What's in store for Evergreen 2010

February 15, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

2009 marked a great year of opportunities for Evergreen and the credit went to our focus on growth regardless of the difficult economic time. We did not make any excuses or waste the crisis, which, as it turned out, helped our team to be more resilient and solidified.

Looking into 2010, the challenges are the same:

• How to scale up business without costly investment on skus and headcounts;
• How to sustain the growth, which comes at no cheap price;
• How to take advantage of the explosive growth on E-commerce and social media phenomenon.

Evergreen gained an upper hand in 2009 even under a dire economic situation. The implication for 2010? Counter attack! Retreating or cutting back alone shall not save us. Our strategy follows a 4-4-2 model:

Cut 4:

• Be frugal on operational budget;
• Cut back proven weak categories such as SGB;
• Be aggressive on closeout inventory;
• Push each staff to aim higher.

Hold 4:

• Hold steady the Product Development strategy and make it better on low hanging fruits;
• Hold our price steady;
• Hold IT function steady;
• Hold the way we source steady.

Grow 2:

• Double the sales volume through our dedicated team;
• Buy under-appreciated competitor assets.
• In this way, we expect to grow organically by 12-15%.

There are indeed some legacies and spirit to carry on into the new decade. For example, our PD team is better focused and directed than before. There is a sense of responsiveness to success from our sales team. There is heightened awareness of achieving alignment among our four functions, from product development, sales, to sourcing and shipping. Furthermore, our financial model is more specified at senior management level to keep a close eye on the bottom-line.

Some opportunities to grab for 2010:

• E-commerce;
• Fulfillment through better alignment of the four functions;
• PD support on both indies and key business;
• Big idea and big product rollout;
• Acquisition.

In crisis, it shows the true character of Evergreen people. I’m honored to be associated with you. Thank you for the great efforts in 2009 and look forward to a greater 2010 as we keep challenging ourselves to excel. It’s another year full of opportunities to learn and grow if we’re ready to adapt to the great new world ahead of us.

Let me quote from Charles Darwin to conclude this article: “It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” (Charles Darwin, On the origin of species, 1859)

Frank Qiu
CEO of Evergreen Enterprises, Inc.