Reading as a god

Chapter 245 AIoT
Less is more, you shouldn’t do so much, but focus more.

Han Yanning: For your company, where is the core imagination and the biggest story in the future?
Zhang Shan pondered for a while, and said: I think it is "AI has no boundaries."

In the past, we were a bit of a tool theory in nature. We used tools to transform some industries, so that the industry could reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve experience on the original basis. I felt that all industries were worth revisiting.

We certainly don't have the ability to do so many industries now, and doing three industries is enough.

But the future has no boundaries. In the future, such a business model, coupled with a good organizational form and capital form, may be able to empower more scenarios.

It is not necessarily the current form of the company. It may be that the company is divided into many small startups to empower different fields, and each field has infinitely many things to do from the beginning to the end.This matter makes me feel very interesting, and it can be made into a company without boundaries.

……

Han Yanning: Or what is the positioning of Shanlin Technology?
Zhang Shan: We think so internally. We really hope to become a pragmatic and leader in the artificial intelligence industry.

Interpret these two words a little bit:
"Pragmatics", when we present the difficulties of AI implementation, you may think that this is a long-distance race, because everyone is so excited about AI technology and has high expectations for this industry, or the volatility of its expectations is very high. Gao, sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it. In a very volatile external environment, an AI company can only be pragmatic and do everything well in a down-to-earth manner, and every detail can truly make this company a great company for a long time. .

"Leader", we will share more later, Shanlin Technology is very confident, we will think that we are definitely the leader in the industry we really focus on, not only our product landing, commercialization ability, but also Including our core technical capabilities.

Han Yanning: Looking at the next five years from now, what kind of company is Shanlin Technology?
Zhang Shan: First, Shanlin Technology will not be a platform-based company as many AI companies advertise.

Shanlin Technology will have several pillar industries, and even among the three industries, not every industry will be our pillar in the future, and maybe 1-2 industries will gradually expand in the Shanlin Technology industry.

The logic is very simple. This industry can achieve an annual income of 100 billion or 1000 billion in a single entity. It will have several pillar industries. Although BAT is now a platform-based Internet company, it will have its foundation. From e-commerce, search, and social networking.

I think five years from now, the proposition of Shanlin Technology’s definition should be clear from the three products we have chosen. At least one or two of them are our foundation, and 1-2 billion is the feeling of quantification.

The second point is that Shanlin Technology essentially builds different "brains" in different dimensions. We are actually building our algorithm capabilities on the cloud; we built Hetu in the warehouse, which is actually a midbrain. Under such circumstances Different devices can be connected; in each device, whether it is a chip or software, it is the cerebellum, which can make the device and each robot smart. The connection of the brain, midbrain, and cerebellum runs through. The functions outside the brain, We think that after five years, there will be many partners who can help us do better. This is our imagination.

Eight questions competition
Han Yanning: How do you view the competition in this industry?
Zhang Shan: The competition of to B is not the same as that of to C. The competition of to B is not as fierce as that of to C, because the industry is relatively fragmented.

We ourselves can also feel that in these three major tracks, our business partners are becoming more and more different from what everyone imagines. The most important business partners in these three tracks are almost not what everyone thinks. Our business partners."

When you enter this industry, you will find that there are very good players in the industry. These players may be more traditional, and they also provide core products.

Every time we enter an industry, we will find that there are real friends and businessmen. You can learn from them and compete with them.All three industries are different.

Han Yanning: Give me an example.

Zhang Shan continued: We had a very large case in the direction of the Industrial Internet of Things last year. In this case, our competitors are not other AI companies, but existing players in the industry.

Because this client is very large, almost all the manufacturers in this industry were called in. Like auditions, we went through three or four rounds one after another, and finally we were selected.

Why did you choose us?At that time, we told him that we are definitely not the most experienced manufacturers in this industry, but we must be the most innovative in this new industry, with stronger technical awareness and stronger software capabilities. Manufacturers, we need to use a better brain to empower this scene. This brain can really bring you a different value for this scene, and this value may not be provided by other manufacturers.

Han Yanning: Some people say that the real value of an AI company is to develop a new budget in a new field. That is to say, a customer does not have this demand and budget. If you want them to spend money to do this, you agree to it. point of view?

Zhang Shan continued: I disagree.This depends on the scene.

Some scenes are essentially shifting budgets.Your original budget was for that matter, can I move the budget over here, and it may not need that much budget.The transfer of the budget is to use new means to solve old problems. There is no essential change in the problem to be solved, but a change in the solution.

In other scenarios, there is a new budget, because the original ability can not be achieved, but now it can be done, such as face recognition in security, the original face recognition did not work, but now it can work; the original communication in the building does not work , Now this experience is better, these things may be creating new budgets.

Different scenes should be looked at separately, and we cannot generalize that we are digging new things.

For example, communication is not a new problem, what you have to do is how to make the communication experience better, this is a new solution;
Security is to use the cameras in the city. In the past, the pictures captured by the cameras were viewed by people, but now the machines can view them. This is a new solution;
In the end, warehousing and logistics provide new solutions to the delivery problem, whether it is connected to e-commerce or offline stores.

You still have to do these things, it’s just a question of which one is more efficient, whether it’s done by humans or by machines. Most scenarios don’t create new problems, only new solutions.

Han Yanning: Where does the biggest competition come from?

Zhang Shan: In the urban scene, we all know that all Internet companies, technology companies, and AI venture capital are here. This scene is not a one-way challenge to Shanlin Technology, because it is difficult for each company to discover technology products to deliver ( Everyone is very anxious about delivering) the value to the final user.This is a rather confusing scene.

On the contrary, in the consumer electronics scenario, the industry structure and our industry positioning have been relatively well formed, and a very good relationship of trust has been formed with users.It is relatively new in the supply chain scene.In these three scenarios, we believe that the greatest competition and future potential cooperation will come from the existing giants in this industry, not from the AI ​​companies that everyone thinks.

Han Yanning: Will the understanding of positioning and competition also change Shanlin Technology?
Zhang Shan continued: Our average age seems to be 30 now.The average age is definitely older than it used to be because many industries need people with relevant experience.

Han Yanning: In this way, in your company, you don't have to worry about losing your job at the age of 35.

Zhang Shan continued: I think industry experience should be respected.

Han Yanning: People in technology and people in the industry, how important are they?

Zhang Shan continued: "It's hard to say this ratio, it's not the same at different times.If you ask what level of my understanding of the industry is, I think it is 60 points, just passed, because I certainly can't be that deep.It may have been only a year since I entered this industry, or in other words, I have had a deep look at this industry. Compared with my colleagues who have worked for 20 years, he must have a deeper insight.

Can I grasp the main contradiction, can I grasp the core problem, can I know what I don't know, can I ask the right questions when I should ask them, even if these questions seem to be ignorant, can I do it? This may be more critical.

I have been in this industry for a year, have discussed and discussed with some real experts, and I can confidently say that I am a semi-expert in this industry.

Han Yanning: When talking about AI with traditional companies, what is their acceptance and can they get it?
Zhang Shan went on to say: Yes.Let me give you an example. We released Hetu (robot network operating system) at the beginning of last year. I think many people in the industry think that the logic of our Hetu makes sense (reasonable).

There are even some pioneers in the industry who want to do this, but limited by the ability of algorithms and software, they can't do it, because in the logistics industry, there may not be so many people who do software, and even more so. Not to mention that there are even fewer people doing algorithms.For such people with great ideas, we have brought them in.

Han Yanning: Was it dug in?
Zhang Shan continued: That's right, we just dug in.

Han Yanning: What kind of talents do you like to recruit?
Zhang Shan went on to say: We like two kinds of people the most. They are people who walk from the two sides of technology and industry to the middle. They need to be able to stand on one axis, but they can lean towards the middle.

We really like people with a deep technical background and technical insight, but they must also be very humble, have a strong learning ability, and can learn industry knowledge very quickly.

At the same time, we also like pioneers in our own industry very much. Their thinking is not static, they are innovative, they also have a learning attitude and fast learning ability, and can form their own insight and cognition on this basis.

We especially like some of these people, and we especially hope that such people can join us.

Han Yanning: Have you had any headaches recently?

Zhang Shan went on to say: Our journey was relatively smooth, this is the truth.I think the next most critical thing is how to do things well in a down-to-earth manner.

If there is a headache to talk about, it is organization.

Most of the time I am looking at things, and business requires us to put a lot of thought into it.

But I will pay more attention to the organization in the second half of the year. Now there are a lot of people in the company. The company needs to become a good product, and it also needs to do the value design of the product manager and the value it needs to design for employees—whether this company can become A good product allows everyone to be motivated in this place, find it interesting to work, and become a highly efficient place.

Next, I will spend more time on the value design of the company's products and how to turn the company's products into better products.

Han Yanning: Is it because startups are running too fast?

Zhang Shan continued: This is one aspect.On the other hand, Zhang Shan and I have no work experience. Our first job is to start a business. This is the truth.

One of the most important things to be a product manager is empathy. You need to look at the problem from another angle.

The first problem is that the two of us have not actually worked in other places, we did not start from the grassroots level, and we have not experienced the state of "I have a boss, a boss with a boss, and a boss with a boss's boss", so we look at the problem You may not have that empathy.

The second problem is that I have never done sales.But I remember that the company negotiated a lot of orders before
After a while, many projects are negotiated by us as sales, but without systematic sales training, we may have a lot of thinking about technology and products, and there will still be problems with empathy in sales.

So, do I have empathy from the perspective of employees?Do I have empathy from a sales perspective?There is a question mark here.

Fortunately, I have this awareness.These questions are all questions that we need to think about as a product manager.

Han Yanning: So the sense of rhythm is very important in entrepreneurship?
Zhang Shan: During the nine years since we started our own business, we have been reflecting on a problem, which is the problem of rhythm.

A start-up company, maybe AI can use logical reasoning in these major tracks to conclude that this track has huge commercial value and product value, but Shanlin Technology had a problem with doing it a little earlier, for example, we found a product I did it three years ago, but it didn't work after I did it. After three years, I found that it has become a really valuable product.

Autonomous driving could be a very good example.In a to B company and a technical company, because your company is not like an Internet company, the rhythm is measured on a monthly basis. There may be no problem 6 months or 12 months earlier, but if it is a to B company, 5 months earlier Years, 10 years earlier, then your story may not be true.

(In these chapters during the National Day, some places almost directly copy the information, and will be changed in the near future)
(End of this chapter)