W42 - Lessons from the 2020 Company Town Hall

1. “Helping everyone eat better and live better” is an enduring need—something we can continue to strive for.

This reminds me of Meituan's business philosophy,Finite games and infinite games. Xing said finite games are played within boundaries, while infinite games play with the boundaries.

Carse originated the paired concepts of finite and infinite games, helping us reinterpret all human activity. Most activities are finite games, bounded and aimed at winning. Some activities are infinite games, devoted to breaking boundaries with the goal of continuing the play.

Infinite games operate at the genetic level: genes always seek inheritance and continuation, and the persistence of genes uses organisms as carriers. Individuals are destined to disappear; their true role is as temporary vessels and transmitters of genes. The game of life uses finite games to realize the infinite game. Every product is likewise a finite-game mechanism that serves an underlying infinite purpose.

What I can now grasp about the finite-and-infinite-game pair isLiving toward death. Thinking from the end brings you closer to essence, makes you less attached to any single victory or holding, and exemplifies long-termism. Finite games assume we are immortal; infinite games begin with the acceptance of our mortality.

Meituan's development has gradually transformed from a group-buying site into a platform that aggregates many services to meet consumer needs; this is a process of continuously breaking boundaries and pursuing more possibilities. Recently, when I opened an order detail in the Meituan app, I saw a dazzling array of service orders I had used grouped together. After a moment of surprise, I felt some admiration and anticipation.

2. While maintaining a “customer-centric” stance, balance the interests of all stakeholders."Customer-centric" is not only a value, but also a methodology and our business strategy

This year’s iteration—that “customer-centric” is our business strategy—is particularly agreeable and worth deep reflection and study.

Eight years ago in the battle of thousands of group-buying sites, while many competitors and investors fought over price and marketing, Meituan won a milestone victory by improving user experience and service quality. The industry's first “refund for expired orders” policy is perhaps the most emblematic weapon from that campaign.

At the same time, beyond the consensus about PC traffic, Meituan vaguely saw and bet on the mobile “fool’s window.” The biggest advantage of a “fool” window is that almost no one competes to be the fool. When most competitors realized mobile was the future, they were typically one to two years behind us. It was precisely because of this window that the industry fragmented dramatically and the competitive landscape evolved faster.

From Xing proposing the “second half of the internet” to diving into the crowded community group-buying track, from B-end to the lower-tier market, we are trying to spot the next possible “fool’s window.” By going deeper into consumer segments (C) and reaching further upstream (B), we broaden boundaries to find the next growth point that can drive the group’s business.

In today's business environment, I believe such “fool’s windows” will become increasingly rare—or at least much harder to detect early. Even if discovered, the window for action is very short. The reason is that large companies’ boundaries are blurring and the exploration of business fundamentals has become a shared consensus; compared to industrial-era firms, organizations are becoming more agile. Simply put, as we grow into a dragon, our competitors also become beasts. Therefore, some of our strategic approaches today differ from those used in the war of thousands of group-buying sites eight years ago.

Fortunately, we have held fast to the unchanging lever of “customer-centricity.” Do what customers need, not only what we are good at. On the group app’s discovery page, we did not follow the crowd and pour resources into live streaming. The former editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review once said customers don’t want a 5mm drill bit; they want a 5mm hole. Distinguishing the surface of demand from its essence is one of our keys to winning.

A gentleman focuses on fundamentals; with fundamentals established, the right path emerges, and from that path come powerful instruments.