Chapter 21 "Potential priority" talent strategy

Richard Dupree, president of Procter & Gamble, said: "If you take away people from P&G, but leave money, houses and brands, P&G will fail; if you take away money, houses and brands from P&G, but leave Talent, after 10 years, there will be another Procter & Gamble." Bill Gates also said: "If we poach our top 20 talents, then I tell you, Microsoft will become an insignificant company." The 21st century is the era of knowledge economy, and high-quality talents become the "pillars" of the enterprise, reflecting the core competitiveness of the enterprise.In the high-tech industry, talents play a pivotal role.Huawei, which is expanding, has hoarded a large number of talents, and these talents have provided a steady stream of power for Huawei's rise.

Huawei's talent strategy is different. It does not only focus on academic qualifications and experience, but on ability and potential. It is completely a Western-style talent management concept, which forms a major feature of Huawei. There is a catfish story that is instructive.It is about a long time ago, Norwegians fished sardines from the deep sea.After the fisherman came back from the sea, he always found that many sardines were dead, and only one fisherman's sardines were basically not dead.People were curious, so they asked the fisherman for advice.The fisherman said: "I know that sardines are more difficult to survive, so I put a catfish in the water. The swimming of the catfish stimulated the vitality of the sardines, so that all my sardines can return to the port alive." "The Catfish Effect".

I have been used to living a leisurely and comfortable life for a long time. Without the pressure of competition, people will become lazy and their fighting spirit will drop sharply.In the brutal market competition, a team without high morale is worrying. It is for this reason that Ren Zhengfei introduced the "catfish effect" in Huawei. In January 1996, Ren Zhengfei made a move that shocked the industry: All full-time cadres in the marketing department—from the president of the marketing department to the directors of various regional offices, and all cadres above the director of the office had to submit two reports: the work report and resignation report.The company adopts the method of competitive recruitment, and only approves one of the reports according to its performance, development potential and enterprise development needs.In the competitive assessment, about 30% of the cadres were replaced.This is the major event that shocked the entire Chinese business community - the collective resignation of the marketing department cadres.

Why did Ren Zhengfei resort to such a "vicious" move?Those are all old subordinates who have followed him to start a business, and they have worked hard without credit.Is it so inhumane? Ren Zhengfei said: "Huawei's development in the early stage was based on the behavior of entrepreneurs, seizing opportunities and striving to lead; and entering the development stage, it must rely on standardized management and talents who understand management." In Huawei, the marketing department is the most glorious department, holding huge profits.Every cadre in the marketing department has come here through "experience", and those who fight for the country should be the ones who are in the country. This is the traditional concept of the Chinese.Without the hard work of the marketing staff, there would be no glory for Huawei.Many people have worked there for many years and put in a lot of hard work. This sudden decision is really unacceptable.But if you keep your word, it's hard to get overwhelmed.

In the early days of Huawei's start-up, its products had low technological content and a single market structure. Sales depended on the desperate spirit of "coyotes" to do well in the market. After 1995, Huawei's switches were successfully developed and entered a stage of rapid development in which the development and sales of independent products were the profit model. Technology and services were put in the first place, so the traditional sales methods needed to be changed urgently. Marketing President Mao Shengjiang was not spared either.Not long after Mao Shengjiang joined Huawei, he served as the development project manager for the sales of C&C08 switches, participated in research and development, and then switched to marketing.The first business he talked about was the first switch project in Northeast China with a capacity of more than 20,000 switches, with a contract value of 10 million yuan. In November 1995, Mao Shengjiang began to serve as acting president of the marketing department.This sudden decision means that the fruits of his hard work may go to waste.He couldn't accept it at first, but after a short period of pain, he regained his spirit, started from scratch, and began to "reborn". On January 18, 2000, Mao Shengjiang was appointed Executive Vice President of Huawei.

Ren Zhengfei has a saying: "The bird that can't be burned is the phoenix." Many people in Huawei call Mao Shengjiang "Mao Phoenix" or "Mao Renfeng" in private. A senior leader once asked Mao Shengjiang jokingly, are you a burner? Immortal bird?At that time, Mao Shengjiang, who was physically and mentally exhausted, replied: "There is no bird in the world that cannot be burned." In 2002, Mao Shengjiang resigned and became the vice president in charge of marketing of Shangyang Technology. Zhang Jianguo, the vice president, also has a special feeling in his heart during this campaign.After finally fighting for a piece of the world, he wanted to retreat again, but he had no choice but to reluctantly give up.Later, he was transferred to be the director of human resources, and then he was promoted continuously. In 2000, Zhang Jianguo left Huawei, where he had worked for 10 years, to study human resource management at MIT.Gold-plated, he took this valuable experience and established Yihua Times Management Consulting Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen after returning to China.

In January 2000, Ren Zhengfei spoke highly of this movement in his speech commemorating the 4th anniversary of the "collective resignation". "The collective resignation of the marketing department has a profound and far-reaching impact on the company's present and future. Any nation, any organization, as long as there is no metabolism, life will stop. If we take into account the history of each hero, then It will ruin the company's future. If there is no impact on Huawei's corporate culture brought about by the collective resignation of the marketing department, any advanced management and advanced systems will not be able to take root in Huawei."

Ren Zhengfei made good use of the "catfish effect" by resigning collectively and then competing for employment, reactivating the vitality of the marketing department and preparing for Huawei's vigorous development into the future. Traditionally, China is a large agricultural country, and the stability of agriculture has accumulated a lot of experience, known as the "experienced country".Experience is paramount, and seniority is ranked based on experience. This influence still exists until now.Many companies pay great attention to work experience in recruitment, and those with experience are preferred.But Huawei is different. It pays the most attention to the overall quality and development potential of its employees.Ren Zhengfei always believes that "a creative talent can bring more customers to the company."

Hu Hongwei graduated from University of Science and Technology of China in 1991.Huawei happened to go there to recruit new employees back then, and he successfully passed the recruitment exam and entered Huawei.Hu Hongwei majored in precision instruments at university, and Huawei mainly makes communication products, so he was a little worried that his major was not suitable for him.However, this has not been an obstacle to his development.He started from the lowest level, participated in the research and development of Huawei's C&C08 digital program-controlled switch as a technician and assistant engineer, and later served as the chief of the product trial production section, the chief of the planning and scheduling section, and the manager of the production department.In less than four years, he was continuously promoted due to his outstanding ability. In 1995, he was promoted to vice president of Huawei.Hu Hongwei has grown from a "layman" to a vice president, and Huawei is interested in his development potential.

Huawei recruits many college students from university campuses every year. In order to give them opportunities to exercise, we send them to the melting pot of society, and let them go to the market first. "Sales is an unforgettable experience, and a life without sales is incomplete." Huawei's marketing personnel often say this sentence. In 2000, there were more than 40 students in a graduating class of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications majoring in telecommunications, and 39 people were recruited by Huawei.In that year, more than 30 people graduated from the radio major of Southeast University, and 25 people joined Huawei.This grand occasion of recruiting people in a whole class has been frequently staged since 1996 when Huawei entered a stage of great development.Huawei is so keen on recruiting graduates because Ren Zhengfei is willing to reuse college students who have just stepped out of school. They are pure, persistent, full of passion, not afraid of hardship, and most willing to sacrifice.

Among Huawei's sales staff, students who have just left school are often more successful than those with sales experience and rich life experience.Front-line sales staff are usually limited to 3 years, and may be transferred from this position before 3 years.When the time limit expired, it was impossible to continue working.Ren Zhengfei said: "I want to ensure that the people on the front line will always be full of passion and vitality!" Due to the lack of experience of new employees, the potential needs to be tapped through training, so Huawei spends a lot on employee training every year.Huawei has established training bases all over the country and even overseas. In addition to base training, there are also mutual training among employees, and an ideological mentor system has also been established. There is a rule within Huawei: Once a job vacancy occurs or a new job is created, the internal recruitment information column is used to recruit, and a competition meeting is held on the spot for the applicants. Each candidate will give a speech for 15 minutes, and then the judges and the audience will ask questions on the spot. Form a review committee with expert think tanks, conduct comprehensive evaluations based on the competition reports submitted by the candidates, the quality of the proposals, and on-site performance, score on-site, and make appointments on the spot. Ren Zhengfei's practice of "lowering talents in an eclectic manner" has activated Huawei's development vitality, enhanced employees' confidence in hard work, and injected vitality into Huawei's development. As we all know, the army is the most professional team, and only a high degree of professionalism can guarantee never-failing combat effectiveness. With continuous development and growth, the loopholes in Huawei's professional management have become increasingly prominent. "Huawei is a group of Tuba roads who came out of the green gauze tent. They are still accustomed to the working method of burying mines and setting up artillery towers. They are not used to professional, form-based, template-based, and standardized management. Duplicated labor and overlapping management still exist. That’s a lot, and that’s where the inefficiency comes from.” Before 1998, there were two main ways for Huawei to promote cadres: front-line promotion and merit-based promotion.Fireline's promotion relies on "Bole"'s insight to identify talents. The selected cadres focus on business aspects, and there are fewer assessments on corporate culture recognition and overall quality.According to the degree of contribution, promote those who have made significant contributions to market development and technology research and development. However, in addition to professional expertise, managers need coordination skills, strategizing skills, and resilience to deal with crises. Quality.Therefore, both promotion methods have disadvantages. With the development of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei has gradually realized this problem. "In the past few years, due to the rapid development, we promoted many people. At that time, we made the mistake of 'Joe Taishou messing up the mandarin ducks'. Not all the cadres we selected were in line with scientific management laws. Therefore, we must The qualification work should be done solidly to the end, and a reasonable system will be formed within 3 to 5 years, and the company will have the hope of surviving.” In 1998, on the basis of drawing lessons from IBM's experience, Huawei cooperated with the British National Vocational Qualifications Committee (NVQ) to implement a qualification system in Huawei.This system mainly includes three aspects: career development channel design, occupational ability level standard formulation and occupational level certification. Ren Zhengfei sent Zhang Jianguo, the vice president, to the UK to study the professional qualification certification system.After returning to China, mainly for Huawei's secretarial personnel, carry out enterprise administrative management qualification certification. In accordance with the advanced corporate administrative management standard system of NVQ in the UK, Huawei began to establish the company's personnel management and personnel training system, determined the goal of standardization and professionalization of secretarial work, revised and refined the qualification standards for secretarial work according to the actual situation of the company, and established a Set up Huawei's characteristic qualification evaluation system.In addition, a qualification certification department has been established in each department to form a dedicated training team. By participating in the NVQ assessment, employees' work achievements have been recognized, their self-worth has been reflected, and their work initiative has rapidly increased.This has also promoted the improvement of the company's overall management level, and improved the overall efficiency and competitiveness. Based on the British model, Huawei has designed a "5-level dual channel", which is divided into technical channels and administrative channels.Both channels start from grassroots salesmen and develop into backbones. The backbone level is 2.Then there is a bifurcation between the two. From low to high, the administrative channel level is the grassroots, middle-level, and high-level managers; the technical channel is the core backbone, experts, and senior experts. A Level 2 employee can only become a Level 3 manager if he or she has qualified at a certain professional level.After obtaining the level 2 technical qualification, technicians can choose the management channel or the technical channel for development.Once he grows into a senior technical expert, he can enjoy the salary and treatment of vice president level even if he does not hold a management position.This completely breaks away from the traditional talent evaluation standards, and uses ability as the yardstick to ensure fairness and form a benign incentive mechanism. All managers, whether they are "veterans" or "new recruits", must constantly improve and improve according to the gap between their abilities and professional standards.They must "hold a certificate to work", and those who do not reach level 4 qualifications are not allowed to be department directors; those who do not reach level 5 cannot hold positions above the company's vice president. Through vocational qualification certification, although Huawei cannot cultivate a talented "Li Yinan", it has cultivated thousands of highly professional and refined employees. Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo Group, said: "Labor is a commodity, and labor as a commodity requires a market economy system. Small companies do things, big companies behave, and talents are the highest commodity and the most risky commodity." Management scholar Stig said: "You can't engage in egalitarianism. Equalitarianism punishes good performance and encourages poor performance. What you get is a bad workforce." Although Huawei has a high salary, entering Huawei does not mean that there will be a high income, it depends on the contribution.When Ren Zhengfei evaluates employees, he focuses on development potential and contributions rather than academic qualifications and experience? ? ? , which also illustrates this point.He said: "Evaluating employees by their contributions rather than their knowledge is the objective basis for the fairness and fairness of the enterprise's evaluation system and value distribution system." In the early days of his business, Ren Zhengfei often promoted talents based on their abilities.There are many young people who are promoted. He often said: "You are young, you can't be overwhelmed, and if you have a problem, you will be reminded and corrected." In the high-tech industry, it is generally difficult to advance without a high degree of education. However, Huawei has not only promoted many highly educated talents, but also promoted high school students who have studied college. It also reuses engineers who have accumulated talents through years of work.Huawei does not test theory, but test operational ability.Therefore, having education and knowledge is an advantage, and those without education have no inferiority complex.This assessment mechanism forces everyone to paddle hard and strive for progress. Before new employees take up their jobs, they are determined according to factors such as education background and grades; after they have passed the training and are formally employed, their salaries are evaluated according to their contributions to the company.At this time, it is no longer based on academic qualifications, but on "heroes" based on contributions. Huawei implements an elimination system internally, and employees also face this pressure after they officially start their jobs. Warren Baynes, a well-known professor of business management, said: "Employee training is the strategic investment with the least risk and the greatest return." Huawei likes college students who have just graduated from school, because they are young, full of passion and vitality.But to tap into their potential, training is needed.Ren Zhengfei said: "Huawei's biggest advantage and disadvantage are its youth, because it is young and full of vitality; because it is young, it has many childish diseases and lacks professional management." Now, with the development of computer networks, ordinary individuals can have an extraordinary impact, and a single decimal point error can lead to the nuclear leakage tragedy of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union.Ordinary employees form a team, and we must pay attention to the quality of employees.Therefore, Ren Zhengfei emphasized the implementation of a "low center of gravity" training strategy. "We must pay attention to the training of ordinary employees and ordinary positions. We must practice basic skills hard and train excellent fitters, electricians, kitchen workers, warehouse workers...engineers, secretaries, planners, statisticians, business managers...everyone, every Every job has basic skills.” In view of this, Huawei has established a comprehensive employee training system.Huawei's employee training system includes new employee training system, management training system, technical training system, marketing training system, professional training system and production training system.The main methods of training are: classroom teaching, case teaching, computer operation, engineering maintenance practice and network teaching, etc. In Huawei, not only employees have to be trained before they start their jobs, but also on-the-job training and laid-off training.Timely training enables employees to keep up with the ever-changing needs and make better contributions to the company's development. The general process of new employee training is: the first step is to receive comprehensive training on corporate culture and related systems and regulations, and this link is to teach how to behave."Let you know the company's philosophy and the company's way of life" through the testimony of ordinary employees and senior leaders.The next step is skills training, teaching how to do things.The first camp of market entry training is not to teach sales skills, but to teach products, starting from communication principles to factory visits.It is not enough to just let the newcomers know the technology. After 3 months, the newcomers are sent to the front line of "customer service" to work with the customer service engineers in the local area to really grasp what customers are thinking. After 3 months, they are transferred back to the headquarters.Entering the second camp, learning the market and customer service, watching films and VCDs, listening to the teacher's introduction in detail, communicating with each other, and being placed in the customer service exhibition hall, explaining products to customers, etc., and accepting different tests according to different positions. During the entire training process, new employees are mainly learning, and this training investment alone costs a lot. Huawei does not lay off employees easily, and provides laid-off training for unqualified employees, and then re-employs after passing the qualifications. One day in July 2000, employee Ge Jian began a period of laid-off training.Just when he thought he had made some progress, he received a training notice.After hesitating, he accepted the decision.With the help of many tutors, he realized his own problems, and went to the factory to participate in the production for 5 weeks. With the help of his master, he made rapid progress.After the training, he returned to work, and his work efficiency improved rapidly. Huawei's training target is very wide, including not only the company's employees, but also the customer's technical maintenance and installation personnel; not only in China, but also in overseas bases.At the same time, a network training academy has also been established to train the reserve army. Huawei actively provides technical training for customers, which not only improves the self-maintenance level of customers, but also captures more market share for Huawei, which can be described as "killing two birds with one stone". Through all-round training, the potential of Huawei employees has been tapped, and work efficiency has improved rapidly.The huge cost seems to be a waste, but in fact, "sharpening a knife is not a mistake in chopping firewood".