Gespräch mit dem Gründer des ersten thailändischen Unicorns: Vom Waisenkind zum 3-Milliarden-Dollar-CEO - Das unglaubliche Schicksalswende

Text by | Ren Qian

Edited by | Chen Zhiyan

On the highway, Shandi rolled down the car window and scattered money, just to persuade the technical partner to start a business together;

At the hotel press conference, Shandi, who got the cooperation opportunity with a Chinese logistics company only by kneeling, suddenly learned that he had been deprived of his CEO position. After making a scene, he could only watch helplessly as his shareholding was diluted from 19% to 1.9%;

On the rainy streets of Thailand, Shandi, who was driving the truck himself, was hit and fell into a coma. A group of yellow motorcycles rushed to the rescue, wrapped the scattered packages in plastic bags and rushed them to the airport urgently;

On a sunny day, after work, Shandi found a bullet on the hood of his car, along with a note that read, "Your life is only worth one bullet."...

These are the classic scenes in the Thai drama "Crazy Unicorn", and also the real life of the story's prototype figure - Li Fashun, a Thai-Chinese entrepreneur and the founder of Flash Express.

Briefly describing Li Fashun's growth trajectory is like reading a popular novel.

When he was 13, his parents divorced, and he grew up in an orphanage. He often shot birds for food, and having instant noodles soaked in cold rice once in a while was like heaven. In order to survive, Li Fashun learned to observe people's expressions and capture needs from a young age. During his school days, he earned his living expenses by selling Lao Gan Ma, instant noodles, and cigarettes to Chinese students. He even taught himself Chinese and became a "tutor" for the students.

In his sophomore year, he took over a dying sand mine. By solving various problems such as corruption, gang issues, and aging equipment, he finally revived the sand mine and earned his first pot of gold - one kilogram of Thai baht. Later, he became a tour guide. Then, using Chinese wealthy tourists as a springboard, he started selling houses and earned hundreds of millions of Thai baht in a year.

During a house - selling trip to China, Li Fashun witnessed the low cost of express delivery in China. At that time, in Thailand, it cost 50 Thai baht (about 11 yuan) to send an empty box, which was a heavy burden, especially for people living in rural areas. In 2017, Li Fashun turned the business opportunity in his mind into a startup, and Flash Express was established in Bangkok. He was determined to achieve two "firsts" in the Thai express delivery industry: the first to offer free door - to - door pick - up service and the first to operate 365 days a year.

In just four years, Li Fashun has made Flash Express worth $2.1 billion, making it Thailand's first unicorn. Currently, Flash Express delivers 700 million packages annually, with 10,000 service outlets and 100,000 employees.

In the past two years, Li Fashun's business map has expanded from logistics to the upstream of supply - chain services such as marketing and finance. He has even introduced Chinese brands like Card Game and Cha Pai into Thailand. In July this year, Thailand's President Food Company spent 142 million Thai baht to acquire 51% of the shares of Cha Pai Thailand. Li Fashun invested 25%, and the founder of another Thai real - estate company, Ananda, invested 20%. The resources of these three companies cover key aspects such as the channel supply chain, logistics, and store location for Chinese brands going global. They plan to make a total investment of 1.42 billion Thai baht in the future.

Not long ago, "Undercurrent Waves" met Li Fashun at Flash Express's R & D center in Beijing. We talked about the Thai drama "Crazy Unicorn", his childhood, the painful moments in his entrepreneurship, and the exploration of business and human nature. Getting close to this self - made billionaire, one can feel an indomitable spirit throughout: to succeed, one must first go crazy.

The director of "Crazy Unicorn" said that he had never seen such a powerful person. "Li Fashun worked his way up from the bottom of society. His life is like a drama." But even after experiencing so much, Li Fashun is only 34 years old.

The following is the dialogue.

Part 01

Chinese Elements

["Undercurrent Waves"]: In "Crazy Unicorn", there is a scene during the early financing stage of Flash Express: on a rainy day, you and your three partners rushed to the airport to pitch to Chinese investors and convinced them in just 15 minutes. In the real story, who was it?

Li Fashun: It was Sam, the vice - president of Banyan Capital at that time. However, the meeting was held in their Beijing office. Sam arranged for me to meet Zhang Zhen, the founding partner. We talked for about an hour. Mr. Zhang asked few questions about business, but more about the Thai market and my life. I told him that I had adopted some children. After that, Sam went to Thailand for an inspection, and then directly gave us a term sheet.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: How important was this investment to Flash Express?

Li Fashun: If we look back at the core factors that supported Flash Express's survival, good shareholders should rank first. In the first two years of starting the business, we met all the investors in Thailand, but no one was willing to invest. The seed - round investment came from Yun Angel Fund, the angel - round investment was from Banyan Capital, and there was also an individual investor from Alibaba. Without the early rescue funds from these investors, we might not have survived.

Of course, we also had good timing. We must admit that a large part of success depends on luck. We chose Thailand, one of the most suitable countries for entrepreneurship. We were lucky to enter the logistics industry on the eve of the e - commerce boom, and just when we were well - prepared, the pandemic accelerated the online trend. Later, our "cheap logistics" forced Thailand's express delivery giant, Kerry Express, to transform - Chinese investors probably saw this point.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: Besides Chinese capital, you also have a Chinese partner.

Li Fashun: Logistics is an accessory to e - commerce and an infrastructure. You must first understand the flow of goods before planning logistics. There are only two models for the global e - commerce development path: one in Europe and America, and the other in China. The consumption habits, population structure, and development path of mobile Internet in Southeast Asia are closer to those in China.

Therefore, after starting the business in 2017, I quickly realized that I needed someone who had a deep understanding of the development rules of Chinese e - commerce. Through the introduction of an Alibaba executive, I met Di Weijie. He was working at Alipay at that time. He understood both technology and products, and also understood business scenarios because he was in charge of the payment business. He is a typical science student, and all his decisions are based on data and logic. I come from a sales background and believe more in intuition and vision.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: I remember in the drama, you two were always arguing.

Li Fashun: That's right. The early stage of getting along was very painful, like two people from parallel worlds arguing. For example, he wanted to use the most advanced "weapons" from China to fight, but the locals only needed a simple "weapon". Chinese people like to make small and fast progress and iterate continuously, but Thai people think the product is imperfect and don't want to use it for fear of losing face.

This characteristic results in slowness. Slowness means losing the opportunity to occupy the market, the opportunity to make mistakes and correct them. At the same time, slowness protects the customers' trust in the brand. Later, we managed to find a balance, where we could make changes while doing the work and still not lose face.

But this combination gives Flash Express both the efficient and standardized genes of China and the local flexibility of Thailand, which is also our deepest moat.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: You also set up the technology headquarters in Beijing?

Li Fashun: Yes. Beijing has a more international perspective, a dense talent pool, and the dividend of engineers. Moreover, the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Beijing is strong, and people are extremely hard - working.

I can say that more than half of the senior executives of all logistics companies in the Thai market come from Flash Express. We have almost become the cradle of this industry. Because in addition to being responsible, the colleagues at Flash Express have a very clear characteristic: they do a very good job in standardization. All of this experience comes from China, but we have also made some innovations.

I've never worked for a company in my life, but Weijie has worked in a large company. We don't want to see excellent people fail to get good results just because they can't give a good presentation. So we developed an internal system for management. Experience may be lost during the transmission process, but standards will never.

Now, Flash Express invests about $30 - 40 million in technology every year. Although it costs a lot, it also solves most of the company's problems. In summary, if you want to do business in Southeast Asia, you must have a powerful system and the ability to implement SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).

Part 02

Breakthrough, Rebirth, and Future

["Undercurrent Waves"]: Some people say that the emergence of Flash Express has completely impacted the traditional logistics market in Thailand. Why?

Li Fashun: Before 2017, all logistics companies in Thailand worked five days a week (from 8 am to 5 pm), and customers had to go to the stores to queue up to send packages by themselves. We made three decisions: operate 365 days a year; offer free door - to - door pick - up service; and have all directly - operated stores. We quickly took the first place in the market share. At that time, the orders mainly came from social media and small and medium - sized cross - border e - commerce sellers, which were quite scattered.

Later, J&T Express entered Thailand. We had some competition, but both of us managed to stand firm.

Now, in the third stage, with the order - distribution mechanism of the platforms, we handle the basic package volume from large e - commerce platform customers such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: The pandemic in 2020 was a watershed for many cross - border logistics companies. How did you survive?

Li Fashun: The outside world thought that cross - border logistics companies were making a fortune at that time, but the real situation was that we were on the verge of death. We faced two major pressures: one was the huge unplanned investment, such as masks, gloves, disinfectants, and the daily cleaning of the entire sorting center, which was extremely costly. The other was the manpower crisis. Tens of thousands of our employees were infected. According to Thai law, confirmed patients must take 20 days of paid leave. This meant that we had to pay double salaries: one for the sick employees on leave and one for the newly - hired employees to deliver packages. Our revenue did not increase, but the cost doubled.

In our largest sorting center, with more than 2,000 people, the infection rate exceeded 60%. That was the most difficult time. I stood on the stage, looking at the tired and frightened brothers below, and told them that they had to persevere because the country relied on us. An employee raised his hand and asked me, "Boss, are you going to wait until all of us fall before you're willing to close this place?" Those words were like a knife stabbing into my heart.

Finally, we decided to shut down this sorting center.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: How did you solve the problem later?

Li Fashun: After shutting down, we refunded all the shipping fees to the sellers, compensated for the lost goods at the full price, and also issued compensation vouchers to the buyers. In total, we compensated consumers 250 million Thai baht (about 50 million RMB). This was a heart - wrenching loss. But I'm most grateful to our shareholders. They didn't blame me at all. Instead, they said, "You made the right decision."

Forty - five days later, we resumed operations. All the customers came back, and the business volume was even twice as much as before. In 2021, our revenue was 17 billion Thai baht, and we delivered 600 million packages. This experience made us reborn. It taught us at a huge cost that a company's values and respect for people are the most precious long - term assets.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: How do you understand the "rebirth" you mentioned?

Li Fashun: When a company is growing at a high speed, it has no time to fix the "car" and just wants to step on the accelerator. This pause made us realize that the organization had become bloated and in - fighting. We made two drastic reforms:

First, implement a "homogeneous" organizational structure. Instead of emphasizing the so - called "cultural integration" that leads to internal friction, we let each department maximize its ethnic and cultural advantages. For PR, marketing, and government relations, we use 100% Thai people because they know the local area best; for IT R & D, we use 100% Chinese people to pursue maximum efficiency; for product managers, we use "hybrids" (Chinese - Thai/Chinese - Malaysian) to translate and balance the needs of both sides; for finance, law, and human resources, the headquarters sets the standards, but the local employees implement them. This completely solved the "internal cultural war" and allowed everyone to play to their strengths.

Second, implement extreme flattening. In our company of 100,000 people, there are only 4 C - level executives and 1 VP. We cut out all the middle - management layers. We calculated that the cost of maintaining a middle - management position could support five front - line couriers. Many middle - management employees just "chant scriptures" (make PPT reports) instead of doing real work.

Now, the heads of all countries and all businesses report directly to me and Di Weijie. The decision - making process is measured in hours, and the efficiency is extremely high. Our self - developed FlashBackyard APP makes the daily KPIs of each courier and the completion status of each task transparent. It replaces the long - winded reporting process with a system, ensuring efficient management in a flat structure.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: I know you personally invested in Chinese brands like Cha Pai and Card Game. Why did you do that?

Li Fashun: I believe that the next 10 years will be the golden decade for Chinese brands to go global in Southeast Asia. 30 or 40 years ago, it was the era when McDonald's, Starbucks, and KFC entered Southeast Asia, and they created a group of local business giants. Today, China's supply chain and brands are fully mature and have the ability to go global. Southeast Asia is undoubtedly the "first stop" in terms of geography, culture, and consumption habits.

I'm optimistic about two types of brands: either super - high - value brands like Cha Pai, which provide emotional and identity value; or extremely cost - effective brands like Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, which meet basic needs. Brands in the middle will face great difficulties. My dream is to successfully incubate 100 Chinese brands in Southeast Asia in the next decade.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: This declaration sounds like what an investor would say, that I will invest in so many super deals in so many years.

Li Fashun: I'm looking for projects with an investment purpose. The local team, talent recruitment, understanding of laws and regulations, supply - chain network, and even the relationship with real - estate developers that Flash Express has accumulated over the past few years are exactly what these brands need most but are the most difficult to build. We are not just financial investors; we are co - builders.

For example, when it comes to Cha Pai, we joined hands with Thailand's largest food company (Mama instant noodles) and top real - estate developers. We not only invested money to establish a joint - venture company but also cooperated in all aspects from the supply chain, store location, logistics to marketing. We are willing to be the most solid and local - knowledgeable "bridge" for Chinese brands going global.

["Undercurrent Waves"]: How did you know about Cha Pai?

Li Fashun: In underdeveloped countries, instant noodles have the highest sales; in developing countries, the sales of bread are 10 times that of instant noodles. But whether in underdeveloped, developing, or developed countries, the sales of beverages are the total of bread and instant noodles.

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