Michelin Company has changed from a tire factory to a "life industry" giant

Michelin, a century-old shop, has regained its youth through technological innovation, racing marketing and digitalization of tourism.

From punching machines, mainframes, PCs to scientific and technological services, the blue giant IBM no longer calls itself a "computer company", but people all over the world will never forget IBM-in today's world, there are no eternal products and no eternal positioning, but there can be an evergreen enterprise close to eternity.

In the very non-mainstream industry of auto parts, Michelin, a French company that started from manufacturing tires, is a well-known evergreen enterprise all over the world, just like IBM. In a brand preference survey conducted by European media in 1996, Michelin, whose products were not "fashionable" at all, was second only to Chanel and became the "most popular brand" runner-up. Even Mercedes Benz and Coca Cola were not rivals!

Michelin Empire is worth a new high

This company, which started from the small town of Clermont-Ferrand in the middle of France, was originally just a factory for manufacturing bicycle tires. Since it started its business, it has been accompanied by the growth, take-off and maturity of the automobile industry, and it has been a whole year since 2117! Even though the industry of "tire" has declined to the point where it is no longer associated with popular words such as "technology", "innovation" and even "profit" in the capital society, the brand of Michelin has become more and more brilliant on the world stage in the past five years, and its change is so great that even many young technology companies can't catch up with it.

in p>2114, when the euro soared and European enterprises were generally trapped in shrinking exports, Michelin's annual turnover reached a new high of 15.689 billion euros, with an annual net profit of 515 million euros and a profit per share of 3.59 euros, ranking third among the CAC 41 stock index constituents of the Paris Securities Dealers Association. To achieve this success, Michelin relies on six natural rubber tree farms in Brazil and Nigeria, as well as 74 tire factories in 19 countries and a huge marketing system in 171 countries. In the whole year, Michelin produced about 94 million tires and introduced more than 21 million maps and guidebooks to the market, all of which built Michelin's huge enterprise empire across industries and regions.

Keeping the first place by thinking and positioning innovation

Michelin has opened a history of more than a hundred years. It once wrote many firsts by "technical innovation", including the first detachable tire, the first inflatable tire and the first truck tire. In addition, low-pressure tires, colored tires, F1 tires and even the world's first "cement road" appeared in 1915 are also masterpieces of this company. However, what really makes Michelin's traditional industries last forever is not technology, but "thinking innovation" and "positioning innovation".

In Michelin's hundred-year history, it has encountered numerous difficulties in transformation, expansion and positioning. In the era of "national industry" before and after the two world wars, it faced the competition from European brands such as Continental and Dunlop, and tire factories had to set up factories in different ethnic countries to emphasize its regional identity. After the 1971s, a new wave of global expansion made Michelin face the severe competition for survival again. Carlos Ghosn, the current president of Renault Nissan Group and the "God of Management" in Europe, pointed out: "Michelin really went from a European regional tire company to the world in the 1981s."

But even today, Michelin has established such a huge globalization system, but its corporate culture still retains an incredible family color. Although it was publicly listed on the Paris Stock Exchange as early as 1951, from the first generation of Edouard Michelin Jr to the current CEO Edouard Michelin, who officially took over in 1999, the management right has remained in the hands of the family successor with the surname "Michelin" for more than 111 years, which is really rare among the top 511 enterprise groups in the world.

Equity distribution emphasizes personal color

In addition to the family color of the operators, Michelin's equity distribution method is quite special. In addition to the limited liability shareholders who hold listed shares like ordinary companies, there is another kind of "general partner shareholders" who belong to the company's management talents. In other words, shareholders must bear unlimited joint and several liabilities for the company's property with their own property. If the company is in debt due to poor management, the general partner must bear the company's liabilities with his own private property according to the legal norms, and the general partner can be recognized or dismissed only with the consent of the shareholders' meeting, and can't unilaterally announce his own shareholding ratio. Under this system, the general partner's salary is also linked with the company's operating performance, rather than adopting a fixed salary system.

Perhaps it is because of this special culture and system that Michelin not only retains a strong family color, but also highlights the manager's power and personal color, and makes the whole company form a special temperament that is both lively and conservative.

judging from the organizational structure of Michelin's huge empire, the 127,111 employees in the world are only divided into ten first-level executive committees to take charge of the production of different products, as well as the market, organization and finance in Asia, Europe and North America. The organizational structure is actually quite flat. After the new generation of head Aiduo took over, he also made several ambitious moves, including returning to F1, and investing a lot of resources to make Michelin the world's largest motor sports sponsor. In addition, the Challenge Bibendem will be expanded to block the opportunities for cooperative development with future new energy vehicles. What's more, the company has also greatly built a tourism department, which not only spans the car navigation system, but also combines mobile phones, PDA and websites to form a huge digital tourism service network.

A century of tourism keeps pace with digitalization

It is hard to imagine Michelin, which makes tires, and the publishing business of developing maps and travel guides to food and beverage evaluation has a history of more than 111 years. As early as 1911, the first Red Guide containing life information such as travel and food was officially published, with 35,111 copies printed. At the same time, a declaration was printed on the Guide: "This manual was born at the beginning of this century and will go through this century in the future". A century later, the Red Guide, which started the pocket book fashion, not only did not disappear, but became more and more powerful. Recently, it has expanded its reach from the French-speaking countries that were originally dominant, and successively issued versions in English-speaking areas such as new york. According to Michelin's own statistics, the current annual print run of The Red Guide exceeds 551,111 copies, and the total circulation of this short book alone has exceeded 31 million copies for more than 111 years.

However, if it is only such an achievement, it can't escape the shadow of ancestors and the exquisite cultural hegemony of France. Under the advantage of a century-old foundation, the "via Michelin" website, established in 2111, integrates Michelin's maps, guides and other information services into digital content services. Through this website, members can get travel memo services from their mobile phones. Although the current service of this website is limited to Europe, it attracts more than 11 million people to register every year. In the future, the service plan will be expanded from the website to the "long-distance mobile communication" based on cars.

The best representative of French life style

With the global automobile industry becoming more and more mature, it seems to be a natural choice to reduce costs and improve competitiveness through continuous merger and integration. As a peripheral spare parts manufacturer, the tire industry has also embarked on the same fate. In the global tire market in 2114, about 1 billion tires were assembled on ordinary cars and light trucks, and about 41 million tires were assembled on trucks. Although the overall output value was as high as 1.4 billion. How to maintain the competitive advantage of products in this oligopoly market and seek new competitiveness in the change of industrial structure has become the survival consideration of global tire factories.

Different from the competing brands Bridgestone or Goodyear, which still focus on the whole tire product line, or the tires in Germany are distracted to produce spare parts such as brake systems, or even like Italy's Pirelli, which simply makes a 1.81-degree adjustment and directly invests in the emerging communication technology industry, Michelin's overall strategy is actually more from tire technology innovation, racing marketing to digital tourism services, although it is difficult to hide its closed color.

Perhaps this is the characteristic of conservative family businesses: they are unwilling and unable to chase the ups and downs of fashion rhythm, and simply weave their own magnificent dreams more down-to-earth. In Michelin's varied life industry map, the symbol "Michelin" not only represents tires, but also represents a symbol of lifestyle, representing modern people's yearning for French culture, and is synonymous with "high profit" of traditional industries.

Introduction of MICHELIN Company

At 11: 11 am on June 4th, 1946, a messenger from Michelin Company walked into the French Patent Registration Office at No.26 Leningrad Street in Paris and delivered a thick document, which was a patent application that played a revolutionary role in the tire industry-the birth of radial tire, the safety, durability, fuel saving and comfort of radial tire. Its appearance not only has a decisive impact on modern transportation, but also greatly affects human life. The impact brought by the design of radial tire is so great that today, more than 41 years later, the traditional cross-ply tire has almost completely disappeared in Europe. Now, people can see that motorcycles, cars, subways, bulldozers and airplanes have all used radial tires one after another.

Now when people think of radial tire, they naturally think of MICHELIN, which enjoys a high prestige in the tire industry. In the past hundred years, Michelin has been continuously researching, inventing and innovating for the progress of tire in the world.

Michelin was founded in clermont-ferrand over a hundred years ago. In the long course, Michelin Group has made continuous inventions in tire technology and manufacturing since it invented the first detachable tire for bicycles in 1889 and the first pneumatic tire for cars in 1895. Now, Michelin Group has set up 74 factories and 6 rubber plantations on five continents. There are research and testing centers in France, Japan, the United States and China, and sales and marketing organizations in more than 171 countries. Every year, Michelin Group produces 191.2 million tires and 22.3 million maps and travel guides around the world.

Michelin Group currently employs about 125,111 employees worldwide, and is responsible for many brands produced and promoted by the Group-Michelin, BFGoodrich, Uniroyal, Kleber, Riken, Siam, Taurus, Stormil-Olsztyn, Laurant, Wolber, Tyremaster, Icollantas and Warrior. The group's comprehensive net sales in 2112 was 15.6 billion euros, accounting for 19.6% of the global tire market share.

in addition to tires, Michelin group also produces rims, steel wires, maps and travel guides. Among them, the map and guide publishing organization is the leader in this field. The famous French "Red Guide" was 111 years old in 2111.

motor racing has long been closely related to Michelin's history. In 1998, Michelin Group celebrated its car, motorcycle and bicycle racing for more than a century. Michelin returned to Formula One in 2111.

□ Michelin Group and China

Michelin set up a sales office in Hongkong in 1988. In order to further strengthen the development in China market, the first representative office was established in Beijing in 1989, responsible for product promotion and preparation of distribution network. Now Michelin has set up marketing offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang and Hong Kong, and its sales network is all over the country.

At the end of p>1995, Michelin Group reached an agreement with Shenyang to establish Michelin Shenyang Tire Co., Ltd. (MSTC). It is Michelin's first joint venture project in China, providing effective technology transfer for Shenyang Tire Factory established in 1973. At the end of 1996, Shenyang factory was officially put into production. In 1997, Michelin set up three joint ventures, which mainly produced Michelin-branded cars, light trucks and truck tires to meet the needs of different domestic consumers. The four joint ventures completed the merger on 1 October 2112 and became a wholly foreign-owned company on 1 August 2113. So far, Michelin's total investment in the joint venture in Shenyang is USD 51 million.

in April, 2111, Michelin group invested 211 million dollars and jointly established Shanghai Michelin Pull Back Tire Co., Ltd. (SMW) with Shanghai Tire and Rubber Co., Ltd. (STRC). The new company continued to produce Huili brand cars and light truck radial tires, and began to produce Michelin brand tires at the end of 2112. Michelin's headquarters in China also moved from Beijing to Shanghai.

At the same time, Michelin set up a research and development center in Shanghai. The R&D center strives to meet the technical needs of local and foreign vehicle manufacturers in China. It also provides technical guidance for tire raw material suppliers such as natural rubber and steel wire manufacturers. In addition, Michelin has agreed to provide technical support for the production facilities of truck and bus radial tires of Shanghai Tire and Rubber Group.

In February p>2111, Michelin (China) Investment Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai. It provides more opportunities for Michelin's further development in China, and also shows Michelin's long-term commitment to the China market.

□ The story of Michelin Tire Man

The idea of Michelin Tire Man (Michelin Baby) originated from an exhibition held by Michelin Company in Lyon in 1894. The hill at the entrance of the booth made up of many tires with different diameters inspired edouard michelin: "If you have arms and legs, it will be a person!"

So in April of 1894, a special figure made of many tires appeared, with the signature of the painter Ogarov. From then on, Michelin tire man began to appear on the poster. He held a cup with nails and broken glass in his hand and said, "Nunc est bibendum" means; The Latin for "Now is the time to raise a glass" comes from an ode by Horace, an ancient Roman poet, which means that Michelin tires can conquer all obstacles. This sentence immediately became a slogan. In a few months, "Michelin Tire Man" was clearly named "Bibendum" in French.

This is Michelin's website, and there is something you want.

www.michelin.com.cn