How can enterprises stay sober amidst the wave of technology?

In the past few years, the pace of technological progress has been significantly faster than the speed at which businesses can absorb it.

Super technologies represented by AI are advancing simultaneously in almost all industries: computing power is being upgraded, models are being iterated, and application scenarios are expanding rapidly. New products and concepts are emerging one after another. However, on the other hand, it is also clear that a large number of technological inventions have not been successfully transformed into sustainable commercial value. Many companies have correctly predicted technological trends but have yet to see the corresponding growth curves. While products are constantly being updated, corporate strategies are becoming increasingly wavering.

This is not a problem specific to individual companies but a highly prevalent industry state. When technology changes too rapidly, it becomes even more difficult for enterprises to determine where to allocate resources and when to make trade - offs. Every direction seems "reasonable," and every investment seems to be in line with the trend. However, resources and time are ultimately limited. Once a wrong judgment is made, the cost is often not just a slower pace but being dragged into a long - term, high - cost trial - and - error process.

In this wave of technological innovation, the problem is not that the industry lacks innovation. On the contrary, innovation is overly intensive. Models, tools, product forms, and business models are constantly being refreshed. Many technology companies naturally think from a technological perspective, regarding "being able to develop something" as a phased victory and "technological leadership" as a moat. However, they lack an equally intense inquiry into a more realistic question: For which specific business scenario and which type of users is this capability intended to serve in the long term?

In highly crowded sectors such as humanoid robots, autonomous driving, and AI applications, this imbalance is particularly evident. The technological paths are highly similar, and the narrative logics overlap. However, real differentiation has yet to occur. As a result, some companies are starting to encounter development bottlenecks: not due to wrong technological paths but because it is difficult to further confirm the business direction.

It is precisely at this moment that the value of an external perspective begins to emerge. Some technology companies are actively introducing external forces, trying to break out of the internal technological logic and recalibrate their positions.

36Kr has observed that behind some technology companies that have achieved phased victories, strategic consulting firms are starting to appear. In the field of strategic consulting, the positioning theory system and Ries & Partners, one of its founders, cannot be bypassed.

Strategic consulting firms represented by Ries & Partners are not responsible for inventing technologies. Instead, they help enterprises in a highly uncertain environment to reduce complexity, clarify trade - offs, and narrow down possibilities to a few directions that are truly worth long - term investment.

In an era of high uncertainty, what enterprises truly lack is not courage but a coordinate system for judgment.

The more successful an enterprise is, the more easily it is surrounded by its own voice

Many enterprises actually face danger not during the recession period but when they seem to be most successful.

During the stage of continuous expansion in scale and lengthening of business lines, the organization often presents an appearance of superficial busyness but high consistency. However, it is precisely in this state of efficient operation that judgment can fail.

There are many such cases in history. A company like General Electric, which once had the highest market value in the world, was long regarded as a representative of management paradigms and strategic capabilities. However, it also once misjudged its own ability boundaries. After high - level diversification of its business, it got into trouble and was even removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 20, 2018, which is truly regrettable.

The experience of Great Wall Motors also demonstrates this tension. On the one hand, it is one of the earliest Chinese automobile companies to achieve a leap by focusing on niche categories, establishing its advantages through a clear category position. On the other hand, during the expansion stage, it also faced the risk of "over - strategicization": the rapid extension of product lines and the increase in direction choices have instead increased the complexity of decision - making.

"When everyone was making sedans, we believed that the future belonged to SUVs. So we helped Great Wall Motors create 'Haval'. When everyone was making electric vehicles, we believed that the most difficult type of vehicle to be disrupted by electric vehicles was off - road vehicles. So we advised Great Wall Motors to create 'Tank'," recalled Zhang Yun, the Global CEO and Chairman of China at Ries & Partners, when talking about their service for Great Wall Motors.

As we all know, the cooperation between Ries & Partners and Great Wall Motors has successively created differentiated paths such as Haval (SUV) and Tank (off - road vehicle), achieving growth from 8 billion to 200 billion.

Both positive and negative cases reflect a problem. The failure of judgment is not because enterprises stop conducting research or listening to the market. On the contrary, information is often overloaded. The real problem is that after information enters the organization, it will be systematically reorganized, filtered, and assimilated.

Zhang Yun believes that decision - making mistakes of large enterprises like these are often not due to "stupidity" but because the perspective is highly internalized. All discussions seem to revolve around the market, but in fact, all thinking occurs within the system.

Different voices are translated into the same way of expression, and potential risks are packaged as phased fluctuations. What is ultimately presented to the decision - makers is often a "digested" reality.

It is precisely in this situation that the importance of an external perspective truly emerges. This is the underlying value of strategic consulting as a business entity. It must always stand outside the organization.

When internal judgments tend to be consistent, the external perspective should be more vigilant.

Ries & Partners' definition of its own role is particularly restrained yet clear. In a conversation, Zhang Yun compared his role to that of a doctor or a lawyer. For enterprises, "You can choose whether to pay, but once a professional relationship is established, the judgment logic must be based on professionalism first." A doctor will not deny a patient's condition just because the patient doesn't want surgery, and a lawyer will not change a legal judgment to please the client.

This seemingly tough stance is precisely to counteract the confirmation bias and path dependence within the organization.

Where should enterprises stand in the face of fluctuations?

The anxiety of many enterprises does not come from the stagnation of growth but from the loss of growth direction.

After the external perspective illuminates the problem, the value of the positioning theory is further reflected. It must be admitted that it is often considered a tool exclusive to the fast - moving consumer goods sector.

This is actually a misunderstanding. Whether it is durable consumer goods such as automobiles or emerging technologies such as AI, as long as they pursue commercial realization, they essentially cannot avoid the same question: Has the enterprise solved a real, clear problem that can be recognized by consumers' minds? If this problem is not clear, growth can only rely on external dividends. Once the dividends fade, the problem of the lack of a sense of position will be exposed.

Image source: AI - generated by Visual China

Interestingly, Ries & Partners divides enterprises into two types according to the category environment: one is "a friend of time," and the other is "a friend of the era." The representative category of the former is Baijiu, which grows slowly but forms a stable barrier through long - term accumulation. The latter amplifies rapidly with the help of technology or trends but must constantly reshape its own value.

Speed, whether fast or slow, is not the key. The key is that not all growth is worth pursuing, and not all opportunities are suitable. If an enterprise cannot determine which type it is closer to, it is easy to waver between different logics.

After all, growth ultimately still has to return to innovation. However, not all innovation is valid. In the context of AI, this point is particularly acute. Technological breakthroughs are emerging one after another, and new capabilities are constantly emerging. However, a large number of products remain in the "invention" stage and have not been transformed into real innovation.

As Schumpeter said, only technologies that are verified by the market and can continuously create commercial value constitute innovation.

XPeng's choice in 2024 is a good example. At that time, XPeng and Ries & Partners completed a key leap: breaking out of the competition framework of traditional automobile companies and even new - energy vehicle companies and redefining it as a "global AI - powered intelligent driving technology company." The core of this adjustment is to answer the question "For whom and what problems does intelligent driving solve?"

Guided by this understanding, XPeng has translated the concept of "AI cars" into the product level, found the definition of "the world's first AI car," and embodied it in models such as the P7+ and M03. By "equipping all models with end - to - end AI intelligent driving as standard, without optional packages, subscriptions, or additional fees," XPeng has transformed AI capabilities from an optional configuration into a basic attribute of the product, clearly positioning the P7+ as "the most powerful intelligent driving sports sedan under 300,000 yuan."

This path is highly similar to Tesla's logic of breaking out of the "electric vehicle" framework and building brand awareness with super technologies. The difference is that XPeng chose to start from the specific problem of AI intelligent driving, establishing a clear position in the homogeneous competition, which has truly brought technological innovation to the category and mental levels.

Behind this judgment is also Ries & Partners' clear understanding of the changes in business infrastructure. Channels no longer make way for homogeneous products, and traffic is no longer automatically allocated to solutions with "more functions." Content and precise reach have become basic requirements. Creativity is still important, but only when creativity is combined with clear category awareness can it truly enter consumers' minds.

It is precisely in such an environment that the significance of category innovation has been re - emphasized and has become a powerful supplement to the positioning strategy. It is no longer just an optional strategy for brands. To some extent, it is evolving into a market access condition. If an enterprise cannot clearly answer "where it stands," it will be difficult to establish a stable growth path in the face of fluctuations.

In the era of stock competition, the strategic focus of Chinese enterprises is shifting

As the Chinese economy moves from high - speed expansion to a more stable stage, the underlying assumptions of enterprise operation are quietly changing.

In the era of incremental growth, growth often came from the natural expansion of the market. As long as enterprises caught the trend and expanded their scale, they had the opportunity to cover the cost of trial - and - error by "running faster." However, in a stock environment, this logic starts to fail. Demand no longer grows linearly, and competition mainly occurs within the existing market. The success or failure of a strategy no longer depends on speed but on whether the trade - offs are clear enough.

This has also directly changed the growth mode of enterprises. Expansion is no longer the default option, and diversification is being re - examined. Technological investment no longer guarantees a definite return and may even magnify the cost of wrong judgments. Many enterprises are not facing the problem of "whether there are opportunities" but rather that multiple opportunities appear simultaneously, and it is difficult to determine which one is worth long - term investment.

In such a context, Ries & Partners' understanding of the stage that Chinese enterprises are in has gradually shifted from "how to grow bigger" to "how to stand firm." In its recent practice, a recurring judgment is that in the era of stock competition, it is not that there is no growth. Instead, growth increasingly depends on whether a clear position has been established in consumers' minds.

At the same time, the technological environment itself is changing at an accelerating pace. Most technologies are not scarce. What is truly scarce is the ability to transform technologies into understandable and selectable business forms. This judgment runs through the evolution of Ries & Partners' methodology in recent years. The "category innovation" proposed in 2022 is itself a response to the stock competition environment. When the existing categories tend to be saturated, growth no longer comes from direct competition within the same track but from the re - segmentation of the mental structure. Enterprises are not just participating in competition but are changing the nature of competition by redefining category boundaries.

Currently, Zhang Yun believes that Chinese enterprises have three major strategic opportunities. First, super technologies represented by AI continue to overflow, reshaping the competition mode of almost all industries. Second, consumer concepts are undergoing a profound iteration, with health, efficiency, and value perception becoming new evaluation criteria. Third, Chinese enterprises are starting to have the realistic conditions to build global brands.

These three factors together point not to simple expansion but to a test of "how to re - establish cognition." In other words, what enterprises need is not just new products or technologies but a reason to be continuously selected.

This judgment is particularly evident in the consumer goods sector. Taking the highly competitive dairy industry as an example, Ries & Partners helped Junlebao identify consumers' real demand for yogurt as a "low - sugar, healthier daily drink." It launched a sub - brand, Jianchun, with sugar - free yogurt products as the core positioning. By making precise distinctions in ingredients and selling points, Jianchun has attracted significant attention and achieved growth in market volume in the specialty yogurt track. At the same time, Junlebao also launched Yuexianhuo, a high - end brand, covering different mental spaces through different positions, thus expanding a new growth path in the existing stock dairy market and helping the brand stabilize its position in the complex landscape.

A similar logic is also reflected in Weilong's growth path. Given the limited growth of traditional products such as spicy strips, Ries & Partners helped Weilong identify konjac jelly as an extended new - category track. With taste innovation and health attributes, it differentiates from traditional spicy snacks. In the first half of this year, Weilong achieved revenues of over 2.1 billion yuan in the category represented by vegetable products, a year - on - year increase of nearly 44%, and established a leading position in the konjac jelly sub - track, becoming an important driving force for the enterprise's second growth curve. The success of konjac jelly is not just due to channel expansion and marketing efforts but more because it responds to consumers' real demand for low - calorie, healthy snacks, thus opening up a new mental position in the stock competition.

From these cases, we can see that the focus of Ries & Partners' work in the stock environment is to help enterprises re - sort out under the guise of innovation: which capabilities are worth further investment, which directions must be decisively scaled back; which technologies are just tools, and which may evolve into new category spaces.

In a more complex competitive environment, Ries & Partners' methods are still evolving. Laura Ries pointed out in her newly published book "The Opponent," which is also the latest theoretical update in the Ries positioning series, that brand strategy must face a clear "strategic opponent" to consolidate its position in consumers' minds.

The competition between DJI and Insta360 is the best example of this theory. In the past year, the boundaries between the two in areas such as drones and panoramic imaging have begun to overlap. Seemingly, it is the mutual penetration of technological capabilities, but in fact, it is a typical "strategic opponent" game.

In highly homogeneous competition, the strategies of leading enterprises and late - comers are not symmetrical. Leading brands are more capable of blocking the track through standardization and scale advantages. If late - comers simply copy, they will only magnify their disadvantages in the homogeneous competition. Therefore, Insta360 chose to enter the drone field with the more differentiated cognitive entry point of "panoramic imaging," trying to establish an independent coordinate in consumers' minds. DJI's advantage lies precisely in its long - term accumulated core perception of "aerial photography drones."