Methodology in the Internet Age: Learn hand-to-hand combat from Luo Yonghao

The first article in the series of methodology in the Internet era talked about the changes brought about by the Internet, and believed that the Internet put the world in a superposition state of Newton and quantum (see: Internet era methodology: superposition state of quantum and Newton world ). The second article talked about the method of direction selection, emphasizing that in order to find the outlet, you can use both bottom-up and top-down thinking modes (see: Internet era methodology: where is the outlet? ). This article will once again draw nutrition from Lao Luo and talk about specific tactics. The author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" was once suggested to study the disk industry, because this industry has condensed enough changes in a very short period of time, and I think that studying the impact of the Internet must study the mobile phone industry. In this industry, if Lei Jun and Xiaomi are representatives of smooth sailing, then Lao Luo and his Hammer are representatives of setbacks, and in fact, setbacks often allow us to learn more. If you want to study the impact of the Internet, it is best to study the mobile phone industry. If you want to study the mobile phone industry, you should first look at Lao Luo and his Hammer, and then Xiaomi and Lei Jun.

Win with the right combination and the unexpected

Anyone who wants to do something probably knows the idea of ​​"winning by the right means and achieving unexpected results" from Sun Tzu's Art of War, but the key is that when it comes to specific business, it is often difficult to distinguish between what is the right means and what is the unexpected. At the same time, because human resources are sometimes exhausted, too many times people are more willing to take risks and achieve victory by the unexpected, succeeding once and seeking maximum benefits, but this often leads to failure in the end.

In the first article of the series on methodology in the Internet era, it was mentioned that the Internet has created a relatively independent consciousness space, where quantum laws apply, there is reflexivity as Soros said, there is the existence of fields, there are chain reactions, and as a result, there are mutations here, and you can become famous overnight. But the real space still exists, and the material world still follows Newtonian rules. If you want to mass-produce, you have to act according to the laws of the industrial age. So this world is a superposition of Newton and quantum. More importantly, humans themselves are creatures in a superposition state. Although programs are a fixed way of thinking, programmers cannot write programs all day long.

This is the most critical kind of odd and even. The consciousness space is odd, and the reality space is even. Luo Yonghao and his Hammer are very good at fighting in the consciousness space, but there are many problems in the development and production links. Therefore, they are excellent in odd, but lose a lot of points in even, because the two are not matched. If we talk about it in an abstract way, the product is even, and occupying the commanding heights in the consciousness space is odd. This point is fundamental, and I will not repeat it again and again below, but it does not mean that the even part is not important. Many people have studied the even part, whether it is the production method, supply chain, or R&D process. Each of them is a very long topic, but it is not the focus of this series of articles, so I will not expand on it too much.

The last thing I want to say is that if Hammer fails, many people may laugh at it, but everyone may forget two things. One is that there are actually few companies that can achieve the influence of Hammer at a low cost, and the other is that the process of Steve Jobs' Mactonish was also the same.

Attention, Attention, Attention

Drucker said that a company has only two core functions: one is marketing, and the other is creating customers. In the Internet era, these two functions overlap and are upgraded. After the upgrade, they have a common entrance, which is attention. Where there is attention, there is wealth, and the development of science and technology will make this more and more obvious. The fundamental driving force behind this is the commodity trend of products. If there is no monopoly and administrative means, then under the natural competition of the market economy, as production efficiency improves, the products of all different companies will gradually converge, and the supply will be extremely abundant. Once this happens, attention is everything. Of course, this is subject to energy, materials, and population, but this is another topic and will not be expanded here.

To put it in an extreme way, there is no place for you in the consciousness space, and no matter how well you do your work, it is equivalent to non-existence. Seizing the attention in the consciousness space is the key to winning by surprise.

As for the relationship between attention and the product itself, different people have different understandings. Some people think that attention is the purpose and the product is the means; some people think that the product is the purpose and attention is the means. People often think that the former is a devil and the latter is worthy of respect. There is a discussion on R&D and sales on V Zhongtou, which clearly reflects this tendency. ( See: Many IT companies in China focus on sales and neglect R&D. What do you think about this? ) Simply put, this is a question of values. In fact, there is no right or wrong, but no matter what choice is made, the battlefield for victory must be attention. This is certain. Those who get attention in the consciousness space win, and those who lose attention will be eliminated.

Attention acquisition can be examined from three aspects:

First, the positioning after the misalignment should be clearly differentiated. Having clear differentiation does not necessarily mean you can seize the commanding heights in the consciousness space and ultimately win, but without it, there is basically no chance. Differentiation is the reason for others to remember you and the starting point for gaining their attention.

Second, there must be a continuous driving force behind differentiation.

In reality, this driving force can rely on several things:

One is profit-driven, which satisfies people's needs that have been generated but not met under the trend of the times. Think about e-commerce websites, Taobao, JD.com, Meituan, and Vipshop all have this idea. Their existence is not because of their unique products, but because these four models can meet four different needs of people and bring direct benefits to people.

One is driven by desire and spirit. Those related to social networks are basically in this category. Luo Yonghao's Hammer is obviously also in this category.

Of course, in many cases this driving force can be mixed. WeChat’s communication function is a direct benefit, but shaking is a desire.

Third, no matter what is relied upon as the driving force, there are only three modes in the competition for attention from the perspective of timing: either to occupy a good position, or to engage in hand-to-hand combat, or to open up new areas and become a leader.

Alibaba may promote its products, but the main reason for the success of products like Taobao is that they have a good position and good timing. This is what is meant by the saying "When the time comes, heaven and earth will work together". From the perspective of attention, there are two criteria for judging whether the position is good: one is that users will actively look for you because of needs, and the other is that there are not so many options like you. To a certain extent, with the widespread development of the Internet, the era of being able to occupy a good position has passed, because if you think that what you do is good, others will also think it is good, and the second condition is difficult to meet.

Once you do it and I do it, we will enter an era of hand-to-hand combat. For example, now everyone has realized the power of the Internet. When it comes to distribution, there are Wandoujia, 360, 91, Tencent, etc. When it comes to tourism, there are various travel companies such as Ctrip, Qunar, Tongcheng, Tuniu, etc. When it comes to group buying, there are Meituan, Wowotuan, Dianping, etc.

The last one is to open up a new era, so that you can take advantage of the time and place, but the disadvantage is that the risk is too great. At present, only Apple has done this, and Google may be able to do it in the future. Domestic companies are still weak in this aspect.

Being able to seize opportunities or open up a new era ahead of others is more dependent on human talent and the thinking mode mentioned earlier, but in the age of melee combat, there are actually some other ways of fighting for attention. I will mainly talk about this below.

The tactics of fighting in the era of hand-to-hand combat

In the era of hand-to-hand combat, there were many tactics, one of which was the single-point extreme theory that Lao Zhou often mentioned. The logic of this tactic was very simple. The Internet has generally established links between people. When the product is outstanding enough, it may trigger a chain reaction. The existence of Face Meng shows that this idea is feasible. But in fact, this is a tactic with a very low winning rate. The reason is very simple. For most people, you can't actually create an extreme product. This is either limited by the ability of personnel or limited resources. I admit that WeChat is meticulously crafted in terms of products, but I don't know if there is any other good product that follows this idea. Lao Luo wants to go this way, but at least so far, what really helps Lao Luo is not his products, but his influence.

Another type of strategy is to manipulate topics through marketing. A typical example is the post-95s cute girl who traded her body for travel. This is a bit obsessive. If it works well, it can make a profit for a while, but if it works badly, it will be taken off the shelves.

Effective tactics actually need to return to the characteristics of the consciousness space, and return to the reflexivity, field and chain reaction we mentioned earlier.

The initiator and the attributes of any event jointly determine a certain energy level. For example, the energy level of Jack Ma's "Laiwang" depends on both Jack Ma and Laiwang, while the event itself has certain attributes. For example, Nicholas Tse and Faye Wong's reunion is naturally highly communicable. This kind of event must be placed in a certain field to produce a chain reaction and let everyone know quickly. The media of this field is now mainly the media and various SNS, and the key to the field is people. Most people will pay more attention to the former, but in fact, the field is more important. People who have the field have the ability to continuously impact the commanding heights of consciousness. This is the difference between multi-wave flow and single-wave flow. No one can guarantee that they will not lose a battle, but if they lose a battle and die, it is a single-wave flow. If they lose a battle and people cannot be dispersed and can quickly gather together to fight you again, it is a multi-wave flow. I have not studied the story of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, but Liu Bang is obviously a multi-wave flow and Xiang Yu is a single-wave flow. People who have the field are born with multi-wave flow, Lao Luo is a multi-wave flow, so whatever they do will be a carnival for the whole network. The main reason why Luo Yonghao and Hammer failed to hold on was that there was a problem with the aforementioned winning strategy, rather than a problem with the consciousness space for winning.

Only by establishing a field can we provide space for reflexivity and chain reactions, and repeatedly impact them. The most direct form of the field is the community. The backbone of the community does not need to be many. One hundred thousand people is definitely a phenomenon. In this regard, Xiaomi is really one step ahead of other manufacturers, of course, Luo Yonghao cannot be counted. So Xiaomi and Luo Yonghao are the same. As long as there is something, it is of the nature of the whole network. But this is not the most advanced community. This kind of community that relies on a certain product or real person has the potential risk of being deconstructed. This is like the difference between using Lei Feng to promote mainstream values ​​and using superheroes to promote mainstream values. Lei Feng can be deconstructed, but superheroes cannot be deconstructed. So the more advanced community is the SNS2.0 type of community I mentioned earlier. Once this kind of community is established, a field is established, and the event can ferment here, store energy, and then quickly radiate the entire network. After this, the topicality of the event comes, just like making an atomic bomb, you have to find materials that can fission. Judging from the performance of public relations from all parties, everyone is still relatively good at this.

Conclusion

This article is the third part of the methodology in the Internet era, and it mainly talks about specific tactics. The core of this specific tactic is to win by chance, and the so-called victory by chance means to quickly seize the commanding heights in the space of consciousness. The best way to seize the commanding heights is to lead an era, and the second is to grasp the timing and position. Once we enter the era of melee, we need a field like the community to form multiple waves. Simply emphasizing the extreme of a single point is not enough.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.