By He Yifan

Focus Media founder Jiang Nanchun told me once that he had an army of 8,000 workers just to“sort buildings.” He said he had categorized residents in different properties into seven profiles based on what he had learned from their recently implemented garbage analysis program.He had given each maid and janitor in these properties an scanner gun to scan the bar codes from all the trash generated from daily life,and with it they had compiled mountains of data showing the consumer preferences in the area.For example,in one community,consumption of bottled spring water was higher,and in another distilled water was more common.In this community,peanut oil usage was higher,while in that one olive oil consumption was greater.And after a few years of collecting and collating data in this manner,he had a good handle on the local preferences for products and brands in the area.

Zhang Tao,the founder of Dianping,a user-driven dining review site,proudly wears the fact that he is not afraid of “getting his hands dirty” like a medal.There are 3,000 people working at this company,with 2,000 of them being members of his offline sales force.He believes that the number of “ground troops” must be massive to increase the number of links in the sales chain and bring better control to the sales process.He said he believes that what sets his company apart is that,what he provides is not the cookie-cutter,mass-produced variety.Case in point,a person eating a meal has an experience in a restaurant,which is totally up to the quality of the servers,the cooks and the environment.Meaning that the vast majority of the experiences that users review on Dianping are completely dependent on the merchants,and you never know what you are going to get from business to business.This is why he needs to have a close relationship with the merchants.

Later,I was having a meeting of the minds with AutoNavi founder,Cheng Congwu,where we made mention of AutoNavi’s street scanning team in the company’s early days,which was set up specifically for the purposes of collecting information.He exclaimed that the navigation system has to “first make the rounds,” and only then can it help the customers to make the rounds.At that time,hikers traveled 8 to 10 kilometers per day,cab drivers traveled 100 to 300 kilometers per day and as it stands now,there are 1,300 data generators running around updating all the mapping data behind the scenes.

It was only after a meeting with Lu Zhengyao,the founder of Car Inc.,that I realized the three mentioned above really have it pretty cushy.The car rental industry can really serve up every trouble you could possibly imagine in the service industry.Just by way of example,“Leave with a full tank,return with a full tank” is a rule in the car-rental business.When some patrons return the car though,they’ve secretly put water into the gas tank so the gas gauge will show full.Still others actually even put urine inside just to avoid the expense of a simple fill up.

The list could even get longer,I have not counted any of the e-commerce woes yet.A friend who works at a renowned e-commerce company has done the math.He said,back in the day,the cost of developing a new customer was 100 yuan,but now it had exceeded 300 yuan.The hard work and great pains companies take in this regard is not hard to imagine.

You shouldn’t see it as anything out of the ordinary if you’ve recently come across quite a few industrious entrepreneurs with their nose to the grindstone,they have actually been working quietly for many years.You just never noticed due to their low profile.But now the fruits of their labor are hanging large and ripe on the branches of every tree in your neck of the woods,so to speak.They are becoming increasingly conspicuous.All their myriad of hardships and tests they have been through are like stamps on their passport to success.And they can rightfully wear them just like a badge of honor.