Ren Zhengfei: Huawei has no success, only growth

Huawei President Ren Zhengfei's business thoughts are permeated with a strong sense of crisis: "For more than 10 years, I have been thinking about failure every day, turning a blind eye to success, and have no sense of honor or pride. A sense of crisis. Maybe it has only survived for more than 10 years. The day of failure will definitely come, and everyone should prepare for it. This is my unwavering view, and this is the law of history."

This sense of crisis did not destroy The confidence of Huawei employees has allowed Huawei to walk through countless dangers and reefs, making Huawei grow from a small private company to the world's second largest network equipment supplier.

How Ren Zhengfei turned crisis awareness into a driving force for corporate change, Professor Yang Zhuang, Dean of Peking University National Development Institute and Peking University International (BiMBA), Dr. Liu Chengyuan, Chairman of United Resources Enterprise Management Consulting Agency, and Towers Watson Human Resources Dr. Gao Gao, General Manager of Capital Consulting South China Region, interpreted it from different perspectives.

Crisis awareness is based on strategic thinking about the future

"Huawei has no success, only growth", this is Ren Zhengfei's self-assessment of Huawei's development. Looking at the growth process of Huawei recorded by Ren Zhengfei for more than ten years, "crisis awareness" runs through his leadership career. Crisis awareness is a kind of inner motivation for leaders to accumulate energy, and it is also a kind of advanced strategic thinking. It drives the entire organization to maintain sensitivity to external stimuli and maintain a vigilant and critical state, thus inspiring Huawei. The dynamism of a large company.

Professor Yang Zhuang believes: "Ren Zhengfei constantly mentions Huawei's winter and competition. Crisis awareness has become the gene of an excellent entrepreneur. Just like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Samsung's Li Jianxi."

Dr. Liu Chengyuan said : "Ren Zhengfei's crisis awareness in decision-making is by no means a generalized crisis awareness, but a strategic thinking based on future foresight and insight. In the latest 2012 laboratory talk, Ren Zhengfei pointed out that Huawei's advantage is the pipeline, Terminals basically have no advantages, which is a reflection of a sense of crisis. He also pointed out that in the construction of Huawei's technology platform, chips and terminal operating systems are the focus of technological innovation brainstorming. This is a strategic choice for Huawei to assess the situation."

"For Huawei, to dance with international super-first-class companies, it is impossible without core technology, otherwise it will be controlled by others, so it is necessary to make chips; it is not possible without extensive customer support, and the market is the last word, so it is necessary to make terminals. Although we cannot conclude that Huawei will be able to break the current situation through a new way of thinking, it is a huge improvement in itself that Huawei has begun to try to challenge this situation.”

Dr. Gao Gao worked in Huawei’s human resources system for many years, He has a close feeling of Ren Zhengfei's sense of crisis. "Ren Zhengfei's sense of crisis presents different levels with the different stages of the company's development. When Huawei was just founded and the company was relatively small, Ren Zhengfei said that what I think about every day is how Huawei can survive. All operations revolve around this. , focusing on issues such as talents, products, capital chain, etc. After Huawei became bigger, Ren Zhengfei repeatedly advocated the creation of an open, inclusive, and public platform. In his recent talk in 2012, he mentioned that Huawei cannot engage in R&D behind closed doors, but must be open and open. Absorb the advantages of others, only make your own core products and technologies, and carry out innovation around human values."

More than 10 years ago, when Huawei was just ranked first in the country's top 100 electronics companies, Ren Zhengfei saw Huawei's winter - limited domestically Enterprise growth crisis brought about by market development. So, he decided to walk on two legs and lead his employees to take the lead in developing overseas markets. Ten years later, Huawei's overseas revenue has accounted for 75% of the company's total sales revenue, ranking second in the world's communications industry. Ren Zhengfei is still full of anxiety, "If Huawei does not want to die, it must have a world-leading concept. We can only survive if we aim at the best in the industry."

Crisis awareness turned into a driving force for change

Huawei was able to surpass its competitors in a turbulent environment, just before the crisis came, Deploy the results of change ahead of time. "Huawei has only done one thing for more than 20 years, which is to adhere to the pipeline strategy. People only need to make full use of the only advantage they have, and insist that Qingshan will not relax, and step by step is called backgammon." Ren Zhengfei said.

"Huawei's development is a process of constantly overcoming ourselves. We have a deep feeling when we are at Huawei. Ren Zhengfei has a very high influence among employees, but this influence does not depend on power, but on ideological guidance. "Gao Gao recalled.

Analysis by Yang Zhuang: "Ren Zhengfei is far-sighted. In 2001, when he delivered a speech on Huawei's winter, he realized that Huawei cannot open the market with only a single, in-depth product. IT network product suppliers have changed; when some electronics manufacturers around Shenzhen focused on product competition, Huawei confirmed the growth mode of 'customer value as the core', and invested heavily in research and development, focusing on technology research and development and technology leadership, which changed Huawei's later development. Competitive situation and direction: In the late 1990s, when most Chinese companies competed in the blue ocean in the domestic market, Ren Zhengfei put Huawei's development perspective overseas and comprehensively promoted Huawei's internationalization. After more than ten years of struggle, Huawei is now a multinational company. Huawei's transformation is directly related to the quality of its leaders."

"Huawei's development not only sets an example for us, but also frightens our opponents. Ren Zhengfei's sense of crisis can not only warn the team to prevent the team's attention and combat effectiveness from declining, but also point out the strategic direction for the team and drive the continuous change of the enterprise. and innovation,” said Dr. Liu Chengyuan. "In terms of chip strategy, Ren Zhengfei emphasized the need to adhere to independent innovation. In addition to using high-end chips from foreign manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, Huawei must independently develop chips for strategic defense. Huawei's approach is a realistic choice that the latecomers have to make. , that is to follow first, then innovate, and then surpass. There will be many unexpected situations in the international competition situation, and the corporate leadership must always be vigilant and make fewer or no mistakes; always be prepared, and wait until the opponent makes mistakes. ."

In 2009, with the enhancement of business capabilities, Huawei's pipeline strategy was fully rolled out. "In the past, Huawei's business was focused on telecom operators, but now it has expanded its business from operator customers to both operators and enterprises and consumers. This is a very big challenge." said Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating CEO.

Huawei's transformation has achieved initial results. In the first half of 2012, the global economic downturn caused telecom operators to cut back their investments significantly, and telecom equipment manufacturers were in a state of grief. However, Huawei has become the only bright spot. Its sales revenue in the first half of the year was 102.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, surpassing Ericsson for the first time.

“The challenge of Huawei’s internationalization is essentially a challenge of leadership. Go to a country and inspire local employees to give full play to their potential.” Yang Zhuang said, “Ren Zhengfei is a soul-like enterprise for Huawei. Leader, whether Huawei will last forever in the future depends not only on Ren Zhengfei's personal will, but also on the system, culture and the upper-level governance structure of a modern enterprise to escort it."