China'S Proud Lining Is As Quick As Nike.

In a big manufacturing country like China, Lining proved that Chinese companies could also become a "fast company" to win the brand operation. Philip Knight once said: "the only way to defeat Nike is to imitate us in a comprehensive and accurate way, and then find different points to break down."

Li Ning Co is doing this.

Lining outsourced production at the outset, basically without his own factory, and became a brand management company.

In the same period, some of his colleagues aim at a large sports shoe and sportswear factory, and some are considering how to become an international Brand Company's foundry. "It is a sad thing to compete with the best sports brand in the world, because they are too strong, but fortunately, in front of these strong competitors, you either become stronger yourself or you can only fail and have no middle state."

Lining sporting goods Co., Ltd. CEO Zhang Zhiyong believes that Nike, Adidas and other companies are both competitors and learning objects.

In China's local companies, the pressure from companies like Anta and other foundry companies can not afford to take Lining lightly because they are competitive in terms of cost and efficiency.

In this competition, Lining won the stage victory in China's high-end sporting goods market, and Nike and Adidas three points; in the global sporting goods company, become the fourth largest company in the market value, second only to Nike, Adidas and Puma.

In addition to the achievements in the sporting goods market, Lining's innovation in business mode is also an important contribution in the history of Chinese enterprises in the past 30 years of reform and opening up.

Lining outsourced production at the outset, basically without his own factory, and became a brand management company.

In the same period, some of Lining's colleagues aim at a large sports shoe and sportswear factory, and some are considering how to become an international Brand Company's foundry.

In a big manufacturing country like China, Lining used 18 years to prove that Chinese companies can also become a "fast company" that wins by brand management.

Fast supply chain and nearly 50% gross margin Philip Knight once said: "the only way to defeat Nike is to imitate us in a comprehensive and accurate way, and then find different points to break down."

Li Ning Co is doing this.

Like Li Ning Co founder Lining, the founder of Nike, Philip Knight is also an athlete.

He decided that Nike would not build its own production line. Instead, he would give the production to the Korean and Japanese companies with low manpower cost to work on the foundry, focusing on the design, development and marketing business, and the marketing promotion was mainly based on the superstar endorsement and mass advertising, and quickly led the trend to follow up.

At the same time, because the cost of the establishment of factories and channels is borne by partners, for newly established companies, the limited funds can also be used more centrally.

This business model is regarded as a revolutionary initiative. Some people even think it is as great as the invention of Henry Ford sixty or seventy years ago.

What Lining wants to do is a company like Nike.

At the end of 2007, Li Ning Co with a market value of nearly 30 billion yuan also had less than 3000 employees, about 1/3 of the number of Anta employees who developed simultaneously with manufacturing and brand.

Compared with many of the most important channels for Chinese companies, Li Ning Co also does not want to fully control its own hands.

According to Li Ning Co's 2007 financial report, Li Ning Co has 5233 stores nationwide, 4881 of which are franchised stores, and only 352 are directly owned by the company.

Zhang Zhiyong doesn't even take the channel advantage as the core competitiveness of Li Ning Co: "the channel will eventually be professional, and the people who are the best channel to do it for us will be more efficient than we do in person."

Let others be willing to help themselves to succeed. This is why Lining has received many dealers' support throughout the country, and the most important thing is to share some profits with partners.

After the design of Lining's products, a dealer's order meeting will be held first, and the distributor will place an order according to his judgement of the market.

Lining received the order and sent it to the foundry factory. The foundry factory then ordered and counted the orders, then sent the material orders to their suppliers.

The finished product is distributed to the distributor in the country by the logistics supplier.

From the point of view of management, Lining should be called a supply chain management company, which is one of the key points discussed by Nike in business school.

Of course, learning from Nike is not a piece of cake.

In 2003, the average stock days of Li Ning Co took 161 days, while the average stock days of Nike and Reebok took only 84 days and 64 days.

It can be said that Li Ning Co will need to earn 161 days to earn profits in the same amount of money, and its competitors have made two profits in this period.

Lining was not fast enough at that time.

Lining then picked Chen Weicheng, who served as senior vice president of China's Reuters, Ministry of information and trade systems in China, Mongolia and North Korea as CFO.

The Malaysia people made a radical change in Lining's whole information and logistics system.

Today, the average stock days of Li Ning Co only need 70 days, which is not inferior to the world's top sporting goods companies.

The gross profit margin of Li Ning Co in 2007 is 47.9%, and its gross profit margin has remained between 46%-48% in the past few years. Such a high gross margin is unthinkable for manufacturing companies.

After 2003, when Li Ning Co was more than Nike and Adidas in China's sporting goods market, Lining, chairman of the board of directors, asked the management of his personal relationship to come out of the company and rebuild an international team.

It was rare for such a large-scale management team to exchange blood at that time.

To build a management team like Nike, though this is not a completely replicable thing, Li Ning Co is approaching step by step.

At the same time of internal pformation, Lining also began to use the "external brain".

Li Ning Co hired German SAP company, PWC accounting firm, Japan electric and Leo Burnett to make plans for its information system, management system and brand marketing.

In fact, Lining's partners are also the advisors of the best companies in the world.

From this point of view, Lining also let himself and Nike stand on the same starting line.

In terms of suppliers, Li Ning Co and the US DuPont Co company have introduced the most scientific and technological fabrics in the world.

When Lining talked about DuPont Co's "Lycra" fabric used in fitness swimming products, it also marked the improvement of Li Ning Co's product technology content.

Lining also worked with Chinese University Hong Kong to establish a database of foot and motion analysis to find out the ideal material and structure of sports shoes, which enabled Lining to launch a series of products that are more suitable for oriental people.

In the design session most valued by consumers, Li Ning Co hired Ronaldo, the famous designer Marcie Meelia Nor who had designed soccer shoes for Italy, and Pavey Ott, the famous designer Pavey Ott of France. DRD, the main cooperative designer, also designed many successful products for Nike, Reebok and other companies.

In terms of brand promotion, Lining became a strategic partner of NBA three years ago. Before that, NBA was actually Nike's most important brand building base.

Let NBA superstar O'neal become the image spokesman of Li Ning Co in China. It is also a cost-effective business for Lining. Li Ning Co only requires the promotion of products related to O'neal in the main sales market in China, saving a lot of the cost of global image endorsement.

To do this, Lining is getting closer and closer to Nike's horizontal line, while the remaining gap, Li Ning Co's leveling method is "more Oriental, more China" design.

These products, which are closely linked with Chinese traditional culture, have made Lining make up the gap between Nike and other companies in the Chinese market to a certain extent.

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for Lining is a further expansion of the Chinese market brand and the expansion of international market opportunities.

Nike and Adidas also understand the importance of this opportunity.

So when Lining wanted to be the top sponsor of the Olympic Games, Adidas decisively carried out sniping.

The rumour in the industry is that when the sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games bid, Lining's bid limit was 1 billion yuan, and the final offer from Adidas was 1 billion 300 million yuan.

Li Ning Co CFO did not confirm this rumor, but he said Lining would not try to win the Olympic sponsorship status.

Lining put the emphasis on Olympic marketing on the gold medal list highly valued by the Chinese people. Its sponsored Chinese gymnastics team, table tennis team, shooting team and diving team have always been the main force in the gold medal contention of China's Olympic Games.

Li Ning Co's expectation for these four national teams is that they can get half of the total number of gold medals in China. If this is achieved, Lining's image on the Olympic Games will be passed to every Chinese audience with these champions.

Li Ning Co's national team that can sponsor sponsorship in the Beijing Olympic Games is not a professional event. With the development experience of Western sporting goods companies, it is clear that professional and professional athletes will play a stronger role in shaping the brand.

Despite the frustration, China's interest in gymnastics, table tennis, shooting and diving is still strong in China's many years of sports watching tradition. The excellent athletes in these movements also have great influence in China, so Lining's Olympic Games with Nike and Adidas still win.

The success of Adidas was the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, making Nike the world's brand name of the 1984 Losangeles Olympic Games, while the Beijing Olympics is another event for Lining.