Recently, a video of Ren Zhengfei accompanying his professor to visit Huawei has sparked heated discussions on the Internet. The video shows that when Ren Zhengfei took the professor to visit Huawei's data center, his door card could not open the door of the data center, and finally the security guard came to open the door.
This scene shows that Huawei has established a perfect system, and Ren Zhengfei is no longer the "leman" leader of the year. Behind this is the great success of Huawei's management transformation.
From "leman" to "virtual leader", Ren Zhengfei's transformation
In the 80s of the 20th century, when Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei, he adopted a "leman" style of leadership, and he had the final say and monopolized power. This creates an advantage in execution efficiency in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
However, with the expansion of the scale of the enterprise, the disadvantages of this model have also been exposed: the information asymmetry is serious, and Ren Zhengfei cannot pay attention to every detail; Decision-making is inefficient and some businesses are struggling.
Faced with this dilemma, Ren Zhengfei decided to push for change. He invited experts and scholars from the Chinese University of China to draft the Huawei Basic Law, introduce a modern enterprise system, and establish a matrix organizational structure and decision-making process.
In this process, Ren Zhengfei gradually transformed from a "leman" to a "virtual leader", no longer having micro-level power, and only retaining the final decision-making power.
This door card incident just proves Ren Zhengfei's transformation. He no longer has free access to many of Huawei's core areas, and everything needs to be followed.
Ren Zhengfei even joked that he had to buy his own Coke in the Huawei office. This demonstrates the rigor of Huawei's processes and systems, as well as Ren Zhengfei's open-minded leadership style of letting go of power.
Only by establishing a modern system can we achieve a world-class enterprise
The reason why Ren Zhengfei gave up power and established a modern enterprise system is to lead Huawei to the world's first-class.
In the 90s of the 20th century, IBM's experience told Ren Zhengfei that without modern management, it is difficult to become a world-class enterprise. Therefore, he chose to learn from IBM's experience and establish a series of systems such as matrix management, performance appraisal, and process approval to form a mechanism of checks and balances of power.
Under these systems, Ren Zhengfei is no longer the only decision-maker, and the enterprise is moving towards institutionalization and process. This laid the foundation for Huawei's subsequent rapid development.
Today, Huawei has more than 200,000 employees and operates in more than 170 countries around the world, making it a world-renowned high-tech enterprise. It is due to the strong support of the enterprise system.
Therefore, what is behind this door card incident is Ren Zhengfei's efforts to build Huawei into a modern enterprise that does not rely on individuals by establishing a modern system. It also shows us that in order to achieve a world-class enterprise, the construction of modern system is fundamental.
Unleashing the vitality of employees requires the support of enlightened leaders
In addition, this incident also reflects the enlightened side of Ren. He was able to push for change in large part because of his enlightened leadership style.
Ren Zhengfei relinquished power and established a new decision-making mechanism, one of the purposes of which was to unleash the vitality of employees. Let them no longer stick to carrying out orders, but make their own decisions. This has stimulated the enthusiasm of employees and brought together talents from all walks of life for Huawei.
In this process, Ren Zhengfei gave employees enough trust and support. For example, Sun Yafang opposes Ren Zhengfei's decision-making, and Ren Zhengfei can also tolerate it; Employees put forward new strategic ideas, and Ren Zhengfei is also willing to adopt them.
This open-minded leadership style has enabled Huawei to form a corporate culture of "reducing talent without sticking to one pattern".
So we see that the key to Ren Zhengfei's ability to drive change is his own enlightened leadership qualities. This also reminds us that in order to create an enterprise atmosphere that encourages innovation and respects talents, an enlightened leadership style is an important foundation.
The incident of Ren Zhengfei's invalid key card reflects the great progress of Huawei's management reform, shows the importance of system construction, and also highlights Ren Zhengfei's open-minded side.
It has made us more aware that a modern enterprise system and an enlightened leadership style are indispensable elements to achieve a world-class enterprise. Ren Zhengfei's journey of exploration will also encourage more enterprises to achieve self-innovation.