This time, let's talk less about the future and more about the right things. | Official Announcement of the WISE2024 Business King Conference.
From November 28th to 29th, the WISE2024 Business King Conference is officially scheduled!
In the business economy of 2024, it has once again been proven that "the process of human history development is a multiple-choice question".
When innovation and growth gradually reach a stage of saturation, when the consumer market has to face the winter and austerity, and when the double-edged sword of the era's dividends is right in front of us, a strange future is presenting itself to us. Aggressive charging or rational maneuvering, passive entanglement or active initiation, adhering to the old or boldly seeking the new, digging deep into domestic demand or leaping out to the global market... These options that are crucial to the survival of enterprises and are difficult to choose are put on the table. Whether it is the old money or the new upstarts, they must give an answer: In 2024, what is the right thing to do?
Being in the midst of the tide, those who lead the trend have more say. From November 28th to 29th, the WISE2024 Business King Conference will arrive as promised, inviting business kings from various fields, including super platform companies, star consumer brands, mainstays in the manufacturing industry, technology leaders, and new potential innovators, to jointly discuss the "right things" in 2024.
Making choices is difficult, but we must firmly do the right things
History tells us that essentially, there is no right or wrong in choices, but to choose the path that is most suitable for the present and long-term expectations in a difficult situation, both a forward-looking vision and a strong determination are indispensable.
The reform of opening up to the outside world has been proven to be a correct choice that is in line with the national conditions and strengthens the national strength. However, more than 40 years ago, this was a completely new problem-solving idea that no one had chosen and explored. We should not refrain from doing things because they are difficult, and we should not avoid fighting because they are challenging. Our predecessors boldly tried and bravely reformed, firmly believing and continuously deepening, breaking through the ideological and institutional obstacles that hindered development, and promoting the rapid growth and rapid rise of the Chinese economy.
In order to better develop the economy, China has made a difficult choice again under international pressure to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), leading Chinese enterprises to actively participate in international competition. Under this correct choice, China's total import and export volume has ranked among the top in the world for many consecutive years, and it has initiated and promoted the "Belt and Road Initiative", laying a good foundation for Chinese enterprises to actively go global. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to April 2024, China's non-financial direct investment abroad was 343.47 billion yuan, an increase of 18.7% year-on-year; among them, Chinese enterprises' non-financial direct investment in countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" was 77.77 billion yuan, an increase of 20.4% year-on-year.
Independent innovation is another correct choice for the take-off of the Chinese economy. Facing the 70-year technological blockade by Western countries, China insists that "science and technology are the primary productive forces" in difficult situations, increasing investment in independent scientific and technological innovation, and driving the vigorous development of technology enterprises. For example, Huawei's 5G communication technology, which is at the forefront of the world, and Alibaba's e-commerce and cloud computing service technology, which have strong competitiveness.
The Internet +, the green development path, Artificial Intelligence +... China's step-by-step "right" choices have steadily improved the Chinese speed and continuously promoted the Chinese economy to become the "engine" of the world economy. Today, China's AI large models, AI software and hardware and other intelligent industries are thriving. There are more than 4,500 related enterprises, and the core industrial scale is nearly 600 billion yuan. The industrial chain covers key links in the upstream and downstream, such as chips, algorithms, data, platforms, and applications. AI is becoming a typical representative and an important engine of new-quality productivity, integrating and innovating with various industries such as finance, industrial manufacturing, power and energy, biomedicine, education, culture, entertainment, film and television, government affairs, and agriculture, helping the real economy transform and upgrade. In 2023, the export value of China's high-end manufacturing industry reached 10.65 trillion yuan, accounting for 72.84% of the annual export delivery value; in the seven new energy sub-sectors including lithium batteries, new energy vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles, photovoltaic, wind power, energy storage, and green power, Chinese enterprises are leading the world; the high-tech such as AI empowering the e-commerce live-streaming industry is also expected to help the regional economic industrial belts in China to rejuvenate, stimulate production capacity, and drive employment, bringing more vitality to the take-off of the domestic economy.
In an ever-changing era, only by being flexible can we do things correctly
The times are changing, and so are the opportunities and challenges. In recent years, the global business economic landscape has been reshaped, and domestic population structure change signals have been released, with surging tides. For enterprises, digital and intelligent transformation is only the basis. Being flexible and achieving continuous growth in the tide is the "right thing" for business exploration.
With the reduction of the demographic dividend and the arrival of the largest retirement wave in history, the main structure of ordinary consumers is gradually transitioning from the young and vigorous force to a diversified group, and the silver-haired economy, the single economy, and the medical and health care tracks have great potential. Data shows that the market size of the smart elderly care industry was approximately 10.5 trillion yuan in 2023, and it is expected to exceed 13.5 trillion yuan in 2024, and will continue to grow at a rate of 26.9% per year. Sensitive tech giants have taken the lead in entering the new track, and have actively laid out in the up-and-coming fields such as smart elderly care and smart medical care. The first digital healthy person "An Zhen'er" in China, which is a deep cooperation between the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission and Ant Technology, embeds a medical AI large model. It has currently covered municipal hospitals in Zhejiang Province and 52 county-level hospitals, and has served more than 12 million people in total; Tencent Health's solution based on the large model has been implemented in more than 1,300 enterprises, hospitals and other institutions.
With the return of the middle-class consumption to rationality, high-end luxury consumer brands are having a difficult winter in the Asia-Pacific market. Facing the financial reports that are almost halved, luxury brands such as LVMH Group and Kering Group are actively looking for a way out and laying out in younger and more popular businesses, such as more practical mass sports products. Among them, Miu Miu, which was the first to seize the dividend of the young consumer group and harvest young women with fashionable designs, took the lead in driving the Prada Group to achieve counter-trend growth and became a high-net-worth dark horse that "does things right" among a series of brands.
Either go global or be eliminated. Seizing the era opportunity of "going out", the trendsetters in various tracks choose to actively go global, gradually building a more complete going-global ecosystem and making the right choice for the long-term development of enterprises. Currently, Chinese hardcore technology companies such as Huawei, BYD, CATL, and Xiaomi have fully laid out overseas, and new faces of going global such as domestic beauty products and bio-medical products are also increasing. According to data from the investment analysis website Stocklytics, the momentum of Temu has so far exceeded 735 million downloads worldwide, and the new generation of Chinese cross-border e-commerce is booming; the first domestic 3A game "Black Myth: Wukong" was launched globally in 2024, selling 20.9 million sets on the Steam platform, earning over 1 billion US dollars, driving the game industry to once again become a phenomenal carrier of Chinese culture going global.
Hard but right thing, finding solutions in the tide
The tide of the times is surging, and the road is full of difficulties. Facing difficulties in the tide and doing the right things have become the common goal of business leaders. Even if there are thousands of people in the way, I will still go forward!
"Whether you can do it or not, you have to do it. Because only when we do things that others can't do, and things that others haven't thought of, and we make them happen, can we be called great." This is the choice of Dong Mingzhu, the head of Gree Electric Appliances. Thus, we see Gree Electric Appliances, which has accumulated more than 120,000 patent applications and possesses 46 "internationally leading" technologies, proudly leading the Chinese home appliance industry.
"Do difficult but right things and create core values." This is the summary of the entrepreneurial life of the late Zuo Hui, the founder of Lianjia. Thus, we see that Beike Zhaofang and Lianjia have disrupted the traditional real estate agency industry, achieved the digital transformation and platform-based development of real estate agencies, and become one of the largest real estate agencies in the world.
"Facing the future, I can't say for sure, but I always believe in such a simple truth. Doing well in the 'noodles' in our hands is the right thing." This is the expectation of Professor Tang Xiao'ou, a digital human, for the future of AI, and it is also the creed of SenseTime Technology "Insist on originality and let AI lead human progress". Thus, we see a series of AGI product technologies such as SenseChat, SenseMirage 3.0, and SenseAvatar 2.0 of SenseTime innovating vigorously, allowing the industrial value of the large model to bloom in thousands of industries.
"Doing difficult but right things can make us go further." This is the simple insistence of Lei Jun, the head of Xiaomi, who has personally entered the new energy vehicle track. Thus, we see the three-year leap of pure electric sedans from 0 to 1, and the amazing transcript of nearly 6,000 deliveries and over 70,000 locked orders of the Xiaomi SU7 within 28 days of its launch, as well as the new incremental cake and innovative possibilities it has brought to the domestic new energy vehicle industry.
Hard but right thing, this is the theme of the WISE2024 Business King Conference, and it is also the ultimate that 36Kr looks forward to discussing with the business kings. Are there difficult and easy things in the world? If you do them, then the difficult things will also become easy; if you don't do them, then the easy things will also become difficult. At WISE2024, we plan to do something different. 70% is the problem-solving solution, and 30% is the discussion of future trends. We will gather these business participants who are doing the "right things", and use a more practical thinking perspective to jointly find solutions for the present: In the Chinese economy that is advancing in a tortuous and wave-like manner, how to be clear-minded, seize opportunities, clarify the blockages in the industrial chain, and find the correct long-termism path for enterprises. We expect to build a good platform and set up a good game for Chinese business participants. Whether they are leadership elites or new entrants, they all have the opportunity to have close communication and gain inspiration. We also look forward to the business kings who lead the trend, leading the Chinese business economy to do the right things and do things right, jointly opening a new chapter of growth, and striving forward.
Do the right thing, Do things right
From November 28th to 29th, the WISE2024 Business King Conference will, in a two-day high-concentration dialogue, gather the problem-solving ideas of 11 popular tracks and more than 200 business kings and enterprises, explore the seeds that are breaking through the soil and sprouting in thousands of industries, and find the "right things" for the development of Chinese business.
This time, the WISE Conference will break out of the limitations of industry topics and comprehensively integrate 11 popular tracks including artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, automotive travel, logistics and transportation, consumer life, enterprise services, medical and health, social entertainment, new energy, cross-border e-commerce, and education and training, deeply focusing on the two topics of "RIGHT THING" and "Born Global". We look forward to thinking together with the trendsetters, "What is the code to build a global brand benchmark?" "How can thousands of industries take over the AI large model?" "How to overcome the hard technology bottleneck technology?" "How can scientific and technological innovation and patient capital collaborate benignly?" and other topics, and we hope to face the "navigators" and have a candid discussion on "From made in China to Born Global", "Opportunities and explorations for going global in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand", "Localized operation of overseas native brands", "The new going-global strategy of traditional Chinese big brands", "How does the capital market view the opportunities of globalization" and other topics. In addition to the main venue, WISE2024 will also set up four vertical sub-venues of "consumption", "games", "going global", and "workplace", building a high-quality platform for close communication and inspiration for those in the tide.
This time, 36Kr CEO Feng Dagang will specially host the "Big Friends" dialogue column, breaking out of the interview "routine", and Teacher Feng will sharply ask his business friends, digging out the "true words" of business leaders and interpreting the exquisite problem-solving methods of the business kings.
This time, 36Kr Chief Content Officer Li Yang will lead the 36Kr ace editor team to make their debut as a group for the first time, creating the "Deep Thinking Deep Talk" forum, observing the global business from the sharp perspective of the media, having in-depth conversations with enterprises, digging out the key points for enterprises to become business kings, and bringing more thinking value to the participants.
This time, WISE2024 will continue to release high-quality business rosters, and the four selections of "WISE2024 Business King Annual Person of the Year Series Roster", "WISE2024 Business King Annual Case Series Roster", "WISE2024 Business King Annual Enterprise Series Roster", and "WISE2024 Business King Annual Focus Product Roster" are about to be launched, looking for and discovering valuable and thoughtful real business idols, showing more "right things" worthy of attention in Chinese business.
In addition, WISE2024 will also innovatively join hands with Douyin to create the "WISE Special Live Broadcasting Month" event. From the warm-up to the live event, well-known influencers and millions of viewers will interact closely to discuss the "right things", making high-quality content widely known, and allowing more Chinese business participants to keep up with the "problem-solving ideas" of the leadership experts, jointly exploring and writing the "Innovative Answer Book" for the future of Chinese business to break the deadlock.
Do the right thing, Do things right. Try, break through, be firm in your beliefs, and move forward with big steps!
This article is from the WeChat public account "36Kr", author: 36Kr Today, and 36Kr is authorized to publish it.