On December 16, the "Palace Fighting Drama" of Oriental Screening finally came to an end. After Oriental Selection announced the removal of Sun Dongxu as executive director and CEO in the morning, at 7 p.m., Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong launched a joint broadcast on Douyin, responding to various rumors in recent days. During the live broadcast, Dong Yuhui explained that he was on normal vacation in his hometown in Shaanxi these days and just returned to Beijing today. These days, countless media, investors, companies and even former students approached him, but he felt at a loss, so he rejected them all and remained silent.
He repeatedly emphasized the word "original intention". He believed that "the world does not lack me as a seller, and becoming a sales anchor and sales champion is not my original intention." At the same time, he also revealed that from now on, his focus will be on agriculture, books, culture, tourism, and interviews with writers. "Salary is not my first pursuit, and Teacher Yu will naturally not treat me badly."
This also means that the essay incident of Oriental Selection has reached its finale.Sun Dongxu was dismissed, Dong Yuhui returned, and Yu Minhong took over the CEO position again to lead the overall situation.
Yu Minhong also repeatedly emphasized in the live broadcast that the reason why the company caused such a big management accident was because he had been a "hands-off boss" for too long and he was fully responsible. Sun Dongxu was dismissed from his position because the accident required a resolution and to give shareholders an explanation. It had nothing to do with Dong Yuhui and there was no either/or.
At the same time, he also affirmed Sun Dongxu's past contributions in self-operated products and supply chain, and believed that the rapid development of Dongfang Selection was inseparable from Sun Dongxu, but there were management loopholes behind his vigorous and resolute management style. "Oriental Selection will still be the current team in the future, but with a new CEO. Sun Dongxu will still participate in the development of Oriental Selection."
The two people's live broadcast maintained an online number of more than 100,000. The audience kept giving rewards, saying "Yu Hui is haggard" and calling Yu Minhong to "treat Yu Hui well" and fans will also "respect Yu Hui's decision".
There are also many people who hope that this crisis will pass as soon as possible. After all, the journey of Dongfang Selection has not been easy. But as Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong said in the live broadcast, what is before them is an "unexperienced" challenge. The crisis of Oriental Selection has not been completely resolved.
Yu Minhong chose Dong Yuhui
Despite repeated denials, on December 16, Oriental Selection finally ushered in the "choose one from two" finale. On the same day, Oriental Selection issued an announcement that Sun Dongxu was removed from the position of executive director and CEO of Oriental Selection, and chairman Yu Minhong also served as CEO of Oriental Selection.
Looking back at the development of Dongfang Selection, it can be said that it has been full of twists and turns. Yu Minhong's attitude has also changed from "each has fifty majors" at the beginning to now decisively removing the CEO and settling the matter.
On December 14, Yu Minhong first issued a video statement, saying that there were huge loopholes in the company's management. He mentioned: (Oriental Selection official account) The editor's approach seriously lacked professionalism. Sun Dongxu mentioned Dong Yuhui's salary when explaining the problem. This was inappropriate. Xiao Sun (Sun Dongxu) is young and aggressive in his work, but not mellow enough. As the chairman, he has leadership responsibilities, and he also expressed his apology to Yuhui.
Immediately afterwards, some media broke the news that a chat record leaked from within Oriental Selection showed that Yu Minhong is currently facing the dilemma of choosing between Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui. The news broke that "Sun Dongxu does not want Dong Yuhui to return to Oriental Screening again, and the conflict between the two is inevitable." In response, Yu Minhong responded again, "It's okay, it's not that serious." Oriental Screening also said, "Currently Dong Yuhui is still working for Oriental Screening, but it should not be broadcast in the near future."
As the matter further escalated, on the evening of December 14th, Sun Dongxu stood up and released an apology video, saying that when he explained the Dongfang selection issues live, his demeanor, tone and expression were a bit aggressive, and he would make serious corrections in the future. He also apologized to everyone for his unprofessional behavior in mentioning Yu Hui's salary.
However, the apology from Oriental Selection executives did not calm the turmoil.All parties ended up "fighting for Dong Yuhui", pushing the incident to a climax again.
On December 15, former New Oriental teacher Luo Yonghao publicly discussed the Dong Yuhui incident in WeChat Moments and the Make a Friend live broadcast room, and repeatedly encouraged Dong Yuhui to start a business, saying, "I am willing to set up a game with some friends who are engaged in investment and business to support his smooth start-up." "If you already have the ability and the opportunities of the times are in front of you, my suggestion is to go out and do it yourself, and then find a reliable lawyer to help you check it."
On the same day, screenshots showed that JD.com executives had gone to Shaanxi with a letter written by Liu Qiangdong, inviting Dong Yuhui to join JD.com. Someone else broke the news that "someone is willing to pay 500 million liquidated damages." However, Dong Yuhui denied all rumors, saying "he has not contacted any company yet." Dong Yuhui's denial was interpreted by the outside world as "reminiscing about old feelings" and "leaving room".
On the evening of December 15, Dongfang Selection anchor Tian Quan’s words and deeds directly brought the reputation of Oriental Selection to the bottom: he imitated Sun Dongxu and threw his mobile phone during the live broadcast, and made controversial remarks in the live broadcast room: “It’s easy to bring down Oriental Selection, we all pay. Sell, before you are blocked or unblocked by us, you first buy an egg with a coupon of 10 yuan, so that you can double kill. At the same time, no one from the nearby staff came out to stop him.
The anchor's provocative words directly angered the consumers in the live broadcast room, and they all asked for Kanto selection. As of press time, the number of fans of Oriental Selection is 28.45 million, and it continues to decline. It has lost more than 2.69 million fans in less than a week. At the same time, Dong Yuhui's number of fans reached 20.12 million. After the "little composition" scandal broke out, his number of fans increased by nearly 7.06 million.
In the early morning of December 16, the Oriental Selection Douyin live broadcast room announced, "Today we will temporarily suspend broadcasting and think about our mistakes behind closed doors. Please criticize." At the same time, from now on, the anchor Tianquan will stop live broadcasting for three months and severely criticize the anchor.
After Sun Dongxu was dismissed as CEO of Oriental Selection, Oriental Selection's stock price continued to fall, falling 5.58% on December 16 to close at HK$26.25, with a market value of HK$26.6 billion. "It can be seen from its stock price performance that the problem of Oriental Selection has not been resolved yet." An industry insider said.
Some sharp-eyed netizens also discovered that Oriental Selection’s personnel appointment and dismissal notices were not stamped with the official seal, and the format was also wrong. “The internal management problems of Oriental Selection are evident.”
Oriental Selection has not answered the fundamental question yet
In the eyes of some people, it is inevitable for Dongfang Selection to remove Sun Dongxu.
From the perspective of corporate governance, a small article caused the stock price and market value of Oriental Selection to drop by more than 20 percentage points. Someone needs to be held responsible for this matter. "Removing the CEO is a reasonable and correct decision. If Yu Minhong does not remove the CEO, he will not be able to explain to the shareholders and board of directors of Oriental Selection." Zhou Ke, the head of operations of an MCN organization, concluded.
Another investor told "Ding Jiao" that for a listed company, the stock price and shareholders are the most important. The decision to remove the CEO is also a decision unanimously passed by the board members and cannot be decided by Yu Minhong alone, which shows that everyone is dissatisfied with this.
Yu Minhong also mentioned this on the evening of December 16, saying that this was a major management incident for the company.A resolution needs to be given to the board of directors, saying, "This decision has nothing to do with Dong Yuhui."
It should be noted that Sun Dongxu was only removed from the position of CEO of Oriental Selection. He also held multiple positions such as the legal person of Oriental Selection (Zhuhai) Tourism Culture Co., Ltd. and the legal person of Oriental Selection (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Yu Minhong also mentioned that Sun Dongxu, as an "entrepreneurial brother" from the New Oriental era, will continue to contribute to Oriental Selection and New Oriental in his own way in the future.
At the same time, according to public information, the controlling shareholder of Oriental Selection is New Oriental Group, accounting for 54.892% of the shares, and the second largest shareholder is Yu Minhong, accounting for 2.678%. Sun Dongxu also holds shares in Oriental Selection, but the specific proportion has not been disclosed yet. In February this year, Sun Dongxu reduced his shares in the company and cashed out a total of HK$217 million.
At present, it seems that the greatest value of removing the CEO is to solve the current public opinion crisis of Dongfang Selection. "The CEO's dismissal directly cut off the trend of public opinion, and it was more like appeasing public sentiment," Zhou Ke said.
The above-mentioned investors believe that Yu Minhong’s move to remove the CEO was based on multiple considerations, including “re-enhancing the cohesion of fans, dissuading many companies that were eager to poach employees, giving shareholders and brands an explanation, and internally confirming Dong Yuhui’s status.”
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As for why this decision has only been announced now? Senior product manager Judgment said that no matter how the incident was handled, there would definitely be losses, so we could only choose the lesser of two evils. Sun Dongxu is a veteran who played a big role in the start-up process of Dongfang Selection. He also gave Dong Yuhui a lot of encouragement in the early days. If Lao Yu had made a heavy move to "kill" the CEO from the beginning, his decision-making would have been questioned internally.
However, many industry insiders believe that removing the CEO can only solve the immediate problem.Regarding the question "Does Oriental Selection have the experience and strength in MCN organization management?", Oriental Selection and Yu Minhong have not yet answered.
As a traditional entrepreneur, Yu Minhong was still a little acclimated when he came into contact with today's "big IP (individual)" organizational model. The super-large IP of live streaming e-commerce may have far greater ability to acquire resources, bring influence and profits, and earn individual premiums than any other role in the company, including the CEO. As a professional manager, the CEO can make adjustments, but super large IP cannot be copied.
Zhou Ke believes that this anti-traditional corporate growth route requires matching talent training mechanisms and profit distribution mechanisms, which are different from the past.However, simply removing the CEO cannot actually solve the root cause of the crisis. The matter is not over yet.
Looking back on the development history of New Oriental, we have experienced "internal strife" and separation of the three giants of New Oriental, as well as the departure of countless famous teachers. Yu Minhong once used the "chef effect" to illustrate the game between New Oriental and famous chefs: After the restaurant owner spent a lot of money on decoration, he hired a chef to take over, and there were a lot of customers. After the chef began to realize that customers liked the food he cooked, he went to the boss to negotiate a share. If the chef's needs are not met, he will leave the hotel and the restaurant will go bankrupt. And after the chef leaves, he may not be able to work as a restaurant.
In fact, the "chef effect" also well describes the dilemma that Oriental Selection currently faces as a major anchor. This era of highly concentrated resources on individual IPs has amplified this problem. Both Oriental Selection and the industry still need to find solutions.
With Dong Yuhui staying, can Oriental Selection return to its past?
Just by removing the CEO, the crisis can only be temporarily relieved. Dong Yuhui's final choice is the key to the final settlement of the matter.
Most voices tend toSun Dongxu is gone, will Dong Yuhui choose to stay?. The live broadcast on the evening of the 16th also confirmed this speculation.
On the one hand, Dong Yuhui has feelings for New Oriental and Yu Minhong, and Yu Minhong has already paved the way for him.
On the other hand, is walking out better than staying? Big hit IPs such as Lang Weixian, Li Ziqi, and Zhu Yiyi have learned too much from the past. "Objectively speaking, Dong Yuhui's value can only be better demonstrated in Dongfang Selection. His own abilities and resources are not enough to start a business." Zhou Ke said.
There is no need for Dong Yuhui to leave. "There must be someone to take over if he leaves now, because he is a topical figure in his own right, but he should also know that his current worth is related to this turmoil. It is unpredictable how long his strength will last and whether similar management problems will arise in his next company." The judge said.
If Dong Yuhui chooses to stay, it will involve two issues that the outside world is more concerned about:How is the treatment given to Dong Yuhui by the company? How can the company bind Dong Yuhui for a longer period of time?
Some people believe that Yu Minhong also bears corresponding responsibility in this incident, that is, he did not clarify Dong Yuhui's position within Oriental Selection earlier.
After Dong Yuhui became famous, objectively he could no longer be treated as a wage earner. The ones Dong Yuhui was given by Dongfang Screening were not enough or substantial enough in the eyes of the outside world.
Maybe Yu Minhong predicted that today's situation would happen, but he just didn't grasp the rhythm well and was unwilling to break the original structure within the company prematurely. "But if the internal personnel structure and management system are not sorted out this time, even if the next Dong Yuhui appears, the company will not be able to catch it." The judge said.
In the live broadcast on the evening of the 16th, Yu Minhong repeatedly emphasized that "Dong Yuhui never asked to leave, nor did he ask for any salary to stay in Oriental Selection." He also mentioned that the Oriental Selection platform was unfair to Dong Yuhui and restricted his development to a certain extent.In the future, Dong Yuhui will be given a sufficient development platform. As long as the platform becomes bigger, it will be linked to personal interests and development.
Dong Yuhui also said that due to the confidentiality agreement, he could not give specific figures, but he was very satisfied with the treatment provided by the company. "Compared with salary, I care more about doing what I like to do, eating well and sleeping well every day."
Many industry insiders suggested thatOriental Selection may be able to manage Dong Yuhui the same way it manages artists.
Specifically, it is possible to set up a company or studio for Dong Yuhui. Dong Yuhui will hold 70 to 80% of the shares, and Oriental Selection will hold 20 to 30% of the shares. At the same time, the company will be responsible for its own profits and losses. It is equivalent to the company incubating his internal entrepreneurship and giving him space to grow independently. “This solves the problem of interest distribution and incentives, transforms the control relationship into an equal cooperation relationship, and can also reduce internal friction within the original company system,” the judge said.
Yu Minhong mentioned at the end of the live broadcast that he hoped the team would work together to go back to the past. But everyone in the comment section is saying that even if Dong Yuhui returns, Oriental Selection will not be able to go back to the past.
Compared with internal management problems, the bigger crisis for Oriental Selection is that it exposed the fact that it is an MCN organization.In this way, the stories of independent apps and cultural tourism companies that have been told before will have to be re-evaluated. "The capital market is not optimistic about the model and ceiling of MCN institutions." Zhou Ke said.
Yu Minhong once wrote in "I Was on the Brink of Collapse" that in a sense, the biggest competitor for any business model, including New Oriental, must not be others, but itself.
At present, it seems that the move from New Oriental to Oriental Selection is not a victory of organizational transformation, but the luck of individual IP becoming popular. This time, can Yu Minhong prove himself again with Oriental Selection?
*At the request of the interviewee, Zhou’s name in the article can be changed.