Interface News Reporter | Cha Qinjun Chen Zhenfang
Yu Minhong "gave up" his closest follower Sun Dongxu.
On December 16, Oriental Selection CEO and executive director Sun Dongxu was officially dismissed, and chairman Yu Minhong also assumed this position. Yu Minhong's "choose one" problem that was once rumored has now been confirmed, and Dong Yuhui was finally retained.
At 7 o'clock that night, Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui appeared in the live broadcast room together to explain the turmoil in the past few days and try to stabilize the current chaotic situation.
"Xiao Sun is resolute and decisive. Although he has promoted the development of the company, there are accumulated management loopholes behind it." Yu Minhong said that he did not expect that the wings of a butterfly would cause such a big storm.
He also explained that Sun Dongxu's dismissal had nothing to do with Dong Yuhui. "Yuhui has never contacted other companies externally, and has never said that he will leave Oriental Selection. Our communication in the past two days has been relatively smooth."
Yu Minhong expressed his position as "big-headed son" and "small-headed father". To describe his relationship with Dong Yuhui, he calls Sun Dongxu "little brother".
"Dongfang Selection and I are both going through difficult things in life now, but they will eventually disappear." Dong Yuhui said in the above-mentioned live broadcast.
"This is not anyone's intention, but once it is put on the Internet, it will get out of control and even cause stampede-type injuries." Dong Yuhui said that in the future, he will focus on agricultural products and cultural tourism business. Even if he leaves Oriental Selection in the future, he will not forget the time when he came. Road, I sincerely hope that Dongfang Selection will make a good choice.
As the helmsman of Oriental Selection and accompanying New Oriental for 16 years, Sun Dongxu became an "abandoned son" due to improper expression and mismanagement.
Neither the editor nor the "head anchors" Dong Yuhui and Sun Dongxu have shown sufficient smart and appropriate management capabilities. A science student's insensitivity met with an urgent public relations battle that required extreme sensitivity. Sun Dongxu became the "target" of netizens to vent their anger.
looks back at the "little composition" scandal that started ten days ago. Like a domino, it caused violent turmoil throughout the company. Oriental Selection suffered a serious setback. Its market value has evaporated by HK$7.5 billion compared with before the crisis, and it has lost more than 2 million fans.
The fates of Yu Minhong, Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui, the old, middle and young generations of "New Orientalists" have never been so closely intertwined. All three of them came from poor backgrounds and achieved career advancement through hard work. However, due to a "little essay" incident, they ushered in a divergence in their lives and completely changed Sun Dongxu's life trajectory.
"You see, I don't look like a CEO at all. I'm just a vegetable seller, the live broadcast room customer service 'Dongfang Xiaosun'."
In June 2021, when Dongfang Selection became popular, Sun Dongxu accepted an exclusive interview with Jiemie Education. In a reporter In my impression, Sun Dongxu was wearing a gray company culture shirt that day. He was very thin, dark and thin, with a hearty voice. At that time, he was still full of enthusiasm and motivation for the future. During the
conversation, the reporter felt that Sun Dongxu was a very flexible, smart, and unassuming person. His answers to questions were smart and tactful, and he could always turn the topic to Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui in a timely manner.
"The key to why Sun Dongxu is where he is today is that he worked hard with Yu Minhong and never left." Rossi, a public relations officer from New Oriental Online (the predecessor of Oriental Selection), told Jiemian Education.
Rossi mentioned that when Sun Dongxu was still a teacher, he did very well in business, and then he became CEO naturally. This promotion method is also very common among the key teachers left by New Oriental.
At that time, Rossi did not feel the company's internal disputes and factional disputes. Later, the "double reduction" was implemented, and New Oriental Online supported it for a period of time. As the public relations and other departments changed one after another, he left.
It took Sun Dongxu 12 years to go from grassroots lecturer to CEO, and it took him 16 years to follow Yu Minhong.
Like Yu Minhong, Sun Dongxu was also born in the countryside. He is often ridiculed for being the person with the most peasant temperament in the company besides Yu Minhong.
In 2007, Sun Dongxu, who had just graduated from the Computer Science Department of Nankai University, joined New Oriental.At that time, New Oriental had just completed its restructuring from a loose partnership to a joint-stock system, and successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. With the influx of capital, people in the education and training industry saw hope, and Sun Dongxu was one of them.
He successively served as a teacher in the foreign examination department of Tianjin New Oriental School, assistant principal of Hefei New Oriental School, principal of Xi'an New Oriental School, and finally CEO of Oriental Selection. During the
period, Sun Dongxu experienced the IPO of New Oriental Online, the explosion and sudden changes in the online education and training industry, the re-entry into business, the explosion of Oriental Selection, and the current crisis. Everything was completed in four years of ups and downs.
From 2016 to 2018, Sun Dongxu, who served as the principal of Xi’an New Oriental, met Dong Yuhui, an English teacher at the branch. Like Sun Dongxu, Dong Yuhui also joined New Oriental right after graduating from college. It was at that time that the two formed the seeds of friendship.
According to "Chinese Entrepreneur", New Oriental's Xi'an branch encountered difficulties at that time. Sun Dongxu was appointed at the critical moment and was transferred from Hefei to Xi'an by the group. In the end, Sun Dongxu solved the problem faster than everyone expected, and the branch's performance also increased from zero to first. The growth rate was 20% in the first year and 40% in the second year. In 2018, when Sun Dongxu was transferred back to the group, it achieved a growth of 60% and became the third-ranked branch in the country.
Dong Yuhui witnessed Sun Dongxu’s drastic reforms in Xi’an New Oriental and became a beneficiary of it.
Because of Sun Dongxu’s exceptional talent promotion, Dong Yuhui was elected as New Oriental’s youngest high school English teaching and research team leader in 2016, and was given a valuable place to study abroad. This is a rare opportunity for rural children.
Dong Yuhui's most classic saying - "When you recite words, the killer whales in Alaska are jumping out of the water; when you are doing math, the seagulls in the South Pacific are passing by the coast; when you are studying in the evening, the polar circle of the earth is Colorful" was also written at that time.
To this day, Dong Yuhui often says in the live broadcast room that Sun Dongxu is his boss. As far as Sun Dongxu is concerned, Yu Minhong is his Bole.
"At that time, there were 2,000 teachers and employees in Xi'an school, and Dong Yuhui was 1/2,000. Among these 2,000 people, I was able to get to know Dong Yuhui and become friends, which proves that he is extraordinary." In June last year, Sun Dongxu Said in an interview with Interface Education.
Later, Sun Dongxu joked, "What makes him stand out is his thick skin and outstanding appearance. You can spot him at a glance in a group of people. After communicating with him, you will find that this person is very cute and real. In my eyes, he He is the little brother."
Dong Yuhui also claimed that "at that time, I had high ambitions but low abilities, and I was still talking too much and was not down to earth."
Sun Dongxu joked, "He (Dong Yuhui) speaks very unreliably, and his ideas are empty and unrealistic. I often ridicule him. ——You are a president-level anchor."
Time soon came to 2018, which was the highlight moment of Sun Dongxu's life milestone.
"liberal arts student" Yu Minhong finally realized the importance of technology - "The crisis caused by the lack of technology in New Oriental has not been completely eliminated. In the future, New Oriental's large amount of money must be used to buy scientific and technological personnel." Yu Minhong once said in 2020 In a live broadcast in 2016, we reviewed the development history of New Oriental.
abandoned the thinking of "valuing literature over theory", and New Oriental's overall management was undergoing major adjustments. Sun Dongxu was a rare person with a technical background among New Oriental's senior executives, and was entrusted with important tasks by Yu Minhong.
In 2019, when he served as the CEO of New Oriental Online, Sun Dongxu was only 34 years old.
"I felt that I was going to be promoted, but I didn't expect that I would be given such an important position." Sun Dongxu once recalled to Jiemian Education, "Teacher Yu said that we would launch New Oriental Online together."
Sun Dongxu was filled with gratitude, " Behind this is full of Teacher Yu's expectations for me and this company, because he should believe that I can do a good job in this listed company."
In Yu Minhong's evaluation, this young man dares to fight hard. What Sun Dongxu often says to Yu Minhong is that either he will work hard to be the best, or he will work hard until he is fired by his boss.
But "dare to fight" is not enough. When Sun Dongxu was in charge of New Oriental Online, he did not achieve top results. For a long time, New Oriental Online was called a "laggard" in the K12 education track.
At that time, online education was very lively, and various business models were in full bloom. There was a bright future based on learning and thinking as a living sign, as well as homework help and Yuanfudao, which started as educational tool apps, and were stronger than private domain traffic and famous teachers. The most effective ones are GSX (now Gaotu), NetEase Youdao, which is good at technology and hardware, and Kyoto Education, which has strong on-campus resources.
When the industry is "involved" in price wars and marketing wars, New Oriental Online's actions are relatively conservative. In terms of customer acquisition methods, it mainly diverts traffic to online courses through its offline stores. Relatively speaking, the customer coverage is small and the customer acquisition efficiency is low.
Even in 2020, when K12 online education is booming, New Oriental's online K12 business only recorded revenue of 295 million.
Not used to the marketing style of online education, and the course content is not unique enough. Sun Dongxu once reflected, "I switched from offline business to online and paid very expensive tuition fees."
In July 2021, the "double reduction" storm The education and training industry has entered a cold winter. New Oriental's revenue has dropped by 80%, 80,000 tables and chairs have been given away, and there have been massive internal layoffs.
As the helmsman of K12 business, Sun Dongxu not only has to appease the negative emotions of his employees, but also withstand the pressure from above.
Dong Yuhui also had the idea of resigning. After sending away the last colleague in the English group, the resignation application he submitted was delayed because the human resources teacher was off work. "If the manpower was delayed and got off work late that day, I might really leave.
"You stay, we will fight together. When it gets bright, you can see the light." Sun Dongxu persuaded him to stay, "When times are difficult, you must believe that the team will work together, and if you keep walking, you may have a direction. "
Live Broadcast of Agricultural Products - At the end of 2021, Yu Minhong, who "has always had an agricultural complex", told Sun Dongxu that this was the important direction of New Oriental's transformation, which was later known as Oriental Selection.
A completely unfamiliar track, related to the decision of the company's fate, That was it.
"There was no internal controversy. Sun Dongxu told Jiemian Education, “New Oriental people still trust Teacher Yu’s vision and judgment. "
As a manager who grew up in the New Oriental system, Sun Dongxu has followed Yu Minhong for more than ten years, and he has resolutely implemented Yu Minhong's decisions.
"After he proposed this direction, my first (feeling) was that I had great respect and admiration. Teacher Yu's strategic vision, secondly, I will analyze and judge, the reasons behind his decision-making, later analyzed from logic and fact, are also very reasonable. "Sun Dongxu said to Jiemian Education.
In the first live broadcast of Oriental Selection, Sun Dongxu partnered with Dong Yuhui and YOYO partner Yu Minhong appeared in the live broadcast room. Sun Dongxu said: "We started awkwardly like this. "
For half a year, the Oriental Selection live broadcast room has always remained deserted in single digits. After the
live broadcast, usually in the middle of the night, Sun Dongxu often drives Dong Yuhui and Shi Ming home. His favorite songs are played loudly in the car unstoppable (unstoppable).
"I will be armed to show you how strong I am, and I will be ready to show you how unstoppable I am. "The strong drum beat was just like their current mood.
However, the results on the second day were not unstoppable. Performance stalled and collapsed once a week, every time for six or seven days. The turning point of
's fate occurred in June 2022. On March 9, Dong Yuhui became an instant hit. Oriental Screening's "Bilingual Live Broadcast" appeared in the circle, and the company's stock price rose by more than 907% within a month. Sun Dongxu attributed this popularity to "an accident."
Yu Minhong appeared in "My 2022" The book writes: “In 2022, for New Oriental, the most prominent highlight is undoubtedly the Oriental Selection. This highlight was not what I expected, but the popularity of Oriental Selection has undoubtedly brought more optimism and firmer development confidence to New Oriental and myself."
Oriental Selection, which has been driven forward by huge traffic, has also encountered many controversies, such as the "Six-Yuan Corn Controversy", the "Real and Fake Wild Shrimp" incident, "2000 Dong Yuhui Account Slicing", etc., but none of them can shake it. Its Douyin best-selling position.
Until the recent "Little Composition" incident broke out, Sun Dongxu never imagined that this would be a "storm" at the cost of losing his title.
In the early days of the "Little Composition" incident, Sun Dongxu was still there To clarify for Dong Yuhui - Dong Yuhui has never said that every essay is written by him. Yuhui and the team have always cooperated in a very tacit understanding. Dong Yuhui's essays have developed to this day and have become the golden signature of Oriental Selection. It has brought great reputation to both the product and the company.
Sun Dongxu revealed that the average age of the team members is 27 or 28 years old, and quite a few are particularly talented. It is just in front of the camera that they are presented by friends who are suitable for front-stage work.
"Don't praise an outstanding young man, don't try to win over other partners. " Sun Dongxu said.
In order to calm down the controversy over the essay, Dong Yuhui and Sun Dongxu tried to use humor to resolve in the live broadcast room: "The editor who claims to know the business very well responded in the comment area. "
Dong Yuhui also reported the matter directly to Yu Minhong. At that time, Yu Minhong did not realize the seriousness of the matter and just asked Dong Yuhui and Sun Dongxu to communicate directly, "Don't be too polite." Dong Yuhui said that the two had a "very intense communication. Probably drank several bottles of wine. "
The content of the communication is unknown, but in the subsequent live broadcast on December 12, Sun Dongxu completely worsened the conflict.
"Let's have a meeting today. "Facing the vast number of fans who were in a state of emotion, Sun Dongxu chose the method of "holding a meeting" to try to reason with netizens and present facts. During the meeting, was suspected of throwing his cell phone, which caused dissatisfaction among netizens.
Sun Dongxu used leadership in the live broadcast room The tone affirmed Dong Yuhui's contribution and pointed out that he should not miss the live broadcast on the 10th because of emotion.
The "rice circle culture" discussion and the leaked remarks that Dong Yuhui's salary was "more than tens of millions" angered "Mother-in-law" They pointed out that Sun Dongxu "deliberately embarrassed Yuhui", and ordinary netizens were also confused, "How could a consumer be treated as an employee in a meeting?"
At this point, Sun Dongxu personally pushed Dongfang Selection to the edge of the cliff, and the company ushered in A new round of word-of-mouth collapse, fan loss and stock price decline.
Looking at the continued plummeting stock price and market value, as well as the unstoppable public opinion guidance, Yu Minhong finally couldn't sit still.
At noon on December 14, Yu Minhong urgently "put out the fire", Mainly criticizing the editor's serious lack of professionalism, criticizing Sun Dongxu for mentioning Dong Yuhui's salary as inappropriate, and apologizing to Dong Yuhui.
A few hours later, Sun Dongxu bowed deeply and apologized to the majority of netizens for his aggressive attitude. and Dong Yuhui apologized.
Sun Dongxu’s high cash out was also questioned by netizens.
On February 7 and 8 this year, Sun Dongxu sold a total of 3.86 million shares, and the shareholding ratio dropped from 1.57% to 1.18%. The total of the two days Reduce holdings and cash out HK$217 million.
Wind shows that Oriental Selection’s annual report shows that as of May 31, 2023, Sun Dongxu’s annual salary was 16.391 million yuan, accounting for more than half of the total salary of nine directors and top executives of 31.504 million yuan. Yu Minhong’s annual salary is 9.661 million yuan.
In fact, even within the company, Oriental Selection still has insufficient understanding of the crisis.
once said that "New Oriental has always had a culture of defying heaven and earth, and they did not take it seriously at all levels. , and it’s quite special. "Recently, people related to Oriental Selection quoted the above point of view in the media public relations group and said that the conflict between New Oriental's corporate culture and the fandom culture is essentially a conflict between old and new cultures.
As a former traditional education company, Oriental Selection has not yet learned how to change its positioning to face the turbulent public opinion and intensely emotional netizens. It is more accustomed to communicating with netizens by presenting facts and reasoning. As everyone knows, the person in front of the screen has already Not a student.
Few people paid attention to this matter. It was only about ten days before the second anniversary of Oriental Selection. This time, they could not participate in the grand event with tens of millions of fans on Hainan Island. At this time, Oriental Selection in Zhongguancun was quiet.
(Rossi is a pseudonym in the article, and Jiemian News reporter Li Jingya also contributed to this article)
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