The so-called grayscale is not only his world view, but also his way of thinking, but also his methodology, and the three constitute Ren Zhengfei's grayscale management philosophy.
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- Author | Wu Chunbo, leading expert of Huaxia Cornerstone, professor and doctoral supervisor of Chinese Min University
- Source | Huaxia Cornerstone Management Review selected collection "Using Corporate Culture to Improve Business Performance", click "Read the Original Article" to learn more about the book
Ren Zhengfei's "Grayscale Cognition"
1. The correct idea of enterprise management comes from practice
Mao Zedong has a passage that is very classic: Where does man's correct thinking come from? Did it fall from the sky? No. Is it inherent in your own mind? No. Man's correct thinking can only come from social practice, only from the three practices of production struggle, class struggle and scientific experiment...
According to Mao Zedong's words, "thought" comes from "practice" and leaps from "sensibility" to "reason." I once wrote four sentences in an article summarizing The source of Ren's cognition:
First, read ten thousand books. Reading ten thousand books is a cognitive process.
Second, travel thousands of miles. Walking is also a cognitive process.
Third, talk to thousands of people. Absorb the abilities of others.
Fourth, do one thing. To focus on doing things, is to do one thing.
Mr. Ren thinks that the summary is OK, but he told me that these four sentences should not be told to the grass-roots employees, the grass-roots employees cannot read the "ten thousand books", and the grass-roots employees must read the "ten thousand books".
2. The enterprise does not produce theory, but the entrepreneur must have a mind
Correct cognition also requires an important process, "enterprises do not produce theories, but entrepreneurs must have thoughts", this idea is your values, world view, is your grasp of the future, the operation and management of your enterprise, human resources, and people in the enterprise. Ren always has a very classic quote:
"The generally correct direction comes from the correct thinking of the entrepreneur; the correct thinking of the entrepreneur comes from the correct cognition of the enterprise; without the correct assumption, there is no correct direction; without the correct direction, there is no correct thinking; without the correct thinking, there is no correct theory; without the correct theory, there will be no correct strategy." ——" Speech at the Symposium between Mr. Ren and Fellow (2016)
From this passage, it can be seen that his thoughts, the extension of his thoughts, and the final formation of his thoughts are a process from theory to practice.
"Management is the art of practice", but this practice needs guidance. The guidance may come from theoretical guidance, or it may come from some kind of theoretical guidance from textbooks, or the guidance of consulting companies, or it may come from the guidance of the entrepreneur's own thinking, and then there is a process of turning the wind into rain. Turn the cloud of thought into the rain of practice to manage our society and manage our enterprise.
3. Ren Zhengfei uses grayscale cognition to manage the world
It is difficult to summarize what kind of person Ren always has, and the Ren Zhengfei in my eyes is a gray person who wanders between black and white: he is both grumpy and can still water; both iron-boned and tender like water; jealousy and hatred, and tolerant of compromise; both fierce and fierce, but also loves soldiers; both thunderbolt means and bodhisattva hearts; both compassion for heaven and compassion, and freedom; both adherence to the way of moderation, and discernment between good and evil; domineering and humble; both love of wealth and life, and spending money like earth; both introverted and shy, and outward-looking and ostentatious...
I don't know how to recognize him with a psychological personality, but as an entrepreneur, he is both one way and another, and that's grayscale. He uses grayscale cognition to manage the world, the so-called grayscale, which is both his world view and his way of thinking, as well as his methodology, and the three constitute Ren Zhengfei's grayscale management philosophy. He used this as an "ideological tool" to understand the world and transform the world, and put it into Huawei's management practice, which is Ren Zhengfei's grayscale management, or "grayscale management philosophy".
The grayscale philosophy not only comes from Huawei's management practice, enriches and improves in practice, but also guides Huawei's operation and management practice and accepts the verification of Huawei's operation and management practice.
4. Ren Zhengfei's grayscale view
The most basic idea of Ren Zhengfei's grayscale view is in an article. The article is a collection of ideas about the relationship between leadership quality, direction, openness and grayscale, compromise and grayscale, and hypothesis and grayscale. It says:
▶ An important quality of a leader is direction and rhythm. His level is the right grayscale.
▶ A clear direction, produced in chaos, stands out from gray, and the direction changes with time and space, and it often becomes unclear, not white or black, either one or the other. Reasonably grasping the appropriate grayscale is to make the various factors affecting development harmonious in a period of time, this harmonious process is called compromise, and the result of this harmony is called grayscale.
▶ There is no grayscale without compromise. Compromise is actually a very pragmatic, powerful jungle wisdom, all the wise people in the jungle of human nature, know how to accept the compromise of others at the right time, or put forward compromises to others, after all, people want to survive, relying on reason rather than will.
▶ Grayscale is the norm, black and white are philosophical assumptions, so we oppose going to extremes in corporate management and advocating systematic thinking.
▶ Maybe we don't know what is right yet, but we must know what is wrong, and beyond the wrong boundaries, we must be able to go in the right direction.
Ren Zhengfei's grayscale management applications in Huawei
First, grayscale looks at human nature, and we must abandon the cognitive mode and thinking mode that is black and white, love and hate, and is divided into two.
He said that Huawei's cadre policy should be a little gray, the road should return to the road, the bridge should be returned to the bridge, and the merits and faults should not be mixed together, and the envy and evil should not be like hatred, and the black and white should not be distinguished, nor should some false positives be rejected. He has an important point of view: in Huawei can be fake positive for five years is really positive, true positive is certainly worthy of affirmation, fake positive is more worthy of sympathy, and it is more difficult to be a person with a tail between its legs.
Recently I wrote an article about Ren Zhengfei's heroic view. In the past three decades, Huawei has looked at heroes in three stages: from 1987 to 1997, it was "calling for lonely heroes". From 1998 to 2013, 1998 was the year of the basic legal draft, and in 2003, Huawei was eliminating heroes and has been advocating "rule by doing nothing". The word "hero" disappeared at this stage. But from 2014 to now, Huawei is calling for group heroes, "heroes everywhere smoke, 600 million Shenzhou Shunyao", with special emphasis on individual heroism under collectivism.
Second, use grayscale insight into the future and develop strategies and goals.
No one can predict what the future will be, but Ren Zhengfei has come to an important conclusion through his grayscale philosophy - the direction is roughly correct and the organization is full of vitality.
For Ren Zong's "generally correct direction and vigorous organization", some people question the two words "roughly". I want to explain that "roughly" implies a kind of modesty, Huawei's strategic direction is basically correct, of course, there are mistakes, as long as we maintain the generally correct direction, the organization can deal with vitality. The important reason why Huawei can maintain the "rough correctness" of its strategic direction for a long time is Ren Zhengfei's grayscale management philosophy, "the unswerving correct direction comes from grayscale, compromise and tolerance." The uncertainty of the external environment is dealt with with the certainty of internal rules, the uncertainty of the outcome is dealt with with the certainty of the process, the uncertainty of the future is dealt with with the certainty of the past and the present, and the chaos of the strategic direction is dealt with with the vitality of the organization.
Third, look at the contradictory relationships in enterprises in grayscale.
There are a large number of contradictory and mutual checks and balances in business management, such as incentives and constraints, expansion and control, centralization and expansion, internal and external, inheritance and innovation, operation and management, short-term interests and long-term interests, teamwork and respect for individuality, and so on. These contradictory relationships constitute black and white, and for enterprises, they are torturing entrepreneurs like nooses and forcing enterprises to make extreme choices.
Ren Zhengfei looks at and deals with these relationships with the grayscale view, does not go to extremes, does not play balance, and makes intelligent decisions on internal and external relations, the core of which is to grasp the main contradictions and the main aspects of contradictions according to the grayscale theory, grasp the bull's nose, and turn these contradictions into the development momentum of the company. This is the grayscale treatment. In Huawei's development history, Ren Zhengfei's "seeking governance in chaos" and "seeking chaos in governance" has always been the embodiment of his grayscale development concept; and "deep beach, low weir" is the grayscale standard for handling internal and external relations.
Fourth, cultivate and select cadres with grayscale, cultivate leadership, and take grayscale as the qualification of senior managers.
"Openness, compromise, and grayscale are the essence of Huawei's culture, and they are also the style of a leader, and a leader is to master grayscale." This sentence is very classic, Huawei has always said to tolerate "crooked melons and crack dates". "Huawei Ren Bao" once wrote "cracked jujube" as "inferior jujube", which was resolutely corrected by Ren Zong. "Companies have to tolerate the bizarre idea of crooked dates — how do you know they're not van Gogh of this era, Beethoven of this era?" He stressed that he has a clear banner on things, tolerates and compromises with people, works in a high profile, and behaves in a low profile. When cadres put aside black and white right and wrong, they will have a broad vision and a broad mind, and they will be able to embrace all kinds of rivers and have lofty hearts.
Fifth, grasp the rhythm of enterprise management with grayscale.
Mr. Ren has always stressed that as a senior manager, in the process of enterprise operation and management, we must pay close attention to three key points: direction, rhythm and per capita efficiency. When the direction of the enterprise is roughly correct, the grasp of the rhythm of operation and management becomes the key to leadership. The rhythm grasp of being anxious and unable to wait, and not being in a hurry and waiting for it is the best embodiment of Ren Zheng's non-grayscale management.
Direction and rhythm are strategic issues, and efficiency per capita is human resources. Huawei's first CHO is Ren Zhengfei, huawei's CEO is Huawei's human resources department, grasping the direction, rhythm and per capita efficiency. The assessment content of Huawei's various departments is different, but there are always two indicators that are the same, one is per capita efficiency and the other is customer satisfaction.
The question about the rhythm is not to rush and wait. "Don't worry, go in the right direction little by little, don't toss."
I especially like Mao Zedong's inscription to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, "Adhere to the correct political direction, arduous and simple work style, flexible and exciting strategy and tactics." "For enterprises, it is to adhere to the generally correct direction, change with the outside, change with the market, change with the change of technology, and change with customers."
Sixth, insight into the external business environment in grayscale.
For the external business environment, Ren always has insight from the perspective of grayscale. He never complains about the sinister external business environment and always evaluates macro-level issues with optimism. 10 years ago, Huawei called its competitors "friendly businessmen" and regarded "developing together with friendly businessmen, both competitors and partners, jointly creating a good living space and sharing the benefits of the value chain" as one of the company's strategies.
Compromise is the premise of grayscale, without compromise, there is no grayscale. Mr. Ren described himself as "Rabin's student": "land for peace". "There is no way out of surrender, and to be a slave to the state is to be trampled upon." Huawei's entire company is screaming, not afraid of anyone. We have the ability to stand up on our own and not to be slaves to the country. "Huawei doesn't want to be a slave to the country, but some companies have to do it."
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