Wu Ying: A "hero" expelled by capital

About Wu Ying, there are three "false propositions": What if UT and Starcom were successfully separated? If PHS achieves nationwide roaming? What if the spring of 3G or IPTV comes early?

If these are not the case, this Children's Day will not be the final chapter of Beard and PHS. In the middle of the night of June 1, 2007, US time, the news of Wu Ying's departure, executive vice president and CEO of China, came from UT Starcom headquarters. On the 3rd, Wu Ying issued a statement saying "the reason is that I have differences with the board of directors on the company's development strategy" and expressed "very regret" about being forced to leave.

Not only Wu himself, but the first reaction of most people in the industry was also full of regret for the hero's curtain call. Although the debate on whether PHS is "in line with the current national conditions" or "wasting state-owned assets" has never ceased, this charismatic bearded man has pinned the heroic dream of too many people. The jury seat of "In China" is still the pioneering wave of returnees who led the way back then.

"In today's America, hundreds of Chinese are following in Wu Ying's footsteps, and it is likely that more people will embark on the road to success." In 1998, the US "Business Week" published Wu Ying's Named one of the 50 Asian stars who saved the Asian financial crisis. That year, the star had just started PHS operations in Yuhang, Zhejiang.

Greater brilliance and helplessness have been doomed by that gamble. And the capital market, which is more cruel than casinos, never believes in eternity, let alone heroes. In this sultry early summer, Wu Ying, who was immersed in those three false propositions, had to wake up from his heroic dream.

Both Sheng Wu and He Shengliang

One is a pioneer in entrepreneurship and the other is a financing expert, and they are good partners made by nature. However, the story of Wu Ying and Lu Hongliang is far from being as easy to tell as it sounds.

Lu Hongliang, who once lent money to Sun Zhengyi to start SoftBank, has always been a big brother active in the IT industry in China and the United States. Taking him as the center, Chen Tianqiao, Tian Suning, Tang Jun and venture capital companies Softbank, Benchmark Capital, etc., constitute a very attractive venture capital circle in the industry. This is because he was born in Taiwan, grew up in Japan, and studied in the United States as an "international person". It is also because he "discovered" the sleeping mainland communication market as early as 1991.

When Lu Hongliang's Unitech company was established in Beijing, Wu Ying also returned to China to establish Starcom in Hangzhou. Introduced by a mutual friend of the two, Lu and Wu held hands together. In September 1995, UTStarcom was formed from the merger, with Lu Hongliang as president and CEO, and Wu Ying as executive vice president, president and vice chairman of China, each holding 50% of the shares.

At the beginning of the merger, Wu Ying's equity was not enough to support his absolute right to speak, but his heroic character has never changed.

Externally, Beard has almost become the spokesperson of UT Starcom; internally, almost all major decisions are passed on to employees by Wu. Lu Hongliang spends most of his time in Silicon Valley, almost disappearing from the public and most employees' sight. It is the latter's efforts that allowed UTStarcom to receive investment from SoftBank first, and then successfully land on Nasdaq, making its leapfrog development without fear of funding.

External capital guarantees the company's expansion and further dilutes Wu Ying's decision-making power. When the PHS storm created by him swept the Chinese market, the market value of UT Starcom once exceeded the sum of the five Nasdaq China concept stocks of AsiaInfo, CDC, Sina, NetEase and Sohu. At that moment, the company ignored the doubts of its peers about this "backward" technology. The major shareholders were very satisfied, and Wu and Lu also continued the honeymoon period of division of labor and cooperation.

Wu Ying has a famous saying: Only in the most difficult times can you judge who is a man and who is a boy! When PHS started to slow down its growth rate, and new businesses such as 3G and IPTV were slow to make profits, Wu Ying still insisted on his determination to deepen China's development and combine new and old businesses. The latter two propositions were never a problem in his view.

In tough times, Wu Ying proved to employees that he was a man, but his tacit understanding with Lu Hongliang was exhausted by the increasingly ugly financial statements.

A dark battle of ups and downs has surfaced in the three personnel back-and-forths of the board since last year. In May last year, UT Starcom announced that its chairman and global CEO Lu Hongliang had submitted his resignation to the board of directors and was scheduled to resign on December 31, 2006, and Wu Ying would take over as its global CEO. In November, the board of directors cancelled Wu Ying's decision to serve as global CEO.

The latest is this dramatic resignation appointment. Lu Hongliang, who originally planned to resign, replaced Wu Ying as the new CEO of China. Wu Ying was forced to leave the company he founded.

The era of the "Eagle" is over?

In the past few days, Wu Lu's fire and water have not subsided because of one party's departure.

At the first staff meeting after taking office, Lu Hongliang pointed directly at the business in China led by Wu Ying, saying that poor work in China has led to a decline in PHS's market share, and it has been unable to open up the IPTV market for a long time. On the other hand, the 550,000-dollar exit compensation is obviously not what Wu Ying wants. He wrote in the statement, "I am puzzled that the board of directors is eager to ask me to leave before the company's next strategy has been seriously discussed."

I wonder if Wu Ying regretted what he said: "Doing business with Lu Hongliang, if you are framed by others and put in prison for 20 years, after you come out, he will not lose a penny of your stock." 2001. Without this kind of trust that could be entrusted with life and death, how likely would the legend of PHS become a reality?

Wu Ying knows best that he can grasp the unadvanced "wireless local dialect" technology and the fleeting market gaps with one hand, but finance and financing are his weaknesses and Lu's strengths. After the passage of time, when Wu Ying was trapped by the IPTV and 3G services he was focusing on one after another, and his original technical and market talents could not be displayed, it was obviously not Lu Hongliang who was responsible for all this.

This is not a contest between two people, this is capital taking back its power. Even if someone took advantage of others' danger, Wu Ying couldn't help but look back at himself. It was his long-standing strong hold on decision-making that forced him to take on greater responsibility alone at the worst of times.

Wu Ying certainly knows about the modern corporate governance structure. It's just that in the long-term prosperity, the board of directors seems to spoil him, making Wu Ying forget the power of capital, and still regard the company with fewer and fewer shares as his own. Since last year, it has been widely rumored in the industry that Wu Ying advocated the spin-off of the business in China from the company and seized the advantages of PHS and IPTV in the Chinese market. Undoubtedly, this "separation movement" has threatened high-level and major shareholders as far away as the United States. Not surprisingly, the news of Wu Ying's departure also spread from last year to this year.

In this regard, most of UTStarcom's employees in China stand firmly on the side of "Eagle". Employees are used to calling Wu Ying this way. An old employee said, "I have worked for 11 years and I have only cried twice. The first time was for family reasons, but this time it was because of Eagle's departure." Another employee fondly recalled the Eagle at a project meeting many years ago. 's speech. But any manager's leave or stay is determined by capital, not them.

The eagle is gone, and the hearts of the employees are also scattered. Perhaps the greatest wealth Wu Ying left to the company is his wise and benevolent bearded hero image. It's just that UT Starcom, which has gone through the entrepreneurial period, has not been able to get out of the halo of a person for more than ten years, which may not be a good omen.

So, under the corporate system, this is just a very common news that the board of directors appoints and removes managers. The only question is whether this decision will make UTStarcom's culture tend to be conservative? You know, the starting point of UT Starcom is PHS, which is destined to roam in the future. The "opportunistic" adventure could also make emerging technologies such as IPTV the company's next "PHS."

No matter how the corporate culture strikes a balance between stability and gambling, the only thing that is certain is that this is an era of capital speaking, and this era does not need "heroes".

In 2003, Wang Zhidong, founder of Sina, was dismissed suddenly due to disagreements with the board of directors; in 2006, Harbour Network and its founder, Li Yinan, were taken into account by Huawei; The founder, Chen Tianqiao, is determined to put the dream of "family digital entertainment empire" on hold and return to the most profitable online game.

Heroes are saddened by the capital, they all passively or actively gave up their big dreams. Wu Ying, won't be the last. However, after the painful rebirth of feathers and beaks, the eagle will come again! Like the comeback of Steve Jobs.

The author is an associate editor of the World Manager website.