One Lever of Life is the Ability to Integrate Resources

It’s rumored, it’s said.

Mengniu's boss, Niu Gensheng, spent many years working at Yili before striking out on his own. He ran an ad declaring that he'd make Mengniu the "Number Two Dairy in Inner Mongolia." People heard that and were like, "That's pretty badass." Everyone thought, "Well, being second after Yili must be a pretty good deal." He then went to dairy farmers across Inner Mongolia and proposed partnerships: "I'll take all the milk your factories produce, pay you market rates, and you just sell to us." He also partnered with cow farms and milk processing plants. Plus, he reached out to logistics truck drivers, saying, "We've got stable, reliable orders—just deliver for us." Of course, the actual execution was far more complicated, but what he did was leverage and integrate resources from all sides for his own benefit. That's the essence of leverage.