In 2021, the concept of "specialized and new" quickly became popular. In particular, the Beijing Stock Exchange was established on September 2, committed to becoming a "capital market professional development platform for effective service of specialized and special small and medium-sized enterprises." In 2022, for "specialized and special new" enterprises, how should they grasp the development opportunities?

Although China has grown into the world's second largest economy, there is still a large gap between Chinese and Western enterprises, especially in the upstream of the value chain in the "five base" field gap is the most serious, becoming the core of the "stuck neck" problem.

Therefore, "specialized and special new" enterprises and individual champion enterprises (collectively referred to as "fine winners") have received unprecedented attention and become the hope of breaking through the "jam neck" dilemma.

For the growth and development characteristics of "fine winner", there is a special enterprise development strategy, known as the "T-strategy". The strategy is characterized by the continuous vertical digging of technology and brand moat on the one hand, and the continuous horizontal broadening of product and customer experience related diversified application scenarios on the other hand.

01

"Fine One Winner" and "Hidden Champion"

Unlike Germany's "hidden champions", more than 60% are B2B manufacturing enterprises, focusing on the high-end of the market segment, China's "fine winner" has a relatively high degree of homogeneity, and the degree of competitive advantage differentiation is not clear. This situation is not limited to Chinese "elite winners", but for all enterprises in China, and the situation is more urgent, because most Chinese enterprises are not yet in the competitive position of "elite winners" in their respective industries.

Most Chinese enterprises have risen in the past few decades with the help of huge domestic demand, and the core advantages are cost and deep grasp of the local market.

For example, in the field of rail transit, CRRC is 66% of the world's rail transit suppliers, and the only customer of a parts partner is China National Car, which produces some high-speed rail parts accounted for more than 70% of the share of CRRC procurement of the product, so the parts produced by this company naturally account for more than 40% of the global market share. For such enterprises, how to consolidate the existing advantages, maintain low costs, make their products more price advantages, while continuing to maintain a good relationship with large customers, is the fundamental of its deep moat.

In addition, although China's "fine one winner" has made a certain degree of cross-border expansion on the basis of professional deep cultivation, its application scenarios are not diversified enough compared with Germany's "hidden champion". Therefore, China's "elite winner" needs to consider that after achieving a large market share and certain technological breakthroughs in a certain field in the past, it actively strives to expand adjacent markets and extend its business to surrounding related fields, especially the unconventional or abnormal new application scenarios of its core technology.

Relatively speaking, the German "hidden champion" has achieved unique success in this regard, such as the spring products produced by Kern-Liebers (Kern-Liebers) are not only used for automotive seat belts, but also for home appliances, electrical tools, high-speed rail contact lines and many other application scenarios; Bearings produced by Schaeffler are widely used in many industries such as automobiles, high-speed rail, wind power, machine tools and ships. In addition, in the history of enterprise development, there are many examples of multiple application scenarios to expand a technology, including many original military technologies in the civilian field (such as laser disc, GPS navigation, etc.).

The comparison between the German "invisible champion" and the Chinese "fine winner" is also different in other aspects: the German side emphasizes "invisible", while the Chinese side values "well-known"; The Germans prefer not to list, while the Chinese often want to; The German side is clearly highly international (the German side occupies the top 3 positions in the global market), while the Chinese side is uneven in terms of internationalization (the Chinese side often occupies the top 3 positions in the domestic market); The German side is used to slow growth, while the Chinese side prefers fast growth.

In short, there is still a considerable gap between China's "fine one winner" and Germany's "hidden champion", how to catch up is the best path?

02

Practice is the mother of knowledge

Sainty Marine Optical, a Chinese single champion enterprise located in Yuyao, Ningbo, provides a unique inspiration for us to propose "T-type strategic model". Originally, Sainty Marine Optical only produced ordinary optical lenses, such as traditional glass lenses such as camera lenses, microscope lenses, and telescope lenses. Later, Sainty Marine Optical has gradually expanded into special optical lenses, such as mobile phone lenses, car lenses, security lenses, robot lenses, VR/AR lenses, industrial inspection lenses, medical equipment lenses and other emerging resin optical lenses.

At present, the annual sales of Sainyu Optical has exceeded 46 billion, and the medium-term goal is to become a 100 billion enterprise. Sainty Marine Optical should be considered a single champion enterprise, because it has always focused on the field of lenses, but the specific market application of lens technology has expanded to a wide variety of scenes, in China, the scale can reach so large is not many. We summarize it as "special diversified application of specialized core competence", that is, the prototype of "T-type strategy".

From this point of view, the key to the invisible champion is not the size, nor whether it is "invisible", but whether it is "fine", and whether it can continue to broaden the relevant application scenarios of products and customer experience.

At present, the biggest historical challenge faced by Chinese enterprises is in the supply side of the upstream value chain, especially in the high-end field of "five bases". In this regard, Huichuan technology provides another success story, echoing Sainty Marine optical remote. Huichuan Technology started from the innovation of elevator motor frequency converter, and also involved textile motor frequency converter, and then timely entered the wide application field of servers, including electric vehicles, robots, electro-hydraulic systems, etc., and achieved the take-off of business.

On the surface, the various businesses of Huichuan technology are not highly correlated with each other, but an in-depth analysis shows that all businesses share an underlying core technology, that is, the motor control system. Therefore, we found that Huichuan technology resembles Sainty Marine Optical, should still be considered a single champion enterprise, because it has always focused on a subdivision of the field, but the specific market application of motor control technology to expand to a wide variety of scenarios, fully reflects the characteristics of "specialized core capabilities of the new diversified application", fully in line with the "T strategy" requirements.

03

The core connotation of "T-type strategy"

The core feature of the "T-type strategy" is to pay attention to both professional deep cultivation and cross-border expansion, so as to achieve an organic balance between deep "moat" and extensive response to VUCA+ situational diversity. The former is based on the in-depth understanding and development of the two aspects of technology and market in a single field to build a core competitiveness with depth as the dimension. We call this "deep core competence," which can be used as a metaphor for "digging deep holes."

The latter is based on the agility and flexibility of resource capability and organizational structure to build another core competitiveness with breadth as the dimension. We call it "breadth core competitiveness", which can be used as a metaphor for "broad grain collection". Therefore, "deep digging" and "wide accumulation of grain" have become the two major elements or dimensions of the "T-type strategy", both of which are indispensable. Finally, in the context of VUCA+, the best strategic layout is to achieve an overall and dynamic organic balance between the two core competencies of depth and breadth.

For the "fine one winner" enterprises, that is, the leading enterprises in the market segment, the "T-type strategy" has special significance, especially in the balanced integration of the focus on the industry and diversified operations. The products of these enterprises come from the core technical expertise like a T-shaped vertical (focus) pen, and need to constantly explore to enhance the core competitiveness; The expansion of its product application scenarios is like a T-type horizontal (diversification) stroke, which needs to continue to expand and enrich market demand.

From an underlying logic perspective, "specialized" focuses on immediate operational efficiency and path-dependent applied learning (exploitation), while "ultra new" focuses on future operational effectiveness and path breakthrough learning (exploration). In particular, it should be pointed out that the "T-strategy" is particularly effective for the "five-base" enterprises in the upstream of the value chain: focusing on the upstream core technology (that is, the vertical dimension of the "T-strategy"), and developing the specific market application scenarios in the downstream (that is, the horizontal dimension of the "T-strategy").

As a result, the upstream pays attention to economies of scale, while the downstream pays attention to economies of scope, thus obtaining double advantages. In other words, the "fine winner" enterprises that adopt "T-type strategy" often have the complementary dual competitive advantages of "focus" and "diversification" at the same time.

Liaoning: All-out to "complex" grab production, stable operation.

In order to cope with the adverse impact of the epidemic, Liaoning Province has set up a special task force for economic operation support composed of 11 departments, including the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, and the provincial Department of Transportation. It has issued the Work Plan for Epidemic Prevention and Stable Production of Key Enterprises during the epidemic Period, and coordinated member units to dispatch production support materials such as coal, electricity and oil and gas on a daily basis. We will study ways to solve problems such as vehicle delays, congestion at toll gates, stagnation of postal services, and obstruction of personnel returning to work in service areas of expressways, and ensure the stable operation of key production enterprises, key household goods producers, key energy enterprises, and related supporting enterprises. Since March 31, 873 enterprises that had stopped production due to the epidemic have resumed work, with a return rate of more than 40%.

China Textile Grain and Oil Lianwang Dalian Industrial Co., Ltd. mainly produces and processes soybean oil, and the raw materials come from Dayaowan Port located in Jinpu New Area. In the early stage of the epidemic, the import and export channels of enterprises were blocked, and production and operation were seriously affected.

China Textile Grain and Oil Lianwang (Dalian) Industrial Co., LTD. Director of the environment department Liu Lifeng

"On the one hand, our soybean raw materials can not enter the factory, the company can not normal production and operation, on the other hand, the products we produce, if the delivery vehicle can not enter the factory in time to pick up goods, it will also affect our downstream customers."

After understanding the situation, the special class of "guarantee for supply and Chang" in Pulandian District took the initiative to docking with multiple departments of Dalian City and Jinpu New District and helped enterprises to handle the pass.

Dalian Pulandian district science, industry and information Bureau deputy director Shao Lei

"Arrange special personnel to be on duty 24 hours a day and handle it all day. So far, more than 500 vehicle permits have been issued for 91 companies."

The provincial economic operation support team adopts daily dispatch system, coordinates the member units to dispatch production support materials every day, studies and solves the problems of raw material supply and personnel return to work; At the same time, all municipalities have been organized to guide enterprises that have stopped production to resume work as quickly as possible under the condition of ensuring epidemic prevention and control. At present, 226 enterprises above designated size have resumed work in Yingkou City. Abe Distribution Co., LTD., located in Yingkou area of Liaoning Free Trade Zone, is a supporting enterprise of the national automobile industry chain supply chain, and the business resumption rate has reached 98%.

Liaoning Free Trade Zone Yingkou area economic development service Bureau deputy director Lou Wei

"Up to now, we have helped 123 enterprises in the free trade zone to go through the procedures for resuming work, 174 transport vehicle permits for 50 enterprises, and 459 transport vehicle permits for more than 100 enterprises from outside the region."

The provincial special class for economic operation guarantee accurately identified and guided key enterprises, especially the head enterprises, to cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises to resume work. The provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology set up a working group to track key enterprises. Assist BMW Shenyang plant to resume production in phases. Promote the resumption of normal production of all the eight clothing enterprises under Dayang Group. Help Fuchuang technology to solve the problem of raw material transportation, assist Tuojing Technology to coordinate the normal production of 4 supporting enterprises in Liaoyang, Yingkou and other places. At present, the integrated circuit equipment enterprises in Shenyang have fully resumed work, and the industrial output value is expected to increase by more than 50% in the first quarter.

Gu Yongtian, vice president of Shenyang Core Source Microelectronics Equipment Co., LTD

"At present, the company has sufficient orders in hand, and since the beginning of this year, the accumulated factory equipment has reached more than 60 sets, reaching the level of the same period last year. What we see now is our new generation of star products before the cleaning machine, the product indicators have reached the international advanced level, has now achieved batch sales factory."

In order to ensure the smooth production of key epidemic prevention materials production enterprises, the provincial economic operation guarantee special class guided the Northeast pharmaceutical branch to implement policies, and it is expected that the output value in March increased by 74.6% year-on-year. Coordinated China Petroleum Northeast Chemical Sales Company to provide 500 tons of fiber grade polypropylene particle production raw materials to Panjin Yuwang, and the enterprise produced 800 tons of protective high-resistance non-woven fabrics in March, with a production capacity increased by 20% over the same period last year.

Qian Zhipeng, vice chairman of Panjin Yuwang Non-woven Co., LTD

"As soon as we received the order for epidemic prevention supplies, we resumed production around the clock and are now working in two shifts."

The provincial Science and Technology Department, together with the provincial tax Bureau, the provincial Business Bureau and other provincial relevant departments, further optimize the identification process of high-tech enterprises and improve the efficiency of identification. Relying on the online service platform of the Northeast Science and Technology market, the interpretation of fiscal and tax new policies and the docking of scientific and technological achievements are carried out to help the development of science and technology enterprises. In the first quarter, there were 1,284 new technology-based smes in the province, an increase of 26% year-on-year.

Ma Yuming, general manager of Northeast Science and technology market

"More than 50 online activities have been organized, and more than 7,000 enterprises have been served through online and offline training on various themes and the docking of scientific and technological achievements of subdivided racetracks."

Our province is further planning in advance, scientific arrangements, effectively and orderly promote the resumption of industrial enterprises to resume production, so that enterprises can turn up, materials flow up, and run fast, minimize the losses caused by the epidemic, and support the stable economic development of the province.

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