Meizu Layoffs, Toss Behind the Product Market Crisis
Usually, the first half of this sentence pattern is paving the way, and the second half is the focus.
Recently, it was reported on the Internet that Yang zhe had resigned from Meizu. Huang Zhang responded in Meizu community, "Lao Yang is a man with cultural connotation and wisdom. Unfortunately, sometimes he is motivated, resulting in a negative storm in April and may. Therefore, Lao Yang now serves as CSO and Li Nan as CMO."
Huang Zhang issued this good man card, which in a sense marks the nth personnel unrest since his return, and Meiyou's heart was picked up by him again, "Meizu, are you okay?"
Back to the origin
When it comes to Meizu, people can remember several key figures, including Huang Zhang, Li Nan, Bai Yongxiang, Yang Zhe, etc. Especially in the past two years, the word Meizu has appeared in the headlines, nine times out of ten it is related to these people.
Last month, a netizen posted a post in Meizu community asking "boss, is Lao Bai still working in Meizu?" "boss" is undoubtedly Huang Zhang, "Lao Bai" refers to Bai Yongxiang, another founder of Meizu.
On May 16 this year, Meizu adjusted its internal organizational structure. The whereabouts of President Bai Yongxiang has become the focus of netizens. According to the data, Bai Yongxiang has disappeared from Meizu management, and his coo position is taken over by CFO Qi Weimin.
Huang Zhang gave a vague answer to this: "I don't think Meiyou need to care about Meizu's personnel problems." however, this sentence did not resist Meiyou's "thinking of Laobai", and some comments said that "I can't hear Laobai's Yunnan Putonghua anymore".
On May 9 last year, after Huang Zhang's return, Meizu was divided into three: Meizu business unit, Meilan business unit and flyme business unit. Bai Yongxiang served as president of Meizu and managed the three business units together with Huang Zhang. Soon after the adjustment, Meizu welcomed a controversial vice president - Yang Zhe. Some commentators said that the adjustment may be in the position of Yang zheteng.
At the same time, Bai Yongxiang began to fade out.
In another adjustment at the end of last year, Qi Weimin was promoted to senior vice president of Meizu as CFO. Together with Bai Yongxiang, he assisted Huang Zhang and Yang zhe as CMO and general staff of the company. On April 22 this year, the keynote speaker of M15, Meizu's 15th anniversary return, was replaced by Yang Zhe. Meizu friends realized that the era of "Laobai" was over, and Yang Zhe, the professional manager appointed by Huang Zhang, became Meizu's new hope.
All this may be in line with Huang Zhang's words, "my return is a negation of the company's strategy and personnel in previous years".
But looking at a series of actions after Yang Zhe's airborne, it seems that Meizu has not been able to live a stable life for a few days, and even Meizu once fell into a vortex of public opinion due to the struggle of internal forces. And without Bai Yongxiang, Meizu is still tossing. One year after independence, Meizu merged Meizu and Meilan business division, which were originally divided.
So far, Meizu has returned to the original point after taking a turn, citing a word from people in the industry.
The crisis behind the toss
"Seeking change to establish stability" may be the most thought sentence Huang Zhang has ever thought about since his return.
Summing up Meizu's performance in recent years, although it is not as devastated as what is spread on the Internet, there is really not much time left for it. Taking Meizu Pro 7, the "high-end flagship" of the previous generation, as an example, it is rumored that Bai Yongxiang's exit and Yang Zhe's transfer are related to his dismal sales.
Public information shows that Meizu Pro 7 is a product led by Bai Yongxiang and marketed by Yang Zhe. Due to its abnormal "picture screen" design on the back, it caused hot discussion in the market once it was released on July 26, 2017. Under the "only essence and only" packaging of marketing master Yang Zhe, Meizu Pro 7 is positioned as high-end, with 2880 yuan for the standard version and 3380 yuan for the high-end version.
On June 1 this year, Meizu held a mid year promotion, and pro 7 became the target of operation. The standard version was reduced to 1299 yuan, and the high configuration version was reduced to 1599 yuan. So far, the pro 7 series sold on Meizu's official website is still at this price. Pro 7 has become one of the most cost-effective mobile phones in the mouth of netizens.
The reason for the price reduction is very simple. There are rumors in the market that the sales volume of Pro 7 is poor and the pressure of goods exceeds six figures.
In this regard, Meizu officials are noncommittal, and the remarks of the two executives are inconsistent.
In an interview, Yang zhe said that the activation amount of Meizu Pro 7 Series far exceeds that of Meizu Pro 6 plus, and there is no external inventory pressure on Pro 7. However, Yang zhe did not give specific figures on how many were sold.
A few days ago, when talking about the stock of Meizu's new generation flagship 16 in the community, Huang Zhang said, "I was responsible for the previous Pro 7 product definition and inventory. Maybe the stock of 16 will be conservative this time".
It is not difficult to judge which is right or wrong. The data of third-party sales channels and a series of measures taken by Meizu after the launch of Pro 7 can be used as a basis. Meizu Jingdong official flagship store shows that 77000 has been evaluated under Pro 7 and 26000 has been evaluated under Pro 7 plus.
Is this sales data satisfactory? At the end of last year, Chu Chunmin, vice president of sales of Meizu business unit, and most of his team announced their resignation. In fact, they were already answering this question.
In addition, in Meizu's recent organizational structure adjustment, Yang Zhe and Li Nan were transferred. Yang zhe served as the company's CSO and no longer served as the company's CMO and senior vice president of the market center. Moreover, Meizu did not hand over the sales business in Li Nan's hands to Yang Zhe.
The news of Yang Zhe's resignation spread like wildfire. Hu sniff asked Meizu for confirmation and got a response: at present, no official confirmation document has been received, but it is "almost".
On the Internet, there are even live photos of the "only essence and only" logo removed from Meizu company. Meizu community moderator "Da Da Da Sen" said in the post "will the pursuit come back from love?" the pursuit comes from love, which can better reflect the spirit of Meizu and Meiyou. I really hope to return again.
Huang Zhang replied, "only a few people can understand, but as an enterprise spirit, it is indeed very incisive. The pursuit comes from love, which is easier to understand and can resonate with more people, so it is more appropriate as a corporate culture and brand slogan."
Some netizens speculated that "all this may have something to do with Pro 7".
Where is Meizu road?
Meizu is no longer the Meizu in those years. Huang Zhang said that he expects to completely put the company on the track he wants next year.
The "desired track" in his mouth probably refers to the M8 and M9 era. Meizu was still Xiaomi's teacher at that time.
According to Jianghu rumors, when Lei Jun decided to join the mobile Internet, he originally planned to take a stake in Meizu and had many friendly exchanges with Huang Zhang. Finally, the investment failed. Lei Jun made the MIUI system himself.
Huang Zhang once said, "as Xiaomi's teacher, the first three are necessary, otherwise I'm embarrassed to go out."
However, according to public data, Meizu's mobile phone shipments surged from 4.4 million in 2014 to 22 million in 2015, and there has been no significant improvement since then. In 2017, Li Nan revealed that the shipment volume was still close to 20 million units. The sales volume has not fluctuated in recent years. I wonder if it can be equated with complacency.
In contrast, Xiaomi, an apprentice, published a prospectus showing that in the first quarter of 2018, the total shipments of mobile phones were 28413000. The data given by other statistical institutions are basically the same. Xiaomi can occupy a place in both the domestic and global markets, but Meizu is still struggling in the "other" column.
Is this "church apprentice, starved master"?
In addition, Xiaomi is also ahead of Meizu in the step of listing. On July 9, Lei Jun kicked the gong at the Hong Kong stock exchange. At present, the total market value of Xiaomi has exceeded HK $400 billion. Huang Zhang, who soaked in Meizu community, said, "I will do the cost performance all the way. If a meter wants to fight the price, its share price will be difficult to support".
It can't help but remind people of the goal put forward by Huang Zhang at the 2016 Meizu annual meeting, "steady growth, making profits and advancing into IPO".
However, as far as Meizu is concerned, it is really difficult to advance into the IPO and catch up with Xiaomi. It's better to work hard and strive for the next headlines, not because of layoffs, but because of products.
