美的总部一间大会议室内,公司高层围坐一圈,方洪波建议他们读三本书——《大数据时代》、《一网打尽》、《O2O:移动互联网时代的商业革命》——“互联网时代来了,你们要好好看看这三本书,看是不是能理解。我看完了,还没有完全理解”。这一天是 2013 年 12 月,很快,这些书就出现在所有美的高层办公桌上。

At a large conference room of Midea headquarters, the executives were sitting around a table, and Fang Hongbo suggested that they should read three books-the Era of Big Data, Winning with Internet, O2O: the Commercial Revolution in the Mobile Internet Era-“with the advent of the Internet age, you have to take a look at the three books and see if you can understand them. I have finished reading them, but still cannot catch all their meanings”. That day was in December 2013. And soon, these books had lied on the tables of the executives.

多数人还没有来得及消化“总裁推荐读本”。2014 年 3 月,美的集团发布了 M-Smart 智慧家居战略,计划未来三年在智能家居研发上投入 150 亿元,围绕空气、水、营养健康、能源四个领域打造智能管家系统,建立美的社区,并推出 M-B0X 美的智能家居盒子。

Before most people have enough time to digest the readings suggested by the president, in March 2014, Midea group has released the M-Smart home strategy, planning to invest 15 billion RMB in the R & D of the smart home, developing the intelligent housekeeper system around the four fields of air, water, nutrition & health and energy, building Midea communities and launching Midea smart home M-B0X.

不久,公司又宣布与阿里巴巴合作,构建物联网开放平台,以实现家电产品连接对话与远程控制。未来美的产品都将接入这一平台,并计划用三年时间将 50% 以上空调物联网化。

Soon after, the company has announced a partnership with Alibaba to build an open platform for the Internet of things, aiming to achieve the connection dialogue between and the remote control over the household appliances. Midea products in the future will have access to the platform and more than 50% of the air conditioners will be planned to be involved in the Internet of things in the three years.

发布“智慧家居战略”、加速布局智能化,其实是美的始于 2011 年转型的延续,同样意在调整产品结构、提高高端产品比例,提升利润。

Actually, it is a follow-up to the Midea transformation started since 2011 to issue the “smart home strategy” and accelerate the intellectualization of layout, with the same purpose of adjusting the product structure, improving the proportion of high-end products and increasing the profits.

方洪波称今后几年美的将不会再扩大产能,资金主要会投向“看不见的地方”,例如研发、技术、高端人才引进等。

Fang Hongbo expresses that Midea will no longer expand its production capacity over the next years, and funds will be mainly invested in the “unseen aspects”, such as research and development, technology and the introduction of the top talents.

不过,如果说今天美的转型已经成功,产品口碑与产品质量能与格力等老对手匹敌,还为时过早,而其在白电行业布局智能家居,也是一条传统家电企业都在探索的黑暗隧道。

However, it is too early to say that Midea has got a successful transformation and can compete with the long-term rivals, like Gree, etc, in terms of product reputation and quality. Midea is arranging the smart home in the white household appliances industry. But it’s also a dark tunnel all the traditional household appliances enterprises are exploring.

方洪波做了一个比喻,这就像开一辆车在高速公路上,要维持 120 公里的速度,不能刹车,这个时候还准备提速到 150 公里,突然别人告诉你这条高速公路快要到尽头了,你要赶紧找到另外一条高速公路。

Fang Hongbo has drawn an analogy. It’s like driving a car on the expressway always at the speed of 120 kilometers without a brake, and when you speed up to 150 kilometers, suddenly someone tells you that you are driving to the end of the expressway, so you must quickly find another expressway.

“很难啊”,他自述每天都生活在恐惧之中,“美的发展到今天,风险每天都在,我真的有恐惧感。不是恐惧完不成目标,也不是恐惧这个位置能不能坐得下去。而是因为在这个时代,踏错一步,一失足成千古恨。”

“It’s so hard”, he states by himself that he lives in fear every day, “As there’s a risk every day even though Midea has developed into what it is today, I really have a sense of fear, neither for the failure to fulfill the objectives, nor for the duration of the position. But for that a wrong step may make a big difference in this age, that is, a false step may cause a lifelong regret.”

From: The Iheima

Translated by Steve, CCJK Technologies Co.,Ltd.

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