Chapter 51 Strengthen processes and systems

"The ratio of mind to matter is three to one."Ren Zhengfei recognized this motto of Napoleon, and has always attached importance to the role of the spirit.Among the permutations and combinations of many resources, he particularly emphasizes cultural engineering.Ren Zhengfei established the "Huawei Basic Law" before he created the atmosphere.Huawei's unique language and habits were once popular in China, and many companies have imitated them.However, when the "Huawei Basic Law" became famous in China, Ren Zhengfei had decided to abandon this formed thing.The process of this transformation is quite intriguing.

In the early days of Huawei's development, Ren Zhengfei's ambitious ideals, provocative quotations and slogans, and sporty internal communication methods became the most effective way for Huawei, a group of coyotes, to expand their living space in a difficult environment. However, it is impossible to improve the team's way of thinking and behavior simply by relying on one meeting or one accidental event, but instead increases the team's confusion, hesitation and sense of insecurity.Enterprises need to have a unified value scale and standards, so Ren Zhengfei initiated the project to formulate the "Huawei Basic Law".Ren Zhengfei hopes that through the "Huawei Basic Law", a value compass that keeps pace with the times will be placed in the hearts of every employee, so that leaders and employees have a common starting point in their thinking and behavior, and achieve a certain psychological understanding.

However, when the "Huawei Basic Law" was definitely placed there, Ren Zhengfei quickly realized its weakness and uselessness.A value measure that cannot be reflected in the process, cannot be evaluated and rewarded is destined to be short-lived and weak. This change is related to Huawei's globalization journey that began in 1996.In the process of contacting world-class multinational companies such as Hughes, IBM, Bell Labs, and Hewlett-Packard, Ren Zhengfei realized that the unique language model of the "Huawei Basic Law" cannot form a good relationship with large global companies. dialogue.Enterprises undertake the mission of creating value for customers.To this end, it is necessary to abide by common business values ​​and a series of standard processes and systems to ensure the realization of the corporate mission.Huawei chose an indirect alliance strategy, and in turn, the alliances are changing and even reshaping Huawei.Giants care about your business process, financial management, human resources, employee benefits, labor treatment and other aspects, examine whether you have long-term development potential, and also conduct a series of strict qualification certification for you.

The "Huawei Basic Law" was born in 1998. Ren Zhengfei formally hired IBM to provide consulting for integrated product development, breaking Huawei's department-based management model and turning to a business process-centric management model.For this alone, Huawei paid IBM tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees.But the investment showed value. In 2005, Huawei finally squeezed into the short list of British Telecom's 21st Century Network Suppliers. It seemed that the competition was about the cost performance of technology and products, but in fact it was about the quality assurance system.

At first, the British did not believe that the Chinese could manufacture high-quality switches, and Huawei did not even have the chance to participate in the tender.Later, Huawei finally knew the rules of British Telecom: To participate in the bidding, they must first pass their certification, and their bidding targets are all members of the short list they have mastered. Beginning in 2002, Huawei asked British Telecom to certify its management system for two years.When they come to Huawei for assessment, technology is not the first thing to consider, but the management system, quality control system, environmental system, etc. are the most important, to ensure the predictability and reproducibility of Huawei's products delivered to customers.BT's assessment also includes the assessment of the operation and credit of Huawei's partners, the credit review of Huawei's suppliers, and even the assessment of Huawei's human rights situation (such as the living conditions such as canteens and dormitories provided by Huawei to employees). , and even pay attention to the conditions provided by Huawei's suppliers to employees.In the end, Huawei received 4 A's and 1 A– out of a total of 5 indicators. It was only in 2004 that British Telecom included Huawei in the short list that they could participate in the competition.

This experience gave Ren Zhengfei a deep understanding that the replicability and predictability of enterprise organizations, as well as the modular power embodied in a series of processes and internal and external environments, have become the basis of modern scale management, and Huawei must cross this threshold. Interestingly, Huawei has asked Mercer twice to integrate the highly centralized IBM matrix management model.For the first time, Mercer formulated a centralized solution to fully learn from IBM, but it was not adopted by Huawei in the end.Because the "centralized model" has very high requirements for senior managers, Ren Zhengfei may be worried that Huawei's managers will not meet the requirements and temporarily stay put. In 2004, Huawei re-invited Mercer to make a second organizational restructuring.There are two purposes: one is to transform the company's organizational structure from a functional organization established by department into a process organization; the other is to establish a marketing system that is in line with international standards (including company-level, regional, product Subsystem) to meet the increasingly obvious consulting marketing needs of customers in the international market and even the local market.

Everything revolves around the value standard.The transformation of the value standard is the most profound and thorough transformation.A Huawei with weaker and weaker personalities, more detailed systems and management, and fewer and fewer boss quotes has gradually formed.In the practice of globalization, Ren Zhengfei has a deep understanding of the significance of the replicability and predictability of the enterprise organization, which is reflected in a series of processes within the enterprise and the modeling of the internal and external environment, which has become the basis of modern scale management.