Zhang Feng is also gone, Lei Jun can't keep the partner?

Produced by Radar Finance | Meng Shuai edited | Deep sea

After many partners said goodbye to Xiaomi one after another, the Xiaomi that Lei Jun painstakingly operated lost another partner, and this time it was Zhang Feng who left.

Recently, it was reported that Xiaomi has carried out the latest internal structural adjustments, and Zhang Feng, a partner, senior vice president and president of the major appliance department of Xiaomi Group, will leave, and he will leave after completing the handover in December this year. Subsequently, Zhang Feng himself forwarded relevant Weibo and confirmed to the outside world that he was leaving Xiaomi.

After Zhang Feng leaves Xiaomi, the major appliance department under his charge will also usher in a new adjustment, the former Xiaomi major appliance department TV department will be merged into the mobile phone department, and the company will establish a new major appliance department, including air conditioning, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. According to Xiaomi's previous financial reports, now that the smart appliance business has become an important part of Xiaomi's revenue, this adjustment or Xiaomi is preparing for a more complete interconnection experience between devices.

Radar Finance combed and found that Zhang Feng is not the only partner of Xiaomi who chose to leave. In August 2020, Lei Jun officially announced that four group executives, Wang Xiang, Zhou Shouzi, Zhang Feng and Lu Weibing, became new partners of Xiaomi.

With the departure of Zhang Feng, only Lu Weibing was left with the four co-founders selected by Lei Jun for the next decade. Most of Xiaomi's early 8 veteran co-founders are no longer working with Lei Jun on the front line of business.

Some analysts pointed out that the departure of corporate executives usually involves personal, organizational, financial and other factors. Career planning, work philosophy, organizational structure adjustment, equity cash, salary and treatment, family health, etc., may become the reasons why the core executives of the enterprise choose to break up with the company.

With the departure of Xiaomi's co-founders, some market participants lamented that the partnership system created by Lamor Lei Jun is facing a test.

Zhang Feng left, and Xiaomi lost another partner

After the Mid-Autumn Festival National Day, Xiaomi sent a heavy news of personnel adjustment to the outside world. According to an internal email released by Xiaomi, Zhang Feng, partner, senior vice president and president of the major appliance department of Xiaomi Group, will leave after completing the handover in December this year due to personal reasons.

Radar Finance learned that Zhang Feng, born in September 1969, graduated from Shanghai University of Science and Technology (now Shanghai University) majoring in radio electronics. From 1991 to 1993, Zhang Feng participated in the research and development of China's first analog mobile phone YD9100. From September 1993 to January 2012, Zhang Feng worked for IAC Group, successively serving as R&D director and general manager of IAC Nanjing.

In 2012, Zhang Feng founded Jiangsu Zimi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. Since 2013, ZMI has participated in the layout of Xiaomi's ecosystem, conforming to the trend of smart hardware and the Internet of Things, and carrying out in-depth cooperation with Xiaomi. Since this year, Zimi has officially become one of the members of the Xiaomi industry ecological chain, mainly responsible for the research and development of Xiaomi mobile power and related accessories. From 2014 to 2018, Xiaomi's cumulative sales of mobile power exceeded 100 million units.

Since then, with the maturity of Internet of Things technology, Zimi has gradually listed IoT as the main development direction. Since 2018, Zimi has successively launched ZMI wireless rechargeable speaker, ZMI alarm clock speaker, Mijia mosquito repellent, Mijia smart camera, Mijia projector, Xiaomi Xiaoai alarm clock and other smart home products, through the Mijia and Xiaoai app, to achieve product control.

Tianyan inspection shows that the registered capital of Jiangsu Zimi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. reached 136 million yuan, and the legal representative of the company is still Zhang Feng. Shareholder information shows that the company is wholly owned by Zimi Communication Technology (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., of which Zhang Feng is the legal representative, and Zimi Communication Technology (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. is wholly owned by Zimi International Co., Ltd.

The time when Zhang Feng officially joined Xiaomi can be traced back to 2016. At that time, Xiaomi mobile phones were in a supply chain crisis, and Zhang Feng's addition helped Xiaomi solve a series of problems in supplier components and mobile phone supply. In addition to the supply chain of the mobile phone department, Zhang Feng has also participated in the management of departments such as the staff department, procurement committee and intelligent hardware and related businesses.

Radar Finance noted that Xiaomi's official website and Zhang Feng's Weibo show that Zhang Feng is still a partner, senior vice president and president of the major appliance department of Xiaomi Group. On October 9, Lu Weibing, partner and president of Xiaomi Group, Zeng Xuezhong, senior vice president of Xiaomi Group and president of the mobile phone department, and other executives successively sent farewell wishes to Zhang Feng, and Zhang Feng himself also forwarded relevant Weibo to express his gratitude.

Tianyan investigation shows that there are currently 34 enterprises where Zhang Feng works. Among all 34 enterprises, 21 enterprises with Zhang Feng as the legal representative and 29 enterprises with Zhang Feng as the senior executive. Most of these enterprises are related to Xiaomi, such as Guangzhou Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Xiaomi Information Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Xiaomi Electronic Products Co., Ltd., Nanjing Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Xiaomi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., etc.

There are 9 enterprises in which Zhang Feng is a shareholder, of which 2 are currently in the state of deregistration. The remaining surviving enterprises are: Wuhan Shunke Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership), Tianjin Churin Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership), Beijing Cat and Dog Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing Xiaomu Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Punctuation Network Technology Development Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Feihuang Sports Industry Co., Ltd., Zhang Feng's shareholding ratio in the aforementioned companies is 3.55%, 13.54%, 2.9%, 3.69%, 19% and 30% respectively.

The major appliance department helmed by Zhang Feng will usher in a reorganization

As Zhang Feng is about to officially bid farewell to Xiaomi at the end of the year, Xiaomi's major electrical appliances department previously led by Zhang Feng will also usher in new changes.

According to media reports, the former TV department of Xiaomi's major appliance department will be merged into the mobile phone department, and Xiaomi will appoint Pan Jun to continue to serve as the general manager of the TV department, which will report to Zeng Xuezhong, president of the mobile phone department. At the same time, Xiaomi will also establish a new major appliance department, including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, etc., and the general manager of the major appliance department will take over the responsibility of Shan Lianyu, who will report to Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group.

For this adjustment, Xiaomi officially said that it will help enhance its competitiveness in the smart home field. Xiaomi also said in an internal email that as the market continues to change and consumer demand continues to upgrade, it also needs to constantly adjust its strategy to adapt to market changes.

According to Xiaomi's financial report released not long ago, in the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi recorded a total of 67.4 billion yuan in revenue, a year-on-year decrease of 4%. Among them, Xiaomi's revenue from the smartphone business was 36.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.4%; Revenue from Internet services business increased by 6.8% year-on-year to RMB7.0 billion.

Unlike the decline in smartphone revenue, in the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi's revenue from the IoT and consumer products segment contributed 22.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. In the second quarter, the gross margin of Xiaomi's IoT and consumer products segment was 17.6%, up 3.3 percentage points year-on-year, setting a record high for this indicator.

In terms of proportion, the IoT and consumer products segment contributed 33% of Xiaomi's revenue in the second quarter (28.2% in the same period last year), and the smartphone business contributed 54.3% of Xiaomi's revenue (60.2% in the same period last year) in the same period, further narrowing the difference in contribution between the two businesses. In other words, the IoT and consumer products segment has become an important part of Xiaomi's revenue.

Lei Jun once emphasized that in the current further integration of intelligent interconnection, the core strategy of "mobile phone X AIoT" will emphasize the multiplication effect. The core business of mobile phones and the layout of AIoT ecology are no longer just simple additions or simple juxtapositions, but equations that can cause conversion. AIoT business should become a catalyst and fuel for mobile phone business, penetrate more scenarios, win more users, obtain massive traffic and data, and become the moat of Xiaomi's business model.

As of the end of the first half of the year, the number of connected IoT devices (excluding smartphones, tablets and laptops) on Xiaomi's AIoT platform reached 655 million, a year-on-year increase of 24.2%. During the same period, the number of users with five or more devices connected to Xiaomi's AIoT platform (excluding smartphones, tablets and laptops) reached 13 million, an increase of 27.8% year-on-year. In June, the number of monthly active users of the Mijia App increased by 17.1% year-on-year to 82.9 million.

As for Xiaomi's major appliance sector, which made structural adjustments, the second quarter continued its strong growth momentum. According to the financial report, in the second quarter, Xiaomi's smart appliance business revenue accelerated to more than 70% year-on-year, and Xiaomi's air conditioning products and refrigerator product shipments hit a record high in this quarter.

In the second quarter, the shipment of Xiaomi air conditioning products increased by more than 90% year-on-year. According to data from Oviyun.com, the growth of the refrigerator and washing machine market in this quarter was weak, and the omni-channel retail sales of Chinese mainland refrigerators and washing machines fell by 6.1% and 3.9% year-on-year, respectively. However, under the pressure of the broader market, Xiaomi's refrigerator and washing machine business bucked the trend in the second quarter, of which the shipment of refrigerator products exceeded 500,000 units, and the shipment of washing machine products exceeded 300,000 units.

Xiaomi's TV products are an important part of its smart home appliance business. According to the data of Oviyun.com, in the first half of this year, Xiaomi TV ranked first in the list of Chinese mainland TV shipments. However, Xiaomi also said in its earnings report that the revenue change of the IoT and Consumer Products segment was "mainly due to the increase in revenue from smart appliances, tablets and certain consumer products, partially offset by a decrease in revenue from smart TVs and laptops."

Some analysts believe that Xiaomi's integration of the TV sector of the original Ministry of Major Appliances into the mobile phone department may be to further promote the interconnection between Xiaomi's devices including mobile phones and TVs, and then drive the sales of Xiaomi TV products.

Lei Jun can't keep the partner?

Combing through Xiaomi's growth history, it is not difficult to find that Zhang Feng is not the only big guy who was selected as a partner by Xiaomi; And the partner who chose to say goodbye to Xiaomi is not only Zhang Feng.

Back in 2020, in August of that year, Lei Jun, who was Xiaomi's "number one person", issued an internal letter announcing several major events. One of them, in the next decade, Xiaomi's core strategy will be upgraded to "mobile phone X AIoT". Secondly, in the next decade, Xiaomi will continue to adhere to Xiaomi's "three iron laws" that will never change, namely: technology-oriented, cost-effective, and the coolest products.

In addition to the aforementioned mentioned, one of the major things that Lei Jun mentioned is that Xiaomi will start a new business in the next decade, so Xiaomi will implement a partnership system and a new ten-year entrepreneur plan. With the announcement of this major event, Xiaomi's partner team welcomed four new members, and Zhang Feng, who reported the news of his departure, was one of them.

In addition to Zhang Feng, Wang Xiang, who joined Xiaomi in July 2015 and was then president of Xiaomi Group, Zhou Shouzi, who joined Xiaomi in July 2015 and was then senior vice president of Xiaomi Group and president of the international department, and Lu Weibing, who joined Xiaomi in January 2019 and was then vice president of Xiaomi Group, president of China, and general manager of Redmi brand, were all pulled into the "group chat" of Xiaomi partners by Lei Jun.

In Lei Jun's view, Xiaomi has always adhered to the entrepreneurial culture and partner culture since its inception. Over the past decade, this culture has helped Xiaomi attract a large number of outstanding talents, condense an entrepreneurial team that takes the company's mission as its own responsibility and forge ahead, and inspires and drives the rapid development of the company, so that Xiaomi has achieved world-renowned results.

With the addition of 4 new partners, plus 5 founding partners who were still on the job at that time, the size of Xiaomi's partner team at that time reached 9 people. However, time has passed, and the 4 bigwigs who were announced by Officer Lei as Xiaomi's new partners in the past are now running to their different futures.

In March 2021, Zhou Shouzi chose to leave Xiaomi. After saying goodbye to Xiaomi, Zhou Shouzi turned around and joined the big family of ByteDance. At that time, ByteDance announced in an internal letter that Zhou Shouzi joined ByteDance as CFO, and its office is located in Singapore. In just about two months, Zhou was appointed as TikTok's CEO.

Today's Zhou Shouzi already has the ability to stand alone. In March this year, when attending the hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, in the face of the "aggressive" questioning of US congressmen, Zhou Shouzi was highly praised by many netizens for his calm, elegant, handsome and talented performance with his tongue-in-cheek performance.

Wang Xiang, who joined Xiaomi at about the same time as Zhou Shouzi, ended his career at Xiaomi at the end of last year. At that time, Lei Jun announced in an all-staff internal letter that the 61-year-old Wang Xiang would step down as president of Xiaomi Group at the end of December last year. However, Wang will continue to serve Xiaomi as a senior advisor.

After Wang Xiang unloaded the burden of president of Xiaomi Group, Lu Weibing, a 47-year-old partner and senior vice president of Xiaomi Group, became the new successor of the position. With the news of Zhang Feng's departure from Xiaomi, only Lu Weibing is now left with the 4 co-founders of Xiaomi in the next decade.

It is worth mentioning that Lu Weibing, who stuck to the end, was promoted at Xiaomi at a very "amazing" speed. At the beginning of 2019, Lei Junli invited Lu Weibing to join Xiaomi, and since then, Lu Weibing has been responsible for the sales management of China and international departments, as well as the building of the Redmi brand, product planning, production, sales and marketing. With his outstanding record, Lu Weibing successfully staged the drama of "promotion and monster fighting" in Xiaomi, all the way from the vice president of Xiaomi Group and the general manager of Redmi Redmi brand to the high position of president of Xiaomi China, president of the international department of Xiaomi Group, and president of Xiaomi Group.

According to media reports, in the history of Xiaomi Group, there are a total of 8 co-founders, they are Lei Jun, Lin Bin, Hong Feng, Wang Chuan, Liu De, Huang Jiangji, Zhou Guangping, Li Wanqiang, these 8 people were once sent to the outside world as the title of "Eight King Kongs".

However, Zhou Guangping, Huang Jiangji, and Li Wanqiang have stepped down from Xiaomi's senior positions and left Xiaomi. The remaining co-founders, Liu De, basically bid farewell to the front line of business after serving as the head of Xiaomi's newly established group organization department in 2018, and Lin Bin rarely appeared after becoming the vice chairman of Xiaomi Group in 2019. In addition, Hong Feng and Wang Chuan have also withdrawn from the front line of business. In other words, the 8 veteran founders are now left alone in the front line of the business.

For partners leaving Xiaomi one after another, "Science and Technology Digital Theory", which is certified as the author of the headline article on the Weibo platform, commented, "Partners have earned enough money to enjoy life, and finally the boss is left to stick to the end, so ordinary people can't be bosses, and Lei is really a model worker."

It is worth mentioning that not long ago, Lei Jun said in an interview that in fact, when he just graduated and entered Jinshan to work, there were only five or six people in the entire company, which was not a big factory at all, but now it has grown into a large factory. Lei Jun believes that if young people enter a small factory, it is also a good experience to grow up with a good small factory.

Some analysts pointed out that there are obvious differences between the roles, responsibilities, risks and goals of founders and professional managers in enterprises. Compared with the professional managers who join later, the founders of enterprises usually have more entrepreneurial spirit and dedication, and they can also be called the "soul" of the enterprise. In the face of the "child" he brought up, it is difficult for the founder to completely "give up" from both the emotional and interest perspectives.

In contrast, professional managers need to have professional management literacy and ability. They are employed by businesses and are responsible for the day-to-day management and operations of the business, creating value and maintaining a high level of performance by applying their professional knowledge and skills. At the same time, professional managers work according to the requirements and goals of the enterprise after being employed by the enterprise, and relatively rarely bear the overall risk of the enterprise.

Or realize this, Xiaomi launched the partnership system, Xiaomi did this is to let more outstanding partners with a sense of mission, responsibility, outstanding achievements, both ability and integrity, highly recognized and practice Xiaomi cultural values, become a member of Xiaomi's partner team, share risks and benefits with the company. However, the departure of one partner after another has put the partnership system launched by Lei Jun to the test.

The analyst also added that there may be several reasons for the departure of core executives of enterprises. For example, some executives may choose to leave because of personal development needs. They want to challenge themselves, verify their abilities, or pursue higher career achievements, choosing to start their own businesses to achieve personal value and enhance their careers. Executives may also choose to leave when they disagree with the company's values or strategy. For some listed companies, when the shares held by the company's original shareholders or employees have passed the statutory holding period, that is, the ban is lifted, some executives may choose to leave the market for the purpose of cashing out.

In addition, some executives may choose to leave due to excessive work pressure, unsatisfactory salary, personal reasons (such as family, health), etc.; Management problems within the company, organizational structure adjustments, etc., may also affect the retention of senior executives.