After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 281 Front Office, Middle Office, and Back Office

Chapter 281 Front Office, Middle Office, and Back Office
Ji Yingyang gently bit her red lips with her pearly teeth.

I'm thinking very hard.

But they still had no clue.

This is not surprising.

Although Zhou Haoran's idea is a platform concept that will be very common in the internet industry twenty years from now, the limitations of the times are the limitations of dimensions, making it difficult for people to break through in their thinking.

As for his two apprentices, Hu Xiaochen and Qiao Nuo, they were just staring at each other blankly.

They all stared at Zhou Haoran with the curiosity of curious children.

“Uh…” Zhou Haoran had to explain to them in the simplest terms that people in this era could understand, “Actually, our goal is the strategic security of Zhongbo Bookstore.”

Ji Yingyang pursed his lips. "Please give me your guidance, Teacher Zhou."

"Forget about Teacher Zhou, Yangyang, you can become her apprentice too!"

Zhou Haoran received a lot of help from Sister Yangyang in his previous life, and he must repay her in this life.

"I haven't decided yet."

Ji Yingyang smiled, neither agreeing nor refusing.

Zhou Haoran said, "Zhongbo Bookstore's core product right now is the 'Zhongbo Zhuangyuan' series of educational supplements, but what we're doing is content. Even the best wine needs advertising; having good content isn't enough, you also need channels to distribute it."

Following up on his words, Ji Yingyang seemed to be deep in thought: "However, Zhongbo Bookstore's sales channels are currently all external, in the hands of others. If the cooperation breaks down, it will affect our product output. This is a strategic risk."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Yes, content and distribution channels are the two lifelines. If they are in the hands of others, we are at their mercy. Therefore, we must operate our own content and build our own distribution channels. This is the core competitiveness."

“Building our own sales system eliminates risks.” Ji Yingyang tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Is that all?”

Zhou Haoran said slowly, "If Zhongbo Bookstore were to build a nationwide sales system, it would need a sales team of several hundred people, which would be very costly. This presents another risk: if there are problems with our content, it would inevitably lead to a sharp decline in output."

Ji Yingyang's expression changed slightly as he gained a more complete understanding of the company's strategy. "The cost of sales channels is huge. If the market for 'Zhongbo Zhuangyuan' supplementary textbooks cools down, Zhongbo Bookstore may be dragged down by its self-built sales system, resulting in serious losses!"

Zhou Haoran nodded. "This creates a new strategic risk."

“Self-operated and third-party…” Ji Yingyang silently recited his words from earlier, and at this moment it seemed to be easily solved, his eyes shining, “So we need to introduce third-party content!”

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "We cannot guarantee that Zhongbo Bookstore will always be able to produce the best content, but if enough booksellers participate, there will always be a few booksellers who can develop competitive teaching materials at the same time."

"No wonder!"

At that moment, Ji Yingyang suddenly realized that Professor Zhou had long-term considerations in the strategic choices made by Zhongbo Bookstore.

He doesn't suppress other companies in the port industry that follow suit.

Instead, we should offer them help!

A deeper consideration is to bring them on board as "third-party" helpers within the Zhongbo Bookstore platform.

On the surface, it was Zhongbo Bookstore's sales system that helped promote their educational supplementary books.

This is the help from a broader perspective!
In reality, this was an attempt to win them over and share the risks of Zhongbo Bookstore's self-built sales system.

This reduces the strategic threats to itself.

Zhou Haoran said, "'Zhongbo Zhuangyuan' is a self-operated teaching and learning supplement book by Zhongbo Bookstore. Our colleagues in Haigang also have many other third-party teaching and learning supplement books of various categories. We can bring all these local teaching and learning supplement books together and use a common sales system to promote them nationwide. This is actually the idea of 'large middle platform, small front platform'."

"Uh……"

Ji Yingyang felt a chill run down his spine again.

I feel like this guy is always inventing and creating new concepts and theories that are hard to understand.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "You used to work at Cisco, so you should know that software development requires front-end, middleware, and back-end. The part responsible for front-end business is called the front-end, the part responsible for middleware business is called the middleware, and the part responsible for back-end business is called the back-end."

"Oh."

Ji Yingyang nodded slightly; she did indeed know something about this.

Zhou Haoran said, "The backend is a database. All the educational supplementary books in the entire port will be recorded in our database. How many copies of each book have been sold nationwide, which type is the best-selling... the backend data will be clear at a glance!"

Ji Yingyang's eyes lit up. "In this way, we will have a benchmark and can find the best development direction for our self-operated teaching materials."

"Yes, we accumulate data while serving our peers, and this data will greatly promote the development of our own businesses. Mastering the data is equivalent to mastering the standards."

What Zhou Haoran said is all about internet thinking.

Whether it's Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Didi, Meituan, Ctrip, Lianjia, Alipay... all kinds of large internet platforms do this.

For him, it was a piece of cake.

Qiao Nuo raised her little white hand and said nimbly, "Master, you told me before that the best companies are those that set standards. With Zhongbo Bookstore as our backer, we control the standards, right?"

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Yes."

Ji Yingyang blinked. "What about the middle platform? The sales network?"

“Yes, the middle platform is the business layer and the execution layer.” Zhou Haoran nodded. “For the book business, it means selling books nationwide. In the short term, we need to bring all the educational supplement book companies in Haigang over and share a sales network with Zhongbo Bookstore to help them with sales.”

Ji Yingyang understood what he meant: "In the long run, the coverage of the middle platform will need to expand, from seaports to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and even the entire southern market."

“So it’s a ‘large central platform’.” Zhou Haoran did indeed have such ambitions. “We need to build the most powerful and down-to-earth sales system, with transparent pricing and excellent service, in order to defeat those book distributors in the market.”

Ji Yingyang chuckled and said, "Zhongbo Bookstore has another advantage, which is Changxing Printing Factory. If you print your books here, the price will be more favorable, and you will be automatically included in our platform... a one-stop bundled service."

Zhou Haoran said, "Yes, that's what an industrial ecosystem is. Ecosystem synergy can unleash tremendous energy. If you want to use market means to monopolize, you must build an industrial ecosystem."

Ji Yingyang was a little confused by his new concept and could only try to understand what he had said before first. "Where's the receptionist? What's that little receptionist you mentioned?"

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "The front end is the user-facing side, it's the product. Designing, editing, publishing, and printing a set of teaching materials, that's the 'front end'. There are so many front ends, you can't suppress them even if you want to."

Ji Yingyang understood this perfectly. "I don't really agree with Jiang Xiong, Qi Deqiang, and Li Changxing's previous statement about suppressing their peers in the port area who were copying the trend of making supplementary teaching materials. How can you suppress them? It's a market economy now, and publishing supplementary teaching materials isn't illegal!"

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Even if we suppress local booksellers, what about those from other places? 'Zhongbo Zhuangyuan' supplementary textbooks are popular all over the country, and everyone is following suit. How can we suppress them? It's better to guide than to block! Instead of suppressing our counterparts in Haigang, we should help them, avoid infighting and internal friction, integrate the strength of Haigang's supplementary textbook industry, and make Haigang the center of supplementary textbooks in the country!"

"We will build around Zhongbo Bookstore!"

Ji Yingyang's eyes shone with understanding, and he finally grasped his strategic thinking.

The development of educational supplementary books is a creative industry.

Creativity carries extremely high risks.

Even Zhongbo Bookstore cannot guarantee that every "creative" issue or edition will be recognized by the market, which creates a strategic risk.

Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate external ideas.

How to absorb it?

By cultivating and assisting external educational supplement book publishers, and encouraging them to develop many different versions of educational supplement books, some of these innovative and popular books can eventually become hits across the country.

These small booksellers are all small in scale.

Therefore, it is a "small front desk".

It needs to be developed by relying on the "big platform" of the national sales network under Zhongbo Bookstore.

The generated data is stored in the backend of Zhongbo Bookstore.

On the front end, Zhongbo Bookstore cannot achieve a monopoly.

The market for educational supplementary books in the harbor can be diverse and vibrant, with dozens or even hundreds of teams producing such books... This reflects the vitality and creativity of market competition.

However, in the middle and back-end stages, Zhongbo Bookstore can consolidate its dominance and form a monopolistic advantage.

Ah!
What a grand scheme!
Ji Yingyang's admiration surged forth like a mighty river.

No wonder he always wants to be his own master.

He really does have that qualification!
For Zhou Haoran, these were all common-sense strategic designs.

In twenty or thirty years, the internet will dominate the world and conquer all industries.

It relies on more than just technology.

It is also an internet mindset.

Zhou Haoran said, "Sister Yangyang, Zhongbo Bookstore needs a sales vice president who can build a strong sales system. You have to help me with this." "I understand."

Ji Yingyang smiled, exuding confidence and poise.

Zhou Haoran further stated, "The current book sales model isn't working. I've looked into some, and they're all too extensive. We need to penetrate deeper, to penetrate sufficiently lower levels!"

"Huh?" Ji Yingyang was confused again. "How do you sink?"

Zhou Haoran said, "If Zhongbo Bookstore wants to defeat the existing book distribution system, it needs to build a more cost-effective and refined model. The current sales network either sells directly to primary distributors or directly to chain bookstores... This is too extensive, and the profits are all intercepted by distributors and bookstores."

"What should we do?"

"Go down to the grassroots level and connect directly with the school!"

"what?"

Ji Yingyang was slightly stunned.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Sister Yangyang, you may not know this, but I earned my first pot of gold by selling books. I directly connected with high schools throughout the port and sold top scorer handbooks door-to-door. Many people say that selling books doesn't make money, and that's true... because their model is too extensive, and most of the profits are eaten up by the middlemen."

Ji Yingyang tentatively suggested, "So we'll directly connect with the schools and sell the books to them! We'll keep all the profits from the middlemen!"

Zhou Haoran nodded. "Give up a small portion of the profits to the schools and sales staff, and the remaining profits will belong to Zhongbo Bookstore's sales system. This is the most competitive strategy."

"A school serving the entire country?"

Ji Yingyang's expression changed slightly.

Zhou Haoran said, "Yes, primary, middle and high schools across the country. The public's understanding is still insufficient. The procurement of teaching materials is mainly done through collective purchases by schools. Once we get through the schools, we've secured the end-user link."

"This is incredibly difficult!"

Ji Yingyang took a deep breath, realizing the difficulty of the task.

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Zhongbo Bookstore's sales system needs to take a two-pronged approach. First, we need to connect with bookstores across the country; second, we need to connect with schools across the country. We won't touch any of the traditional distributors! Only in this way can our sales system retain enough profit to provide more competitive sales services to third-party clients."

"Give me some time."

Ji Yingyang felt the pressure; finding a sales vice president capable of undertaking such a challenging task was no easy feat!

……

We finished eating hot pot.

Zhou Haoran drove Sanmei home.

Send the apprentice first.

Upon arrival, Hu Xiaochen and Qiao Nuo got out of the car in the back seat.

"Master!"

Hu Xiaochen walked to the driver's seat.

Zhou Haoran rolled down the car window. "What's wrong?"

Hu Xiaochen winked and said with a grin, "Can I kiss you?"

Where should I kiss you?

"Face."

"Okay, let's kiss."

Zhou Haoran raised his face.

Hu Xiaochen was a little embarrassed, her cheeks flushed. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek through the car window. She licked her lips and spat twice, "Salty!"

Zhou Haoran wiped his face. "You don't have lipstick, do you?"

"No."

Hu Xiaochen was satisfied and gave Qiao Nuo a push.

Zhou Haoran was tempted, "Nuonuo, why don't you give me a kiss too?"

"I do not want."

Qiao Nuo blushed and waved her little hands repeatedly, refusing to say anything.

Hu Xiaochen pushed her from the side.

"I won't kiss you..."

Qiao Nuo panicked and stomped her feet.

Zhou Haoran naturally wouldn't make things difficult for her, and said with a smile, "Alright, you two go upstairs quickly, it's so cold. Sister Xiao Chen, you're the senior sister, don't bully Nuonuo."

"Okay, okay." Hu Xiaochen drawled, then rolled her eyes. "You're so biased! Can't you tell who's good to you?"

Zhou Haoran couldn't help but chuckle, "Alright, I'm leaving!"

Then, I took Yangyang home.

The distance isn't too far.

Ji Yingyang previously worked for a foreign company and earned a considerable income; her living conditions were also quite good.

"Haoran, thank you for bringing me back."

Ji Yingyang unbuckled his seatbelt and was about to get out of the car.

Zhou Haoran suggested, "Sister Yangyang, why don't you invite me upstairs as a guest?"

"Isn't it too late?"

Ji Yingyang looked at him with a half-smile.

Looking at the pitch-black night outside, Zhou Haoran shamelessly said, "It's not too late, is it? Let's go to your place for a coffee and chat or something."

Ji Yingyang tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You have ulterior motives. I won't let you go."

Zhou Haoran said helplessly, "Aren't you being a little too cautious?"

"As a single woman, shouldn't I be cautious?" Ji Yingyang smiled and gave him a teasing glance. "You're not short of women. I think Xiao Chen is quite interested in you."

Zhou Haoran said solemnly, "We are master and disciple!"

Ji Yingyang chuckled and said, "Even Qiao Nuo can't be fooled by such words."

"Ugh!"

Zhou Haoran sighed.

Ji Yingyang also sighed softly, "Close your eyes."

"What?"

Zhou Haoran looked wary.

Ji Yingyang said helplessly, "I'll kiss you and then go home."

"it is good!"

Zhou Haoran was overjoyed, not expecting such an unexpected surprise, and closed his eyes.

I waited for quite a while, but the red lips never appeared.

Turn around and look.