I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to present at Manual of Ideas’ upcoming Best Ideas 2021 online conference. The company I’ll be discussing is the Hong Kong-listed and China-based Haidilao (HK: 6862). This article you’re reading now is a short introduction to Zhang Yong, Hadilao’s co-founder and current leader. What I want to do is to present translations of some of my favourite passages from a 2011 book on Zhang Yong and Haidilao. The book is in Mandarin and is titled “海底捞,你学不会.” Iin English, it means “You Can’t Copy Haidilao”. First, some background Hotpot is a popular meal among the Chinese. It involves people – often friends and family – sitting around a big pot of flavourful boiling broth to cook by dipping food items into the broth. Haidilao’s business lies in running its namesake chain of hotpot restaurants. At the end of 2019, the company had 716 restaurants in China and another 52 in other countries and territories around...