Ren Zhengfei: Trust in the wisdom of the successors

2011surname Nian4In January, Huawei, China's largest communications equipment maker, announced its2010Annual Earnings Report. Sun Yafang, who was rumored to have left the company, is still sitting in the chair, but the Ren family has strengthened its manpower in the company's management. Ren Zhengfei's daughter and brother were appointed as managing director and supervisory board members, while Ren Ping, who was previously rumored to have "inherited his father's business," was not on the list.

Recently, Ren Zhengfei wrote an internal article, "A River of Spring Water Flows East," reviewing Huawei'sCEOThe rotation system was created through, he said, "trusting Huawei's inertia and the wisdom of the successors." This article squashes rumors of a power struggle at Huawei. It is reproduced in full below:

How many things have happened in the rise and fall of the ages, and a river of spring water flows eastward.

When we were young, our mothers told us the story of Hercules, and we worshipped him to no end. When we were young and unaware, we worshipped such heroes as Li Yuanba and Yuwen Chengdu, and spread the absurd story of Zhang Fei "killing" (fighting) Yue Fei. In the youthful period, suddenly sensitive to Li Qingzhao's ancient lover is the strength of the mountain Xiang Yu. Since then, "life as a man, death is also a ghost hero" has become our life aphorism. Of course, this kind of personal heroism, but also not without meaning, it forces us to fight in the study, the achievement of better results.

When I go to society, how many years later to realize that I ran into the head of the blood, is this kind of do not know things about the philosophy of life. I did not join the regiment in college, the military for many years did not join the party, everywhere in life adversity, personal isolation, when I understand the political connotation of the phrase "unity is strength", has passed the age of puzzlement. Thinking of the wasted years, I realized, how could I be so childish and ridiculous, not understanding openness, compromise, and shades of gray at all?

I founded Huawei at a time when I was forced by life and the path of life was narrow. At that time, I had already realized that individual talent is the smallest in the long river of history, the true meaning of life. I have seen the Yunnan Panshan Road, so dangerous, more than a hundred years ago is how to determine the route, how to build, for the wisdom of road builders and hard work admire; I have seen the thin silk clothes, as well as for the above lifelike pattern is how to weave out, and admire, the weavers how to be so skillful? God! Not only the Great Wall of China, the slender man on the river, the Mercedes-Benz high-speed rail ...... I deeply appreciate that the power of the organization, the power of the crowd, is the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power of the power. It is only when people perceive their own insignificance that their behavior begins to be great. At the time of founding Huawei, I had already passed the age of no confusion. What is the meaning of "not confused"? It is a measure of thousands of years of feudal society, where the environment is slow to change, waiting for the human psyche to mature. By the time I entered the age of puzzlement, mankind had entered the computer age, and the world was starting to go crazy, waiting for my puzzlement. I suddenly realized that I had been an excellent young Chinese, a so-called expert, but I was getting more and more ignorant. Not not confused, but to restart a new study, the times have no time and opportunity, let me not confused, the future is full of uncertainty. I just came to Shenzhen is also ready to engage in technical work, or engage in some scientific research, if I choose this road, has long been thrown in the garbage by the times. I later realized that no matter how hard one works, one can never catch up with the pace of the times, not to mention the era of knowledge explosion. Only by organizing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people to struggle together, you can touch the feet of the times when you stand on them. When I turned to founding Huawei, I was no longer trying to be an expert myself, but an organizer. In front of the times, I knew less and less about technology, less and less about finance, and half about management. If I couldn't treat the group democratically and give full play to the roles of all the heroes, I would accomplish nothing. Engaging in organization building became my later pursuit. How to organize thousands of troops was a heavenly problem for me. I founded Huawei, which was called a self-employed company in China at that time. It was a bit arrogant and anachronistic for such a small and weak self-employed company to want to organize thousands of troops, and it was a dream of eating swan meat. When I founded the company, I designed the employee shareholding system to unite the employees through benefit sharing. At that time, I didn't understand the option system, not to mention the fact that the West was very developed in this area, with various forms of incentives. I was not aware of the option system at that time, let alone the fact that the West was very advanced in this area and there were many forms of incentives. Based on my own frustration in the past, I realized that I should share the responsibility and benefits with my employees. I discussed this approach with my father, who studied economics in the 1930s, and received his strong support. This unintentional flower has blossomed into the colorful flower that Huawei is today.

When Huawei was founded, I let the guerrilla leaders around the world have free rein. In fact, I couldn't lead them. The first ten years of almost no office meeting similar meetings, always fly to all over the world, listen to their reports, what they say how to do on how to do, understand them, support them; listen to the R & D staff's divergent thinking, messy so-called R & D, at that time it is impossible to have a clear direction, like a fly on the glass window, bumping into, listen to the customer's requirements for a little bit of improvement, and then strive to find an opportunity to!……. Not to mention how to manage the financial ones, I simply do not understand finance, which is related to my subsequent failure to deal with the relationship with finance, they were promoted less, the responsibility is mine. Maybe I am incompetent, stupid, only so decentralized, so that the cleverness of the various lords of the big play, the achievements of Huawei. I was called a hands-off boss, not that I was hands-off, but I really do not know how to manage. Today's successors, all of whom are elites among men, will they be as obtuse as I was, and continue to decentralize the power to give full play to the enthusiasm of all of them, to carry on the past and the future? They serve as the cause of greater, heavier responsibility, will not be affairs overwhelmed, no time to listen to the following chatter it ....... Believe in Huawei's inertia, believe in the wisdom of the successors.

until (a time)97After the year, the company's internal thinking was chaotic, the doctrine of the forest, all the lords have shown their strength, the company where to go, do not know. I asked the professors of Renmin University to discuss a "basic law" for the collection of scattered thoughts, a few up and down the discussion, unknowingly "Spring and Autumn Warfare" will be silent, NPC's professors powerful, how to unify the understanding of everyone! The NPC professors are great, how did they unify everyone's understanding? From then on, the so-called Huawei corporate culture began to form, saying that this culture is how good, how powerful, not created by me, but all the staff realized. At that time, I was at most a hand-holding person, but I became a cultural instructor. The industry always says that I am mysterious and great, but in fact I know myself, the name does not match the reality. I did not hide myself in order to elevate myself, but I kept a low profile out of fear. The real smart is 130,000 employees, as well as the tolerance and traction of customers, I just use the way of benefit sharing, their talent bonding.

After the company had properly centralized its will, it had to produce the necessary institutions to support that culture, and that's when I, the fake boss, couldn't hide, from the end of the last century, to the beginning of this one, around2003I was exhausted a couple of years ago, and that's when my body broke down. The body has several diseases, had two cancer surgeries, but I am optimistic ....... How many documents had to come out to guide, and constrain the running of the company at that time, when it already had tens of thousands of employees and was still coming in large numbers every day. You can imagine what the chaos was like. I understand why the executives in the community who couldn't take it, chose to commit suicide. The problem is centralized to the point where you can't run it without taking a decision, focusing you to bake under the sun, you realize thatCEONot a good time to be. Working more than 10 hours a day, I was still confused, my clothes were wrinkled, and I had internal and external conflicts. I do not have the appropriate management experience in life, from school, to the military, have not done with administrative power of the "official", there is no way to have the quality to produce effective documents, left and change, right and change over, repeated pancakes, how many excellent talent branding paste, branding run ... ... .... This time of crossing the river by touching the stone, nearly drowned in water.

2002year, the company nearly collapsed.ITThe bubble burst, the company inside and outside the contradictions of the intersection, but I can not do anything to control the company, there are half a year are nightmares, dreams often cry when I wake up. Really, it is not the backbone of the company, in the darkness, light their hearts to light the way forward, now the company has long been gone. This period of time Sun, chairman of the unity of the staff, enhance confidence, credit is invaluable.

approximate2004In 2007, when an American consultant firm helped us design our company's organizational structure, they found it incredible that we did not yet have a central body. And the top level was just empty appointments and not functioning, proposing to create theEMT(Executive Management TeamI don't want to do it.EMTof the President, a system of rotating presidency was started, with eight leaders taking turns to rule for six months each, evolving through two cycles to this year's rotatingCEOsystem. It is perhaps this unintentional rotation system that balances out the contradictions in all areas of the company and allows for balanced growth. The advantage of rotation is that each rotator, for a period of time, takes on the responsibility of the company'sCOOThe responsibilities of not only handling the day-to-day business, but also preparing draft documents for high-level meetings, greatly exercised them. At the same time, he had to cut his ass down to size, otherwise he would not have achieved the support of others for his resolutions. In this way he brought the departments under his jurisdiction into the balance of global interests, and the company's hill unintentionally chipped away over the years.

After an eight-year rotation, a majority of them were elected in the new board election. We began another rotation under the leadership of the Board of DirectorsCEOThey are the top executives of the company during the rotation period. They are more focused on the company's strategy and on system building. The authority for day-to-day operational decisions is further decentralized to each of theBG, regions to facilitate expansion in a rational manner. This is better than a system where the success of the company is tied to one person and the failure to that one person. Each rotationCEOFought to pull the cart and haul the company forward during the rotation. He went off course, and the next round of rotationCEOWe will correct the course in time, so that the ship can be righted earlier. Avoid the accumulation of problems that cannot be solved.

I don't know how far we can go, which requires the embrace of all employees, as well as the understanding and support of customers and partners. I believe that due to my unintelligent, lead out of the collective struggle and collective wisdom, if I can make a small contribution to the company's strength, for the motherland, for the world, more than 20 years of hard work will be worth it. I do not have enough knowledge, and I am not smart enough, but I can tolerate the excellent staff to work with me, with them, I was also inculcated with excellence. They are outstanding, clamped me forward, I have no retreat, had to be "tied", "rack" forward, accidentally let them carry to the top of Emei Mountain. I also realized the power of unity and cooperation. Over the years, I have made the most progress, from a "peasant", by the elite carried into a decent little old man. Because my character is like a sponge, good at absorbing their nutrients, summarizing their essence, and boldly open to export. Those elites among men, in the tide of the times, will be more likely to be lifted to the top of the Himalayas by the unity and cooperation of the crowd. The mother of the Greek god Hercules was the earth, and as soon as he leaned on the earth, his strength was boundless. Our earth is the people and the system, believe in the power of the system, will make them unite and cooperate to lift the company to the golden top.

as the rotatingCEOThey are no longer only concerned with internal construction and operation, but at the same time, they have to look outside, to look at the world, to adapt themselves to the operation of the external environment, and to avoid harm. We stick out our heads and see that we are now in a changing world, where storms and blazing suns, warm spring sunshine and ten thousand abysses ...... coexist side by side. We can't accurately predict the future, we still have to boldly embrace it. In the face of ebb and flow, even if the company shrinks significantly, we must not only be calm, but also be determined to continue to push the organization to reform in the direction of long-term value contribution. To reform, we must be more open. To remove the inertia of success and the inertia of thinking from the ranks, and not to lie on the extension cord of past glory, we have hope as long as we can keep activating the ranks. History's disasters are often week, people's greed, never improved by disaster, too high leverage ratio, driving the economy bubble, will always burst. The only thing we can do is take a clearer direction and work harder, any speculation will always pay off. The economy is becoming more and more uncontrollable, if further extensions of the financial crisis explode, with sharp currency devaluations and external social unrest, will we be alone? Will we be able to save ourselves? Will the employees of the ship we are traveling on raise money to buy fuel for us, just like the Koreans who sold their gold jewelry to save the country? Will prosperity last forever as history has no end? We should have faith, but we should not blindly believe in the future. The disasters of history are all precedents for us. Our ignorance of the future is a problem that cannot be solved, but we can prevent the future by finding a direction through induction and by putting ourselves in a state of rational organization and excellent enterprise. It is a law of history that death will come, and it is our duty to prolong our lives.

How many things have happened in the rise and fall of a thousand years, a river of spring water flowing eastward, flowing through the Pacific Ocean, flowing through the Indian Ocean, ...... not looking back.