Mengzi Yuanchuang Founder Li Hongwei: The future competition in the catering industry is a tough battle of organizational evolution.

Ask AI · How can organizational evolution become the key for foodservice businesses to break through growth bottlenecks?

On March 25, the 2026 China Foodservice Industry Festival and the 35th HCC Global Foodservice Industry Expo, co-hosted by the World Chinese Cuisine Federation and Hongcan.com, was held at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center. Among them, at the “2026 China Food Ingredients Development Forum,” Li Hongwei, founder of Mengziyuan, delivered his views under the theme “The Breakthrough Battle of a Bowl of Rice Noodles.”

△ Li Hongwei, founder of Mengziyuan

Li Hongwei believes that in the future, competition in foodservice is not about products or traffic, but a hard-fought battle of organizational evolution. The reasons why strategy can’t land, the market can’t be conquered, and the team can’t be built are also issues of organizational capability. Only through organizational change and evolution can a company remain prosperous for generations.

He also emphasized that if the company’s top leader does not learn, the team cannot learn. Only by adhering to long-termism and continuously going deeper and making talent truly proficient can the organization become strong. In this process, the team must keep its goals aligned and its aspirations high, and mobilize the initiative of executives and other employees.

Why break through? He said that a business can’t just hold on and survive; only by going on the offensive can it keep growing. For example, Mengziyuan adopts a “fill what’s missing and look for what’s lacking” approach, continuously breaking through bottlenecks. Since its 26 years, Mengziyuan has stayed on the rice-noodle track, never changing. Even if it is hard to do, it must keep going and keep iterating.

How to break through? Breaking through is organizational evolution. Relying on traffic for short-term development is temporary; long-term breakthroughs still have to rely on organizational evolution. Foodservice “involution,” from the surface, looks like competition; from the deeper level, it is a problem of organization.

In Li Hongwei’s view, the starting point for breaking through is organization. Traffic is expensive and costs are high—those are appearances. The real ceiling of growth depends on the ceiling of organizational capability. Based on his observation, among publicly listed foodservice companies, those with very strong profits often also have very strong organizational capability and talent systems, spending a great deal of time and effort on attracting talent and training personnel.

The second point for breaking through is moving up from product dividends to organizational dividends. Winning with products is momentary; winning with organization lasts forever. “Today, having a good product alone isn’t enough. You must make everything great, and even have abilities that exceed the competitor by 10 times—you can only move forward.” Li Hongwei said.

The third point for breaking through is that breakthrough equals organizational evolution. Reflecting on Mengziyuan’s past 26 years, even if the strategy is strong, if the organization is weak, the strategy can’t be implemented on the ground. Without the foundation of organizational strength, everything is an illusion.

As for the essence of breaking through, Li Hongwei believes it is “true organizational capability.” Foodservice is an industry of long-termism, so it needs greater organizational stability. Store stability leads to faster responses to changes in the market.

This kind of organizational capability specifically includes self-driven, evolutionary, and operational types. The “three-type organization” can do things from start to finish and take responsibility for the entire operation. These three driving forces also bring very high efficiency to Mengziyuan.

When it comes to the core of breaking through, Li Hongwei believes there are four points.

First, operational talent is the foundation of growth. The company’s first step is to build a transformation from management-oriented talent to operational-oriented talent. Management-oriented talent is often passive, while operational talent can truly give the company vitality.

Second, agile coordination. A closely connected system can break through communication barriers, enabling the headquarters to shift from control to empowerment, and enabling stores to shift from execution to operation. Everything is centered on the customer. Transform a hierarchical, tiered structure into a concentric circle organization.

Third, mechanism engines—ignite people’s hearts. Mechanisms determine decisions, and iterative mechanisms allow the organization to progress quickly.

Fourth, a long-term culture. Corporate culture is the root; keep the craftsmanship of the product. Mengziyuan adheres to long-termism, born for rice noodles—doing only rice noodles for a lifetime.

Author: Hongcan Editorial Department