Chapter 36 Good at "Maoist" strategy

Although Mao Zedong has passed away, his thoughts still radiate light and heat in the land of China.Mao Zedong and his thoughts have influenced a whole generation of Chinese people.Many Chinese entrepreneurs use Mao Zedong Thought to do business, and Mao Zedong’s shadow can be found in them, such as Wang Shi of Vanke Group, Shi Yuzhu of Giant Group, and even Ren Zhengfei with a military background. Ren Zhengfei often keeps the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" handy, devoted himself to the study of Mao Zedong Thought, and used Mao Zedong Thought to formulate Huawei's development strategy.If you study Huawei's development carefully, you will find that whether it is market strategy or customer policy, whether it is competition strategy or internal management and operation, all of them are branded with "Mao Zedong Thought".Therefore, many foreign media called him "the Chinese boss who manages the enterprise with Mao Zedong Thought".

At the critical moment of the Communist Party of China's life and death, Mao Zedong boldly proposed through practice: encircle the cities from the countryside, establish rural revolutionary bases, and finally seize the cities to realize the road of national liberation.Following this route, after more than 20 years of bloody struggle, New China was finally established.Ren Zhengfei devoted himself to study and research, applied Chairman Mao's wisdom strategy to Huawei, and developed it into Huawei's version of "encircling the city from the countryside". When Huawei was first established, there were "all heroes" in the domestic market, and many of them were international established companies.Huawei has neither capital advantages nor technological advantages, so it has to look for opportunities in the cracks.For this reason, Huawei chose "weak" rural areas, and vigorously carried out "rural movements" in areas where competitors did not pay much attention, thereby establishing its own base.

In 1992, Huawei independently developed switches and equipment. At that time, foreign giants such as Alcatel, Lucent, and Nortel dominated the domestic market.Ren Zhengfei quickly conquered the city with the strategy of "surrounding the city from the countryside", and the price of communication equipment plummeted. At the end of 1996, after listening to the report on the production plan and sales plan, Ren Zhengfei believed that Huawei’s intellectuals were working behind closed doors, so he encouraged employees to continue to take the road of combining workers, peasants and soldiers, and immediately expressed that he would give it to Ge Cai, who was in charge of the production plan. Fenghe Wang Zhibin, who is in charge of the marketing plan, gave each of them a pair of new leather shoes, hoping that they would take the "road of combining with workers, peasants and soldiers."Ren Zhengfei said: "Our revolutionary predecessors have walked the mass line and the road of combining workers, peasants and soldiers for decades, and even walked in 'little shoes'. Today, we must not forget this line. We work The doctors, masters, and engineers on the front line are the workers, peasants, and soldiers of our new era, and we must go deep into it, personally, investigate and study, discover problems, and summarize the laws.”

The next day, Ge Caifeng did receive the leather shoes from Ren Zhengfei. He felt a little wronged. He had worked hard in that position for four years and thought he was doing a good job, but unexpectedly, he was criticized.Later, he reflected carefully, established a new work system, and made serious improvements.A regulation on waste disposal drafted by the production department was so long that it took three people to cooperate to complete it.After reading it, Ren Zhengfei said: "The regulations are detailed, and the operability is poor, just talking on paper." Hearing these criticisms, Ge Caifeng blushed suddenly.

While opening up the international market, Huawei once again skillfully used the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside". International large enterprises. Huawei began research and development in 1994 and officially entered the network product market in 1998.Although earlier than other domestic brands, compared with foreign giants such as Cisco, 3Com, and Nortel, Huawei is only a latecomer.It was not until around 2000 that Huawei began to implement channel sales on a large scale and recruit agents extensively.At this time, almost all domestic distributors of network products are occupied by manufacturers such as Cisco, 3Com, and D-Link, and the territory that Huawei can occupy is extremely limited.

Huawei's main competitor is Cisco.Cisco entered the domestic market early and has a strong brand influence, occupying most of the domestic market.Cisco's four distribution agents: Digital China, Jiajie Technology, Ingram Micro China, and Xiaotong Network are all very strong.Compared with Cisco, Huawei's distribution channel is still very backward, and it has little influence among integrators. In this case, Ren Zhengfei adopts the approach of "encircling the cities from the countryside", focusing on breakthroughs from the region and establishing a team of regional distributors and integrators.With this approach, Huawei quickly gained a foothold in the network market and launched an attack on competitors such as Cisco.

Relying on "encircling the cities from the countryside", Huawei's iron army has overcome many difficulties, traveled mountains and rivers, and worked hard to open up the market, ensuring Huawei's development potential. The masses of the people are the driving force for the development of history.During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, in the face of Chiang Kai-shek’s frantic siege, Mao Zedong said: “What is the real iron wall? It is the masses, the millions of people who sincerely support the revolution. This is the real iron wall, which cannot be broken by any force.” , completely indestructible." During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Mao Zedong pointed out: "The deepest root of the great power of war exists among the people."

Mao Zedong also liked to mobilize the masses to carry out criticism and self-criticism in order to solve ideological problems.Mobilizing the masses to engage in movement, the Communist Party of China won the hearts of the people and finally won the victory of the revolution. At a Huawei executive meeting, Ren Zhengfei asked everyone: "Can Mao Zedong shoot a gun? Who has seen Mao Zedong shoot a gun? But Mao Zedong can mobilize the masses and cadres." There are routine democratic life meetings within Huawei, and criticism and self-criticism are eternal themes.Ren Zhengfei said: "We must carry out organizational transformation and optimization activities centered on self-criticism. Self-criticism is not criticism for the sake of criticism, nor criticism for comprehensive negation, but criticism for optimization and construction. The overall goal is to Enhance the company's overall core competitiveness."

Therefore, Ren Zhengfei demanded that all cadres who cannot use the weapon of self-criticism cannot be promoted.Self-criticism begins with senior cadres, and senior cadres hold democratic life meetings every year. ? ?The questions raised at the life meeting are very sharp. According to reports, at the new employee symposium, the new employee asked: "President, what do you want to say to our new employees?" Ren Zhengfei replied: "Self-criticism, reborn, re-behave, and be a down-to-earth person. " In September 1995, the company launched a corporate culture discussion of "Huawei's rise and fall, my responsibility".

In December 1996, the "Huawei Basic Law" launched a large-scale discussion. The participants ranged from high-level to middle-level, and then expanded to ordinary employees.Then it expanded from within the enterprise to employees' families, cooperative units, and all walks of life. Beginning in 1996, Ren Zhengfei required middle and high-level cadres to gather together at the end of each year for a democratic life meeting to carry out criticism and self-criticism.First of all, it is a comprehensive summary of my work in the past year.Then, the rest must give you at least one comment, point out at least one shortcoming.All other departments should follow this procedure to hold their own democratic life meeting.

As soon as the new employees started to work, they heard that when the department head distributed red envelopes to the department employees at the end of the year, he would also give the department employees a "mysterious gift" at the same time.Many newcomers are eager to unravel the mystery right away.When it was time to distribute red envelopes at the end of the year, the head of the department walked over with a red envelope in his hand, smiling.The new employee Zhanger Monk was puzzled and just wanted to solve this "mystery" as soon as possible.The supervisor called the employee to a quiet place, sat down and calmly gave the "mysterious gift" to the employee.After receiving this "mysterious gift", employees must be stunned for a moment before suddenly realizing it.Before leaving, the supervisor patted the employee on the shoulder and said: "Treasure the 'mysterious gift' given to you!" In fact, this "mysterious gift" is the employee's shortcomings and suggestions for improvement.This tactful and ingenious way is deliberately arranged when red envelopes are distributed, so that employees are psychologically willing to accept it.In this way, employees have the courage to deny themselves and find out the gap. This kind of large-scale mass movement was relatively popular in the early days.But with the advent of peace, this movement should come to an end.For Huawei, which develops in peacetime, the key is to form a complete set of corporate management systems, including personnel systems and marketing systems.Removing the strong color of rule of man and forming an effective democratic decision-making and management mechanism will be a major problem for Huawei to solve.Ren Zhengfei also gradually realized these problems and began to solve them.He wants to make the life of the enterprise surpass the life of the entrepreneur, "If Mr. Ren is not around, the enterprise will still operate normally." Although Mao Zedong has not received systematic military education, he is good at strategy.He put forward a series of strategies and tactics for the army to fight, and the famous principle of mobile warfare is "stride forward and retreat, lure the enemy to go deep, concentrate forces, and defeat each one".This is in line with the fact that the enemy is strong and we are weak at that time, and it helps to preserve the revolutionary strength.Ren Zhengfei's 14-year military career has enabled him to learn this way of using troops.He connected this principle with Huawei's reality and developed the "principle of pressure." This principle requires: on the key factors of success and selected strategic growth points, allocate resources with an intensity several times higher than that of major competitors, greatly concentrate human, material and financial resources, and implement key breakthroughs. This principle applies to the weak against the strong.The weak are weak and must unite to win.Ren Zhengfei's life in the first 44 years and Huawei's 18 years of development are actually a thrilling historical drama in which the weak transform into the strong. The environment in which China's first generation of private entrepreneurs started their businesses was: a highly centralized planned economic system, where the state holds production factors and resources in its hands.Private enterprises started from scratch, with serious shortage of resources, technology, and funds. Some of them just rely on their guts. "There has never been any savior, and we don't rely on gods and emperors. We all depend on ourselves." Mao Zedong found a way for the common people.So they naturally adopted Mao Zedong's strategy and tactics, detoured, concentrated their advantages, and approached them one by one.Only in this way can we preserve our strength, survive and thrive. If you want to gain a foothold in the communication industry, young saplings are not the same as towering trees with luxuriant branches.Ren Zhengfei firmly believes that only technology can gain a foothold, so he creatively used the principle of "pressure" to make breakthroughs one by one.Huawei has concentrated all its efforts on the research and development of communication core network technologies, forming an independent core technology system. The concentration of superior forces is also reflected in Huawei's "wolf culture".In Huawei, it is far more than just a few stormtroopers on the front line who compete with competitors. Behind them is a strong support team. Some of them are responsible for designing technical solutions, some are responsible for expanding peripheral relations, and some even break into rivals internal.Once there is a need ahead, someone will immediately come up for reinforcements. Concentrating all forces and a high spirit of cooperation has promoted the development of Huawei.However, objectively speaking, this approach has become a bit outdated.The modern new technological revolution is booming and has increasingly penetrated into various fields. The mode of production has changed from extensive to intensive. The competition of modern enterprises has also shifted more to the competition of technology and talents.Huawei should also adapt to this change, "take off the old clothes and put on new clothes". During the Korean War, the soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers fought on the battlefield for a long time, and a group of heroes emerged, and Huang Jiguang was one of them.Training cadres also has to go to "Shangganling". Only after being baptized in the "battlefield" can they stand the severe test.Mao Zedong emphasized that true knowledge comes from practice. Ren Zhengfei said: "In the process of international development, we advocate the cultivation of cadres at all levels in 'Shangganling'. We must cultivate those employees who have noble moral sentiments and get rid of vulgar interests; they are loyal to the company and have a strong sense of responsibility and mission. , Professionalism, employees who regard customers as their parents; employees with good job ability and high performance; Concerned about the training and growth of female cadres, we take into account the proportion of female cadres in the training of cadres at each level. Cadres with leadership style, high quality and team appeal, with clear goals and good management structures, have been proved by practice to lead Cadres who have formed a team capable of fighting tough battles will be trained to become our successors at all levels." Ren Zhengfei said in a conversation with employees: "If a person's life is too smooth, it may be a disaster. If you pay attention, you will find that the setbacks you suffer are blessings or disasters. That's why I keep talking to the human resources department that the most important thing to hire a cadre is It is to consider whether this person has suffered major setbacks and has improved, which is a precious asset." Huawei has a famous saying, "The bird that can't be burned is the phoenix."When the marketing department resigned collectively in 1995, Ren Zhengfei used "Phoenix Nirvana" to reveal that young people must go through hardships and baptisms before they can enter a "new life". Ren Zhengfei emphasized: "Anyone who has no grassroots management experience, has never been a worker, and has never been a grassroots secretary or ordinary salesman cannot be promoted to a cadre, even a doctor. No matter how high your education is, if you do not have these practical experiences , the company will pick on you, and you can't get away with it." Huawei has continuously sent batches of high-level cadres to the market for training. Ren Zhengfei encouraged them with the stories of Gou Jian's hard work and Su Wu's story of shepherding sheep.In Huawei, almost all senior managers are not directly promoted, let alone "airborne troops".This year you are the department president, next year you may become the director of the regional office, and the year after that you may go overseas to explore new markets.It is commonplace to experience several ups and downs and several failures. The "roller coaster" transformation has created the maturity of young people in the shortest time.In the collective resignation of the marketing department in 1995, Mao Shengjiang, the acting president of the marketing department at that time, was most affected. Four years later, Ren Zhengfei re-appointed Mao Shengjiang as the vice president of the company, and called on all employees of the company to learn from him. Ren Zhengfei believes that cadres must persist in practice and train cadres through continuous exercise. He has trained all Huawei people to be good at fighting, indomitable, and give full play to their "wolf nature" courage. However, this method is unavoidably a bit too cruel, and people who are slightly weak are really unable to get up.Cruel tempering makes the person being honed physically and mentally exhausted, even mentally over-mature and begins to age.The large-scale mass movement did not give a clear reason for the promotion and promotion of cadres.Objectively speaking, this is not the best choice, and it is difficult to ensure the professionalism and stability of the cadre team.If it is unstable, it will cause instability in the army; if the degree of professionalization is not enough, it will reduce work efficiency. Therefore, Ren Zhengfei should try to find a new path.A cadre team that can not only win people's hearts and retain people, but also ensure high efficiency can bring vitality to Huawei's development. The development of things is a process of spiraling up and advancing in waves, which is what is called negation of negation in philosophy.Ren Zhengfei used negation and self-criticism to continuously improve himself and Huawei, and appeared with a new image and a new face. Ren Zhengfei doesn't care about being denied, but regards it as a kind of improvement. In 1998, Huawei's new employee training base was set up at the Municipal Party School near East Lake in Shenzhen. When Ren Zhengfei inspected the training of new employees, he sat down and said to the training managers present: "Do you know? Why is your level higher than yours?" Everyone was stunned by this question, and there was almost a minute of silence before someone answered that they didn't know. Ren Zhengfei replied: "The reason is that I can learn a little bit more than others from every experience I have, whether it is success or failure. Because I have experienced more things than you, and every harvest is also a little bit more. More than you, my level will naturally be higher than yours." As Huawei enters internationalization, Ren Zhengfei gradually realized that to integrate into internationalization, he must enter the international mainstream cultural circle.So he started to learn English.At his age, learning English is really difficult. In 2002, there were often bursts of deafening "noise" in the president's office.People outside can only tell that someone in the office is reading English aloud if they listen carefully.Ren Zhengfei's English pronunciation sounds very unpleasant, but his spirit is commendable.Ren Zhengfei also warned his subordinates: "In a few years, the official language of Huawei's board of directors must be English." Now, Ren Zhengfei starts from the residential area of ​​Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town every morning, drives for 40 minutes, and insists on learning English in the car. Ren Zhengfei has one basic requirement for successors at all levels of the enterprise: they must have the spirit of self-criticism and develop creatively in the "negation of negation". Although Ren Zhengfei has a bad temper, he has the courage to face his mistakes and actively correct them. After 2000, Ren Zhengfei denied the original "exercise mode" and began to consciously reduce the amount of "exercise" on the surface. In 2000, the internal entrepreneurship supported by Ren Zhengfei shook Huawei's morale.In order to recover the loss, Ren Zhengfei took the measure of "remedial work".Through publicity and agitation, individual persuasion, and material incentives, many people who left at that time returned to Huawei, including Mao Shengjiang, Yuan Xi and other former marketing department executives, and even Huang Can, who had fought an equity lawsuit with Huawei, also returned to Huawei. In 2006, Huawei ushered in the return of Hong Kong soldiers such as Li Yinan. Ren Zhengfei's decision-making mistakes on PHS gave his competitors an important development opportunity. After several years of reflection, he finally realized this. In 2003, Huawei quietly "entered" the PHS field that was about to decline, and saved part of the losses. He warned Huawei people: "Now we are immersed in software, but we are not doing as well as India. There is actually no strict gap between high-level and low-level software, but the difference in working methods and working habits. Do you want to optimize while thinking, or do you first research the software, plan the system, and make the documents before writing the software? These are two fundamental problems. The human characteristic is to sit down and do documentation and system analysis first, and then make software. What should we do if we are not used to it? We can only criticize ourselves and absorb the best working methods in the industry.” Another ingenious move by Ren Zhengfei is to turn waste products into prizes. On September 1, 2000, Huawei held an "Award Ceremony" for R&D personnel.Hundreds of R&D backbones were named and stepped onto the rostrum one by one.This special prize includes the scrapped products caused by human factors such as work mistakes, unclear BOM filling, and not strict testing during the research and development process over the past few years, as well as air tickets, train tickets, various Expense documents, etc.Ren Zhengfei asked them to take these "prizes" home, put them in a conspicuous place in the living room, and check them often. Self-criticism and self-denial have become a red thread running through Ren Zhengfei's thinking.Ren Zhengfei used "negation" to create "Huawei's characteristics", and also negated "Huawei's characteristics" to integrate with internationalization. In Ren Zhengfei's constant negation, Huawei continued to approach the goal of a world-class enterprise.