According to Huawei's official announcement, according to Huawei's rotating chairman system, Ms. Meng Wanzhou will be the rotating chairman of the board of directors from April 1, 2023 ~ September 30, 2023.
The rotating chairman is the highest leader of the company during his term of office, presides over the company's board of directors and the standing committee of the board of directors.
From joining Huawei in 1993 to becoming the rotating chairman of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou took almost 30 years.
After graduating from university, Meng Wanzhou did not want to work in her father's company, in order to learn some livelihood skills and exercise her ability to behave in the world, she thought of interning at Huawei for a period of time.
From clerks, operators, typists and other jobs to becoming Huawei's financial head, the process was difficult, and many of the pressures were brought by Ren Zhengfei, who in Meng Wanzhou's words changed from a "loving father" to a "strict father". After decades of struggle at Huawei, Meng Wanzhou originally had plans to retire and rest, but the situation dictated that she finally strengthened her will and decided to face the challenge with her father and hundreds of thousands of Huawei.
As the rotating chairman, why is Meng Wanzhou?
As long as you understand Huawei's organizational system and management system, you will know that a company as large as Huawei cannot be the inheritance of "family world".
Whether from the level of corporate culture or in accordance with Huawei's share structure, nature and power rules, it ensures that Huawei's employment will not be cronyism.
In other words, Meng Wanzhou can become the rotating chairman not because he is Ren Zhengfei's daughter, or this is not the main factor, but because her contribution and ability are enough to make her qualified for this.
Regarding Meng Wanzhou's contribution, Huawei's official website clearly explains: Meng Wanzhou led the establishment of a globally unified Huawei financial organizational structure, process, system, and IT platform. Meng Wanzhou has implemented the IFS (Integrated Financial Services) reform at Huawei around the world, making refined management one of Huawei's sustainable growth genes. Meng Wanzhou led Huawei's data transformation, established a sound data management system, and realized "counting out of holes", making data a strategic asset of the company... Under her leadership, Huawei Finance has become the world's leading digital and intelligent financial organization, building a solid and reliable business foundation for Huawei and helping the company realize its strategy in the new era.
Meng Wanzhou is the builder of Huawei's overall blueprint for financial digitalization, finance is the core of the company's internal control, Meng Wanzhou has been immersed in this field for many years, is a first-class top expert, this qualification and achievements are qualified. In addition, her experience in Canada is also a plus, and Ren Zhengfei has said that she will be a hero after returning home.
What kind of Huawei did Meng Wanzhou take over? Why did she say "born to die"?
In a sense, Huawei is one of the most transparent commercial companies in the world, and its operating conditions are basically public, so it is easy for the outside world to know what kind of situation Huawei is in.
According to Huawei's 2022 annual report, Huawei's global sales revenue was RMB642.3 billion, its net profit was RMB35.6 billion, and its R&D investment reached RMB161.5 billion in 2022, accounting for 25.1% of its annual revenue.
Huawei's pressure is still huge, and rotating chairman Xu Zhijun pointed out that the severe external environment and non-market factors continue to affect the company's operations, he compared today's Huawei to plum blossoms, "plum blossoms are fragrant because she has experienced severe cold tempering." Meng Wanzhou said at the press conference that many operations are still facing greater pressure, and overall, the business performance is in line with expectations, "facing the future, we are under pressure and more confident."
"I am convinced that as long as we continue to struggle and never say die, every minute of our time and every effort will not be in vain, we may not succeed, but we live to death, how can we not become benevolent?"
Huawei's senior management is well aware of the difficulties and pressures suffered by the company, and in the six months since Meng Wanzhou took over, the situation she has faced is indeed not optimistic, which is a test and a challenge for her.
Ren's education proved to be indeed successful
For the "rich second generation", Buffett has a figurative metaphor, "the golden spoon they were born with in their mouth became a golden dagger inserted into their backs." So even if his son comes to borrow money, Buffett will refuse, "money will complicate our pure father-son relationship."
Different rich people have different educational philosophies for their children, and Ren Zhengfei is also unique in their children's education.
Ren Zhengfei once said that several of his children are very personal, very hard-working, and want to surpass their father, but he believes that what is more important is personal growth, and he hopes that his children can have strong wings and fly on their own.
Meng Wanzhou is the eldest daughter and works at Huawei, and Ren Zhengfei's requirements for her are very strict, and Meng Wanzhou's work has been severely criticized (even suppressed) by Ren Zhengfei many times. As for the youngest daughter, Ren Zhengfei obviously teaches according to aptitude, mainly encouraging and supporting.
For Meng Wanzhou, Ren Zhengfei believes that she has done a good job in finance, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage, because people with financial thinking pay too much attention to horizontal balance, management and efficiency, and it is not easy to make vertical breakthroughs. Moreover, Meng Wanzhou does not have a technical background and may lack insight into the direction of technology, so Meng Wanzhou can do management, but cannot become a successor.
Therefore, many people say that Meng Wanzhou will become Ren Zhengfei's successor, which is actually unlikely (Huawei is the successor of the system and system). After all, Huawei is not the kind of private enterprise where the boss holds most of the shares.
Huawei has not completely exited "crisis mode"
Huawei's operating margin in 2022 was 6.6%, the lowest level in 5 years (10.2% in 2018 and 8.1% in 2020).
Carrier business revenue is the main force of Huawei's revenue, accounting for as much as 40%, but the growth of this business is more difficult.
For well-known reasons, the revenue of the terminal business, including hardware such as Huawei mobile phones, has fallen seriously. The only bright spot is the enterprise business, which is growing rapidly with the blessing of the legion model.
From the perspective of regional scope, China, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and other regions are Huawei's core revenue regions.
But Meng Wanzhou said that Huawei's investment in research and development is no problem, and the company's cash is sufficient to support investment in the next few years. In addition, Huawei's automotive business is still in the stage of heavy investment, Huawei 5G mobile phones still cannot be manufactured, 4G mobile phones still rely on American suppliers, these are difficult to make great progress in the short term.
When Huawei is still in "crisis mode", Meng Wanzhou must prove that she can take on such a big responsibility.