In recent years, which entrepreneur's words have left the deepest impression?

My answer is: Lin Muqin, Chairman of Eastroc Beverage, "There is no reason not to grow."

Looking back at the past three years (2020-2022), under the shadow of the pandemic, among listed beverage companies, only China Foods (COFCO Coca-Cola) and Eastroc Beverage achieved three consecutive years of revenue and net profit growth, with only Eastroc Beverage maintaining double-digit growth.

On the evening of August 6, Eastroc Beverage released its 2023 first-half financial report, continuing its high-growth momentum. During the reporting period, it achieved revenue of RMB 5.46 billion, up 27.24% year-over-year; net profit of RMB 1.108 billion, up 46.84% year-over-year. Notably, Eastroc's sales volume share in China's energy drink market increased from 36.70% at the end of 2022 to 40.86%, further consolidating its first-place position.

The impressive performance is inseparable from Eastroc Beverage's helmsman: Chairman Lin Muqin. Earlier, after the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared over, Forbes China released its first "2023 China's Best CEOs" list, with Lin Muqin among the honorees, receiving recognition as one of the 50 best CEOs. Forbes China believes that the best CEOs must not only possess outstanding leadership and keen market insight but also need innovation and transformation capabilities and enduring strategic focus—qualities that shine brightly in Lin Muqin.

Strategic Focus: "Ten Years at a Glance" Business Wisdom

Lin Muqin is a person with a strong inner spirit.

In 2003, Lin Muqin faced what may have been the most important choice of his life—Eastroc Company was struggling to operate, unable to continue, and couldn't even pay wages. Lin Muqin led his team to scrape together several million yuan, gritting his teeth to buy the brand and equipment, starting from scratch to rebuild his own beverage business. At that time, several million yuan was absolutely a huge sum. If the venture failed, he would lose everything. But Lin Muqin had a dream of "prairie fire" in his heart, and this "spark" was necessary for the journey.

In 2009, after several explorations, Lin Muqin resolutely launched bottled functional beverages, focusing on the "Eastroc" brand. At that time, Red Bull was already a giant with annual sales of RMB 5 billion, while Eastroc Beverage had previously been struggling to survive on several low-margin chrysanthemum teas and winter melon teas. Under such a disparate power differential, could Eastroc Beverage find survival space? Perhaps many people were pessimistic at the time, but Lin Muqin firmly believed that functional beverages had market potential far from reaching the ceiling, sufficient to create a national brand.

In 2013, as Eastroc expanded beyond Guangdong, the advertising slogan "Tired and sleepy, drink Eastroc" began to resonate nationwide. Focusing on a single advertising slogan, Eastroc maintained this promotion for 10 years. In Lin Muqin's view, "tired and sleepy" is a common state in public life, most directly conveying the category value of functional beverages. Consumers are constantly evolving. As long as Eastroc persists for more than 10 years, some perceptions will be re-solidified, especially those born in the 1995s, 2000s, and even 2010s who have been exposed since childhood—"tired and sleepy" will become a valuable brand asset bearing Eastroc's imprint.

 Innovation Lies in Details of Subtle Observations

"Internet celebrity principal" Wang Shuguo once said something thought-provoking: "I suddenly felt an unprecedented fear, so as principal I face another choice: do I defend or forge ahead? Defending cannot be defended. No country, enterprise, or unit can defend and preserve a piece of business." These words are also a true portrayal of Lin Muqin. Careers are not "defended" but constantly pursued through innovation.

If we use twelve characters to describe Lin Muqin's innovation ability: "Heart has a fierce tiger, can roar in mountains and forests, can smell roses."

What does this mean?

Lin Muqin can see the big picture from a macro perspective and make judgments about the enterprise's next direction in advance. For example, before the pandemic was lifted, he had already prepared to enter the electrolyte water track. At the same time, through observation and optimization of some details, he adds "inspired touches" to brand development—the soulful name "补水啦" (Bushuila) came from Lin Muqin's inspiration.

It must be admitted that Lin Muqin indeed discovers many business opportunities from details and transforms them into admirable innovations. For example, canned functional beverages have difficulty being preserved after opening, so Lin Muqin launched bottled products with an exclusively designed "dust-proof cap" that is not only convenient and hygienic, but the dust-proof cap also provides ingenious uses as an ashtray, sharing cup, etc.

The RMB 6 per can price deterred many customer groups, so Lin Muqin reduced the average price to half through lean cost control.

Users were averse to brand advertisements that suddenly cut in while watching videos, so Eastroc Beverage invented pop-up adhesive bandage advertisements.

Seeing CCTV Spring Festival Gala partnering with WeChat to "send red envelopes," Eastroc Beverage had a "flash of inspiration" to put QR codes for red envelopes directly into bottle caps, solving the long-standing problem troubling the FMCG industry of a lengthy and inefficient chain from brand to consumer, and significantly boosting brand awareness in one stroke, becoming among the first in the industry to eat the crab of digital marketing transformation. To date, cumulative non-duplicate scanning consumers exceed 160 million person-times.

 Excellent Leadership: "United Hearts and Minds" Driven by Digitalization"

To date, Eastroc Beverage has nearly 9,000 employees and nearly 3,000 distributors, with over 3.3 million active terminals. How can everyone in the chain work together for performance and growth? This tests the entrepreneur's management ability.

Let's look at Lin Muqin's "answer":

First is organizational adjustment. Lin Muqin once used "seven powers combined" to summarize Eastroc Beverage's growth path, one of which is "organizational power." He stated frankly that pursuing growth is a development belief integrated into the bones of Eastroc employees. Eastroc Beverage will ensure reserve echelon talent teams, with the management academy empowering talent and per capita contribution gradually increasing. Meanwhile, organizational adjustments are made timely, with splitting and rotation in some regions, thus always maintaining growth momentum.

Second is digital tool-driven. For internal employees, especially sales personnel, management through the digital tool "Pengxuntong" ensures sales personnel receive clear route tasks on Pengxuntong, including what to do during each customer visit, visit frequency and routes—all planned by the tool. While standardizing work projects, Eastroc also clarifies specific basic scores for each "action," emphasizing standards for bonus points and penalty deductions. By directly linking points for each work item with compensation, process management of front-line sales army work is achieved, motivating and guiding everyone to do more correct things, with the ultimate orientation being "growth."

Finally, reasonable channel incentives. Lin Muqin has a thorough understanding of channels: "From distributors to wholesalers to retailers, it's a systematic chain. We need to build this marketing network through incentives. The profits of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers are collectively called channel profits. With rising commodity prices and labor costs, if manufacturers don't provide sufficient channel profits to channel merchants, it's difficult to mobilize their enthusiasm." Therefore, Eastroc Beverage has always been generous with channel incentives.

Since 2019, Eastroc Beverage has connected over 3.3 million active terminals through "five-code integration." For the enterprise, it can quickly grasp multi-dimensional detailed data such as outbound volume, sales volume, unpacking numbers, channel inventory, and inventory days. So what benefits do terminal shop owners get from selling Eastroc? Taking the "One Yuan Enjoy" activity as an example, if consumers come to verify, owners can get the RMB 1 from consumers, additional subsidies from Eastroc Beverage, and gift exchange points, etc. As such, terminals are naturally willing to devote more shelf space and enthusiasm to Eastroc.

Conclusion

In 2023, Eastroc Beverage proposed a development strategy of "comprehensive national development, cultivating the second curve": vigorously supporting the development of new categories such as Eastroc Daka, Eastroc Bushuila, and tangerine juice, cultivating new growth points for the enterprise's future healthy and sustainable development.

The focused, keen, striving, and innovative Lin Muqin is always pursuing growth. Or rather, for Eastroc Beverage, he represents "growth" itself.