Wang Ruchen/Written
Editor
Abstract
Accelerate fission.
***Creation and Fusion: Crossing the Borderless Challenge.
OPPO’s duty: to transform organizational power.
Like a tree, OPPO’s fission is accelerating. It is moving from the vertical dimension of the global mobile phone industry towards an integrated ecosystem with more categories, more entrances, more services, and an integrated ecosystem of software, hardware and services.
However, under the fission, this company is also using its internal culture and organizational strength to form an industrial transition mechanism of openness and control, innovation and integration, in order to establish new growth in the next 10 years. model.
Between liveliness and moderation, one releases and one closes, behind which lies OPPO’s long-term cultural, organizational and leadership capabilities. They are the fundamental strength for this company to truly resolve challenges and achieve growth.
In the past 16 years, OPPO has experienced multiple rounds of industry changes. Now we are in the most complex historical cycle since its birth. Its fission and integration are expected to become a typical case for us to observe the transition of enterprises and industries.
The strong impression came from the 2020 OPPO Developer Conference that ended on the 24th.
The ecological and open dimension of this stage is different from the past, covering almost all elements of OPPO except the manufacturing process.
The 2017 OPPO Mobile Developer Conference emphasized the mobile ecosystem; in 2018, OPPO established "IoT for all things to lead a smarter life" and emphasized the value of mobile phone entrance in the 5G era. However, it did not show more technologies and Platform accumulation.
At the 2019 Future Technology Conference, founder Chen Mingyong defined "the integration of all things", including the integration of technology, organization and culture, and announced a 50 billion R&D plan for the next three years. This can be called a key node in the development history of OPPO, and it is also a conference to promote the new ecology.
The OPPO Developer Conference a few days later was in line with his guidelines: ColorOS released five major system capability open engines; IoT enablement action; the IoT development and service platform was defined as HeyThings, and was deeply integrated with ColorOS ( including account). In addition, mobile phones, smart watches, and headphones have been established as core entrances.
The entrance is by no means complete, and opening up also requires specific policy support. However, overall, OPPO’s technology, products, and ecology have undergone structural changes, and the “cloud” prototype and technological attributes have suddenly emerged. This marks that in 2020, OPPO will embark on a journey of expansion, and an image of "software, hard services, and services" will be highlighted.
If it weren’t for the epidemic, OPPO’s various dimensions might have already been displayed. However, things will go well if things go slowly. The developer conference on the 24th presented an overall look.
First of all, ColorOS11 must be mentioned. As the world's first OS based on Android 11, based on the opening of the five major system capabilities in 2019, two new open engines have been added, namely AI and cross-terminal integration.
You should be aware of OPPO’s word “borderless”. It is the implementation of Chen Mingyong’s guidance of “integration of all things”. "Borderless" is not just a UI concept, but distributed AI capabilities covering application, data, ecology, equipment and other levels. Through this, OPPO will be able to connect many IoT terminals such as mobile phones, smart watches, PCs, TVs, and smart cars in the future, associate various scenarios and services, and establish a consistent experience.
Several numbers capture the ecological capabilities of ColorOS: 27 system capabilities have been opened, with more than 100 third-party partners, and the average daily interface calls exceed 300 million; monthly active users exceed 370 million; and will adapt to 33 models.
It is no longer a mobile OS in a narrow sense. Of course, this does not mean that OPPO does not pay attention to mobile phones. On the contrary, this is a signal of intensive cultivation of the main mobile phone business, but it is no longer just a terminal concept, but a core ecological hub and key entrance.
Yi Wei, general manager of OPPO’s Emerging Mobile Terminal Division, said that since 2019, a variety of smart devices such as headphones, watches, and CPE have been released in succession for personal entertainment, home furnishing, sports, and health. At the same time, HeyThings IoT empowers partners in five major aspects: technology, experience, marketing, channels, and data. So far, it has established cooperation with more than 30 brands such as Midea and Oaks, covering more than 50 categories and more than 300 SKUs.
This performance benefits from the complete technical capabilities of ColorOS and HeyThings IoT. Zhang Xiaoyi, Vice President, CIO and President of the IoT Business Unit of Midea, said that with the support of OPPO mobile phones and smart home APP, through automatic discovery, rapid network configuration, and Breeno voice control, smart scenarios can be quickly implemented and user experience improved.
OPPO has released Operation Enablement 2.0, in which the first phase will invest 200 million resources in four aspects: technology, products, marketing, and channels.
Entrance expansion is also accelerating. Officially confirmed, OPPO smart TV will be released in October. Quark believes that it is expected to become another powerful tool for OPPO’s Internet of Things and content ecosystem entrance services, and create a new entertainment ecosystem.
Don’t think that OPPO IoT is just a horizontal category expansion. It has vertical thinking that outperforms competing products. The release of the HeyTap health platform allows people to see the in-depth layout of OPPO's IoT ecosystem.
From a wearable perspective alone, HeyTap is not sexy. But it has two basic capabilities: device access and service distribution, including health data center and health interface. The latter provides a variety of convenient access methods, and more than 20 partners have accessed it.
This is the battle for the core IoT scenarios. It can not only decouple and open OPPO's complete capabilities, but also deepen the existing IoT model in the industry. To be honest, most of the current IOT scenarios are still in the connection stage, not smart, and many have not yet opened up social services. HeyTap demonstrates OPPO's strategic execution and synergy capabilities.
In this way, we can find that in the integrated vision, ColorOS, HeyThings, and HeyTap are like "two horizontal and one vertical", and the territory of "base vertical ecology" has begun to be established. Health In this way, with the birth of OPPO smart TVs and other portals, there will be entertainment and more services in the future.
The image of OPPO, which integrates software, hardware and services, is highlighted.
Therefore, the 2020 OPPO Developer Conference can also be called a "growth strategy conference". OPPO has reached a cycle of structural changes.
But people also see problems and challenges.
1. Why is OPPO so open to the public?
2. In a market environment where external macro trends are full of uncertainties and competition is becoming increasingly fierce, can OPPO successfully achieve driver transformation?
The first topic is obvious. The global smartphone industry is still growing, but as far as China is concerned, Metcalfe's Law has lost momentum as the demographic dividend weakens. The incremental thinking that relied mainly on terminal shipments in the past has gradually given way to the development path of "increment, intensive cultivation of stock, and service transformation".
Apple is like this, Huawei is like this, Xiaomi is like this. OPPO is no exception.
According to IDC data, global smartphone shipments in 2019 were 1.37 billion units.
The top five manufacturers in the world are: Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, and OPPO. The agency predicts that under the influence of the epidemic, the world will shrink by 2.28% in 2020.
Due to pressure from overseas, Huawei has been focusing on localization since 2019, which has led to intensified competition. At one time, there was a distorted situation in which Huawei alone accounted for more than 50% of the market.
The epidemic has increased the pressure in 2020. Although OPPO and Xiaomi have received a lot of shipments overseas, especially in Huawei's traditional territory, they still cannot change the trend. OPPO has entered a growth-driven transformation cycle. On the basis of deepening its main business of mobile phones, it will strengthen its IoT layout.
There are pros and cons. Especially the integration power of 5G and AI. When Chen Mingyong talked about the "integration of all things", he focused more on the digital trend in the 5G era. He has emphasized many times that OPPO is no longer just a mobile phone company.
OPPO’s trends over the past two years reflect this trend. Its fission is faster and more urgent than many of its peers.
Competing products have experienced upgrades before. Xiaomi and Huawei are slightly early in their IoT deployment. Xiaomi started in 2013. As of today, it is known as the world’s largest consumer IoT platform. Many Internet giants have also continued to penetrate into it. Alibaba and Baidu have both established independent platforms.
Therefore, the second question becomes particularly prominent: Under such a situation, can OPPO achieve driver conversion?
1. Is the IoT landscape determined?
2. The differentiated competitiveness and effectiveness of OPPO IoT ecological model.
Our observation is that although the IoT concept has been around for many years and shipments have reached a certain scale, the so-called pattern is far from being finalized.
Take Xiaomi as an example. In terms of revenue, IoT is the main business. But so far, except for the interaction between Mijia and Xiaoai speakers, there has been no real cross-terminal collaboration between IoT terminals, and it is difficult to call it a stable model. In fact, some partners value Xiaomi channels more and think more about shipments.
Amazon, Alibaba, and Baidu all have a certain scale. But the latter three are more of a single product importer, especially smart speakers. To date, the IoT for such companies has almost always been in siled form.
The pattern is far from settled. The industry is even just beginning to realize that it needs to move out of the “connection” cycle. OPPO has the same opportunity.
OPPO has the conditions and competitiveness to complete the driver transformation:
1. The main mobile phone business has a huge number of global existing users and daily active users;
2. Toward the value of integrated openness and refined operational capabilities;
3. Product strength and "middle platform" capabilities that are not fully recognized;
4. Flexible IoT opening strategy, Temperance, the creation of a harmonious body consciousness is full of imaginative space.
OPPO emphasizes IoT, not weakening mobile phones. Chen Mingyong has repeatedly emphasized “deep cultivation of the main business”. Mobile phones not only contribute to revenue, cash flow, and profits, but are also the core guarantee for technology accumulation and business model upgrades.
Mobile phones are the core entrance to IoT. Even if the annual shipment increment is limited, it still has strategic value that cannot be replaced by other terminals due to replacement and inventory competition.
We also need to see OPPO’s past integration capabilities. From design, manufacturing, supply chain management to brands, channels, and services, this capability has an open and independent ecological value in the new cycle. Moreover, after the fission, refined operations based on full-link data will also be formed, and cross-end collaboration can exert unique power.
Then there are brand and channel services.
The former is conducive to the rapid penetration of OPPO IoT into users' minds, while the latter's current online and offline integration and scene transformation will definitely become a force to drive the shipment of multiple terminals, which is equivalent to strengthening OPPO's "export to the sea." Once a larger scale is formed, the channel end will even have more independent operations.
Speaking of OPPO’s product strength, it has witnessed mobile phone innovation in the past. The biggest impact today is product strength and platform definition capabilities. Needless to say, ColorOS, the definition and upgrade of HeyThings and HeyTap over the past year have demonstrated OPPO’s different commercialization capabilities and scenario thinking.
Behind the product strength, there is also the ability to accumulate technology and structure.
It is difficult for the outside world to understand this set of data: under the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization's "Patent Cooperation Treaty", global patent application data in 2019 show that among the top ten applicants for PCT patent applications, 4 are Chinese companies. OPPO ranks fifth in the world. As of 2020Q2, OPPO has applied for 49,000 global patents and granted over 19,000 patents. It is at the forefront of 5G, AI, and imaging patent applications; it has over 2,800 fast charging applications, and VOOC flash charging has become a beautiful business card.
While people continue to exaggerate the R&D system of its peers, OPPO has established 6 research institutes and 4 R&D centers with more than 10,000 R&D team members.
Technological accumulation is a topic that is not fully recognized by OPPO. Without it, it would be almost unimaginable to define a platform solution within a year just by relying on commercial thinking. Because, both ColorOS, HeyThings and HeyTap are the crystallization of breaking through the barriers of underlying technology and organization. We will also analyze this part of organizational strength below, so we will skip it for now.
When it comes to OPPO IOT’s differentiated competitiveness, we believe that the most critical thing is the open mechanism.
Yi Wei, General Manager of OPPO’s Emerging Mobile Terminal Business Unit, announced the “creative ecosystem” strategy for IoT open empowerment. In addition to self-defined terminals and portals, relevant partner products will adopt ecological options. Finished in product mode. There are two main levels:
1. In line with OPPO IoT value proposition, but developed by partners.
Including quality benchmarking, HeyThings direct connection, OPPO will be deeply involved and output quality standards.
2. More third-party products adopt flexible connection methods. However, OPPO will still select products based on brand tone and strictly control design and quality.
This strategy is different from Xiaomi’s mechanism. Xiaomi relies more on investment to create supply. Although it can enrich its categories and expand its shipments, it will be difficult to eliminate competition with its partners in the end.
Lei Jun once said that Xiaomi’s ecology is not a wall, but a fence. This positioning has not really resolved the internal game so far. The ecological value brought by investment lies more in connection than integration.
OPPO should also adopt investment grafting and incubation methods in the future. However, judging from the existing mechanism, it is expected to create a path different from that of investment everywhere. The HeyThings platform is more open and lively than Xiaomi Connection. From the perspective of cooperation partners, although OPPO started late, the quality of the cooperative enterprises and the brand are closer to the top, and the expansion is more stable.
In addition, unlike simple connections, OPPO services imply deeper digital empowerment, especially intelligent full-stack solutions. For example, in addition to product access, it also provides marketing and channel support.
Take Partner Le as an example. The product was launched on the OPPO Smart Home APP Mall. The brand was exposed 80 million times and sales increased by 276%.
This is a set of digital service capabilities that go beyond "connection". With reference to Alibaba Group's "commercial operating system", it can be regarded as an "IoT commercial operating system".
It allows us to see OPPO's potential 2B capabilities. With the expansion of categories and further diversification of entrances, coupled with the collaboration between the manufacturing end and the supply chain, OPPO is actually a digital infrastructure service platform with a complete data chain in the industry.
Other competing products also have shortcomings in their mechanisms. Huawei's IoT products are almost entirely self-sufficient. Alibaba and Baidu have open platforms. The former has digital empowerment and channel power, but its platform positioning makes it difficult to independently create multiple entrances. Baidu has good technology accumulation, but lacks terminal experience. The entrance relies on smart speakers, and DuerOS even relies on dealers to sell it.
OPPO IoT model has differentiated paths.
Of course, the fast-fissioning OPPO has a sense of caution. It understands that although platform-level products are excellent, it is impossible to blindly benchmark against existing peers. It emphasizes that it will not enter all categories, but will focus on user insights and delve into advantageous scenarios. The exploration of vertical fields, especially the health field, demonstrates OPPO’s trend of forging IoT business models.
OPPO has never been a blindfolded character. In the past many years, both Chen Mingyong and Duan Yongping, the founder of BBK, the parent company behind OPPO, have emphasized more on the phrase "dare to be the queen of the world". What it means is that, based on user insights, as long as the direction is established, there is no fear of getting involved late.
OPPO, which is undergoing fission, not only demonstrates its ability to expand rapidly, but also fearlessly strengthens control and integration.
We have always been curious about why OPPO has this kind of thinking. Does it come from user or industry insights, technology, ecosystem requirements, or is it a constraint of culture and values?
I would like to give some thoughts of my own: that is, fission and fusion thinking is a methodology, a capability, an organizational power, and a leadership ability that are precipitated based on culture and values.
In our opinion, compared with innovation at the technology, product, platform and other levels, it is the core guarantee and driving force for OPPO's upgrade at this moment.
If I could choose one word to sum it up, it would be the "duty" that Duan Yongping, Chen Mingyong and others have repeatedly emphasized over the years.
This expression first came from Duan Yongping. For a long time, it has also been the values ??and creed of BBK and OPPO.
However, "duty" has gone through a process from concept to methodology, organization and leadership.
Initially, “Duty” focused on business ethics and moral aspects. Duan Yongping emphasized "honesty" many times, and later gradually expanded it to four levels from the inside to the outside, that is, knowing what is the right thing; insisting on doing the right thing; stopping immediately when you find something wrong; and working hard to do things right.
This expression does not have the "book bag dropping" style of Western organizational management scholars at all, but it is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. There is ambiguity in it, as well as strict and even severe progression. Later, Duan Yongping used stop doing list to restore the logic.
This concept is particularly suitable for a group army culture that has a certain direction and a certain scale. Especially when combined with "dare to be the queen of the world", it will produce a strong strategic determination that can destroy all odds.
But it is also easy to form a conservative mechanism, especially for individuals and small teams, who will be used to waiting for orders from superiors before going through fire and water. Once the industry undergoes transformation and upgrading, problems are likely to arise.
When OPPO was transforming into smartphones, it defined its products from top to bottom and was left in the cold. It inspired Chen Mingyong’s awareness of continuous upgrading of the organization. OPPO once asked IBM to take charge of organizational structure changes starting from the research and development process. Chen Mingyong gradually gave up the "command-based management" of the past, handed over thinking to all levels, and insisted on sharing among all employees.
This instills new mechanisms into the organization, with critical thinking. Today’s OPPO fission also has a general context.
Only goes back to 2018.
At that time, OPPO established many departments such as the Software Engineering Division, the Internet Division, the Emerging Mobile Terminal Division, and the Research Institute. After the developer conference at the end of the year decided to focus on mobile phones and expand IOT business, OPPO has reached a strategic upgrade node.
Chen Mingyong rarely comes out. However, since January 2019, they have made successive statements, which are obviously to arouse the innovative power of the organization from the perspective of culture and business philosophy. Upgrading the concept of "duty" is exactly the basis for his entry.
For example, on January 4, 2019, a new connotation was added to the "duty" of OPPO's corporate culture, that is, "Dare to question, dare to challenge, and grasp the essence of things through critical thinking" and included it As the second explanation. In this way, the five connotations are as follows:
1. Isolate external pressure and temptation, maintain a normal mentality, return to the origin of things, and grasp the reasonable direction we should do;
2. Our duty requires us to dare to question and challenge, and to grasp the essence of things through critical thinking;
3. Our duty is to demand ourselves rather than others. When problems arise, we must first take responsibility for ourselves. ;
4. Duty regulates the attitude of cooperation with others - I do not take advantage of others;
5. Duty is higher than integrity. Even if there is no promise, what should be done Things must also be done.
This is obviously taking advantage of the New Year to arouse awareness of change.
Somewhat urgent. At the OPPO annual meeting two weeks later, Chen Mingyong stood at OPPO's 10-year development node (calculated in terms of mobile phones) and issued guidance for the next 10 years. It is also a "duty" to approach the angle, thus setting the tone of "embracing change".
In his speech, he said that the external situation is not optimistic. In the next few years, 5G, AI, and IoT will all be opportunities for OPPO. As a technology company, we must "dare to make breakthroughs and dare to innovate" and make solid progress in three aspects. Advancement means deepening the main business of mobile phones; accurately deploying IoT to create new entrances; building core competitiveness and achieving major breakthroughs in software engineering.
Then pay attention to his sentence: "Future competition will be all-round and multi-dimensional competition. It is not enough to do a good job in specific businesses. We must continue to cultivate our internal skills and improve the organization's systematic combat capabilities."
Obviously, the use of "duty" emphasizes organizational strength. Continue to look at his three requirements:
1. Be more confident. Dare to show your sword, and at the same time do a good job in fundamentals, "strengthen the construction of processes and platforms, and improve organizational capabilities."
2. Be more independent. "My territory is my decision." You cannot always wait for the headquarters to "shoot" orders. When the time is right, you must take the initiative and push forward boldly. "The headquarters will mobilize resources for you to help you succeed."
3. More integrated. There are more and more new businesses, new regions, new talents, more diverse products, and more intersections between individuals, organizations, and businesses. The mind must be open, the vision must be broad, and the business must not be closed, but must be "connected" with other platform businesses.
Isn’t this OPPO’s call for organizational change of “big, middle office, small front office”?
This is completely consistent with the advocacy of Huawei and Alibaba in the past few years. Huawei said that it would fully authorize the units in the front that can hear the artillery fire, and give them the authority to flexibly mobilize firepower; after Ali Xiaoyaozi came to power in 2015, the content of his first letter was similar to the connotation of Chen Mingyong’s annual meeting speech, and then led the "Greater, Central, Taiwan, "Small front desk" reform.
If the original plan of transforming smartphones and IBM providing consulting services, OPPO's reform concept would have been earlier.
Chen Mingyong continues to promote top-level design, and is just short of a relatively clear implementation meeting. Sure enough, at the 2019 Future Science and Technology Conference, he defined "the integration of all things", including technology, organization and culture, and announced a 50 billion R&D plan for the next three years.
This can be called a key node in the history of OPPO's development, and it is also a new ecological promotion conference.
Half a year later, we saw the organizational structure of the OPPO series upgraded. For example, global sales system, marketing system adjustment, etc. There was also a signal in June this year that OnePlus founder Liu Zuohu also served as the chief product experience officer of OnePlus, responsible for product line planning. This may mean that OPPO will further strengthen its integration thinking and establish a new mechanism for future organizational upgrades, especially mid-stage architecture upgrades.
OPPO does not lack technical and business elements, but what really drives fission is organizational power and Chen Mingyong’s leadership.
Why is it said that upgrading “duty” is also a kind of methodology and organizational strength?
Look at Chen Mingyong’s analysis. He said that the most important value of "duty" is to "isolate from pressure and temptation, maintain a normal mentality, return to the origin of things, and grasp the reasonable direction." The sense of direction, doing the right thing and "duty" can be directly equated. .
How to grasp the direction and do the right thing? That requires questioning and challenging, critical thinking, and verification from the opposite side.
He said that returning to OPPO today, it has become a top priority to regain critical thinking. OPPO people should always maintain a critical spirit in accordance with the connotation of "duty", dare to question and challenge, and "strive to be a practitioner of culture" , rather than bystanders.”
We hear the sounds of fission and growth. OPPO in 2020 and the next cycle is expected to become a key variable in the industry.