Special contributor to glacier thought bank | Yi Xianrong
In early November this year, Sima Nan continuously posted videos online, shelling Lenovo Group and its management, from the state-owned capital being sold cheaply, there were many foreigners in the executives, the management salary was too high, to the company's insolvency, the proportion of research and development was too low, and accusing Lenovo of being a financial empire with "capital never sleeps" and other "seven deadly sins".
This way of shouting and shouting at Lenovo to kill is not only not criticized and resisted by netizens, but on the contrary, it is supported and liked by a large number of netizens, and a wave of public scolding and ridicule on the Internet is really rare.
Sima Nan's accusations against Lenovo are nothing new, but they just repeat the criticism of Lenovo in recent years, and in addition to the fact that the sale of state-owned assets is a public problem, the others are all corporate governance issues, which should be completely decided by the market.
I have known Sima Nan for nearly 20 years, and I have done many tv shows with Sima Nan before, including once When Sima Nan was the host and I was a guest, he conducted an exclusive interview with me. I know Sima Nan's personality, value orientation and credibility too well.
In Sima Nan's case, credit is worthless, he can do whatever it takes for personal interests, and it can only be wishful thinking to think that he will speak for the interests of the masses and the interests of the country. Therefore, for many years afterwards, I resolutely did not deal with Sima Nan and stayed away from such people.
Somehow, after Sima Nan had been in the market for many years, he had a lot of dregs, especially Sima Nan's accusations of lenovo without novelty caused many netizens to cheer, and many people spontaneously stood on the side of Sima Nan and shouted to Lenovo to kill.
▲Network screenshot
In the face of this phenomenon, I have to say a few words.
Saying these words is not for anything, nor for anything, because no one can do anything in the face of common sense. Common sense is always common sense, and it cannot be changed by the will of man.
First of all, I said something to Sima Nan that I wouldn't pay attention to at all. Because, quite simply, if a Fortune 500 company or the world's largest PC manufacturer is destroyed in this way, it is really evil! I guess it's simply not possible.
It can be said that the development of Lenovo to this day is the result of a hard struggle along the way.
Today's young people may not understand that hard work. They were born in different ages and had completely different life experiences. For example, today's young people think that 996 work is so hard that they can't stand it. However, in the 80s and 90s of the last century, it was not a big deal to do something.
In 1992, during the tide of reform, I also contracted a small project of the unit. At that time, I was in the office every day, working during the day and at night, and only sleeping 4 hours a day, which I thought was normal, not a big deal. Only in this way can we win in the fierce market competition.
Lenovo can come to this year, with lenovo's confidence, is it possible that Sima Nan can attack? Could it be that Sima Nan could collapse completely? Otherwise, Lenovo may have already embarked on the road of bankruptcy of Peking University Founder and Tsinghua Unigroup.
▲Lenovo Group (Picture/Figureworm Creative)
Of course, China's enterprises, especially those that have been rectified by state-owned enterprises, are inherently deficient due to the constraints of the system and culture, and there are certainly many drawbacks, and even deviate from the expectations of many people. For example, for lenovo's brand and the company itself, the mentality of many people is from worship to disappointment.
I used to feel that way too. In 2001, I bought a Lenovo computer, and I was very happy at the time, but slowly I stopped paying attention to Lenovo's products. This is not only because the IT industry is developing too fast, Lenovo itself may not be keeping up with the trend of the times, but also that when China's door is more and more open, the public has more products to choose from, and there are more requirements for Lenovo, and this transformation is also natural.
In addition, when Lenovo goes international and becomes an international enterprise, it is very important that the company's code of conduct balances between internationalization and localization. If Lenovo only applies an international code of conduct to itself, and does not balance with the domestic reality, it will quickly lose the hearts and minds of the domestic public.
The reason why Sima Nan's incitement can be easily won is that the salary arrangement of Lenovo's management is the most important fuse.
Lenovo's management is highly paid, which is an international practice if compared with the international market. However, in China, when the salary of one person at the management level is equivalent to the salary of tens of thousands of people at the bottom of the Chinese people, how many people in China can bear it, the feeling of envy arises spontaneously.
This is China's national condition.
Lenovo, like all enterprises, has problems and deficiencies, and there are places that need to be improved and perfected. However, no one can deny that Lenovo is a successful model for Chinese enterprises to start a business.
The question now is, why did Sima Nan send several videos with no novelty, which immediately touched the tense nerves of a large number of netizens, and took the initiative to stand on the side of Sima Nan and criticize Lenovo, and throw big hats such as "capitalists" and "compradors" to Liu Chuanzhi and Lenovo, as if they were going to be destroyed quickly?
This lies in the fact that netizens want to find an outlet to vent their long-suppressed feelings such as dissatisfaction, anxiety, and nervousness.
The words "capitalist" and "comprador" are revealing the general mentality and psychological motivation of netizens, and revealing the root cause of the social trend of thought that lenovo is attacked.
That is the important issue that we should be focusing on.
▲Screenshot of Sima Nan's video number
Today's young people, who have grown up with the rapid development of the Internet, not only have the level of education and culture generally risen, but they have been able to travel freely in the online world, obtain a lot of knowledge and information, and know too much compared with our generation.
But compared to our generation, for most young people, there are two mountains in front of them, which they are difficult to surpass.
First, the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider and wider; second, the channels for their upward mobility are getting narrower and narrower, making it difficult for them to change this situation by their own personal efforts, and their hearts are very sad and anxious.
It can be said that the widening gap between the rich and the poor is already a very important issue, which is why the central authorities have proposed to take a common prosperity society.
I get up every morning to exercise, and at 5 o'clock I see qingdao sanitation workers working, construction workers have to go to work. As the lowest level of urban society, they work the hardest and work the longest, but these people have the lowest wages.
And every day I pass by the Qingdao Shi Old Man Bath, I will watch a large group of people playing ball and playing happily. These people don't have to work all day, but their wealth and income are much higher than the people at the bottom who don't know much.
Seeing this social situation, how can we not cause the majority of young people to be depressed and dissatisfied? Moreover, this gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider, and most of the situations cannot be changed by individual efforts, but are the result of factors other than the individual.
▲Creative diagram (figure /figure worm creative)
This is very different from the 1980s and 1990s. In that era, not only was society at the starting line, but the growth of family and personal wealth was also based on their own efforts. No matter what class you come from, as long as you work hard enough, you can largely change your destiny.
Many of my classmates, although they are children from the countryside, through their own efforts, have risen to the level of vice ministers and university presidents.
However, this situation is almost impossible to put in now.
At present, first-tier cities, as well as some economically developed cities, for young people from county towns or small cities, because they are not indigenous people, high housing prices have become a mountain that weighs on them, and the unfairness of social wealth is particularly obvious to them.
In addition, the second generation of rural residents living in these cities, many of whom came to these cities with their parents and lived in these cities, but their education and living conditions have always been at the lowest level of society, and they face greater pressure and tension.
The solidification of the class and the narrower and narrower channels of upward mobility will certainly cause dissatisfaction among some young people. They always have to find a release outlet to release this emotion.
Under these circumstances, the mentality of hatred of wealth in Chinese society has gradually risen, and the ideology that was originally eliminated has once again brainwashed the masses and prompted them to look for targets.
Therefore, even if they do not attack Lenovo, they will wait for opportunities to attack other targets, which is the social psychological state of China today.
Some time ago, many netizens attacked Ma Yun, and now they attack Lenovo and Liu Chuanzhi, the reasons behind this are actually people's dissatisfaction and anger at the widening gap between rich and poor and the solidification of social classes, and they are anxious and uneasy about real life.
Sima Nan and others took advantage of this background to make a fool of themselves and play with ideology, hoping to deliberately take advantage of people's dissatisfaction with life in the form of class struggle and movement groups to provoke all kinds of senseless social struggles to achieve their personal goals.
We can ignore Sima Nan, but to cause this irrational social trend, we must not only pay attention to it, but also reflect on it. Lenovo and Chinese companies should seriously reflect on corporate social responsibility and see what they can do for the public and do a good job. Reforms should be intensified to fundamentally improve the living conditions of the majority of the population and reduce social anxiety and dissatisfaction.
If so, some of the crowd's attacks on Lenovo will also go with the wind.