Recognized as the best business author in the domestic financial circle, Li Xiang serves as an observer on the Tencent video business observation program "The Rapid Times".
Li Xiang, who has been working on content from financial newspapers, business magazines, to audio content products, expressed his curiosity about different forms of content.
"I hope to be able to present a more real, three-dimensional and diverse business world."
He believes, "Many people understand the business world in a very rigid and simplistic way. I hope to use a more popular media form to allow more people to understand how the business world works. This is an important reason why I am willing to participate."
Busyness, hustle and bustle, change, the blessing and consumption of business aura, the intertwining of emerging industries and traditional industries, the influx and fading of capital. Business is a rapid advance between this turbulent era and living individuals.
In "The Age of Rapids", with his growing curiosity and through the transmission of resonance and connection, Li Xiang hopes to allow more people to see and understand the operating logic of the business world.
The separation and integration of three roles
"The real world is very rough. Everyone will face many rich, monotonous and stereotyped pictures that do not conform to past imagination." With the fast-paced consumption iteration and information expansion explosion, reality and illusion will emerge at the same time. At this moment, the ability to distinguish is particularly precious.
What people see, hear, feel, and perceive seem to exist in different dimensions.
What is the business logic of different industries, industries and places?
In "The Age of Rapids", Li Xiang, as an observer, experiences the real life environment of practitioners in different business formats, and expresses his true feelings in it objectively and simply.
The ferocious wave of nationwide live streaming, the self-rescue process of Yunnan Coffee, the vitality and dilemma of new consumption in Changsha, etc., the colors blooming in these era propositions are dazzling and full of mystery.
Understand everyone's status in the bustling live broadcast room, watch every hustle and bustle in the streets and alleys of Changsha… It is not easy to observe in a detached manner. Thanks to the professionalism of journalists over the years, Li Xiang can always think about and relate to the underlying logic behind everything that is happening in front of him.
In addition to being a business observer, Li Xiang also plays the role of a communicator and interpreter.
Ou Daming, the chief director of "The Age of Torrents", believes that tolerance and acceptance are Li Xiang's strengths.
"I can feel his ability to listen to the other party and absorb the other party's information."
The rich content of the dialogue has given the director and production team a difficult problem, that is, how to retain and present the gold content of the dialogue and the gains from the exploration process.
"'Author's style', in a sense, is actually Li Xiang's perspective as an interviewer." Ou Daming saw the sense of communication between Li Xiang and the characters in the show, as well as the sense of communication between Li Xiang and the audience when outputting the content, and the latter is also where the interpreter's ability lies.
The entry of the triple identity also gave Li Xiang a more diversified thinking dimension and richer interpretation content.
During the review session of the program, Li Xiang confessed that after contacting the company, he discovered that his previous assumptions about Yunnan specialty coffee were deviated.
“I thought their specialty coffee route had already been established, but in fact they haven’t. They are still struggling to gain recognition.”
"We will actually follow (this principle), Li Xiang is the core of this program." Liu Dongxiao, the producer of "The Age of Torrents", gave the observer such a positioning and starting point.
In previous documentaries, "time was often exchanged for stories," taking two or three years to capture the arc of a character. In "The Age of Turbulence", an observer is introduced to touch a representative sample more extensively and record these exchanges in this relationship. Liu Dongxiao believes that this is also a way to solve the problem, and it also expresses his trust in Li Xiang's professional ability and depth of interpretation for many years.
Seen in business group portraits
Every individual’s struggle
In this turbulent era, everyone is experiencing one torrent after another.
As an observer, a keen sense of touch is an essential quality. It is necessary to more comprehensively record people’s actions, creations, and pride, as well as people’s experiences, frustrations, and achievements. As Li Xiang said, many people still understand the business world in a rigid and simple way.
"It's just that you don't know what kind of war he is going through. Each of us, especially in the past few years, has his own challenges. If you are an entrepreneur, the challenges you face are even greater."
On the night of the premiere of "The Times", the topic #Jia Nailiang said artists didn't understand, don't do live broadcasts# became a hot search topic, with 550 million views.
In Jia Nailiang's view, e-commerce is not something artists want to do for fun, but a completely different job.
Nowadays, what you can see is that when you open the short video platform, you are overwhelmed with 24-hour live broadcasts. From celebrity artists, to Internet celebrities to amateurs who are just starting out, billions of traffics are pouring in.
"In emerging things and emerging industries, the first winners, even the biggest winners in the end, will never be the top and most successful players in the last mature industry."
Li Xiang took the audience, outside the lively live broadcast scene, to see the underlying structure of this emerging industry, the practitioners who live in each link, as well as the gameplay and competition rules of the ecosystem itself.
In Baoshan, Yunnan, Li Xiang met with local coffee plantation farmers, scientific research experts and coffee companies to understand the entire local industrial chain.
"In fact, the whole process that can be seen is the process of connecting with the larger market economy and business world through the product of coffee."
The development of the industry is exerting its own driving force and constantly bursting out with wider magical power. Compared with the beauty of the results, this is the process that needs to be seen and understood most.
Similarly, Li Xiang is also fascinated by the prosperity of new consumption in Changsha.
The phenomenon-level milk tea brand Chayan Yuese is so popular that it has opened six stores in one building; Wen Heyou, who is against convention and common sense, has taken folk snacks and trendy culture to a new level… In the third episode of "The Rapid Times" in Changsha, Li Xiang's business curiosity and taste buds were opened up.
As a new consumer that young people like and is full of Internet celebrity temperament, what kind of magic does it have? Compared with traditional consumption, what are the similarities and differences in its business logic?
The "big company" has beautiful tea and always continues the "small store mentality" of manual store inspections and store manager responsibility system;
Behind Wenheyou’s “messing around” is its unique product strength, which creates unique products and service experiences. Wenbin, the founder of Wenheyou, said bluntly, “There are some entrepreneurs who are born to make things happen!”
Through continuous iteration, rich and innovative energy is generated.
Li Xiang believes:
"The interesting thing about business is that it doesn't care at all whether you agree or not, as long as someone agrees and is willing to pay."
Business may be so fascinating precisely because it is constantly surging.
A “non-fictional” video exploration of boundary-crossers
After watching the film online with the media, Li Xiang said:
"In Bob Dylan's memoirs, there is such a passage. Why should you be kind to everyone you meet? Because everyone's life is a war. Living in this era, everyone has his own struggles, struggling for a better life, his own dreams, ambitions, and many setbacks."
The fascinating thing about the entire business operation system, including the market system, is that it allows participants with different interests to constantly collide, friction, negotiate, and bargain.
Li Xiang said:
"People who are involved in it may have a lot of discomfort, discomfort or dissatisfaction."
But everything develops step by step, and business is a process of step-by-step co-evolution.
"There is an eternal theme in business. Some people do well, and then encounter setbacks and find ways to solve the problem. At the same time, new people join the industry again, full of confidence, and develop smoothly."
During the program, Li Xiang was delighted with the various business aspects he encountered and saw.
"Let more people look at a phenomenon that was previously thought to be very simple in a rich way."
Li Xiang allowed more people to see the connection between "era" and "people" in "The Rapid Times".
"I used to work as a business reporter. In order to do my job well, it is no exaggeration to say that I would collect information on all important businessmen and companies in history."
Rooted in financial media for many years, Li Xiang is not only a widely recognized top business writer, but also an out-and-out "cross-border".
He has professional experience as the chief writer of "Economic Observer", chief writer of "China Business Weekly", editor-in-chief of "Financial World", and chief editor of Esquire's "Mr. Fashion". He has also written and published many business-themed books, and launched "Li Xiang's Business Internal Reference", "The Road to Wealth: Rockefeller", "Detailed Talk" series and other content products. At the same time, he is also the host of Apple's 2022 annual new podcast and annual thinking podcast "High Energy".
Someone once asked him how to maintain the vitality of a content product. Li Xiang said that there is no particularly good way. The first thing is to listen and read more, including Moments, various official accounts, various WeChat groups, major websites, and new books. The second thing is to do more research and interview experts’ methodologies to increase the sense of freshness.
Regarding content products, Li Xiang also said that for him, the most important thing is to consider whether it can provide value to users.
He agrees with Jobs's view of "self-eating". Individuals must be brave enough to iterate rather than stick to the past. The important thing is to create value.
Now, Li Xiang, who entered "The Torrent Era" as a business observer, has started exploring "non-fiction" videos.
In fact, Li Xiang has already thought about video content products.
Previously, when doing "Detailed Talk", Luo Zhenyu asked if it would be possible to do another character interview video program? Later, Li Xiang asked many people about this question, and everyone said that of course this program can be done and there will be no problem.
But what Li Xiang considers is the difference between this product form and other products.
"There are so many smart people in this world, why should I do it?"
"You should only choose subjects or people you like very much as your subjects. If that doesn't work, choose ones you hate very much."
This is the motto of a famous American journalist. After Li Xiang saw it, he secretly made up his mind to only do content and work that he likes in the future. "I will only interview those that I think can resonate and connect."
In "The Age of Torrents", the audience can see such resonance and connection more intuitively.
As one netizen commented, this program seems to open a window for the audience to understand business.
