Follow-up analysis of Dong Yuhui’s “short essay scandal”: After the crisis subsides, where should Oriental Selection go?

The "Little Composition" incident of Oriental Selection is gradually coming to an end. Dong Yuhui has obtained the status of "Senior Partner", which seems to be stable for the time being. But everyone knows that he will definitely leave in the future. How will Oriental Selection develop in the future? Where will it go in the future?

The previous article analyzed the "Small Composition" incident of Oriental Selection, pointing out the problems existing in Oriental Selection, such as over-reliance on a single big anchor, conflicts in the distribution of development interests, poor team management and lack of a systematic crisis management system.

This article analyzes the subsequent development of events and future countermeasures of Oriental Selection. The full text is about 4,000 words long.

The core information is as follows:

1. Problems and improvement directions of Oriental Selection

1. Corporate governance issues

The problem of interest distribution is the deep-seated cause of the crisis, which needs to be resolved by Yu Minhong, the board of directors and major shareholders to improve the corporate governance structure.

2. Crisis management loopholes

The lack of a systematic crisis management work system makes it impossible to identify and monitor crises, and team members lack crisis management awareness and crisis management capabilities, resulting in the inability to respond promptly and effectively when a crisis occurs, causing small risks to evolve into major crises.

3. Personnel team management issues

Poor management of the personnel team leads to increased friction, lack of control, and risk spillover.

In the future, Oriental Selection needs to strengthen its work in human resource management, corporate culture building, team coordination mechanism, crisis management system, etc., and strive to solve related problems.

2. We will not stop "de-glorification" and will advance it more cleverly

The more serious problem that cannot be ignored is that the traffic and company revenue of the live broadcast e-commerce business are too dependent on a single anchor, which poses a huge risk to the company's business security and sustainable development. It must be "de-brightened", but the execution process will be more cautious after the crisis, which can be done in four aspects:

1. Enrich and optimize product services
2. Strengthen the company's brand
3. Develop diversified sales channels
4. Increase the cultivation of anchor matrix

For those who are short on time, it is enough to read here. If you are interested in knowing more details, you can continue to browse down.

Just when Yu Minhong put the final nail in the coffin of the Oriental Selection Short Essay incident and everything seemed to be about to calm down, constant rumors and secondary crises made it impossible to be quiet.

All of a sudden, a large number of well-informed people appeared and released a lot of information that made the spectators speculate constantly, and the emotions of the fan circle were still accumulating and waiting to explode.

• Some media claimed to have received information that Yu Minhong must choose between Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui, and only one person can stay in Oriental Selection.
• Some media reported that Dong Yuhui received an olive branch from other platforms, with generous treatment that could not be refused, and Dong would leave Oriental Selection.
• Sources said that Oriental Selection has been working overtime to get rid of Dong Yuhui and deal with the aftermath.

…

Industry bigwigs like Luo Yonghao also began to add fuel to the fire.

On December 15, Luo Yonghao posted a long article on WeChat Moments, saying that he was "overwhelmed with emotion" after seeing the relevant news. Even if young people have made outstanding achievements in society, it is difficult for them to do something bigger or more valuable before accumulating enough resources. "After all, this is a cruel world ruled by middle-aged people, and it is also a world where 'the tallest tree in the forest will be destroyed by the wind.'"

In the long article, he also "shouted" to Dong Yuhui, saying that at this precious moment when personal accumulation and opportunities of the times just happened to coincide with each other and burst out huge energy, there is no need to waste life working. "If Mr. Dong Yuhui himself wants to start a business, I am willing to join some friends who are investors and entrepreneurs to support him in starting a business successfully."

On the evening of December 15, Luo Yonghao also talked about the Dong Yuhui incident in the live broadcast room, saying that according to his understanding, e-commerce giants are trying to contact Dong, and many people said they are "willing to pay 500 million yuan in liquidated damages." He once again suggested that Dong Yuhui should not change jobs but start a business directly.

However, Luo Yonghao also said that Yu Minhong is kind to his subordinates, but some executives are really disgusting and bad people. "Mr. Yu's mild management style condones the existence of bad phenomena.

At this time, a secondary crisis emerged.

On the evening of December 15, Tian Quan, the anchor of Oriental Selection, imitated CEO Sun Dongxu in smashing his phone during the live broadcast. He seemed to be provoking fans in his words and kept setting blocked words and blocking netizens.

This triggered serious doubts among netizens about the corporate values ​​and management capabilities of Dongfang Zhenxuan, and Dongfang Zhenxuan quickly lost 3 million fans. This is undoubtedly a secondary crisis derived from the "small composition crisis", just like the aftershocks after a major earthquake, which not only caused greater damage, but also seriously hindered the rescue work after the crisis.

In this critical situation, Yu Minhong had to take action again and use drastic measures to control the crisis.

On December 16, Oriental Selection issued an announcement and an apology statement.

1. Sun Dongxu was removed from his position as executive director and CEO of Oriental Selection, and Chairman Yu Minhong concurrently assumed the position of CEO of Oriental Selection;
2. An apology was made for the inappropriate remarks made by anchor Tian Quan in the live broadcast room, and Tian Quan was punished by being suspended from broadcasting for three months and was severely criticized.

On the evening of December 16, after a series of measures, including removing Sun Dongxu from his position as CEO and executive director, punishing controversial anchor Tian Quan by suspending his broadcast for three months, and apologizing for "blacklisting" some netizens, New Oriental founder Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui jointly appeared in the "Old Yu Chat" live broadcast room to respond to netizens' concerns about the controversy over the Oriental Selection Essay.

At around 11pm on December 17, Oriental Selection released a live broadcast preview poster, announcing that Dong Yuhui will conduct a live broadcast with New Oriental founder Yu Minhong at 20:00 on December 18. The poster shows that Dong Yuhui's identity will change from "live broadcaster" to "senior partner of Oriental Selection."

Yu Minhong is indeed an expert in crisis public relations. After a series of combined efforts, the storm subsided again. The "small essay" crisis and its secondary crises should finally be over.

Looking back at this crisis, it exposed many problems in the development process of Oriental Selection.

After the crisis is over, Oriental Selection’s follow-up work, in addition to repairing its brand image and fan relations, is more importantly to solve these problems.

Poor management of personnel teams leading to loss of control and improper crisis public relations are the direct causes of the "small composition" incident turning into a crisis. The root cause of this problem is the lack of a systematic crisis management work system.

The above problems have aroused the anger of fans and the public and affected the company's business security. The senior management represented by Sun Dongxu bears major responsibility. It is not unfair for Sun to be punished. He must bear the responsibilities he should bear.

In the future, Oriental Selection needs to strengthen its work in human resource management, corporate culture building, team coordination mechanism, crisis management system, etc., and strive to solve related problems.

Although the problems in interest distribution during the development of Oriental Selection were not the direct cause of this crisis, they are essential problems involving deep-seated issues of corporate governance that Yu Minhong, the board of directors and major shareholders must resolve in the future.

In addition to the above problems, an even more serious issue for Oriental Selection is that the traffic of its live e-commerce business and the company's revenue are too dependent on a single major anchor, posing a huge risk to the company's business security and sustainable development that must be resolved.

And this involves a fundamental problem: "de-glorification".

Dong Yuhui's role as the main traffic source in Dongfang Zhenxuan's live e-commerce business must be weakened, and the sales he brings in the proportion of overall business revenue must decrease. Of course, this is not achieved by Dongfang Zhenxuan severing ties with Dong or hiding Dong as some people think.

How to “de-brighten”? Personally, I think this is related to what the market positioning of Oriental Selection is.

According to its official website: Oriental Selection was established in 2021 and is an agricultural products e-commerce platform under Oriental Selection (01797.HK). It is committed to connecting producers and consumers and continuously providing high-quality agricultural products.

Although Dongfang Zhenxuan’s live streaming e-commerce business is doing well, it is definitely not just live streaming e-commerce. Its core business is still the sales of agricultural products, and its channels are all e-commerce platforms including live streaming platforms.

Therefore, if Oriental Selection wants to eliminate the current business risk of over-reliance on a single major anchor (i.e., "de-glorification"), it can work in four aspects:

1. Enrich and optimize product services

It has been mentioned many times in public interviews with the media by Yu Minhong and Sun Dongxu, in the company's financial reports and on the company's official website that Oriental Selection is committed to becoming a product technology company with agricultural products as its core, and a relaxing and enjoyable cultural communication company that selects life's best products for customers.

In fact, Oriental Selection is steadily promoting the implementation of this strategic plan, including expanding sales categories from agricultural products to books and daily necessities, strengthening supply chain management and strengthening self-operated product development to highlight product quality and optimize customer service; in 2023, it will launch cultural and tourism live broadcasts in various provinces, such as "Oriental Selection Shanxi Tour" and "Oriental Selection Jilin Tour" both of which were very successful, setting up a cultural and tourism company and launching travel route products to fully launch cultural and tourism business.

I believe that its persistence in this path will be most significant in improving the company's business revenue structure and eliminating current business risks.

2. Strengthen the company brand

Oriental Selection is a listed company and does not belong to any one person, and should not be kidnapped by the fan clubs of Yu Minhong, Dong Yuhui or anyone else.

The important foundation for achieving this is to grow the influence of the company's brand and achieve a balance with the personal brand, so that personal fans will like the Oriental Selection brand, and even if the individual leaves Oriental Selection, the fans will stay.

Oriental Selection is well aware of this and has actually been working on it, and I believe it will definitely be strengthened in the future.

3. Develop diversified sales channels

In the future, live streaming will still be an important sales channel for Oriental Selection’s e-commerce business, but it should not be the only one, otherwise it will increase its business risks.

In fact, Dongfang Zhenxuan has already opened up the Taobao platform and the Dongfang Zhenxuan App, strengthened its private domain operations, and launched a membership service system to reduce its reliance on live streaming channels. I believe that after this incident, Dongfang Zhenxuan will open up more powerful channels, such as JD.com and Tencent systems.

4. Increase the cultivation of anchor matrix

This is actually the point that many people are most concerned about, and it is also the direct conflict of this crisis. Although Yu Minhong and Dongfang Zhenxuan gave fans a satisfactory result in the crisis management, it is still an inevitable action to increase the cultivation of the anchor matrix in the future to reduce the dependence on Dong's live broadcast income.

However, the process will be more cautious and will require Dong to cooperate more. According to Dong's philosophy of life and the current distribution of interests, he should also cooperate.

The simplest means is to moderately reduce the number of his live broadcasts and increase those of other anchors. Another approach is for Dong to team up with other anchors (who can be rotated regularly) to fully demonstrate the personal charm of other anchors and incubate several top anchors and dozens of medium-sized anchors.

Perhaps a safer approach that would satisfy fans and fan clubs more is to push them to become managers (senior partner is the first step) and reduce the current role played by live streaming in the company's development.

Of course, this also depends on Dong's personal development plan. Judging from his previous remarks, being a salesperson is not his original intention, but he has not refused it. I believe he will not refuse to be a manager. However, Dong has expressed his hope to teach in rural areas one day. Perhaps he will choose this path one day.

Final Thoughts

In fact, the countermeasures I analyzed are based on basic business rules and are also natural choices in the development process of Oriental Selection’s business. They have been implemented long ago, but we did not expect that this crisis would occur suddenly and cause considerable turmoil and damage.

This incident can be seen as a butterfly effect that started from the editor, but it is not entirely accidental. In fact, it is a management crisis caused by the combined effect of the problems analyzed above. The lack of an effective crisis management work system made Dongfang Selection miss the best opportunity to eliminate risks and control the development of crises. This also reminds everyone that crisis public relations is not the whole of crisis management.

Oriental Selection must speed up the resolution of the above-mentioned problems, and the construction of a crisis management system should also be put on the agenda.

Author: Chen Hao; WeChat public account: Brand Market Relativity (ID: Brand-Marketing)