The author | Zhou Chaochen
The head art | Visual China
Not surprisingly.
On Friday (April 1), Huawei announced that the company completed the election of the board of supervisors, and elected the chairman of the board of supervisors, supervisors, and alternate supervisors. The most striking of these is that on April 1, Huawei issued an announcement announcing the completion of the election of the board of supervisors, electing the chairman of the board of supervisors, supervisors, and alternate supervisors, and Guo Ping, the former rotating chairman of the board, was elected as the chairman of the board of supervisors.
Huawei Vice Chairman and CFO Meng Wanzhou succeeded Guo Ping as the new rotating chairman. This is also the first time since 2011 that the iron triangle combination of Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun and Hu Houkun has changed.
Huawei then responded that the company is committed to optimizing and improving the internal governance structure to make the company's foundation evergreen, and the change of the board of supervisors is a work that promotes corporate governance in an orderly manner according to the charter.
Three days ago, on March 28, Meng Wanzhou made her debut after returning to China, when she appeared with Guo Ping at the launch of Huawei's 2021 annual report. Now it seems that that day is equivalent to the handover ceremony between Meng Wanzhou and Guo Ping.
According to Huawei's management structure, the rotating chairman rotates every six months, and is the company's supreme leader during the current period, presiding over the company's board of directors and the standing committee of the board of directors. The Supervisory Board is the supreme supervisory body of the company, exercising supervisory powers on behalf of shareholders, and its basic functions include leadership management, business review and strategic foresight.
On March 31, Huawei announced that according to the company's rotating chairmanship system, Mr. Hu Houkun will be the rotating chairman from April 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022. From October 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, Xu Zhijun will be the rotating chairman, which means that April 1 next year will be Meng Wanzhou's first rotational chairman, which also means that she still has a year to learn and adapt to how to be a rotating chairman.
Whether it is Huawei's internal or external perspective, serving as rotating chairman is a reward that Ms. Meng Wanzhou deserves, and it is also the best gift for her 50th birthday.
On December 1, 2018, local time, Meng Wanzhou, vice chairman and CFO of Huawei, was arrested by the Canadian government while transiting in Vancouver, Canada, on the grounds that the United States accused Meng Wanzhou of allegedly violating the U.S. export ban on Iran.
Since then, Meng Wanzhou has been under house arrest in Canada for nearly 3 years, except that every time we attend various hearings, we can see her clothes, and at the same time, the electronic trackers on her ankles are striking.
Image source: Visual China
After the unremitting efforts of the Chinese government, on September 24, 2021 local time, Ms. Meng Wanzhou left Canada on a chartered flight by the Chinese government. On the evening of September 25, Meng Wanzhou took a charter flight from the Chinese government to return to the motherland, CCTV gave her the highest courtesy, conducted a live broadcast, a red dress Meng Wanzhou walked off the plane after the speech said: "After more than 1,000 days of suffering, I finally returned to the embrace of the motherland. ”
The three years of suffering for Huawei have become a dazzling military merit badge on her personal resume, and it has also become logical for her to serve as Huawei's rotating chairman. This also makes people speculate even more about whether Meng Wanzhou will become Ren Zhengfei's successor in the future.
However, Ren Zhengfei has previously denied it. In 2019, Ren Zhengfei, who rarely accepted media interviews before, an old father in his 70s, rushed to tell his daughter - and of course Huawei - and suddenly agreed to accept media interviews, which was a crazy day for Ren Zhengfei, according to incomplete statistics, Ren Zhengfei only accepted more than 40 Chinese and foreign media interviews in 2019, and others "drink coffee with Ren Zhengfei" and so on.
In these interviews, Ren Zhengfei was repeatedly asked by foreign media whether Meng Wanzhou would become his successor and become the CEO of Huawei, but he firmly denied it: "She can never be a successor because she has no technical background." Our successors must have technical insight and judgment on future technologies and customer needs. ”
"Our successor is certainly not Meng Wanzhou, Meng Wanzhou is a manager, she is good at coordinating internal management. Our successor must be a combatant, must have market insight, must have a deep technical background, rich experience in market practice, and have profound research in philosophy, sociology and other aspects. Ren Zhengfei stressed in an interview with Japan's "Daily News" reporter, "Leaders do not need to work every day to move bricks and mingle with workers, and the most important responsibility and ability of leaders is to judge the direction." ”
"Since ancient times, heroes have suffered many hardships, and without scars, there will be no thick skin and rough flesh." Meng Wanzhou's experience of this ordeal is a great exercise for her personally, will strengthen her wings, and she will have greater achievements. In Ren Zhengfei's eyes, Meng Wanzhou, who came from a financial background, is excellent in management, and her horizontal management ability is very strong, "but as a leader, there are shortcomings in the guiding road like a 'lighthouse'."
So for Ren Zhengfei, what kind of talent is the qualified CEO in his mind? He said that being a leader requires vertical breakthrough ability, to see the future in ten or twenty years, and the insight into this future must be someone with a technical background. Without a technical background, he couldn't see what was going on in ten or twenty years.
According to the information on Huawei's official website, the previous three rotating chairmen Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun and Hu Houkun were introduced as follows:
Born in 1966, Guo Ping graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (now Huazhong University of Science and Technology) with a master's degree. He joined Huawei in 1988 and has served as Project Manager of the Product Development Department, General Manager of the Supply Chain, Director of the President's Office, Chief Legal Officer, President of the Process and IT Management Department, President of the Enterprise Development Department, Chairman and President of Huawei Terminal Corporation, Rotating CEO of the Company, Director of the Financial Committee, Vice Chairman of the Company, and Rotating Chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
Born in 1967, Xu Zhijun graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology with a Ph.D. degree. He joined Huawei in 1993 and has served as President of the Company's Wireless Product Line, President of Strategy and Marketing, President of Products and Solutions, Director of the Product Investment Review Committee, Rotating CEO of the Company, Director of the Strategy and Development Committee, and currently Vice Chairman and Rotating Chairman of the Company.
Born in 1968, Hu Houkun graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree. He joined Huawei in 1990 and has served as President of the Company's China Market Department, President of the Latin America Division, President of global sales department, President of Sales and Service, President of Strategy and Marketing, Chairman of the Global Cybersecurity and User Privacy Protection Committee, Chairman of Huawei' Chairman, Vice Chairman of the Company, Rotating CEO, and Director of the Human Resources Committee.
These three are all post-65, similar in age, and the time to join Huawei is at most 5 years apart. Guo Ping was the first to join Huawei, Huawei was founded in 1987, Guo Ping joined Huawei the following year, it should be said that Huawei's earliest batch of elders, so he withdrew from the post of rotating chairman this time, can be seen as "power in the closed cycle, in the cycle of scientific replacement" of the Huawei rotation system loyal practitioners.
Meng Wanzhou was born in 1972 and graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a master's degree. He joined Huawei in 1993. He has served as the company's international accounting director, chief financial officer and president of the accounting management department of Huawei Hong Kong, and is currently the vice chairman, rotating chairman, and CFO of the company.
In the introduction of Huawei's official website, since 2003, Meng Wanzhou has led the establishment of a globally unified Organizational Structure, Process, System, and IT Platform for Huawei Finance. From 2007 to 2014, Meng Wanzhou implemented the IFS (Integrated Financial Services) reform in Huawei globally, making refined management one of huawei's genes for continuous growth. "Under her leadership, Huawei Finance has become the world's leading digital and intelligent financial organization, creating a solid and reliable business foundation for Huawei and helping the company achieve its strategy in the new era."
Huawei began to implement the CEO rotation system in 2011, and Ren Zhengfei wrote an article entitled "Identification of the CEO Rotation System Under the Leadership of the Board of Directors" to explain:
Empower a group of "smart people" to rotate CEOs and give them the right to make decisions in the face of a changing world within certain boundaries. This is the rotating CEO system.
The tradition of the past was to delegate to one person, so the fate of the company depended on that person. Success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. There is a lot of history that proves that this is more risky. In order to live up to shareholder expectations, the traditional CEO is responsible for quarterly and annual operating results every day, without even a small gap in time. What time does he spend learning to recharge, what time he spends studying the future, getting caught up in the middle of things, how can he succeed. Huawei's rotating CEO is composed of a small team, because of the difference between harmony and, can manipulate the company to constantly adapt to changes in the environment quickly; their decisions are made collectively, which also avoids the company's rigidity caused by individual over-paranoia; and at the same time, they can avoid the uncertainty of the company's operation brought about by unexpected risks.
They leave their posts after six months of rotation, not leaving the core layer, they are still at the core level of decision-making, not only for business decision-making, but also for the use of cadres and experts have great power and authority. A rotating CEO is an organizational arrangement of duties and rights, not a rotation of missions and responsibilities. During their non-CEO tenure, rotating CEO members did not abdicate their missions and responsibilities on their shoulders, but participated in collective decision-making and prepared for the next round of duties.
By not withdrawing from the core layer after the end of the rotation period, one day and one courtier can be avoided, so that excellent employees can continue to work under different rotating CEOs. The improper use of some excellent employees will not occur, because the cadres are used for joint decision-making during the rotation period, and they will not be replaced at will, so that the company can continue to develop steadily. At the same time, subject to the control of capital power, the constraints of the board of directors, and not blind development, may be the road to success. Failure to succeed has explored the way for future generations, and we have no regrets.
In 2018, Huawei changed the CEO rotation system to the rotating chairman system. There are 3 rotating chairmen, still Guo Xuhu three, each on duty for 6 months, during the period of duty is the supreme leader, the supreme leader is placed under the law, this "law" is the governance charter; also placed in collective democracy.
The rotating chairman on duty can propose, and after the 3 rotating chairmen have discussed, whether the proposal can be discussed on the standing board of directors; the standing board of directors composed of 7 people shall vote to form a proposal and submit it to the board of directors for voting; and the majority of the board of directors shall vote to pass it before it can become a document. The chairman of the board of directors represents the shareholding employee congress and administers the rules of the standing board of directors, and the operation of the standing board and the board of directors must follow the rules of the governance charter. The Supervisory Board supervises the conduct of directors. In this way, the leadership group will gradually iterate and replace.
Ren Zhengfei said. "Who is the successor, naturally in the cycle of succession, not designated by me, because I am not the King of Saudi Arabia."
However, Ren Zhengfei is obviously very satisfied with his eldest daughter, and he once praised Meng Wanzhou in the face of the media: "Meng Wanzhou is a very good girl, and she studies very hard, works very hard, she is responsible for the construction of the financial system, and it is also the best system in the world." When there was a big earthquake in Japan, a tsunami, a nuclear power plant nuclear leak, and a rescue and disaster relief, she flew from Hong Kong to Tokyo, and there were only two people on the plane, one of whom was her. ”
Although Ren Zhengfei denied that Meng Wanzhou would become the successor, Meng Wanzhou may eventually become that successor.
It's just a matter of time.