a little bit and the necessary knowledge. If you really want to study in depth, you will not be able to master the essence in a short while.

"As long as you can figure it out. In fact, your performance in the past year or so has been so outstanding that you have almost exhausted all your options, so that no one dares to question your decision-making. If things continue like this, it may not be good. ”

Just like Prime Minister Zhuge who worked hard and died. Although his intelligence is indeed worthy of praise, whenever civil servants and generals encounter problems, they place their hope in the so-called "wonderful tricks" instead of finding solutions by themselves. A crisis is born.

Today’s Jinxi culture seems to have this tendency.

"The weak sense of participation affects the improvement of the sense of belonging, especially the middle and lower management cadres, which creates a rift with the upper-level decision-makers. The front-line operators of Planet Intelligent Manufacturing must have opinions on the current situation of the Venus second-generation machine. But there was no feedback to me at all, and even Hong Renquan didn’t necessarily know.”

Are game cartridges slow to sell?
Not at all, it’s just lower than the sales growth rate of game consoles. There is no problem at all. Optimism is permeated from top to bottom. The grassroots only focus on the work in hand and have difficulty controlling the overall situation, while the management is blinded by the hot sales.

This incident made Jin Shang recall what happened at a similar time in his previous life. Behind the extremely hot market of PS2, related industries suffered great setbacks in the next one or two years. The market shrank rapidly and even disappeared. By the time the impact of online games hit, it had already been in the doldrums for several years.

The publishers at that time seemed to have taken similar measures and installed the latest versions of decoders and players, resulting in unclear product positioning. Amid the surging market tide, they did not realize the root cause of the sluggishness of the original game market, and did not promote the original game market. The 3D game market raised its stakes and ultimately fell short.

A few hot-selling top games cannot make up for the negative impact of the collapse of many third-party game manufacturers. In a vicious circle, they continue to spin sequels to hot-selling games, making a waste of money and disappointing many die-hard fans. , have turned elsewhere.

"What are your strengths? You have a far-sighted vision and a sharp mind. You can always choose the one that suits you best among the many uncertain roads, instead of trying to open up a new road yourself. Do it once in a while to open up a blue ocean. , Don’t regard this method as the norm. It’s hard to say whether people can be born knowing it, but they are definitely not omnipotent, and they must admit that they are beyond their capabilities.”

"I understand, and I will pay attention to it in the future. Forget it this time, the result is not too bad after all, but... it is really time to train a few direct product managers."

After finishing dinner and cleaning up, Jin Shang said very calmly,
"In two days, Wei Shuangping and I will talk about the company's restructuring. The current flow of employees up and down is still somewhat blocked and not smooth enough. Promoting people and giving them authority must be justified."

Every personnel change is an earthquake for the company, with varying impacts. Jinshang hopes to maintain stability as much as possible and achieve goals. Without dedicated human resources to provide advice, it is difficult to act lightly.

"By the way, "Drunken Master" is released this week, and the distribution department has also done a lot of supporting promotional activities. We must tap out the value of the 'gold mine' of "The King of Fighters." If the box office is good, we will start a TV series The response to filming is not good, so we’ll wait for a few years to gain popularity through comics and animation, or launch other characters’ autobiographical stories.”

"For example, on the surface, she is the lead singer of a well-known rock band, but secretly she is a fighting girl who is proficient in extraordinary fighting abilities; a sunny boy who comes from a wealthy family, but is actually an innocent ancient martial arts enthusiast who yearns for a life of iron horses and grudges?"

"Isn't it possible? Try more and you can't hang yourself from a tree!"

Disney's success, every step of the way, and the success of Marvel's movies are all due to the lessons learned from the previous failed films, and they were finally able to grasp the pulse of the market and achieve success.

"You just have too many ideas that others can't keep up with. If you didn't have enough money to withstand the cost, you would have been ruined long ago."

Li Xuan rolled her eyes at her boyfriend angrily.
"Is the draft project called "The Legend of White Snake" going to be implemented after "The Strange Case of the Song Dynasty" initially gains popularity?"

"Did you see it?"

"It's not even covered up, it's just placed on the desk like that. I'm not blind."

"Just take it one step at a time. You have to do it anyway."

At first, Jin Shang prepared "Journey to the West" as a link between past and present. Later, after actually investigating the popularity among the people, he found that it was actually based on the "Luoyang Giant Snake Incident in the Tang Dynasty". The story of the love between man and snake demon is more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people; The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, which is based on Xuanzang's journey to Tianzhu to obtain Buddhist scriptures, is well known in some areas and among specific groups of people. However, it is not as popular as "The Legend of the White Snake" nationwide.

Indeed, without the circulation of "Journey to the West", with the popularity of the four famous works, the stories of talented scholars and beauties between poor scholars and wealthy daughters, as well as the stories of the love between beauties and monsters, are more widely spread among the people, and it is not incomprehensible.

In this case, Jin Shang had to adjust the development plan appropriately and replace the Monkey King who was going to appear in "Jiuding War", which is the sequel to the story that took place fifteen years ago, with the White Snake.

The story is set in the Northern Song Dynasty, whose exact time period is not clearly stated, and is somewhat related to the plot of "Strange Cases of the Great Song Dynasty".

With history as the backbone, many branches and vines grow on it, gradually enriching it into a complete historical fictional universe.

The movie "Drunken Master" is the first attempt to develop derivative character IP for the public. Unlike niche themes that are only targeted at animation and game enthusiasts, it is the first attempt to showcase a subculture that is only popular among certain groups. Provide "circle-breaking" actions that are not specifically targeted at customers.

If you succeed, it proves that this path is feasible. If you fail, you still have to go back and lick your wounds, practice more basic skills, and challenge again.

(End of this chapter)