Zhang Kaifeng’s practical experience in sharpening iron

Don’t run a small workshop to cultivate a professional atmosphere

Zhang Kaifeng said that "Motie" itself is a very Shen Haobo name, and the slogan of "Motie" is "inextricably linked to culture". Shen Haobo's catchphrase "knock to death" is exactly the same, very grassroots and very fighting spirit. Shen Haobo's greatest influence on Mo Tie was his strong aggression and ever-present sense of crisis, which affected the culture and operation of the entire enterprise.

However, Shen Haobo's strong personality will not affect the selection of personnel for Sharp Iron. Zhang Kaifeng is quite proud of the fact that Mo Tie was the first to create a professional atmosphere in the publishing industry. "It's not just a small boss leading two people to work, but there are also confidants and so on."

Motie is trying to standardize recruitment. For grassroots personnel, what is mainly valued is their academic background, ability to understand problems, basic training and basic potential. After three years, they will get more space; for mid-level personnel, experience in the industry is the first priority. For one, the company mainly provides guidance and training to provide them with greater room for growth; as for senior talents, there will be more comprehensive requirements. The biggest challenge for them is how to quickly integrate into the company and convince the public. Motie will gradually establish its above-mentioned set of human resources mechanism and have dedicated personnel to manage it.

Zhang Kaifeng is confident that Motie already has the best operating brand and system in the industry as well as the youngest and most impactful management team. Today's demand for talents is not limited to the industry at all. "I don't think we can find more people in the industry who are better than the current team."

As for Shen Haobo, he is slowly making progress He "picked himself out" and managed less and less business matters, leaving only an invisible spirit and style that became the standard for the attitude towards doing things. "One day he will become the cultural/spiritual leader of the company."

What Zhang Kaifeng changed after joining the company was the structuring, systematization and professionalization of the company's operations. On the one hand, "making the structure independent of people" means that each process node has a clear division of labor and clear management. On the other hand, it is "making the structure dependent on people." By changing the small workshop-like behavior of employees, everyone will not complain, do not shirk, and clarify their responsibilities; those who are lagging behind can be discovered in time, and then corrected and changed. "On the public side, every action has a foothold, and the gaps in every link can be seen; on the private side, employees can also distinguish the key points and construct their own behavioral strategies."

"The least cultured "Management Editor"

One thing about the publishing industry, which belongs to the cultural industry, is different from other fields. That is, part of the publishing industry belongs to the category of culture and transcends commerce. This part of culture cannot be measured with fixed indicators, nor is it easy to quantify. When it comes to management, there are two aspects that are difficult to manage: one is the assessment and management of editors, and the other is how to evaluate new books before they are launched into the market.

Zhang Kaifeng claims to be just a businessman and the "most uncultured person" in the company. He even doesn't mind if he is said to be "the least educated person in the industry". Therefore, matters that need to be discussed at a cultural level, such as topic selection or signing of authors, are not his "dish". It is mainly handled by Shen Haobo, the heads of each editorial center, and even each planning editor himself.

But for editors, the shortcoming is that they usually have no concept of numbers. "I will read a financial statement for half a day." But in the business model, it is crucial to learn to use numbers rather than personal preferences to judge the business value of a book. important.

In Sharpening Iron, each editor has a task target, and as long as the target can be completed eventually, it will be OK. Under this premise, editors have a high degree of autonomy, and their judgment on topic selection "is their own business."

What Zhang Kaifeng does is to use gross profit data and product gross profit rankings to make decisions on editors Performance coaching helps editors understand reports and gain a numerical understanding of their work.

Editing performance, in turn, allows Zhang Kaifeng to distinguish between different types of editors and adopt different management methods. The first type of editor is the ups and downs type. They will publish many books with high profit margins, but also many books with losses.

For this type of editor, they need to be taught to be risk-averse but encouraged to be aggressive. The other category is books whose gross profit is always stable, with no particularly big sales or big losses. For these employees, we can guide them to think more systematically and holistically to further improve stability, because they "jump up" on single products. It may not necessarily be what they are good at.

As for whether an author can sell well and become a cultural phenomenon in the future, this is not Zhang Kaifeng's specialty. If the editor says it can, Zhang Kaifeng will believe them. The CEO's check on planning is to ask three questions. The first is what is the selling point of the book, which should be described clearly in 20 words. The second is what is the expected sales volume and gross profit of the book. The bottom line of gross profit for Sharpening Iron is 60,000. Books with a gross profit below 60,000 will not be made. Here, Zhang Kaifeng needs to help the editor establish a relationship between cost, pricing and gross profit. The third question is whether there are similar books in the same market. To find some references that can answer the above three questions, what the editor needs to do is to "sharpen" a book and clearly grasp the selling points.

Sharpening the iron gives the editor room to make mistakes. If an editor makes a book, there will be a reward; but if he makes a loss, he will not be punished, but there will certainly be no reward. However, if a book written by an editor has a gross profit of more than 60,000 and less than 50, it will generally be eliminated. But editors with ups and downs are another matter, "because even if they only sell 2 copies for money, the gross profit of these 2 copies is extremely high, and they can make up for the losses of the other 8 copies."