Fosun's Strategy Evolution

Keywords: globalization, FC2M (Fosun Client-to-Maker) ecosystem, innovation-driven, twin drivers (Industry Operations + Industrial Investment, Insurance + Investment), FES (Fosun Entrepreneurship/Ecosystem System)

Globalization

Rooted in China with a global business presence, Fosun is positioned itself as an innovation-driven consumer group. Fosun is a practitioner, promoter, and pioneer of globalization. Globalization has become an organizational capability and competitive edge that Fosun has continuously internalized over the past 30 years since its establishment.

The globalization strategy advocated by Fosun emphasizes the “Global + Local” twin- driver. On the one hand, to fully meet the needs of the Chinese consumer market, Fosun leverages the “twin-driver” of its global business to continuously bring the good products and services that Fosun has invested around the world to the Chinese consumer market, with a view to improving people’s lives. On the other hand, under the new “dual circulation” development paradigm that allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, Fosun continues to deepen its global development, fulfill its corporate social responsibility, strengthen the development of its global high-quality industries and explore more opportunities for international cooperation, helping international brands to lay a solid foundation, supporting more high-quality Chinese SMEs, China-made brands and promoting “Chinese intelligent manufacturing” to the world.

Under the wave of “deglobalization”, global companies that are rooted in China have become scarcer and more valuable. There are only a few companies like Fosun that are truly rooted in China and can integrate global resources. Looking ahead, Fosun will better leverage its globalization capabilities, make more contributions to the nation and customers, as well as creating greater value for its shareholders.

FC2M Ecosystem

Fosun proposed to serve one billion families around the world and build a FC2M ecosystem centered around family customers.

The “FC2M” (Fosun Client-to-Maker) model is an industrial closed loop driven by customer demand for product creation and rapid iteration, C stands for “client”, M stands for “maker”, "2" is “to link” client with maker.

Fosun proposed the “Client-end as Top Priority, Maker-end as Top Leader” strategy, which requires that every industry in the FC2M ecosystem to practice C2M, the maker-end of each of its family-oriented industries needs to connect to the client-end through digital and online technologies, forming a vertical C2M closed loop. After that, vertical C2M closed loops will be opened horizontally to form a greater FC2M ecosystem that fully encompasses family needs, maximizing the creation of value for family customers, thereby realizing the multiplier effect among industries within the ecosystem.

As of now, the FC2M ecosystem has been implemented in various fields such as medical services, health management, pharmaceutical distribution, rehabilitation and senior care, financial management, fashion and entertainment, quality consumption, etc.

Innovation-driven

As a global innovation-driven consumer group, Fosun insists on taking innovation as the driving force to create a FC2M ecosystem centered around the happiness needs of families, endeavoring to become the innovation leader in various industries.

Innovation is the key fundamental to Fosun’s steady development. Fosun’s emphasis on innovation has been deeply ingrained in all Fosuners and is continuously influencing Fosun’s actions and practices in product research and development, mechanism forging and talent acquisition from within.

Fosun has built a multi-dimensional innovation system through research and development, investment incubation, patent licensing and introduction of innovative products through cooperation, focusing on family needs, occupying a leading position in global innovation and cultivating Fosun star products with product strength and competitiveness.

Fosun has also established “innovative partners” to bring together the top innovative talents and resources in the Fosun ecosystem. Among them, the scientific and innovative partners mainly cover innovation fields such as pharmaceutical research and development, intelligent technology, and intelligent manufacturing. The “creative partners” are mainly Fosun's top talents in product design, IP creation, architectural design and other fields, and the “ingenious partners” including many leading craftsmen and intangible cultural heritage inheritors.

Twin-Driver

Industry Operations + Industrial Investment

The ability to integrate industry operations with industrial investment is one of core competencies of Fosun. Since its establishment, Fosun has always adhered to the strategy of “Operations + Investment”, and has developed into a global enterprise that continues to rely on the twin-driver of “Industry Operations + Industrial Investment”.

The industrial experience accumulated over the years enables Fosun to seize more investment opportunities in the world. It also equips Fosun with the industrial turnaround capability to achieve the “multiplier effect” through industrial synergy within the Fosun ecosystem. Since 2019, Fosun’s industrial deployment within its ecosystem which is centered on the happiness needs of families has become more perfect, and the external market has entered “the era of idle and existing resources” which operates intensively. At the same time, next generation technologies such as big data, AI, and Internet of industries have continued to mature, and Fosun has begun to focus on its profound “Industry Operations”, from operating products to operating customers, further tapping into the value of idle and existing resources.

Fosun aims at enhancing its industry operations capabilities through industrial mergers and acquisitions and investments. Fosun’s focus on industry operations does not mean that it has given up its investment capabilities. Investment has subtly become part of Fosun’s gene. Investment is a means of supporting industry operations, and it has become Fosun’s characteristics and capabilities. The “twin-driver” strategy now is more emphasized on strengthening industries through investment and use industrial capabilities to support investment, so that the two complement each other.

Investment is an approach, and the purpose of investment is to serve customers and users, further strengthening the Fosun FC2M ecosystem and formation of synergy within the ecosystem. Fosun’s industrial investment puts more emphasis on taking controlling stakes in investment and making strategic investment that will strengthen its industries. Regardless of whether it is industry operations or industrial investment, Fosun presses on with the main strategy, and adopts an exit strategy for some companies that are not sufficiently synergistic and do not relate strongly with Fosun’s ecosystem.

Insurance + Investment

Fosun has always adhered to value investment and adopted the twin-driver strategy of “Insurance + Investment”, which has helped Fosun to lay a solid foundation for global development. Investment has helped industries such as tourism and pharmaceuticals which have built a strong industrial foundation in a short period of time.

The “Insurance + Investment” model has been internalized into Fosun's capabilities. In the future, Fosun will focus on making investments that will strengthen its industries, serving for industry operations. Insurance will also create more synergy with various industries under Fosun and unleash greater value in Fosun’s FC2M ecosystem.

FES

FES (Fosun Entrepreneurship/Ecosystem System) is a management system designed and developed by Fosun under the mission of “Creating Happier Lives for Families Worldwide”. The system is based on Fosun’s strategy of “Industry Operations + Industrial Investment", which extracts Fosun’s best practices in industry operations and industrial investment into replicable and scalable tools and processes, and through continuous development of Fosun's entrepreneurial spirit and the co-creation of BD ecosystem to help the company achieve the goal of “high growth”. Among them, “Entrepreneurship” represents the entrepreneurial spirit, implying that the FES is a system that reflects the spirit of co-entrepreneurship and co-multiplier growth, while “Ecosystem” represents Fosun’s ecosystem, implying that FES hopes to achieve multiplier growth through Fosun's synergy within the ecosystem.

FES is not only applicable to industry operations, but it is also a management system for industrial investment. Its core is based on Fosun’s “Industry Operations + Industrial Investment” strategy, which extracts the best practices of industrial operations and investment accumulated by Fosun over the years into tools and processes that can be replicated and promoted, and ultimately help the company achieve sustainable high growth in its value.

The system of FES is a management system that involves the participation of all staff members, with the goal of achieving high multiplier growth, and addressing the pain points and challenges in business operations.

Fosun hopes that through the investment + operations management system of FES, on the one hand, it will make good industrial investment to promote growth of core business segments, and on the other hand, it will extract and refine the best practices of Fosun's operations and management, so as to empower its global enterprises. The FES system strives to improve customer satisfaction, develop the “co-entrepreneurship” spirit, strengthen Fosun’s synergy within the ecosystem, and helps the company achieve the operational objective of “high multiplier growth”.

The Characteristics of Fosun's Strategic Evolution:

Fully Committed to its Strategies and Well Prepared for the Future

1)Stand firm on its strategies:
Fosun's corporate growth always emphasizes “change and consistency”. Its strategic evolution has always been continuous. Strategic evolution and change of focus in each stage of growth are systematic response that integrates factors such as the market, cycle, and corporate development at that time. Fosun’s solid corporate governance logic and many excellent industry operations and industrial investment cases have proven its wise choice of strategies.

2)Always ride the wave of momentum:
Fosun always rides the wave of momentum of each development stage and seizes opportunities in the era to achieve growth, integrating the economic, social, technological, regional, environmental and other factors at that time to make the best decision for corporate development.

3)Committed to value creation:
Fosun stays committed to doing the right but difficult things, continues to seize internal and external growth drivers, continuously optimizes its own business and industrial portfolio, constantly upgrades its organizational structure, and insists on creating value for customers, shareholders and employees.

4)Constantly self-improvement:
During the stage of industrial deployment, Fosun continuously adopts the trial-and-error method and iterates. During the process, there will inevitably be investment and start-up/incubation projects that will be eliminated, but overall speaking, well-performing projects still outweigh the underperforming projects and the ratio is about “271”, which implies that there are around 70% outstanding projects that can ultimately survive and develop in Fosun's ecosystem, there are 20% projects that are yet to be confirmed by the market, but most of these projects are in overall healthy operation with good fundamentals, there are only less than 10% of projects that have failed.

5)Continuously accumulate capabilities:
Every strategic evolution brings not only changes in business landscape, but also changes in the landscape of capabilities, organization, and talent; in addition, the experience accumulated in the previous stage lays a solid foundation for the take-off of the next stage.

The Successful Experience of Fosun’s Development:
1) After nearly 30 years of development, Fosun has completed the global deployment, industrial deployment and the exploration of C2M model. Fosun's greater ecosystem has basically been formed; Fosun's current performance growth is the result of the accumulation of past development, not simply the result of a certain stage of development; it is precisely the previous accumulation of 0 to 1 in globalization, investment, industrial operations, FC2M, etc., that organically brought about today’s achievements.

2) Fosun is constantly learning, benchmarking with others and evolving. At different stages of development, Fosun has always insisted on learning and benchmarking with others. From Goldman Sachs to GE, from Buffett to Danaher, the purpose of learning and benchmarking with others is to constantly make up for the shortcomings of Fosun’s own development. It is just that the strategic emphasis is different at different stages. Fosun has a clear, firm and comprehensive strategic panorama. The strategic decisions we make in the process of corporate development do not mean we are giving up completely, nor we are replicating our decisions, neither of which is desirable.

3) In the past 10 years, especially in the third stage of the company’s strategic evolution and implementation, Fosun has been expanding its globalization and high-potential industries. In the process of exploration, although we have gone through detours, stepped on pits and paid the price, we have completed lots of accumulation from 0 to 1. These have become Fosun’s ability to resist operational and investment risks. Now, Fosun has entered a new stage of development, many segments and industries have ushered in the harvest period and the exponential growth period, we are seeing rapid growth in revenue and profit.

4) In the next step, the segments/industries will usher from 1 to N, from turnaround to regular growth. The synergy between segments will bring about synergistic revenue and profit growth. The ecosystem and top platforms created by the Group (Fosun Alliance, Fosun Health, etc.) will provide a more vigorous development impetus for the entire Fosun system.

5) In the future, Fosun will adhere to the strategy of “Co-entrepreneurship, Multiplier Growth, and Contribution to Society”, leveraging on the FES system that encompasses operations + investment, strengthening Fosun’s synergy within the ecosystem, thereby helping the company to achieve sustainable high multiplier growth.

• Stage I: Rooting

  1992-2000

  Stage I: Rooting

  1992-2000

  Entrepreneurship: Consulting business, pharmaceuticals and real estate

• Stage II: Expansion

  2001-2007

  Stage II: Expansion

  2001-2007

  Domestic development: Through the participation in the reform of introducing mixed ownership to state-owned enterprises relying on China’s growth drivers, a comprehensive multi-industry enterprise was formed.

• Stage III: Deployment

  2008-2018

  Stage III: Deployment

  2008-2018

  Global + new industrial layout: Integrated China’s drivers with global resources to create an investment group underpinned by industries + operations.

• Stage IV: Deepening

  2019-

  Stage IV: Deepening

  2019-

  Industry operations: Strategic focus, FC2M, innovation-driven consumer group

• External factors

  Given that the reform and opening up have stepped into a new stage, the land, capital and labor mobility as well as the rise of urbanization offer a favorable condition for the start-up and development of Fosun in the key industries including pharmaceuticals and real estate.

• Internal breakthrough

  Since the establishment in 1992, Fosun has made a breakthrough in the business scope based on market survey, discovered an opportunity in the diagnostic reagents market, and entered the biological pharmacy + pharmaceutical distribution field. Fosun Pharma was listed in 1998.

  By actively grasping the market opportunity of selling commercial housing for state-owned enterprises as an agent, Fosun went into the real estate industry in China through Resource and Forte.

• Typical Case

  With the establishment of Fosun Pharma in 1994, Fosun got into the pharmaceuticals industry. Fosun Pharma was listed in 1998.

  Established in 1998, Forte quickly became a leading real estate enterprise in China.

• External factors

  In view of the state-owned enterprise reform, the opportunities brought by China’s accession to the WTO appeared. Iron and steel manufacturing, heavy industry and supermarket retail industry achieved leapfrog development, which offered a good opportunity for the participation of private enterprises into the national economic construction.

• Internal breakthrough

  Breakthroughs in the pharmaceuticals and real estate businesses: By taking over state-owned enterprises such as “Yuyuan”, “Nanjing Nangang” and “Zhaojin”, and actively building its presence in the retail and distribution, manufacturing and mining industries, a new pattern of industrial integration was achieved. The flexible management mechanism of Fosun was adopted to improve the market management quality of traditional state-owned enterprises.

  Facilitating the improvement of the value of state-owned assets: Promoted the sustained and rapid development of “Yuyuan”, “Zhaojin” and “Nanjing Nangang”.

• Typical Case

  In 2001, Fosun invested in Yuyuan.

  In 2003, Fosun invested in NSU for the entry into the manufacturing industry; Fosun invested in Sinopharm for the entry into the pharmaceutical distribution field.

  In 2004, Forte was listed. Fosun invested in Zhaojin Mining to improve the upstream and downstream integration.

  In 2007, Fosun International and Zhaojiin Mining were listed.

• External factors

  The financial crisis sweeping the world; steady development of China’s macro economy; upgrading of the health, finance and consumption industries; acceleration of the “globalization” process; “investment in China” becoming a hot topic; and rapid development of the mobile internet.

• Internal breakthrough

  In 2017, Fosun put forward the strategy to focus on family customers.

  Fosun’s internationalization strategy achieved a breakthrough.

  Fosun actively stayed tuned on the opportunities of“Combining China’s growth momentum with global resources” in the fields of global pharmaceuticals, fashion, tourism, real estate, finance and consumption to build “insurance-oriented comprehensive financial capability”: invested in insurance companies such as Fidelidade, Peak Re and AmeriTrust to enhance its presence in the insurance industry.

  In 2018, Fosun restructured Yuyuan and held a controlling stake in Yuyuan Inc.

• Typical Case

  In 2010, Fosun acquired Club Med.

  In 2011, Fosun invested in Sanyuan.

  In 2012, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance commenced business.

  In 2013, Fosun invested in Foshan Chancheng Central Hospital.

  In 2013 and 2014, Fosun invested in insurance companies such as Fidelidade, Peak and AmeriTrust.

  In 2016, Fosun Tourism Group was established. It was listed in Hong Kong in 2018.

  In 2017, Fosun Fashion Group was established.

  In 2018, Fosun restructured and controlled Yuyuan.

• External factors

  Artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other digital and intelligent technologies make it possible to have an insight into and meet individualized consumer demands. The industrial internet becomes a new trend and a new function.

• Internal breakthrough

  The first year of industry operations

  Clear positioning: Built an “innovation-driven consumer group” and put forward the “focus” strategy and FC2M. Completed the investment in Babytree, Jiayuan.com, Boohee.com, Dongjia, Fosun Health Plus and other vertical C2M platforms.

  Ecological multiplier: Promoted the listing of Fosun Tourism Group and Henlius, and gave full play to ecological multiplier effects of existing industries of the Group.

• Typical Case

  In 2019, Henlius was listed.

  In 2019, Fosun invested in Seagull and Shanghai Watch to actively support the transformation and upgrading of state-owned enterprises and exert multiplier effects.

  In 2020, Fosun invested in Boohee.com and established Fosun Health Plus.