Going to college but not getting a diploma is the most regrettable thing in the life of many "bad students", in fact, it really doesn't matter, because Ren Zhengfei didn't get it either.
In 1963, under the influence of the novel "Hundred Refining into Steel", Ren Zhengfei was admitted to the Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering majoring in heating and ventilation, but according to Professor Wu Chunbo, a Huawei management consultant who drafted the "Huawei Basic Law", Ren Zhengfei did not get a graduation certificate at all for some reasons. Perhaps this is the regret of Ren Zhengfei's life, but it does not affect ren Zhengfei's achievements in the slightest.
One year, Ren Zhengfei, who had achieved fame, returned to his alma mater as an outstanding alumnus, and the school leaders at that time specifically wanted to give Ren Zhengfei a posthumous graduation certificate, but ren Zhengfei refused. Ren Zhengfei said: "The most important thing to do as a person and an enterprise is to seek truth from facts, and I can't get a diploma if I don't graduate." ”
It has to be said that seeking truth from facts has always been an important ideological guide for Ren Zhengfei to achieve Huawei.
First, the alma mater's request for help, but was "difficult" by Ren Zhengfei
In 2013, Hu Lijun, the principal of Guizhou Duyunyi Middle School, contacted Ren Zhengfei and said that the school encountered the problem of insufficient funds in the development process, hoping that Ren Zhengfei, as an outstanding alumnus of the school, could donate 1 million yuan to his alma mater. In this regard, Hu Lijun also made a series of preparations for some questions that Ren Zhengfei may raise, such as the basic situation of students, the promotion rate, and the use of funds. And Ren Zhengfei is not only a student of Duyunyi Middle School, his father Ren Moxun also served as the principal of Duyunyi Middle School, so it is reasonable that Ren Zhengfei seems to have no reason to refuse to donate money to run education.
Unexpectedly, after Ren Zhengfei met Hu Lijun, he did not ask questions according to the content prepared by Hu Lijun, but only asked: "Principal Hu, please tell me what is the school motto of the First Middle School?" This made Hu Lijun, who was originally full of expectations, suddenly dumbfounded, not because he did not fulfill his responsibilities, but because there was no school motto in Duyunyi Middle School at that time.
Ren Zhengfei said: "The school motto determines the purpose and direction of a school, if you don't understand the school motto for the time being, I will not donate money." After listening to Ren Zhengfei's words, Principal Hu thought that the donation was hopeless, and he was ready to leave in frustration. Ren Zhengfei stopped Principal Hu and said, "It doesn't matter if there is no school motto, then we will think together, if we can't think of it, ask friends to help, and we must determine the school motto." ”
So Ren Zhengfei specially invited Liu Chuanzhi, Feng Lun and other business leaders and some people in the education sector to study the school motto together. After collecting the school mottos of more than 200 colleges and universities around the world and after a series of discussions, the six-character school motto of "Determination, Reverence and Responsibility" was finally determined, which also gave a new soul to DuyunYi Middle School, a middle school with a history of nearly 100 years.
When the school motto was determined, Ren Zhengfei did not break his word, paid 1 million yuan for the first time, and called Hu Lijun and said: "Principal Hu, now I can donate money, the school motto has been determined." ”
For Ren Zhengfei, 1 million is a small matter, and it is even more important to directly hit the money and make a good reputation, but for Ren Zhengfei, it is more important for students to understand the truth of seeking truth from facts and take it as the foundation of establishing people and establishing themselves.
Second, a tape-out success? Ren Zhengfei angrily rebuked He Tingbo
Like most companies like to hold year-end summary meetings, so does Huawei, in 2017, Huawei's total revenue exceeded 600 billion yuan for the first time. Ren Zhengfei specially gathered the heads of various departments together, intending to sum up the gains and losses and insights of the past year. Originally, everyone gathered together to sum up the past and imagine the future meeting, but at the venue, Ren Zhengfei was furious, as if he was angry all the time. The reason is that the summaries of the heads of various departments are not realistic, but will infinitely expand the small achievements achieved. For these responsible persons, Ren Zhengfei summarized them into 3 categories.
The first type, the good and great joy type
Some of the responsible persons used 90% of the content to summarize the performance after the whole summary speech, and the remaining 10% only talked about some innocuous issues.
The second category, the light and derogatory and dark praise types
Some people in charge said that Huawei has the most serious problem, that is, it provides too many services to customers, resulting in customers having nothing to do, so the customer's opinion is very large.
The third category, avoiding the heavy is light
Some people in charge are talking about artificial intelligence and cloud services throughout the whole process, and they seem to be exploring the future development direction, but they do not talk about the communication services that are most related to Huawei, and they do not talk about how the work is done.
Ren Zhengfei listened more and more angrily, and finally slapped the table in front of all the executives and shouted: "All summed up like this, still have a fart year?" After saying that, Ren Zhengfei slammed the door and left the conference room. Since then, Huawei executives have realized that it is not okay to play with the void, or to honestly explain the problem, and the bureaucracy is not suitable for Huawei.
Third, summarize Huawei's success in one sentence
At that time, after Huawei and Cisco ended the "lawsuit of the century" in the United States, Ren Zhengfei deeply felt that in the semiconductor chip industry, once Huawei made greater progress in the world, it was inevitable that it would be in direct confrontation with the US industry giants again. Therefore, in 2004, Ren Zhengfei enabled the "chip queen" He Tingbo, allocated 400 million US dollars a year, and established HiSilicon Semiconductor, and Huawei's "spare tire plan" was also launched.
Ren Zhengfei warned He Tingbo that we must let Huawei's own chips and operating systems stand up, and if Qualcomm, Cisco, Google, and Microsoft do not cooperate with us one day, Huawei cannot collapse. He Tingbo hurriedly expressed his position to Ren Zhengfei, saying that he would save costs for the leaders and ensure the success of the tape-out.
Tape-out refers to the production of chips using pipelines. The designed chip will generate up to 30 to 50 layers of picture files, and these layer pictures will be sent to the mask factory for masking, because unexpected bugs may occur, such as heating and performance standards, so tape-outs usually refer to the trial production of chips. It is precisely because it is impossible to mass-produce, so the cost of tape-outs is often very high, and it is required to go to a specialized manufacturer for operation. For example, in that year, Huawei would send it to Texas Instruments in the United States for tape-out, and the cost of a tape-out was between $300,000 and $500,000.
However, Ren Zhengfei was not happy to hear He Tingbo's statement, but said more severely: the success of a stream violates the principle of seeking truth from facts. Huawei is a private enterprise and allows mistakes to be made.
In Huawei, in addition to the wolf culture, the culture of seeking truth from facts is equally valuable. Even Huawei executives, even founders, if they make mistakes in their work, they have to accept the company's punishment and criticism like ordinary employees.
Around 2018, in response to internal mismanagement, several huawei executives were criticized internally. Among the 5 people who were heavily fined by the company, Ren Zhengfei ranked first, and was fined 1 million yuan. The three rotating chairmen, Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun and Hu Houkun, were each fined 500,000 yuan. Li Jie, president of human resources, fined 500,000 yuan.
The reason is that some of Huawei's operating units have experienced quality accidents and business fraud, and Ren Zhengfei and others, as the main responsible persons, are considered by the company's board of directors to bear the management responsibility for leadership oversight and poor supervision, which has led to the situation of being fined and notified to all employees.
IV. Conclusion
In 1988, the famous economist Wu Jinglian accompanied relevant leaders to Huawei to investigate. At the dinner table, Wu Jinglian asked Ren Zhengfei to try to summarize Huawei's success secret in one sentence, and Ren Zhengfei moved out the "seeking truth from facts". Wu Jinglian was very surprised and quickly asked: "General Manager Ren, is it 4 words?" ”。 Ren Zhengfei replied with a smile: "Only seek truth from facts, I am a layman, and Huawei's success is no secret." ”
In today's society, some people like to add glory to themselves, and put labels such as "godfather" and "teacher" on themselves, while some people are cautious in their words and deeds, and it does not matter if their shortcomings are made public. Ren Zhengfei's truth-seeking, to a certain extent, makes him appear particularly "unsociable" in the business world. There are no associations, chambers of commerce, and classmates to find him to "join the company", and he has not engaged in business alliances and business blows with entrepreneurs.
But it is precisely this kind of Ren Zhengfei, as well as Countless "Ren Zhengfei-style" entrepreneurs in China, leading domestic science and technology from low-end to high-end, realizing the core products from imports to domestic substitution, and helping China from "manufacturing power" to "intelligent manufacturing power".