Chapter 37 Chapter 11 Reflections: Future Challenges and Problems

The rise of Huawei has experienced the pain of childbirth, the vicissitudes of the world, and the ups and downs of the world.Through its own efforts, Huawei has finally achieved the magnificent cause it is today. Huawei is growing rapidly, and the "short plank" of management has become increasingly prominent, which has seriously affected Huawei's sustainable development.In order to overcome this disadvantage, Ren Zhengfei carried out drastic reforms and actively used advanced management experience to transform Huawei.However, this challenge has not been well resolved. Ren Zhengfei pointed out that "it is necessary to emphasize the improvement of the shortest piece of wood." He is struggling to find the secret to solve the problem. He wants to find a way for Huawei to reach the "Bright Summit".

A manager can manage a small business from head to toe, but when the company is too big, he can't manage it and must appoint management assistants; as the company continues to expand, assistants alone are not enough, and assistants of assistants will be produced. Between top management and employees, a middle management is formed.The process of a company from small to large is a process in which entrepreneurs and employees are gradually separated.When the enterprise is small, the entrepreneur can directly direct his employees; when the enterprise grows up, the entrepreneur has to rely on the middle managers.

Huawei's management is top-notch in China, but Huawei's development is extremely ferocious, and the "wolves" run with acceleration, and the management and development speed gradually do not match.Therefore, management is still a "short board" that restricts Huawei's development.Huawei's management is like a wave, suddenly balanced, suddenly unbalanced, the problem lies in the middle management. Ren Zheng very much said that the top should be pragmatic, the grassroots should be pragmatic, and the middle should follow the golden mean.The middle layer is a bridge connecting the upper layer and the lower layer, and plays a role in connecting the upper layer and the lower layer.But the golden mean is a very vague concept.How to define the powers of middle managers is a key issue and a "bottleneck" restricting Huawei's development.

Huawei's middle management has serious flaws.A grassroots employee described Huawei's current management status in this way: "It's like a broken rope in the middle. Although people at both ends are twisting hard, the force cannot be transmitted due to the broken middle. Go." The measures formulated by the top management will change when they reach the lower levels. "Pigs can't understand the language of birds", "the day can't understand the darkness of night", and the middle management has not played a good role in communication. As the saying goes, "a small boat is easy to turn around".In order to manage a huge enterprise well, it is necessary to attach great importance to the role of middle managers.Ren Zhengfei was aware of this problem, and he clearly reminded senior managers: "Huawei will settle down one day. Now Huawei is a fast-growing company. When the Yangtze River is pushed away by the waves, the sand on the banks of the Yangtze River will be washed away. There is no mud and it is clean. However, you will find that the place where the water flows slowly is full of silt, and the bottom is also sand. Because of the silt, the water flows more slowly, and because of the slower flow, it settles More silt. One day Huawei will be full of silt, and then Huawei will start to die.” Ren Zhengfei has taken many measures to activate management precipitation, such as internal entrepreneurship, rotation of middle and senior executives, etc., but for An active middle management does little.

The crux of the problem is that when Ren Zhengfei said "the mean", what is the concept of the mean, and how to position the mean? His profound dialectical wisdom is beyond the comprehension of ordinary employees.How much authority should be given to middle-level managers, he did not solve it well. The discourse on "Golden Mean" in Chinese traditional culture has always been unclear.Confucius said: "A gentleman is beneficial but not wasteful, labors but not complaining, desires but not greedy, prosperous but not arrogant, powerful but not fierce." A gentleman is in the middle of the time; a villain is the mean, and a villain is not afraid." Cheng Yi, an agent of the Song Dynasty, explained: "What is not partial is the middle, and what is not easy is the way. The middle is the right way in the world. The mediocre is the world's way." Theorem." "Extremely wise and moderate" is the ideal life pursued by Confucianism.The golden mean is a vague word without a clear definition, and it is difficult for ordinary people to grasp.

If we can't solve the problem of middle management, Huawei's development will not be fast.Middle management is the "bottleneck" that restricts Huawei. Ren Zhengfei needs to reconsider how to break through this bottleneck. Since "the King of Qin sweeps Liuhe, the tiger looks at He Xiongzai! Swinging the sword to break the floating clouds, the princes all come to the west", Qin Shihuang established a highly centralized rule of the central government, "Under the world, is it the king's land; on the shore of the land, is it the king's ministers." This This order has lasted for more than two thousand years and has a deep accumulation in traditional Chinese culture.However, a high degree of centralization creates many problems.

Montesquieu in the 18th century said: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Therefore, he proposed the theory of separation of powers. In the 19th century, German sociologist Max Weber once proposed a bureaucratic system. This system has its clear technical, rational and impersonal characteristics, and adapted to the needs of the development of capitalism at that time.With the development of society, the disadvantages of bureaucracy are constantly exposed. For private entrepreneurs in China, the key is the degree to which power can be released and collected.How to achieve decentralization and checks and balances to ensure the long-term vitality of the enterprise has become a common issue for them.

In the late 1980s, management guru Tom Peters pointed out predictively that the hierarchical structure has become the shackles of the management of large companies, and predicted that the future organizational structure will be dominated by a flat organizational structure.The advantage of a flat organizational structure is that it reduces the coordination cost of enterprise management, greatly improves the enterprise's response speed to the market and the ability to satisfy users. Jack Welch said: “The job of a CEO is to grab a handful of seeds in one hand, a glass of water and fertilizer in the other, and make those seeds take root and thrive — and keep those around you To grow, develop, and innovate continuously, instead of controlling the people around you. You should choose those talents who are energetic, able to infect others with passion, and have the ability to make decisions and execute. Treat the founder of the company as an emperor, and in the long run Saying this company will never succeed because it is not sustainable."

A flat organizational structure requires decentralization and checks and balances.The business unit system is a good flat organizational structure, which is now widely adopted by some large companies.General Motors merged and acquired many small companies in the early 1920s, and its internal management was chaotic. At that time, General Motors’ deputy general manager Sloan referred to the experience of DuPont Chemical Company and implemented a division system, and the management quickly received actual results. Panasonic stipulates that: In terms of profit distribution of business divisions, the business divisions will hand over 60% of the profits to the head office, 3% of the sales, and the rest to the business divisions.This part of the funds is deposited in "Panasonic Bank" according to the regulations, and the business department can earn interest and have control over it.

GM's business divisions are completely autonomous except for the price range specified by the company; Lenovo's "fleet structure" emphasizes the combination of centralization and decentralization, and the divisions enjoy the right to make business decisions, control finances, and manage personnel.The business department of Haier Group is an independent legal person externally and obeys unified coordination internally. Ren Zhengfei borrowed from this model, reorganized the management system, adopted the business department system, and began to decentralize power.However, Huawei's regulations are not.The business department has no financial power, and it does not even include all operational decision-making power.Obviously it is decentralization, but in fact it is not. Power is still concentrated in the hands of the company.

Someone described Ren Zhengfei like this: "He treats people well, but never gives them the stage and opportunity to independently operate the company." Ren Zhengfei's views on decentralization are: on the basis of centralization, orderly decentralization at all levels, full authorization, and strict restrictions.However, the extent to which decentralization will be limited remains unclear. In Huawei, being a secretary is very hard.All the duties and powers are not clear, and it is not sure which department is responsible, they must be handed over to the secretary.Ren Zhengfei emphasized: "The secretary can never say no." Huawei has 22,000 employees, more than 400 middle and senior managers, and more than 100 vice presidents.Vice presidents are divided into executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, executive vice presidents, departmental vice presidents, regional vice presidents, and product vice presidents.The cadre team is huge, but the authorization is not clear. In Huawei, Ren Zhengfei advocated "governance by wise men" and proposed that "high-level major decisions should be made by the wise and not by the crowd, and the truth is often in the hands of a few people." What everyone agrees with is not necessarily correct. final decision-making power". It is a paradox to keep talking about the decentralization of power, but still hold on to the power.To resolve this paradox, Ren Zhengfei has to decentralize power with his subordinates.In China, top-down reforms have seen the least bloodshed and achieved the most remarkable results.Therefore, those who can contribute to the reform of China's political system must be some idealists who properly divide their rights and give up many vested interests.I believe that Xin Zhengfei will also follow this path, allocate some of his own power in due course, and lead Huawei to complete the transition to a democratic system. In the 20th century, in order to save the Chinese nation from subjugation and extinction, advanced Chinese people began to learn from the West on a large scale.For a time, Darwin's theory of evolution, pragmatism, positivism, will to life, will to power... all kinds of "imported products" competed in the land of China.After hard practice, I finally chose Marxism.Because only Marxism is more suitable for China's national conditions and integrated with Chinese culture. In order to allow the enterprise to surpass the life of an entrepreneur, Ren Zhengfei made a drastic move to "acquire advanced management experience" from large foreign companies.He bought a pair of "American shoes" from Hay Company, spared no expense to consult IBM experts, and was willing to be a primary school student, sending people abroad to study and introduce the vocational qualification certification system and advanced financial management... With so many "exotic products" introduced, whether they can be integrated with Huawei's actual situation is the key.Ren Zhengfei has been thinking: to introduce international management experience, to be in line with international standards; at the same time, to enable Huawei to effectively absorb these "nutrients" and integrate them into a part of its own body to achieve an organic combination of introduction, digestion, absorption, and innovation. In June 2003, IBM President Gerstner visited China and visited the IBM base in Shenzhen.At that time, there was a fabricated joke circulating in Guangdong Telecom circles: One day, Gerstner drove a Fukang car slowly on Beihuan Avenue in Shenzhen.Ren Zhengfei drove a Mercedes-Benz from behind, and the moment he met Gerstner, Ren Zhengfei shouted at Gerstner: "Have you ever driven a Mercedes-Benz?" Gerstner thought that this person was racing with him, One step on the accelerator and overtake the past.After a while, Ren Zhengfei caught up again in the "Big Ben", and shouted at Gerstner: "Have you ever driven a Mercedes?" Gerstner stepped on the accelerator and overtook it.But he was quickly caught up by Ren Zhengfei's "big run", and Ren Zhengfei yelled at him again: "Have you ever driven a Mercedes-Benz?" This time, Gerstner was unhappy and stopped talking to Ren Zhengfei, driving slowly With his Fukang car.Within a few minutes, Gerstner suddenly saw Ren Zhengfei's "Big Ben" hit the guardrail on the side of the road, so he got out of the car and went to help.Ren Zhengfei said: "Why don't you answer me, do you know what I want to ask you - do you know where the brakes of the Mercedes-Benz are?" Huawei, which has borrowed from IBM's management experience, is "unable to brake" just like Ren Zhengfei's big Ben.A senior executive of Huawei believes that the introduction of an international advanced management system is undoubtedly beneficial to the long-term development of the company, especially in theory, which is a good reference.The problem is how to integrate with the actual situation of the company, and how to meet the requirements of implementing the advanced management system from within the company. In 1999, Huawei learned to start research and development according to the process. In 2001, Huawei's high-end router product development speed began to lag behind its competitors.Ren Zhengfei began to break the rules and engage in surprise research and development.The product has been rolled out in the market in a short period of time, but whether to follow the process has become a question. Although the vocational qualification certification system has also been introduced, the rule of man is still very strong.Ren Zhengfei confessed to his arrogance in Huawei. Li Yinan, Zhang Jianguo, Hu Hongwei, Nie Guoliang, Huang Yaoxu and other vice presidents left him one after another. He publicly stated: "In the current decision-making system, individual domineering decisions no longer exist. If we can’t discuss the issue, we will discuss it next time. I don’t say what I think in my heart. In the end, what everyone said was the same as what I thought, so I said that I also agree with this plan. In the end, it’s everyone’s.” Huawei's middle-level cadres do not have a clear term of office, and the vice president level generally only has a two-year term.This adds to Ren Zhengfei's arbitrariness. When a common understanding is reached, he will be promoted;There are no rules, no systems, and no arguments. To introduce a new management system, only by realizing the organic combination of introduction, digestion and innovation can we make continuous progress.Otherwise, if you blindly introduce them, you will always fall behind and fail to make progress.Once the technology has been introduced, we must recognize it, and we cannot let our own subjective will abandon it at will. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng led the peasant uprising army to fight bloody battles, invaded Beijing, and overthrew the corrupt dynasty.But he was dazzled by the victory, his military spirit was impetuous, and he was defeated not long after.Mao Zedong also repeatedly warned people that comrades must continue to maintain a style of modesty, prudence, and neither arrogance nor impetuosity, and that comrades must continue to maintain a style of hard work. In the early days of entrepreneurship, everyone in Huawei was full of fighting spirit, and everyone lived in "the years of burning passion".But after a long time, Huawei has successfully entered the market, and people's fighting spirit has weakened instead. Chinese people like to talk about their qualifications, relying on the old to sell the old.Some old employees in the early stage of entrepreneurship are not enterprising because of their generous treatment.I can't find the passion I used to have, and I will blame each other when I encounter problems.In the past, the R&D department held a meeting, and everyone was tit-for-tat, but now it is completely silent. In 2002, in order to expand the data communication market, the company invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the "tough battle", but the products developed repeatedly had problems, and the marketing department reported that it was delayed for several months, and they still had not been resolved. Huawei's past high growth has caused many employees to sacrifice their health.Long-term overwork has caused many old employees to suffer from various chronic diseases.Many old employees are worth more than one million yuan. After killing their fighting spirit, they muddle through and form a management sedimentation layer. Many employees feel that there is no room for growth in Huawei.A vice president said with black humor: "Your current position is already a minister, and a minister means 'no increase'. If you are a section chief, you may have a longer chance." , but the salary did not increase. Many employees complained: "Let us contribute hard, but the salary does not rise, the bonus is getting smaller every year, and the job requirements are very high. It is better to choose other entrepreneurial enterprises, although the income may be less. But career development opportunities and free space will be larger.” A Huawei employee said that when he joined the company, his job number was after 10,000, which means that there will be an army of 10,000 people waiting in line for promotion, and it is difficult to have a chance of promotion according to the conventional procedures.And those old employees all hold huge stocks, even if they do nothing, they can still get high dividends every year, and live a good life.How can a newcomer have the heart to work hard? In order to solve this problem, Ren Zhengfei launched an internal entrepreneurship plan. Originally, he planned to invite those entrepreneurial veterans out with dignity, but a large number of young and powerful technical backbones wanted to go out and have a look. As a result, they left one after another, and Huawei’s military morale began to be unstable . This is a difficult problem. When Mao Zedong said how to jump out of the historical cycle rate, he found the path of democracy.I believe that Zhengfei will also find a solution. In the special "war years", Huawei has created excellent employees. The technical and marketing personnel accounting for 79% of the total number of employees are the best employees, and they have also become the best soil for middle-level managers.The cadres promoted from these two groups of people, it is reasonable to say that they should be the best managers, but the actual situation is not the same. Just like the problems in the Soviet Union's "expert rule of the country" in the 1950s, "expert management" also has many limitations: first, managing affairs is more important than managing people, with only technology in mind, and solving technical problems instead of solving human problems; Second, there is a lack of scientific and reasonable business processes, and the subordinates rely on their own experience for innovations and assumptions; third, they do not pay enough attention to the work of being a human being, and they understand management one-sidedly, which simplifies management. Knowledge of technology and management are the advantages of Huawei's management, but many people in the management pay more attention to technology than management, intentionally or unintentionally.After Huawei introduced foreign process management, many of them pinned all their hopes on a complete set of rules and procedures. Old problems were not resolved, and new problems emerged, leading to a "domino effect." Zhang Yongjie was transferred to Huawei's Data Communication Department in early 2000 as a project manager. This department is mainly responsible for access services and IP telephony.After he came, he thought he could display his grand plans and proposed many technical solutions, but they were all rejected.At that time, Huawei defeated Cisco in Shanghai, and his visionary plan for developing video was rejected with a stroke of a pen.The hero is useless, so he has to choose to leave. In 2001, he founded his own company to develop video products, and the market prospect is bright. Management is a comprehensive course that requires all aspects of quality, and expert management has certain advantages.However, with the increasing complexity of modern management and the increasingly detailed division of labor, the limitations of expert management have emerged. When Huawei was just opening up the market, there was a shortage of personnel, and the officials were appointed first and then recruited. Most of them were promoted based on sales.It was the era of "heroes emerge in troubled times".Just like capturing a mountain or capturing a division commander alive in the army, he is immediately promoted to a platoon leader or company commander. Students who have graduated for two years can manage a department with 50 or 60 people. In 7 days, if you accomplish one or two things, you will be able to rise to the top. In 1992, Zhang Jianguo, who had just graduated from Renmin University, worked for Huawei for two years, and was sent by Ren Zhengfei to Fujian to set up an office and became the director of the office.Two years later, he was promoted to vice president of marketing. At that time, Zhang Jianguo didn't quite understand how to manage marketing personnel, so he had to start from scratch and took several years of management courses. In 1997, Yan Junhua had just graduated from Tsinghua University and wrote a letter to Ren Zhengfei titled "A Thousand Miles to Huawei".The letter pointed out the problems existing in Huawei and put forward development suggestions. Ren Zhengfei was directly promoted to the deputy director of the department on the grounds that he was "a person who can think and love Huawei". Although this method of promotion can "reduce talents in an eclectic manner", it does not necessarily meet the requirements of management.Management is a complicated business, and it is a comprehensive test of the quality of all aspects of people.Therefore, this management method needs to be improved. Huawei has a strong idea of ​​"official standards". There are too many "officials" and everyone is "general manager". The complicated titles make many media feel puzzled.As far as the society is concerned, it is necessary to establish the order of the officials and the people, and the management of the people by the officials.However, flooding can cause problems. According to a conservative estimate, Huawei's government-to-people ratio is no less than 1:4. Departments with one minister, two assistants, and one secretary are not uncommon in Huawei.It's just that these "officials" don't need to be supported by the people.In Huawei, senior engineers abound, and ordinary engineers have a share.Not only are there many official positions, but they also overlap with each other, and the titles are complicated.For this reason, Huawei has also made jokes.A customer went to a Huawei office and got 3 business cards, the first one was "Office Representative", the second one was "Management Representative", and the third one was "Administrative Assistant". The three business cards were from the same person, and the customer was puzzled. What is the relationship between them. There are more than 100 vice presidents of Huawei, which is enough to make people dizzy.There are more officials, the management level increases, and the labor cost increases. If the responsibility is not clear, it is easy to argue with each other and shirk responsibility.How to straighten out the relationship between management levels and implement effective management is another problem facing Huawei.