深网专访“硅谷创投教父”史蒂夫霍夫曼:创新进取价值是企业成功三大因素
2024-11-05 11:58
来源: 深圳新闻网
人工智能朗读:

深网专访“硅谷创投教父”史蒂夫霍夫曼:创新进取价值是企业成功三大因素

深圳新闻网2024年11月5日讯(记者 杨佳慧 阎思远)近日,2024深圳全球创新人才大会在深圳福田会展中心举行,“硅谷创投教父”、《福布斯》杂志排名第一创业孵化器Founders Space创始人史蒂芬霍夫曼先生接受深圳新闻网记者专访。就品牌故事形象,中国市场变化等问题进行回答,深圳企业如何迎接时代机遇转危为安?听听史蒂夫霍夫曼怎么说。


记者:如果要用三个词来总结成功商业的关键要素,你会选择哪些词?三个词。

If you have to summarize the key elements of a successful business in three words, what would they be? Three words.

Steve Hoffman:创新、进取和价值。innovative,aggressive, and value.

记者:叙事已经成为今天市场营销中一种稀缺的策略。那么,创业者应该如何有效地讲述他们的品牌故事呢?

Narrative has become a rare strategy in marketing today. So how should entrepreneurs effectively tell their brand stories?

Steve Hoffman:当你讲述品牌故事时,你必须知道你的客户是谁,必须知道客户关心的是什么。因此,每个故事都必须触动客户的心,而不仅仅是他们的头脑。我们都知道这些产品是相似的。

When you tell a brand story, you have to know who your customer is, you have to know what your customer cares about. So every story has to speak to your customer's heart, not just their head. We all know these products are similar.

记者:讲述真实的故事。Tell the true story.

Steve Hoffman:讲述真实的故事,拥有公司的价值观并付诸实践。他们会购买那些产品。因此,在当今世界上,成功的品牌,尤其是在中国的年轻人中,特别是在西方和欧洲的人们,真的要关注整个社会。他们超越产品或服务,看向社会的发展方向。社会在向哪里走?他们的客户心理如何变化?他们的需求和自我认同,即他们相信自己是谁,这一切又是如何变化的?然后他们利用这些因素来提升品牌形象并定位产品。

Tell the true story, have values in their company and act on those values. And they will buy those products ,so successful brands in today's world, especially for young people in China, especially for people in the west, in Europe, really look at society as a whole. They look beyond their product or service. And they tie into the movement of society. Where is society going? How is the psychology of their customers changing? How are their needs and their identity, their self identity, who they believe they are, how is that changing? And then they use that to build their brand up and position their products.

记者:那么您认为,市场在两年前和现在之间最大的变化是什么?

So what is the biggest changing you think  between the period, when like the 2 years ago, and now.

Steve Hoffman:市场一直在变化。所以现在,中国消费者的购买量在减少,你会看到一个循环,消费者的购买量下降,企业降低价格,开始在价格上竞争。当你在价格上竞争时,增长是非常非常困难的,因为每个人都在削减成本,而不是投资于增长、扩展和创新。这是过去两年间的重大变化。

Markets are changing all the time.So rightnow consumers in China are buying less. You see the cycle where consumers are buying less, and companies are lowering prices, and they are competing on price. When you compete on price, it's very, very difficult to grow, because everybody's cutting costs instead of investing and growing, investing in expanding, investing in innovation. So that is a big change over the past 2 years.

我们希望在未来的一年中看到这种趋势的逆转,企业开始改变方向。他们表示,不再通过降低利润来获取更多客户,而是投资于创造更有价值的产品,更好地服务客户。希望消费者会选择购买这些产品。

What we hope to see in the coming year is a reversal of that where companies are are changing directions. And they're saying, instead of competing on price and cutting our margins to get more customers, we're going to invest in creating products that are more valuable that serve our customers better. And hopefully consumers will choose to buy those products.

史蒂夫霍夫曼接受专访画面。

记者:如何将Founder Space的资源结合起来,以适应不同文化市场的推广策略,更好地满足各国消费者的多样化需求?特别是对于深圳的科技公司来说。

How can the resources of founder space be combined to adapt promotional strategies in different cultural markets meeting the diverse needs of consumers in various countries is better? Actually, for the tech companies in Shenzhen.

Steve Hoffman:我们帮助很多深圳及全国的公司深入理解商业战略和创新。那么,他们如何利用这些新技术,如人工智能,来转变他们的商业模式,如何接触客户,如何与客户沟通,如何营销产品,如何开发和研究新产品。这就是我们所教授的内容。我们会问,他们现在的市场在哪里?在两年、三年、五年后会在哪里?他们如何为这种类型的增长定位自己,包括国内市场和海外市场。

We help a lot of companies in Shenzhen and all around China to understand deeper business strategy and innovation. So how do they need to utilize these new technologies like artificial Intelligence to transform how they do their business, how they reach their customers, how they communicate with their customers, how they market their products, how they develop and research new products. This is what we teach and we say, where is your market now? And where will it be? In 2 years, 3 years, 5 years. How do you position yourself for that type of growth both domestically as well as overseas.


记者作为一个科技品牌,如何有效地利用社交网络互动帮助建立可信赖的品牌形象?

As a tech brand, how can effective social network interactions help establish a trustworthy brand image?

Steve Hoffman:社交媒体是一种与传统媒体、电视广播和印刷媒体截然不同的媒介。

Social media is a very, very different medium than traditional media than television broadcast than than print media.

我们看到的是,个性在社交媒体上非常重要。人们并不一定是追随品牌,而是追随能够与他们产生共鸣的影响者。那些有个性、真实、能够与他们情感相连的人,品牌需要重新思考他们的营销方式。因此,发布广告是一回事,而在社交媒体上建立关系则是另一回事。社交媒体上最强大的关系是人对人之间的关系。那么品牌如何利用人才来实际发展他们的品牌和品牌形象呢?这是一项挑战,因为人才自身不希望仅被视为在销售品牌。他们必须对客户保持真实性,而他们对品牌的表达可能与品牌希望他们所说的内容不一致。因此,品牌需要非常仔细地选择他们的人才,选择那些真正代表品牌价值和愿景的影响者。

What we are seeing is that personality matters on social media. People aren't necessarily following brands, as much as they're following influences, people who speak to them, people have a personality, people feel authentic, people who are their emotions connect with them, brands need to rethink how they market. So it's one thing to put up an advertisement. It's another thing to build a relationship on social media, relationships on social media. The most powerful ones are human to human. So how do brands, leverage talent to actually grow their brand and grow their brand image. This is a Challenge, because the talent themselves don't want to be seen as just selling the brand. They have to be authentic to their customers. And how they talk about the brand may not align with what the brand wants them to say. So they there is a point where social, where the brands need to select their talent very carefully, which influences truly represent the values and the vision of the brand.

史蒂夫霍夫曼接受专访。

记者:如何定义自己品牌的人才?

how to define it own talent?

Steve Hoffman:这就是为品牌实际工作的人才。他们不是独立的,而是公司的员工,同时具备在社交媒体上有效沟通的能力,并且看起来真实、真实到足以让人们愿意关注他们,倾听他们所说的话。

It’s talent that actually works for the brand. They are not independent, they are employees of the company who also have the ability to communicate on social media effectively and seem authentic and real enough that people will actually want to follow them and pay attention to what they're saying.

这对每个品牌来说都是一个挑战,因为最优秀的社交媒体人才不一定希望为大公司工作,他们更愿意保持独立。因此,品牌需要平衡他们发布的内容类型。有些内容可以通过讲故事来实现。真正好的讲故事的方式是,品牌如何围绕其产品创造真正有意义的故事,这些短故事能够在社交媒体上引起共鸣,吸引用户,并与品牌建立联系。这不是一次就能做到的,而是需要持续不断地进行,长时间保持这种互动。

And this is a Challenge for every brand, because the best social media talent is not necessarily, they don't necessarily want to work for a big company. They prefer to be independent. So brands need to balance the type of content they put out there. Some of it can be done through storytelling. Really a good storytelling. How can your brand create stories around its products that are really meaningful on social media short stories, right? That really impact there and draw in their users and make a connection to that brand. Over and over, you can't do it once, right? You have to continually do it 2047 for long periods of time to build this.


记者:随着对女性导向产品需求的增加,基于创始空间的孵化经验,如何通过用户反馈来改善产品,以满足消费者的需求,特别是女性消费者的需求?

With the growing demand for female oriented products, based on the Founder space incubation experience, how can products be improved through user feedback to meet the coordinate of consumers, especially female consumers?

Steve Hoffman:这是个好问题。女性消费者在社交媒体上花费大量时间,喜欢表达自己的观点,是的。她们会对彼此和群体进行传播,品牌,她们更喜欢互动。

This is a good question。So female consumers are spending lots of time on social media, female consumers like to express their opinions, yeah. To each other, to groups. They broadcast them, brands,

男性可能只是观看,但不互动,而女性希望表达自己。因此,品牌需要提供一种方式,让她们积极地表达对产品的看法,与其他女性分享她们的产品体验,以她们自己的声音来发声,并在社交媒体上赋权女性的声音和观点。

Males might just watch, but they don't interact, the females want to express themselves. So brands need to give them a way to express themselves positively about the products to share their experience with the products, with other females, in their own voice, and to empower the female voice and female opinions on social media.

未来的趋势是,品牌如何围绕其产品创建对话,并开展诚实的对话。这样,如果客户对产品有问题,他们可以真正表达出来,而公司也能够以积极的方式回应。我们发现,如果一家公司试图删除所有负面意见或她们不喜欢的反馈,最终只会让客户感到愤怒,这并没有帮助,反而会让他们更生气。我们发现,最好的公司,世界上最强的品牌和产品公司,都是在不断与客户沟通,持续获取反馈,并根据这些反馈实际改变产品,并利用反馈开发新产品。因为客户的未来就是你的未来,他们会告诉你他们缺少什么,以及他们想要什么。

So what the future of this is how does a brand with their products create a dialogue around their product and open a honest dialogue. So that if their customers have a problem with their product, they can actually express that. And the company can respond in a way that's positive. Now, what we found is that if a company tries to delete all the negative opinions or all the feedback that they don't like, then they end up making their customers angry. They don't help. They actually make them angry. What we found is that the best companies, the strongest brands in the world, the strongest product companies are continually talking to their customers, continually getting feedback in and actually changing their products based on this feedback. And using the feedback to develop new products. Because really the future your customers are your future, your customers will tell you what they aren't getting and what they want from your company.


Steve Hoffman:这对许多公司来说是一个巨大的资源,但他们并没有利用起来。他们几乎害怕自己的客户,担心客户可能会批评他们,担心客户可能会传播有关他们的负面信息。这是错误的。不要害怕。事实上,每当有人批评你,这都是你介入并与他们交谈的机会。大多数客户在你真正与他们互动时,他们会感到感激。因为许多批评你产品的人,实际上希望你的产品变得更好,他们真正关心你的产品。如果你能让他们参与进来,告诉他们,“来帮我们改善这个产品”,他们会感到被赋权。

So this is a huge resource that many companies don't take advantage of. They are almost afraid of their customers. They're afraid their customers may criticize them, they're afraid their customers may spread bad Information about them. That is incorrect. Don't be afraid. In fact, every time they somebody criticizes you, it's an opportunity for you to step in and actually talk to them. And most customers when you actually engage them, they will end up being thankful. Because of many of the people who criticize your products, they want your product to be better. They actually are the ones who care the most about your products. And if you can actually engage them and say, look, come and help us make this product better, they feel empowered.

然后他们就会从批评者变成你最大的支持者。因此,你最大的批评者可以成为你最大的支持者,只要你知道如何与他们互动。这是许多公司需要学习的。而且,产品的超级粉丝可以帮助你开发下一代产品,并保持领先于竞争对手。

And then they change from a critic to your biggest supporters. So your biggest critics can become your biggest supporters if how to interact with them. And this is something many companies need to learn. And then the same super fans of your product can help you develop the next generation of product and keep ahead of your competitors.


记者:在这个全球经济环境中,初创公司应该如何将危机转变为机会?

In this global economic environment, what should startups to do to turn crisis into opportunities?

Steve Hoffman:我想说,在每一次重大的危机中,往往会有更大的机会,对吧?但是每当公司遇到问题时,他们就需要新的解决方案。如果你是一家公司,发现这是个问题,那么我就是要找出解决方案的人。我鼓励企业家去各类企业,无论是酒店业,金融行业,还是工厂,去这些企业看看他们现在在哪里受苦?他们在哪里有痛点?他们需要什么,而你又能解决哪些问题?因为如果你能解决这些问题,大家都有钱。如果你能解决他们的问题,他们就会有资金。人们常说公司没有足够的钱,其实是因为他们对某些事情并不关心。

I’d like to say, in every time of great crisis, there are even greater opportunities, right?  whenever companies run into problems, they need new solutions. If you're a company saying this is a problem, then I'm going to be the one to figure out how to solve it. I encourage entrepreneurs go to businesses, whatever area. It could be the hospitality business. It could be the financial sector. It could be running factories, go to these businesses and find out right now, where are they suffering? Where are they in pain? What do they need from you that where can you solve any of these problems? Because if you can solve these problems, everybody has money. They have the money if you can solve their problem. People say companies don't have enough money, they don't have enough money for something that they don't care about.

但如果某件事情对他们真的很重要,他们就会找到钱。因为他们知道这就是他们生存和发展的必要。所以,虽然可能会有经济困难时期,但即使在这些时期,一些最优秀、最强大的公司也往往是从非常小的规模开始的,他们突然意识到那里有机会,并抓住了它。当资本不那么充足时,竞争也没有那么激烈。你实际上可以在资金不那么充裕的时候自行成长,等到资金开始流动时,你就处于一个很好的位置。

But if something really matters to them, they will find the money. Because they know that is what they need to survive and grow. So you need, so there may be economic times that are difficult, but even in those times, some of the best and most powerful companies, they're born very small, but they suddenly realize there's an opportunity there and they take it. When there isn't as much capital, you don't have as much competition. You can actually, in a time where there isn't as much capital, you can grow on your own, then when the capital starts to flow back. And these things, you are in a great position.


记者:所以您认为关键是找到正确的市场?

So you think the key is to find a correct market?

Steve Hoffman:是的。我始终相信你应该从有问题的客户开始。首先了解客户,深入了解他们的痛苦点,他们现在需要什么来让他们的业务更盈利,帮助他们生存和发展?

yes. I always believe you should start with customers who have problems. So you begin with the customer and you go deep with those customers, where are they suffering? What do they need now to get their business, to get make their business more profitable to help their business survive, to help their business grow?

然后你要专注于这些特定的高价值问题,最重要的问题,并利用新技术、人工智能,以及现在涌现出的各种新技术,帮助他们以新的方式解决这些问题。这就是机会。所以与其说“这是艰难的时刻,我什么都做不了”。
Then you go in, you focus on these specific high value problems, the most important problems to them and use the new technology, artificial Intelligence, any all the different new technologies that are emerging now to help them solve these problems in new ways. And these are the opportunities.

不如说“这是一个艰难的时刻,有那么多人需要我的帮助,我最好做点什么。如果我不做,谁来做?”如果你做到了,并且做得正确,你就会成长。

 So instead of saying it's difficult time, I can't do anything, say it's a difficult time. There's so many people need my help. I better do something. And if I don't do it, who will do it? And if you do it and you do it right, you will grow.

[编辑:张玲 陈苏雅] [责任编辑:战旗]