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Eleven International has deep roots and network resources in the field of technology communications in Asia-Pacific and the United States, which has become the foundation for our successful business expansion to the UK, EU countries, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, India and other regions.
In addition to providing B2B services to clients, this year Eleven also hopes to explore its social role by offering inspiration and enlightenment to more people within its capabilities. In the Eleven International & Friends series, we will invite Eleven International's friends from various industries to give special presentations. They may be seasoned media professionals, technology industry opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, etc., from home and abroad, sharing relevant knowledge and experience.
Guest speaker for this issue: Wang Pan, Founder of 光子星球, former senior writer for Tencent Technology. Having personally witnessed the entrepreneurial journeys of many CEOs in the tech industry, his early in-depth articles on the new energy industry became one of the important milestones for the industry to gain public attention at that time.
Q: You have interviewed many founders in the tech industry and witnessed their journey from early startups to becoming industry leaders. What do you think is the most important quality of a successful founder?
Successful founders I've met share many commonalities, such as being risk-takers, skilled at deep thinking, able to resist human nature, and adhering to long-term principles. However, I believe the most important trait among these qualities is adversity quotient - the ability to find a glimmer of light in darkness and lead everyone through the fog towards brightness.
A founder's strength during a company's upward period may not be truly strong, but their performance during low periods can truly reflect a person's ability. This reminds me of this year's NBA Finals, where the FMVP was awarded to Jaylen Brown instead of Jayson Tatum. At least in my impression, the former often delivers heavy blows when the team is performing well overall, but becomes hesitant when the team is struggling, while the latter is the opposite.
Q: We know that founder PR is a very important task for companies. What do you think are some successful founder PR cases, and why?
I personally believe that PR should serve the overall strategy of the company, that is, to contribute to the company's core objectives. Of course, the worst-case scenario is not only failing to contribute but also becoming a hindrance. I think the most successful founder PR this year is Lei Jun. He personally engaged in short videos, live streaming, and product launches, ultimately leading to the successful buzz around Xiaomi's first mass-produced car, the SU7, with sales far exceeding expectations.
Many auto company executives started to emulate Lei Jun's viral success by personally engaging in live streaming and building their personal brand, but this is actually quite difficult. Lei Jun's viral success didn't happen overnight; to reach his level, one would need to start learning from his first live stream in 2016. Moreover, these executives don't have a household brand like Xiaomi at their disposal.
Why is Lei Jun, who has long been successful and famous, still willing to do the dirty work of personal branding? Because in his view, while making a car is certainly difficult, the most challenging part is selling it, and personally building his brand serves this grand strategy of boosting sales.
Q: For the media, what behaviors are considered detractions when it comes to promoting a founder's image?
There are many points that can detract from a founder's image. The ones I can think of include being insincere, being overly sincere, being out of touch with reality, creating antagonism, and having a false persona.
Being insincere easily insults the audience's intelligence and naturally won't generate goodwill. Being overly sincere can easily create pitfalls for oneself. For example, a vice president of a major company who publicly advocated for a "wolf culture" was quickly criticized. From a corporate perspective, many things can perhaps be done but shouldn't be directly stated publicly.
Being out of touch with reality often manifests in external aspects such as attire, food, housing, and transportation. Once the price exceeds what ordinary people can accept, it's easily understood as showing off wealth. Jia Yueting's attempt to showcase a modest lifestyle by eating youtiao (fried dough sticks) in the U.S., only to be pointed out that it was actually expensive, is a negative example.
Creating antagonism often manifests in disparaging competitors to make oneself look good. This might yield some short-term benefits, but over time, it can easily backfire. For instance, a founder of a new energy vehicle company who said he couldn't understand why people still buy fuel vehicles ended up being continuously criticized by fuel vehicle users online for several years.
A false persona doesn't need much explanation. Claiming to be tech-savvy when you're not, saying you're good at management when you're not, or claiming to have big company endorsements when you don't - it's only a matter of time before you're exposed.
Q: This year, AI topics have gained explosive attention. Many related companies want to leverage this hot topic for PR communications. From a media perspective, what type of related content is preferred for reporting?
Whenever an industry is at the forefront, all sorts of characters emerge, willing to fabricate various "artificial" news to boast about themselves. For instance, they might want to publish many self-praising articles in the media just for paying to attend an exhibition, updating an app version, or even moving office locations.
Therefore, for truly professional media, they will definitely report on genuinely valuable AI content. This content could be major breakthroughs in certain algorithms or technologies, significant personnel changes in AI companies, or key information about AI reaching users, financing, going public, implementation, or improving industrial efficiency. Without exception, all of this information has a very high threshold and cannot be "artificially" created news.
Q: Do you have any better suggestions for combining corporate communications with AI topics?
Most AI founders in China should be "heavenly派" (idealistic type). They often have high educational backgrounds, such as domestic top schools or even Ivy League levels in the U.S., come from good family environments, have profound insights into society, and possess grand ideals and goals. However, the drawback of these people is often being too idealistic, not down-to-earth enough, and not knowing how to make money to ensure the company's long-term survival and take control of their own destiny.
If they truly want to survive, rather than constantly floating in the sky selling idealism and leaving their fate to others, I suggest abandoning illusions and not expecting philanthropists to fall from the sky. They should talk more about implementation, business value, and how AI can improve industrial efficiency, and less about technological advancement. Especially in China's environment, no matter how advanced the technology is, if it can't be implemented and can't make money, then you're worthless in the eyes of investors.
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