[Wisdom Car Pie] "The things that can be ignored must not be ignored." "In December 2019, someone photographed the screensaver of Lei Jun's mobile phone at the scene of the Chu Merchants Conference. With the advent of the new car-making business, Lei Jun is afraid to honor the flag set two years ago.
Lei Jun
All along, Lei Jun has shown himself as a model worker, he can return to Jinshan as chairman after founding Xiaomi, or he can personally manage the supply chain when there is a crisis in the mobile phone business, so as to save Xiaomi's mobile phone from water and fire. Then times have passed, Xiaomi has long been more than a decade ago the company that buried its head in the mobile phone, Lei Jun's role is not just the helmsman of Xiaomi, in many Xiaomi affiliated companies, Lei Jun is "both important positions".
Nowadays, the heavens descend to build a car with great responsibility for Xiaomi, and we must first suffer the heart of the Thunder Army and work hard... The Smart Car Faction learned that Lei Jun has recently stepped down from important positions in a number of Xiaomi-affiliated companies, which may be the confirmation that Lei Jun will focus on car manufacturing next.
"No longer as" swipe screen
On December 13, the national enterprise information publicity system showed that Lei Jun officially stepped down as the executive director and general manager of Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. This is not lei jun's only recent blockbuster "personnel change", zhichepai learned from tianyancha that Lei Jun has stepped down from the senior management positions of a number of xiaomi affiliated companies since December 6, including: executive director of Guangzhou Xiaomi Information Service Co., Ltd., legal representative of Xiaomi Technology (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., chairman of Zhuhai Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., chairman of Guangzhou Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., executive director and legal representative of Guangdong Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.
Pushing forward, it can be seen that the role of Lei Jun is moving closer to the car-making business. According to the enterprise investigation information, Lei Jun served as the manager and executive director of Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. on November 20, and was changed to the legal representative of the company. Earlier, on September 3, Lei Jun served as the legal representative of Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. and held a new position: manager and executive director. As one of the most important automobile-related enterprises under Xiaomi, whether it is Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. or Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd., Lei Jun can be described as the ultimate beneficiary. Of course, this can also show Lei Jun's determination to personally take the helm of Xiaomi's car manufacturing business.
Lei Jun stepped down from key positions in multiple Xiaomi affiliated companies (Figure source Tianyancha)
After the news of Lei Jun's successive resignation from important positions in related companies, it triggered various speculations in the media and netizens. Xiaomi responded that it was a normal change. According to media reports, insiders revealed that the core executives of Xiaomi who took over the baton were All. To put it simply, Lei Jun's previous positions are very critical, but in the face of the great cause of car manufacturing, the generals around Lei Jun must step forward and leave more time and energy to Lei Jun, which is an important signal for Lei Jun to focus on car manufacturing work.
In fact, Lei Jun's focus on building cars is not an overnight thing. In March this year, Lei Jun announced the new strategy of xiaomi car manufacturing. In the "behind the story" reported by the media, Lei Jun did not renege on his word, and he took out the entrepreneurial spirit when he built Xiaomi's first generation of smart phones more than a decade ago.
It is reported that Lei Jun has read more than 20,000 resumes in 7 months and interviewed countless car bulls. In addition to talent recruitment, Lei Jun also personally led the team to conduct a large number of user research and industrial chain inspections, more than 2,000 research interviews, visit and in-depth communication with dozens of industry peers and partners. Just in the middle of this year, Lei Jun and his party also appeared at saicel-GM's Wuling Liuzhou production base and visited the "national god car" Wuling Hongguang MINI EV. Before the car-making strategy was made public, Lei Jun also did his homework, he conducted 75 days of research with several Xiaomi executives, did 85 visits and communications in the automotive industry, held 4 internal management seminars and 2 formal board meetings.
Two-wire car? You don't have to
With Lei Jun personally in command, Xiaomi has made new progress in car building. The latest news said that in addition to Xiaomi Automobile, Xiaomi Group is trying to create another car-making team through the "internal horse racing" model, which belongs to Zhimi Technology, an ecological chain company controlled by Xiaomi Holdings. Sources also revealed that Ma Yongdong, former head of GM's pan-Asian electric vehicle project, has joined and is responsible for Zhimi's vehicle business, and many of BAIC's electrical and electronic architecture personnel have also recently joined the Zhimi car manufacturing team. It is reported that "Zhimi's car-making direction is also a passenger car, and the first car is an SUV." ”
However, the fact that Zhimi made the car seems to be quite different from the rumors. On December 14, Wang Hua, general manager of Xiaomi Public Relations, debunked the rumors of "Xiaomi Group's double-line car manufacturing", saying that Xiaomi did not have a two-line car-making plan, and clearly pointed out that Xiaomi Group would not directly participate in The strategic decision-making of Zhimi. However, Wang Hua did not deny it, and it can even be said that he hammered the news of "Zhimi car". He revealed that Zhimi Company is interested in researching electric vehicles and is forming a small team to do early work.
Although unlike other Xiaomi ecological chain enterprises, Zhimi Technology belongs to the subsidiary of Xiaomi Holdings, but Xiaomi obviously will not easily let the subsidiary cross-border car manufacturing, regardless of the problem of internal fighting, an obvious risk faced by this move is that car manufacturing requires an unusually large amount of funds, car manufacturing will affect the financial funds of Zhimi Technology, if the core business ultimately loses the code, it will not be worth the loss.
Zhimi is the biggest contributor to the success of Xiaomi air purifier, the former's initial team was formed in March 2014, followed by Zhimi Technology was established in June of that year, and Xiaomi air purifier was quickly released half a year later. Xiaomi Air Purification 2, released in November 2015, became the explosive product of the year, when Zhimi Technology conducted a series A financing, and the valuation reached 280 million US dollars, and in 2016, this figure soared to 1 billion US dollars. In only 2 years since its establishment, the sales volume of Zhimi air purifiers has climbed to the first place in China. The above data shows that Zhimi is a very trustworthy and "winning" team under Xiaomi, which may also be a major reason for the group to acquiesce in Zhimi's attempt to study electric vehicles.
Zhimi technology product line
From the perspective of ecological chain value, Zhimi Technology can become a link in xiaomi's car-making process. Zhichepai found that at present, Zhimi Technology's products not only have air purifiers, but also include fresh air systems, humidifiers, electric heaters, air conditioners, fans and even intelligent toilet covers, etc., completing the coverage of the three major family environmental elements of cleanliness, humidity and airflow, forming a relatively complete system of living appliances. In the era of intelligent cars, "the car is the second home" and "the car is the third space" has become the mainstream consensus of major car companies, so the research and development capabilities of Zhimi Technology in the field of life electrical appliances can be transferred to the Xiaomi car business. One of the most typical examples is that Zhimi Technology's existing product line already includes in-vehicle air purifiers.
Behind the frequent adjustment of the architecture
It can be said that whether or not to make full use of the resources in the hands of Lei Jun largely determines the speed of Xiaomi's car manufacturing. In the external and ecological chain, in the face of unfamiliar areas that are completely different from smart phones, Xiaomi needs to establish cooperative relations one by one; and internally, it is not enough for Lei Jun to rush forward alone. Therefore, we can see that Xiaomi has made many adjustments to its organizational structure in the past year, and there have been more than three times in the newspaper alone.
On December 19, 2020, Xiaomi Group announced the latest organizational structure upgrade and cadre appointment. The three Internet first-level departments of the Software and Experience Department, the Internet Business Department, and the Business Central And Taiwan Department were formally established, and the general managers of the three departments, Jin Fan, Ma Ji, and Qiu Ruiheng, all reported directly to CEO Lei Jun.
After the announcement of the car, the structure adjustment of Xiaomi Group has become more and more frequent, and it has made two major adjustments in November this year alone:
On November 19, Xiaomi's organizational structure was adjusted and cadres were appointed, involving mobile phone departments, sales operations, marketing systems, etc. Ling Xiaobing served as the product manager of Redmi and reported to Lu Weibing and Zeng Xuezhong; appointed Guo Feng as the cost director of the mobile phone staff and reported to Zeng Xuezhong; and appointed Shi Shasha as the product director of Xiaomi mobile phones and reported to Changcheng. In addition, the Market System in China has also been adjusted in accordance with the trend, and all of them have been merged into the Market Department of China, which consists of 7 departments, including the Brand Department, the Xiaomi Mobile Phone Marketing Department, the Redmi Mobile Phone Marketing Department, the AIoT Marketing Department, and the Retail Marketing Department. Xu Fei was appointed as Vice President of China and General Manager of China Marketing Department, and reported to Lu Weibing, Senior Vice President of the Group and President of China.
On November 26, just the past week, Xiaomi once again announced a new round of organizational restructuring and personnel appointments. Pan Jiutang served as the chief of staff of Xiaomi Group, and Zhang Feng, partner and senior vice president of Xiaomi Group, no longer held the position. In terms of organizational structure, the software and experience department and the mobile phone department system software department were merged into the mobile phone software department, and the IoT platform department was merged into the mobile phone software department.
In the structural adjustment and appointment on November 19, the functions of lu Weibing and Zeng Xuezhong were deepened in the mobile phone business. Although Lu Weibing is also one of the 17 backbone members of the team of Xiaomi's automobile business, so many years of experience in the mobile phone circle and the success of the Redmi brand after independence are enough for Lei Jun to hand over more mobile phone work to him.
In the November 26 adjustment appointment, the Zhichepai noticed two details:
First, Zhang Feng no longer serves as the chief of staff of xiaomi group. On July 1, 2019, Xiaomi appointed Zhang Feng as the chief of staff of the group, and in the first half of this year, Zhang Feng was publicly appointed as the general manager of the ministry of human resources. At the same time, Zhang Feng is also one of the four new partners added by Xiaomi after the implementation of the partnership system in 2020, which belongs to the management of Xiaomi's younger generation. Like Lu Weibing, Zhang Feng is also the backbone of the team of Xiaomi's automobile business, and removing the key position of chief of staff of the group will undoubtedly allow him to allocate more energy to the automobile business.
Xiaomi Auto Co., Ltd. was established
Second, the personnel adjustment shows Xiaomi's determination and confidence in further strengthening the promotion of young cadres. On September 1 this year, the day of the establishment of Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd., including Lei Jun, Lu Weibing, Zhang Feng, Lin Shiwei, Hong Feng, Liu De and Wang Xiang, a number of senior executives of xiaomi group appeared together, constituting the "think tank lineup" of xiaomi cars, but everyone knows that this lineup does not have too high gold content for the automotive industry, and there are many lessons that Lei Jun has to make up. Therefore, this is a good opportunity for the young cadres of the Xiaomi Group to come forward, "Boss, please feel free to build a car, and leave the rest to us." ”
Lei Jun's "multi-front operation"
In the matter of car building, Lei Jun once shouted out the slogan of "I am willing to bet all the accumulated achievements and reputations in my life to fight for Xiaomi cars", and no one can and will not take Lei Jun's words as a joke. Xiaomi Group's "two-line car" is obviously a floating cloud, but multiple strategies such as smart phones, AIoT, Internet and smart cars are in front of them, and Lei Jun is destined to embark on a road of "multi-line combat"...