Ren Zhengfei: What is a leader? A glimmer of light guides everyone, out of the dark

Share the notes on leaders' development "ID: gotolead"

1

Talk about the entrepreneurial process

Kenichiro Yoshida: I heard that you started your business at the age of 44. Did you set a goal at the beginning: Huawei must become the number one manufacturer in the world?

ren zhengfei: no. Starting a business in your 4 s is because life has changed its track. I am not familiar with the market economy and can't live, so I have to find a way out. How to survive at that time. From the high point of life to the bottom, I have to survive, but also to support my parents, wife and children. I can't find a place to use me, and I am not reconciled. I have to start a business.

when I started my business, I didn't have any money. My husband and wife always got a job change fee of RMB 3,, but it takes RMB 2, to register a company, so we need to raise funds. So, when I set up the company, I didn't have any money. When I started, my own salary was 5 yuan RMB per month, and I needed to support my whole family. My early goal was to survive.

at that time, we didn't know the world, and we didn't know the communication industry. Therefore, I want to be a great leader since I was a child, and I want to be the world's number one when I start a business, which is not realistic. Once a person succeeds, it is easy for the media to package his greatness. They didn't see us scurrying around. When starting a business, the pressure is huge, the living conditions are poor, and I have no idea what a market economy is. I just got out of the army and thought it was cheating to earn other people's money. After several years of development, the company began to enter the fast lane. The faster, the more contradictions, the intersection of various problems, the complete inability, and the near collapse of the spirit. Before 2, I was a hypochondriac and tried to commit suicide many times. Every time I tried to commit suicide, I called Chairman Sun (note: Sun Yafang, chairman of Huawei for nearly 2 years: chairman of Huawei in 1999 and left office in March 218). At that time, I knew it was morbid, and I knew that I could not bear such great social pressure when I asked for help at a critical moment.

Some young CEOs of big companies abroad, who have developed faster than us, can't stand the pressure now and ask me how I got here. In fact, everyone's psychological state is different at different times, and we never thought of being the world's number one problem in the past. Sometimes when I say "to survive", I don't mean the economy completely, but also the mind. The myth of the outside world is that we are not in line with the truth. The truth is that we are helpless.

Until 26, when we had dinner in Xibei Youmian Village, we were sitting in the hall, and many peasant girls from Inner Mongolia villages were singing. I invited them to sing, and a song cost 3 dollars. I see that they are so excited, optimistic and love life so much that poor farmers want to survive. Why don't I want to survive?

I shed a lot of tears that day, and I never wanted to commit suicide again. At that time, we adjusted our strategic objectives. Thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Huawei people have been focusing on the same "city wall mouth", and the annual research and development expenditure is 15-2 billion US dollars. No listed company in the world is willing to invest such a large sum of money in research and development. At this time, the idea of serving all mankind came into being.

In the last decade or so, we have made up our minds to go to the forefront of the world, but we are not the first in the world. The "first" is made up for us by society. For the click-through rate of the Internet, the outside world mythologized us when describing us. "In my mother's belly, I want to dominate the world, get good grades in primary schools, have ideals in universities, and want to be a general as a soldier ...".

Actually, I was fun before the second day of junior high school, and my grades were not good, so my parents couldn't control us. Later, when I was a soldier, I was not an excellent soldier. My family background was not poor and middle peasants, so I couldn't be reused. I didn't think about becoming a general. Therefore, when I have another dream, I can't dream great at the beginning. It is only after we have gone through a very bumpy road that we begin to define our own development direction.

actually, I'm not smart. My mother is a primary school principal. She always takes my hand home after school and tells me which students have good grades and how to be good. At that time, I didn't feel anything. Until today, I realized that my mother was "steelmaking" at that time, and she hated iron for not turning into steel. At the beginning, she was so numb that she didn't understand it at all and spent her life foolishly. Don't myth me online, I may be so open because of incompetence.

2

Talking about selective communication

Kenichiro Yoshida: Thank you very much for being frank with your ideas. You are very modest. You just said that you started your business in order to survive. Why did you choose the communication field?

ren zhengfei: our choice of communication is entirely accidental, not inevitable. At that time, we thought that the communication industry was very big, and we could survive with a little work. We didn't know that the communication industry was so standardized and the technical standards were so high. Maybe our life would be easier if we moved to other industries. However, we have already embarked on this road. At that time, if we returned, we would have no money and we would have to pay off our debts, so we had to bite the bullet and come down.

It happened that the world electronics industry was in transition in the 199s, from analog circuits to digital circuits. Digital circuits are much simpler than analog circuits, and our small company can do something. Japan has been very successful in analog circuits. If we had made operational amplifiers at that time, it would have been impossible. Pulse circuit, small companies have a little possibility. At that time, the whole world communication, including electronic industry, was in a backward state, and there was still a little market for backward products. Therefore, in the process of following the development of the world, we gradually earned a little money and grew up.

it is not wise to choose communication, but we really don't know how difficult this road is. If we had known that communication was so difficult, we might have to pay our own lives, then we wouldn't have taken this road. There are many opportunities, and you can choose other paths. Therefore, the choice of communication is accidental. If you take this road, there will be no way back.

The last time I talked with TSMC Zhang Zhongmou, he asked, "Why do we take different paths?" I said, first, Taiwan Province opened early. He has more than 2 years of experience in studying and working in the United States and has seen how the big electronics industry in the United States has grown. Taiwan Province developed more than 2 years earlier than the mainland and accumulated capital, so the Taiwan Province government can provide him with $2 million to start a business. Before the opening-up and reform, there was basically no big industry in China, and there was no accumulation of talents and experience, let alone capital. When we started our business, the government not only had no money to support us, but also had to pay 2, yuan when we registered the company.

Second, in the mid-198s, the world developed very rapidly after entering the computer age. We don't understand computers, nor do children, but they are young. If we don't embrace them, we can't complete the iteration of metabolism. After they come in, if they treat 1 yuan like "migrant workers" and give them money, they will definitely leave, and our technology will not be accumulated. We invented a method to distribute the stock to everyone. Everyone thought that every brick of the Great Wall had his share, and when he left, it would be gone, so everyone stayed. At the same time, the company also accumulated some capital through stock subscription. It was an expedient measure at that time, but I didn't expect it to become a mechanism later.

In the early days of the company, some of our employees couldn't do it, but why were there so many stocks? Because I have no money to pay him, I will give him stocks. Of course, we now have a standardized rights issue mechanism, but there was no mechanism in the early days, and workers also owned a lot of stocks. The internal shareholding system was also a mechanism that had no environment and conditions at that time. After more than 2 years of improvement, it has now become a very effective mechanism.

We are a typical poor entrepreneurial model without knowledge and technology. At that time, we were poor. In the face of the new information society, I was a man without knowledge. I had to embrace knowledge and capital, and I could only adopt this method.

Kenichiro Yoshida: The choice of communication industry is not inevitable but accidental, which is quite surprising for us.

ren zhengfei: I didn't study communication myself. I majored in architecture in university. I taught myself all electronic technologies. After graduating from college, my first occupation was to raise pigs. At that time, college students had to be re-educated by workers, peasants and soldiers. It happened that I was assigned to the cookhouse squad to raise pigs, which was to use the electronic technology I taught myself during that time. Therefore, the choice of communication industry is accidental. I don't understand this industry too much, so I thought it would be easy to do it, so I squeezed in. China's real estate is booming, so I should choose to be a contractor and earn money faster.

3

Talking about Huawei's development model

Kenichiro Yoshida: I heard that Huawei is developing in such a way that the domestic market starts from the countryside and gradually develops to the county, municipal and provincial levels. Overseas global market, from backward countries to developing countries, and finally into developed countries, is this the development model?

ren zhengfei: no, it's not our strategy to go from rural areas to cities. it's the media's own packaging and publicity. At first, our products could not meet high standards and could not be sold in developed areas. In fact, we wanted to attack "Tokyo" from the beginning, but we couldn't get in, which didn't mean that we took the countryside as our strategic goal. If we take the countryside as a strategic goal, even if we do a good job in the countryside, we still can't get into Tokyo.

So, in the process of going to "Tokyo", we can't do some things, but we can "lay eggs along the way" first. If we only focus on backward markets and then focus on developed markets after success, when you finish the countryside, it will have been abandoned by the times, because the times are developing too fast. When the product is ready, it will be sold to whoever buys it.

4

Talking about the bubble crisis

Kenichiro Yoshida: Around 2, the IT bubble collapsed, and some big companies in the communications industry also changed greatly. For example, Motorola disappeared, Alang had many integrations, and Nokia was weaker than before. What's your opinion and comment on overseas communication enterprises?

ren zhengfei: when the IT bubble burst, Huawei was also in a very serious crisis, not only external crisis, but also internal crisis. At that time, our ideological system, management system and administrative system were still fragmented, and many people took the company's resources to start businesses outside and did not bear the company's risks and responsibilities. This situation also existed. External risks, like all western companies, we have encountered the waterloo of the market.

We held a meeting of 4 senior cadres at the last straw, and studied clausewitz's On War. What is a leader? In the vast darkness, a glimmer of light shines on the way forward and guides everyone to out of the dark. At that time, we were on the verge of collapse, and more than 4 people United and got out of this predicament at the most difficult time of the company. We have only been in this tragic situation for fifteen or six years.

We sent a large number of people overseas to fight for the market. The slogan of sending them overseas is very solemn and stirring. "There are loyal bones everywhere in the castle peak, so why they died with their boots on?" A strong man may never come back. At that time, the whole of Africa was in an environment of turmoil and war. In this country of Russia, we changed four presidents, and the fourth president made the world's first foreign trade contract-36 dollars. We started from that situation. Today we can reach $11 billion in sales revenue, don't forget "the brilliance of $36".

Kenichiro Yoshida: The IT bubble is definITely a crisis for Huawei, but it is after the IT bubble that Huawei opened the gap with other western companies. Do you agree with me?

ren zhengfei: I think the IT bubble is a crisis for us, and of course it is also a crisis for the west. At that time, we made up our minds to retreat to the lowest position and move forward. There was a strategy called "chicken rib strategy", and chicken ribs were the most meatless.

At that time, Nortel made the biggest mistake on the issue of light. Because the excess light transmission was very cheap, many companies gave up. Relatively speaking, the low-end optical transmission technology is relatively simple, so we will concentrate on looking for opportunities here. We have reached the lowest point, and there is no way to retreat. In areas that others do not do, we choose to seize the "chicken ribs" and strive to develop. At that time, we should rank dozens in the world. With the success of low-end optical transmission, we can take the lead in optical communication today.

5

Talking about management philosophy

Kenichiro Yoshida: Sony has a history of 72 years since its establishment. I am the 11th president, and I started to work in April this year. I mainly learned three points from Mr. Morita, the founder of Sony: first, I need to have a sense of crisis; Second, we need to maintain a modest attitude; Third, we must have a long-term vision. Ren Zong, is your philosophy similar to this?

ren zhengfei: basically similar. But I think the first point should be a sense of direction, including the sense of direction of customer demand and the sense of direction of future technological innovation. Of course, technological innovation is actually customer demand and future customer demand. Constantly adjust the direction, and the direction should be roughly correct. The direction does not necessarily require absolute correctness, and the absolutely correct direction does not exist, which is too mechanical dogma.

second, the organization should be full of vitality, which is basically consistent with the three points mentioned by Kenichiro Yoshida. Therefore, we should dare to organize and update iteratively with personnel internally. For example, our combat organization should ensure that a certain proportion of grassroots personnel participate in the decision-making level, and the "strategic decision" of the top command allows a small number of new employees to participate; The next level is called "campaign decision-making", such as regional decision-making and product decision-making. Not only new employees, but also low-ranking employees should occupy a certain proportion. We implement the principle of "three-thirds system" at all levels, and let some excellent "second-class soldiers" participate in the highest decision-making as soon as possible.

In the past, people rejected them. Some people asked, "What are the recruits doing at the highest decision-making level?" It's ok to help the leader "carry the bag". He attended the meeting, even though he didn't understand a lot of the content, but his head was open, he understood the future battle ahead of time, and they were still young. The new forces, like "catfish", activated the whole school of fish. Therefore, iterative updating is easy. We are not worried about having no cadres, but that there are too many reserve cadres to arrange his work. If there are too many reserve cadres, serving cadres will not be lazy, otherwise they will be easily replaced by others.

6

On the rotation system

Kenichiro Yoshida: Huawei's internal shareholding system and rotation mechanism are quite unique.