Chapter 61 Accountants learn from Haidilao

When I was teaching the case of Haidilao, the most common problem I encountered was: Haidilao's employees are very simple, so its management methods are only suitable for industries with low-educated employees.Kuang Lin is my student. She is currently working as a middle-level supervisor in a company of the Big Four international accounting firms.After learning the case of Haidilao, she wrote down the following experience for me: When teaching Haidilao, Ms. Huang threw out a theory that was tantamount to a bomb to me: management cannot be learned and cannot be copied!So I wondered: If this is the case, what is the use of attending MBA case seminars?After listening to the case of Haidilao, I understand that what Mr. Huang said that management cannot be learned means that it cannot be copied, because the industry, employees, culture, etc. of each enterprise are different. Subtle differences may cause a successful management model to fail.But not being able to copy it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from it.The case of Haidilao made me feel suddenly enlightened. It is very helpful for me to solve some puzzling problems and doubts in my current daily management work.

I am currently working in one of the Big Four international accounting firms. The firm has more than 7,000 employees across the country, including more than 2,000 in the Beijing office. I am the head of a department with about 100 people.Our business was hit hard during the financial crisis of 2009.In order to cut expenses, the company has introduced a series of measures including no salary increase at the end of the year and mandatory low-paid holidays. These measures have greatly reduced the enthusiasm of employees.This, combined with a series of high-level personnel changes and different leadership style shifts, resulted in a significant loss of staff morale.The company also noticed this and began to take some recovery measures, such as opening some feedback channels for employees and organizing group activities.However, these activities have had little effect, and a large number of outstanding employees have been leaving recently.As a middle-level manager, I am not only dissatisfied with the management measures of the senior management, but also anxious to find a solution.After reading the case of Haidilao, I have a new understanding of the company's current status and the reasons why a series of management measures have failed.Among them, the points that touched me the most include: 1.The most basic and most important requirement for managers is to understand employees.

The reason why Zhang Yong has achieved achievements beyond the reach of others in motivating employees is that they have a special understanding of the psychology and demands of their own employees.Only by understanding what employees are thinking can we take the best way to motivate employees.The main senior management personnel of our company are all from Hong Kong, and the power to formulate personnel policies across the country is firmly controlled by the Hong Kong headquarters.China has a vast territory, and the cultures of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen alone have huge differences, and they are even more different from Hong Kong.The management uses Hong Kong culture to speculate on the thoughts of mainland employees, and uses the successful management model they have used in the Hong Kong branch for decades as advanced experience for reference to the mainland, which will naturally be unacceptable.As a result, the money that the company spends on employee motivation is wasted on "tasteless" projects that don't work for employees, and employees still feel unappreciated and unmotivated.

2.Supervision is not management.The most valuable thing for employees is their brains, and the hands of employees are the most stupid. The high morale of Haidilao employees is inseparable from the company's trust in them. For example, Haidilao's front-line waiters are authorized to deliver food and discounts to customers.However, in our office, in order to ensure business quality and reduce costs, the management has strengthened the supervision of employees, such as strict attendance and leave systems.Employees begin to feel distrusted and watched.Most of the firm's employees are top students from prestigious universities. When these smart people have resistance to the company and the management, there are two direct results: (1) They can naturally find a way to make the supervision measures invalid; (2) They have a sense of distrust towards the company. In order to get this salary, they will work as required, but they will never put in extra thought and effort to do a better job.This is probably something that companies don't think about when they develop elite employee recruitment policies that cost a lot of money and effort.

3.Creativity is not implemented, it is the natural result of employee satisfaction.Employee satisfaction can lead to customer satisfaction. One thing that accounting firms and Haidilao have in common is that the front-line employees of both are directly facing customers.Our company has repeatedly emphasized the importance of customer satisfaction and has taken many measures to evaluate and improve customer relations.The management has set up many regulations for the employees in order to obtain customer satisfaction through managing the employees, ranging from honesty and integrity to dress codes. I never realized that the satisfaction of front-line employees can bring good service and customer satisfaction.

4.The true meaning of super value service. There are at least hundreds of accounting firms in China, all of which can provide audit services to clients, and all issue audit opinions in the end, without much difference.The company always emphasizes that the difference between us and other firms is that we want to provide customers with value-added services, but the concept of value-added services has never been clearly explained to employees, and we only stay in the performance of professionalism and professional ability Be strong and wait for the request.I think Zhang Yong's simple and plain words made this problem clear: "They all say my hot pot is not good, but they are still willing to eat it." If there is not much difference, we should not make a fuss about the product, but should make a fuss about the service process.How to quickly answer customers' questions, how to make customers feel that we respect them and value their problems and difficulties, etc., may be what we really should spend time researching.