Chapter 26 Survival of the Frightened

In the past 22 years, Huawei has experienced the baptism of crisis awareness.Ren Zhengfei warned employees when the company's business situation was good: Without a sense of crisis, and still indulging in their own victories, when the crisis really comes, they will be helpless and have nothing to do but wait for the red card to be out.The most important and core thing for an enterprise is to pursue long-term and sustained growth in per capita benefits, not temporary strength, but lasting development.The mission of Huawei people to the enterprise, in the simplest and most essential words, is to survive.

Entering 2008, Huawei has entered a new stage of development. The 2007 annual report shows that Huawei's sales revenue has reached 12.56 billion US dollars, ranking among the top 5 communication equipment manufacturers in the world. warning of the coming of winter. However, the views he put forward have eased from the strong "wolf nature" before.He believes that in the face of the current situation and competitors, we should be a defender of the international market order, not a destroyer.We must learn from the strong, respect their market leadership, and compete actively and orderly.

"We only survived the crisis a little earlier than other companies realized the cruelty of this competition." Ren Zhengfei repeatedly talked about his crisis experience.For example, the price of optical transmission products has been reduced by 20 times in seven or eight years.Excess leads to strangulation, just like wringing out a towel. As long as the towel is wrung out, it means there is still room for competition. If the towel is wrung out, the business will be over. Only when the towel is wrung out and the towel continues, is the best state. "Can Huawei maintain this state for a long time?"

In 2008, Ren Zhengfei published an article in "Huawei People's Daily" emphasizing the need to build a dynamic internal mechanism, which is the source of vitality for the sustainable growth of enterprises.When the macroeconomic situation is good, few companies think about this issue. When companies are accompanied by changes in the economic cycle and think about the issue of survival, it is often too late. Huawei's strong sense of crisis may have responded to the saying that "a sad soldier must win".They are clearly aware of the existence of the crisis, and are taking active measures to prevent it.This sense of crisis and previous actions are the wolf's keen sense and strong sense of survival.Be prepared for danger in times of peace, prevent problems before they happen, remind enterprises to constantly introspect, improve at all times, further consolidate the core competitiveness of enterprises, and prepare for tomorrow's changes.

The experience summarized by Huawei is thought-provoking: Looking at the companies that have fallen, although there are external forces, the root cause lies in the internal factors. It lies in the genes of their own growth. Whether they can maintain a continuous crisis awareness and innovative spirit, and whether they can build a good Internal mechanism, and then maintain its own internal vitality for a long time, so as to provide enterprises with endless long-term traction.Early warning and crisis awareness have become Huawei's genes. Huawei has frequently achieved nearly 50% performance growth in the midst of Ren Zhengfei's periodic warnings that winter is coming every three to five years.Fortunately for Huawei, it has been sticking to this high-growth industry in China since its first day of establishment and has never left.

Ren Zhengfei's sense of crisis comes from his strong sense of survival, just like facing wolves with more ferocious animals on the grassland.It calmly and ahead of time realizes that winter is bound to come, so it prepares the cotton-padded clothes for the winter as early as possible, and survives the cold winter of life and death, in order to usher in another spring.Enterprises that have spent time and again in winter and spring are the real strong. Therefore, Huawei is not afraid of the cold of winter, but faces the test of the market with a calm heart. Huawei's winter will eventually come, and after winter there will still be spring. The way to preserve strength is to cultivate and enhance the core competitiveness of the company so that it can continue to develop in any environment.

Today, Huawei's development can be regarded as a miracle.Behind this miracle is Huawei's long-standing standard—survival of the fearful.