Song Zhiping, President of the China Association of Listed Companies and Chief Expert of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association
The company's greatest core expertise is the mindset and inspiration of entrepreneurs
Text | Liu Bingjun
Source | Huaxia Cornerstone e Insight
"Steady Operation" is a new book published by corporate thinker Mr. Song Zhiping in March 2024, and it is also the author's 23rd book published. This book brings together 50 articles published by the author, speeches at events, and lectures from 2021 to 2023, which comprehensively reflects the author's observations, hearings, thoughts and thoughts on how Chinese enterprises operate steadily in the past three years, from epidemic prevention and control to epidemic transition, from economic triple pressure to difficult economic recovery, and from overcoming difficulties to high-quality development, and forming the author's new ideological achievements on how to operate steadily to promote high-quality development.
Song Zhiping's new book "Steady Management" and "Anthology Trilogy"
The book is 368,000 words, including the power of capital, enterprise reform, from management to operation, high-quality development, innovation and entrepreneurship five chapters, each chapter 10 manuscripts, a total of 50 articles, the author in the book uses scientific and systematic enterprise management thinking, in-depth thinking and exploration of sound management issues, the formation of sound management thinking results, will be used in the Chinese business community to use the management of enterprises, do a good job in sound management has an important impact.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "Continuously improve the ability of strategic thinking, historical thinking, dialectical thinking, systematic thinking, innovative thinking, rule of law thinking, and bottom-line thinking, and provide scientific thinking methods for forward-looking thinking, overall planning, and overall promotion of various undertakings of the Party and the country." This is not only a new requirement for leading cadres at all levels to govern the country, but also a new guidance for leading cadres to improve their thinking ability to govern enterprises and do a good job in overall and overall sound operation.
Regarding the importance of entrepreneurial thinking, Song Zhiping has his own unique opinion: "The biggest core expertise of an enterprise is the unique thinking mode and inspiration of entrepreneurs." Looking at the whole book of "Steady Management", Song Zhiping not only put forward new thinking and new concepts for the steady operation of enterprises, but more importantly, through these cutting-edge ideas, it further reflects his seven thinking ability to govern enterprises, and also shows the unique thinking system of enterprise governance formed in the course of his 40 years of enterprise development.
Strategic thinking for the long term
What is strategy, strategy is the plan of action that guides the enterprise to look to the future. What is strategic thinking, strategic thinking is to grasp the macro trend, solve the direction and road problems of the consciousness activity process. Song Zhiping believes that "strategy is the top priority of enterprises". In the same way, strategic thinking is a top priority for business leaders. Song Zhiping's strategic thinking has three main characteristics: First, he is good at grasping the macro trend; second, he is good at choosing the right strategic direction; and third, he is good at finding the right strategic road.
On this basis, he is better at combining the three strategic elements of trend, direction and road for in-depth thinking, and has developed his own characteristic strategic thinking ability. The strategic development of China's building materials described in this book is based on the macro trend of the rapid development of the national economy and the fact that cement accounts for 70% of the GDP of building materials, establishes the strategic direction of large cement and large building materials, and chooses the strategic path of capital operation and joint reorganization, so as to promote the strategic victory of China's building materials to achieve great transformation and upgrading, and also reflects that Song Zhiping is a strategic thinking with far-reaching strategic thinking.
Similarly, in the article "Enterprise Strategic Adjustment in the Low-Carbon Era", the author puts forward five "must" strategies for how enterprises should adjust their strategies now, based on the general trend of carbon peak and carbon neutrality expected investment of 136-400 trillion yuan: first, low-carbon and "double carbon" should be incorporated into the development strategy of enterprises; second, we should actively and steadily promote the process of low-carbonization; third, we must increase technological innovation; fourth, we must accelerate the transformation of low-carbon technology; and fifth, we must actively explore low-carbon production and operation models. This kind of discussion of integrating enterprise strategy into national strategy and doing a good job in the current strategic adjustment based on the future has profound enlightenment for enterprises to grasp the future trend and make strategic adjustments in a timely manner.
From Song Zhiping's strategic thinking, we can get three enlightenments: First, we must be good at grasping the macro trend, and think about the strategic issues of the enterprise by combining the macro trend, the industry trend, and the ability of the enterprise; second, we must choose the right strategic direction and do the right thing; and third, we must find the right strategic path and do the right thing. Entrepreneurs should be business leaders with strategic thinking.
Understandable historical thinking
Historical thinking is a process of consciousness activity in accordance with the principle of taking history as a mirror, connecting the past and the present, and carrying forward the past and forging ahead into the future when thinking about enterprise problems. Song Zhiping's historical thinking mainly presents three characteristics:
First, it is good at triggering thinking from the process of foreign economic development. The book starts thinking about the development of China's capital market from the process of listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in the 17th century, from Edison's more than 140 years ago, when he only focused on technology + capital, and finally the scientist + entrepreneur had to quit GE, which triggered thinking about management, from the economic development of the "Asian Tigers" in the 70s, to thinking about the new development pattern of "dual circulation", and from the problems encountered by German and Japanese cars entering the American market, it triggered thinking about products and brands.
Second, he is good at triggering thinking from the process of China's economic development. The book triggers thoughts on the incentive mechanism and sharing mechanism from the Shanxi ticket number and body shares of the Qing Dynasty, from the feelings of modern patriotic entrepreneurs Zhang Jian and Lu Zuofu, and from the innovation and wealth creation of the country such as Daqing Wang Tieren, Bu Xinsheng, Zhang Ruimin, Ren Zhengfei, etc., it triggers the exploration of entrepreneurship.
Third, it is good at triggering thinking from the practice of state-owned enterprise reform after the reform and opening up. In the book, Deng Xiaoping sent 50 yuan face value "Feilo Audio Stock" to the then chairman of the New York Stock Exchange in 1986, which triggered thinking about the significance of the capital market in promoting the development of enterprises; from the reform process of decentralization and profit concession, contracting system, and modern enterprise system in the 80s, it triggered thinking on how to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises; and from the reform process of Beijing New Building Materials, China National Building Materials, and Sinopharm Group, it triggered thinking about the mechanism revolution.
The ancients: Take history as a mirror and know the rise and fall. From this book and Song Zhiping's application of historical thinking, we can draw three inspirations:
First, we are good at looking at problems from the history of economic development in China and foreign countries. It is necessary to profoundly comprehend the regular characteristics of Chinese and foreign economic development and find out the link with the current economic development; second, it is necessary to be good at looking at problems from the development history of Chinese and foreign enterprises. Identify the historical connection between the current enterprise development; the third is to be good at looking at problems from the life path of Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs. Understand the connection between the feelings of the family and the country and the development of enterprises and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs should be business leaders with a well-read historical mindset.
Breakthrough innovative thinking
Innovative thinking is the process of thinking about self-breakthrough and breaking through the old and establishing new problems. What is innovation? Song Zhiping believes that "innovation is the product of new combinations." In this book, the discussion on innovation runs through the book, and there are two special articles on innovation and entrepreneurship and the logic of innovation. Combined with the cases in the book and the author's enterprise practice, Song Zhiping mainly presents four characteristics in terms of enterprise innovation thinking and practice:
One is to do addition. He put forward the formula of "the strength of central enterprises + the vitality of private enterprises = the core competitiveness of enterprises", and under the guidance of this idea, more than 1,000 enterprises were added to promote the rapid development of enterprises. It has also repeatedly proposed an innovative combination model of "Internet + and + Internet";
The second is to do subtraction. After the "reorganization of the two materials", in order to prevent the disease of large enterprises, he adopted a series of measures to reduce the organization, reduce the level and reduce the redundancy of the staff, carried out organizational innovation, realized the streamlining of the organization, level and personnel, and created a strong physical, capable and efficient group headquarters, which effectively prevented the occurrence of the disease of large enterprises.
The third is to do multiplication. He aggregated the general trend of national economic development, the momentum of the capital market optimistic about the building materials industry, and the joint restructuring market opportunities brought about by the overcapacity of the cement industry, systematically gathered the momentum and integrated, formed the product effect of enterprise development, and promoted the enterprise to achieve leapfrog development;
The fourth is to do division. Breaking the consciousness of conformity, when cement and other old building materials products are in full swing, it has entered the market of new materials such as glass fiber and carbon fiber, built the world's largest glass fiber, carbon fiber and other enterprises, built the second curve of enterprise growth, and formed an innovation situation driven by continuous innovation and subversive innovation.
Song Zhiping's use of innovative thinking to solve the problem of enterprise innovation has five enlightenments for us:
The first is to do addition, constantly increase the favorable factors, and do a good job in continuous innovation; the second is to do subtraction, constantly overcome unfavorable factors, and do a good job in organizational innovation; the third is to do multiplication, constantly aggregate opportunities and resources, and promote leapfrog innovation; the fourth is to do division, break the sense of complacency, and have the courage to subvert innovation; fifth, do combination, play the innovative combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and promote systematic innovation.
Systems thinking that sees the whole thing
A systems thinking system is a whole composed of several parts that are interconnected and interact with each other with specific functions and laws of motion. Systems thinking is to solve a problem, not to look at the problem in isolation and partially, but to treat it as an interrelated organic whole and system. It is also a process of consciousness activity for entrepreneurs to solve problems of the whole and part, time and space.
Song Zhiping believes: "Enterprises are in a large system, we must study the system itself, and combine big and small things to think. It's like the Rubik's Cube has six sides, it's not enough to just stare at one side, you have to think about the big picture." In terms of his application of systems thinking, he mainly presents three main characteristics:
The first is to make good use of holistic thinking. Holistic thinking is the thinking that puts the whole in the first place and looks at the problem holistically. The book "Steady Management" is a systematic ideological achievement that uses holistic thinking, takes sound management as the overall starting point, and comprehensively understands, analyzes and solves the problems of sound management. The book combines the theoretical principles of philosophy, management, finance and other theoretical principles with the practice of Chinese enterprise management, classifies and sorts out the 50 articles selected in the past three years into a whole of sound management thought, and takes the power of capital, enterprise reform, from management to management, high-quality development, innovation and entrepreneurship as the five pillars of strength, and builds a stable business ideological system with obvious overall characteristics.
The second is to make good use of elemental thinking. Elemental thinking is thinking that connects the elements related to a certain thing and gives full play to the role of each element. In the "My Business Practice" section of the article "From Management to Management", it can be seen that the author summarizes the complicated business management work into five key elements: strategic selection, resource integration, capital operation, integrated innovation, and mechanism innovation.
The third is structural thinking. Structural thinking is the thinking that presents the characteristics of wholeness, orderliness and combination in the face of enterprise problems, while non-structural thinking is often the thinking that presents the characteristics of fragmentation, chaos and patchwork. "Three fine management" is Song Zhiping's use of structural thinking to construct a set of operation and management, efficiency and effectiveness, both internal and external strength of the enterprise construction method, but also the use of structural system thinking to construct a system engineering. "Three fine management" by the "organization of refinement, management refinement, lean management" of the "three fine" composition, each "fine" and four "transformation", each "refinement" and four methods, the formation of "three refinement, 12, 48 law" management law system. It is not only suitable for traditional manufacturing enterprises with excess capacity, but also applicable to most operating enterprises to a certain extent, not only for management, but also for grassroots cadres.
Song Zhiping's use of systems thinking to solve enterprise problems has three enlightenments for us:
First, it is necessary to establish a holistic thinking. From the overall driving control management of the overall situation, the second is to have the element of thinking. The third is to have structural thinking. Make the structure both stable and reasonable. In the specific application, it is necessary to realize the sublimation of the "three structures" from deconstruction - understanding the existing model structure of others, to using the structure - using the existing model structure of others to analyze enterprise problems, and then to constructing - establishing their own systematic model structure.
A well-controlled rule of law mentality
The rule of law thinking is a process of awareness activities that are strictly based on laws and regulations when facing corporate problems. There is a saying: if the rule of law is not firm, the earth will shake. The ability and level of legal thinking of enterprise leaders determine the long-term stability of an enterprise.
Song Zhiping said: "We must respect the rule of law." His thinking on the rule of law presents the following characteristics in this book:
The first is to systematically think about the issue of the rule of law. There is a section in this book dedicated to the issue of "rule of law", which expounds the relationship between the process of rule of law and marketization of the capital market in recent years.
The second is to think about enterprise issues on the premise of laws, regulations and policies. Articles often cite laws and regulations related to enterprises as the basis for elaborating on issues, such as the Guidelines for Listed Companies, the new Securities Law, the new Criminal Law, the Company Law, the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the Opinions of the State Council on Further Improving the Quality of Listed Companies.
Third, we attach great importance to the fundamental role of the rule of law. Song Zhiping put forward in the book: "If there is no rule of law to keep up, marketization is not easy to continue, I often think about this problem, the correct marketization, the marketization of capital is based on the rule of law of marketization, the rule of law is done well and then as much as possible marketization, the market will prosper." This exposition further emphasizes that the rule of law is the foundation of marketization, and if the foundation of the rule of law is not strong, it will be difficult to realize marketization.
Xun Zi said: "The law, the end of the rule." It means that the rule of law is the beginning of governing the country, and in the same way, the rule of law is also the foundation of governing enterprises. Song Zhiping's thinking on the rule of law has three enlightenments for us:
First, enterprise leaders should firmly establish the rule of law thinking, manage the enterprise according to law, consolidate the foundation of the rule of law in the enterprise, and never touch the "red line" of the law; second, they should establish enterprise rules and regulations in line with laws and regulations on the basis of laws, regulations, and policies; third, they should cultivate culture and build a clean and upright corporate legal culture environment.
Bottom-line thinking that can be carried out
Bottom-line thinking is the process of awareness of various risks that may arise in the enterprise, preparing for the worst, and striving for the best results.
Song Zhiping proposed: "It is necessary to strengthen bottom-line thinking and improve the ability to resist risks." How to understand risks and prevent risks, he made an incisive discussion on the four types of enterprise risks and prevention methods in the book: "First, cyclical risks: the economy has cycles, and the industry will also have cycles. An evergreen enterprise will definitely experience many times of economic ups and downs; the second is the risk of capital chain: no matter what problems occur in the enterprise, in the end it will always go bankrupt because of the rupture of the capital chain, and it must make profitable income and cash flow profits. The third is the risk of large enterprise disease: there are six major symptoms of large enterprise disease, namely, bloated institutions, overstaffing, low morale, low efficiency, chaotic investment, and uncontrolled management. The disease of large enterprises is the embodiment of bureaucracy and formalism in enterprises, and we should pay attention not to get the disease of large enterprises; fourth, the risk of business decision-making: it may take 10 days for us to climb a mountain, and it may only take 10 seconds to fall down." This discussion of risk classification and prevention methods fully reflects Song Zhiping's bottom-line thinking awareness and level.
Song Zhiping's use of bottom-line thinking has three enlightenments for us:
First, strategic risks must not occur if a decision-making mechanism is established. It is necessary to study the economic cycle in depth to prevent misjudging the situation and blindly making investment decisions in the case of an economic downturn, which will lead to strategic risks in enterprises; It is necessary to establish strict process control of enterprises to prevent the occurrence of risks caused by individual people exceeding their authority; third, to build a system and mechanism to deal with occasional risks. Once an enterprise encounters a risk, it is necessary to form a systematic system and mechanism of early warning, in-process response, and post-event improvement to prevent the lack of response mechanism from triggering a greater crisis.
Rational dialectical thinking
Dialectical thinking is a high-level form of human thinking, and it is the thinking that guides people to obtain a series of regular understandings. Dialectical thinking allows us to divide into two, grasp the key points, resolve contradictions, and explore laws.
Song Zhiping said: "It is necessary to use dialectical methods to look at problems." His ability to understand, analyze and solve problems in the practice of doing business for 40 years and the use of dialectical thinking in this book is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
The first is to make good use of the "dichotomy". The so-called dichotomy is to adhere to the contradiction analysis method of dividing into two, and make a comprehensive analysis of the contradictions that arise in the enterprise, so as to see both this side of the matter and the other side of the matter. Song Zhiping believes: "There are two sides to everything, and we have to think about the problem in two parts. When a problem is placed in front of them, some people only see one aspect of the problem, but ignore the other aspect, and do not see the opposition and unity between things, and the judgment made by this is easy to be biased." When discussing how listed companies, especially state-controlled listed companies, can enhance their value, the book stresses: "On the one hand, it is necessary to work hard to improve its internal skills and enhance its core competitiveness; on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the awareness of public companies, increase communication with investors, and let the market better understand the intrinsic value of enterprises." This "one side" and "the other side" are typical applications of the "dichotomy". There are also many examples of using the dichotomy to understand and analyze corporate problems, and readers can read them in depth.
The second is to make good use of the "key method". The so-called key method refers to the fact that when enterprise leaders face many contradictions in the enterprise, they find the main contradictions, and find the main aspects of the contradictions in the main contradictions, so as to hold the "bull's nose" and the focus of work to solve the problems of the enterprise, so as to achieve the effect of "pulling a trigger and moving the whole body". Song Zhiping said: "In handling problems, we must be able to afford to take them, let them go, give up and give up, make decisions when they are decided, and grasp the main contradictions." In this book, there is such a description in the section of "China's Building Materials Management - Strategic Choice". When Song Zhiping took office in China's new building materials (the predecessor of China's building materials), he was faced with the three major survival problems of the court's closure, employee petitions, and enterprise closure, and according to the convention, it was necessary to solve the problem of survival and food first, but Song Zhiping dealt with daily work on the one hand, and on the other hand, invited experts from all walks of life to hold strategic seminars. However, this reflects his ability as an entrepreneur to grasp the main aspect of the contradiction of "development" in the main contradiction of "survival and development", hold the "bull's nose" of enterprise operation and development, and promote the enterprise to get out of the crisis of survival and achieve strategic victory.
The third is to be good at exploring the law. Exploring the law is to start from the dialectical relationship between the universality and particularity of enterprise development and change, through drawing inferences from one case and seeing the essence through the phenomenon, and timely discovering, summarizing, inducting and grasping the objective law of enterprise development and change. Song Zhiping said: "The business activities of enterprises are not chaotic, but have rules to follow. By grasping these laws and the common principles, we will be able to make targeted judgments." He also believes that "the ability to be a leader, induction and summary is very important." Song Zhiping is good at using dialectical thinking to summarize and summarize many laws of enterprise operation and management. His "30 Articles of Management" and "Three Fine Management" are all using the "experience induction method", the experience and experience of doing business, through the regularity of the summary and induction, rose to the world view and methodology of enterprise management, in the industry has aroused a very good response. In the article "Enterprise Leadership Construction" in this book, he made a very classic summary of leadership: "six major leadership", namely, learning, innovation, decision-making, influence, organization, and responsibility; "four refinements and five haves": that is, meticulous life, meticulous work, careful use of power, meticulous friendship, learning ability, market awareness, professional dedication, professional standards, and ideological realm; and the "three magic weapons" of doing a good job in state-owned enterprises: party leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and operating mechanism. The regular expressions of such classic induction can be seen everywhere in the book, which fully reflects the author's ability and level of using inductive methods to explore the laws of leadership and enterprises. More than 10 years ago, Song Zhiping's reform and innovation models such as "central enterprise municipal management", "integration and optimization", "lattice" management and control, "eight construction methods" and "six-star enterprise" were widely respected by the industry, and Shao Ning, then deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, praised Song Zhiping for having "good and thorough inductive ability", which shows his ability to explore the laws of enterprises with inductive thinking.
Song Zhiping's practice of using dialectical thinking to understand, analyze and solve enterprise problems has three enlightenments for business leaders:
The first is to make good use of the two-point theory and look at the problem in two parts. Second, we should make good use of the key theory to grasp the bull's nose of the problem. If this is done, enterprise leaders will be able to unify their thinking and stabilize the morale of the military in the midst of enterprise disputes; third, they will be good at exploring laws and correctly applying the method of induction and summarization. Through continuous summarization and induction, we can generate new understanding of laws, form new ideological achievements in business management, improve ourselves, and inspire others.
In short, leaders at all levels of the enterprise can read Song Zhiping's "Steady Management", in-depth study and comprehension of the author's thinking mystery of enterprise governance, comprehensively and accurately grasp the world view and methodology of strategic thinking, historical thinking, innovative thinking, systematic thinking, rule of law thinking, bottom-line thinking, and dialectical thinking, and become an excellent entrepreneur with scientific and systematic thinking ability, and make due contributions to the steady operation of enterprises and the exploration of Chinese enterprise management ideas.