Today is World Book Day, and CCTV News said that "reading is 10,000 times of spring and Jingming".
For entrepreneurs, the current era requires entrepreneurs to learn more and read more, and almost every successful entrepreneur is also a master of reading.
Warren Buffett's golden partner Munger is known for his love of reading, and Buffett calls him a "two-legged bookcase with long legs". Munger once said, "There is not a single smart person I have met in my life who does not read every day, not a single one." ”
Another example is Musk, "The New Yorker" once wanted to know the origin of Musk's astronautical dream, and his answer was science fiction, "The heroes in the books I read always feel the responsibility to save the world."
In China, Song Zhiping, president of the China Association of Listed Companies and chief expert of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association, is also a master of reading, he insists on reading for 2 hours every night, and has published more than 20 books over the years.
423 "World Book Day", at the SASAC Xiaoxin Academy "The Management Behind the New Quality Productivity" reading salon, Zhenghe Island Editor-in-Chief Chen Wei and Song Zhiping made a dialogue on innovation and reading, writing books, the following is a condensed version of the content of this dialogue, I hope to inspire you.
Narrator: Song Zhiping, President of the China Association of Listed Companies and Chief Expert of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association
Interview: Chen Wei is the editor-in-chief of Zhenghe Island
Editor: Mi Liping
来 源:正和岛(ID:zhenghedao)
01
Enterprises should be effective,
Innovate with purpose and quality
Chen Wei: You are a very entrepreneurial state-owned entrepreneur, but some people say that you were appointed by documents, not self-made, and should belong to the managerial class, what do you think of this status dispute?
Song Zhiping: First of all, we must correctly understand what an entrepreneur is, in 1985 Drucker wrote a book called "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", he said that entrepreneurs have nothing to do with ownership, the size of the enterprise, and the personality characteristics of entrepreneurs, as long as you innovate and create wealth, you are entrepreneurs, and it is emphasized that some leaders in the public sector who have a sense of innovation are also entrepreneurs.
I think he was more accurate, such as Jack Welch of General Electric and Iacocca of Chrysler, two world-renowned entrepreneurs who are not owners of businesses, they are professional managers. The measure of the entrepreneur is to see whether he has innovated and whether he has created wealth.
Regarding the term state-owned entrepreneurs, in 2017, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a document to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship, which mentioned the concept of state-owned entrepreneurs in several places.
My personal experience is that some leaders in state-owned enterprises can be called state-owned entrepreneurs as long as they have a sense of innovation and reform, have made contributions to the enterprise, and have the spirit of responsibility.
For example, Tan Xuguang, who has led Weichai to develop rapidly all the year round, and has a sense of innovation and reform, has made great contributions to the development of the enterprise, and at the same time he has also taken some risks, do you think he is an entrepreneur?
We should encourage not only private entrepreneurs, but also leaders in state-owned enterprises, and they must also have an entrepreneurial spirit. Let the entrepreneurs of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises have a good environment and can be recognized and respected by the society.
Chen Wei: Yes, Schumpeter said that entrepreneurship is essentially a state, not an identity, so we should grasp the substance, grasp the essence, not the form, whether it is Welch or not, people like Fang Hongbo in our country are actually typical entrepreneurs.
You also have a lot of experience in innovation before, including practical experience, Christensen said that it seems difficult for large enterprises to innovate, I don't think so, you see Huawei, BYD, including your original leadership of China Building Materials have a lot of good innovation, what are your latest thoughts on enterprise innovation?
Song Zhiping: Phelps believes that innovation mainly depends on grassroots innovation, but Drucker believes that large enterprises are also innovating, of course, he gave examples of Johnson & Johnson and 3M in the United States, which have been insisting on innovation for many years.
In fact, many small and medium-sized enterprises in China are also innovating, and central state-owned enterprises are also a major body of innovation, especially major innovations.
Because major innovation takes a long time, has more funds, and needs to bear some risks, the central state-owned enterprises of major innovation bear more.
In terms of innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises should encourage them to innovate, and at the same time, large enterprises should also be encouraged, and the innovation of large enterprises needs the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises often needs the support of large enterprises.
For example, one of the innovations of Chinese building materials is carbon fiber, which has made T700, T800 and T1000, which solves the problem of China's "stuck neck". But this innovation was first done by private high-tech enterprises, and later China Building Materials carried out mixed reform on it, increased support, and invested about ten years to make it, making great contributions to the country.
I give this example to illustrate that today's innovation is difficult to separate small enterprise innovation from large enterprise innovation, in fact, it is an innovation system, small enterprises need the support of large enterprises, large enterprises also need the innovation vitality of small enterprises, to integrate them together, many innovative projects of China Building Materials are doing this.
Chen Wei: One of the characteristics of the new quality productivity is high technology, and you said that you can't ignore low-tech or even zero-tech, can you tell us about this?
Song Zhiping: This involves the innovation model, which is divided into five types:
1. Independent innovation: It is very important to solve the problem of "stuck neck";
2. Integrated innovation: not only have your own, but also learn from other people's and integrate it;
3. Continuous innovation: technological progress and technological transformation of enterprises;
4. Disruptive innovation: subvert the old technology with new technology, and subvert the old product with new products, such as digital cameras have subverted film, and now new energy vehicles are subverting gasoline vehicles;
5. Business model innovation: platform + Internet application, in fact, is a platform economy, itself is not high technical content, such as McDonald's, KFC does not have too much technology, but has created huge value, like now our Jingdong, Pinduoduo, Mixue Bingcheng and other enterprises, in fact, not exactly a technological innovation, but business model innovation.
The new quality productivity mainly emphasizes independent innovation and disruptive innovation.
In the United States, high-tech accounts for about 25% of the social contribution, and medium-tech and low-tech account for 75%, what does this mean?
Medium and low science and technology are the foundation of high technology, if there is no medium science and low technology, your high technology will not appear out of thin air, and at the same time, high technology has led to the development of medium science and low technology.
We should think about this problem dialectically and systematically, and we should also think seriously about what kind of innovation model is suitable for the enterprise.
I think it is very important for enterprises to innovate effectively, purposefully, and with quality. The so-called purpose, innovation is a process of purposefully seeking opportunities, increasing purposefulness, can reduce the risk of innovation.
Entrepreneurs and scientists are not the same, scientists' innovation often does not necessarily have a short-term economic benefit, because his main task is to discover the unknown, but entrepreneurs must have benefits, if there is no benefit, no market, no matter how good the innovation can not be done.
Therefore, it is more difficult for enterprises to innovate, not only to vigorously innovate, but also to balance economic benefits, just like Baidu said "climb Mount Everest, lay eggs along the way", climb Mount Everest, but you have to lay eggs along the way, otherwise your business can not do it, this is the difficulty of enterprise innovation. But no matter how hard it is, we have to do it.
02
Why do entrepreneurs read more?
Chen Wei: Over the years, you have written about 20 books, and some entrepreneurs joke that the speed of my reading can't keep up with the speed of your books.
Song Zhiping: Why do I want to write a book is also a question that many people ask me, I said that writing books is not my main business, I first wrote a book called "The Power of Inclusion" in 2010, at that time I wanted to do joint restructuring, to put together a lot of enterprises.
I think tolerance is very important, you can lead as many people as you can, if you can't tolerate, it's difficult to develop and grow.
My thoughts at that time were, internally, I hope that my cadres will understand my ideas, and externally, I hope that those companies will also understand that China Building Materials is an inclusive culture, and everyone can innovate and develop on this platform.
My books are actually relevant to the times of the time. For example, after the reform, I wrote "Central Enterprises and Municipal Enterprises", in the end how to carry out market-oriented operation of central enterprises; and then engaged in mixed ownership, in 2014 I wrote "National Progress"; now I have written "Three Fine Management", talking about enterprise management, and then "30 Articles of Management", which is about the cognition of enterprises, how to look at the problems of strategy, innovation, operation, management, reform and culture.
I didn't write a book for the sake of writing a book, but I practiced and thought a lot during that time, and I summarized it and wrote about it. I write a book in practice first, and after I finish it, I will tell you about it in the business schools of Tsinghua University, Peking University and other universities.
So my book is not like what the teachers wrote, it seems to have chapters and sections, like "30 Articles of Management", do you say this is like a book? Some people may think that it is not, but I think that if entrepreneurs need it, it is easy to use and easy to read, and it is okay, and it can be eclectic.
Some people also say, Mr. Song, when did you write it? Did others write it for you? I said that if you look at the book, you will know if someone else wrote it for me, and my books are all my experience and experience, as well as a large number of practices and cases. For example, there are 110 enterprise cases in "30 Articles of Management", all of which are enterprises that I have done and studied.
My books are the product of practice, and I don't think it's so difficult to write a book, it's mainly about whether you have experience, whether you have thoughts, and whether you have something to write, not for the sake of writing.
I also hope to write a book to put a signpost on young people, summarize our past lessons and lessons, so that future young people can know what roads we have taken in the past, know what pitfalls we have stepped on in the past, and they can take the road of the future more accurately.
As a business, we should write it by hand, and I think it's a responsibility for me.
Chen Wei: Writing a book is also turning personal experience into social wealth, and you are very different from other authors as an author, this book is not only written, but also done.
You are not only an author, but also a reader. Objectively speaking, there is still a gap between our per capita reading volume and that of some countries, and Israel reads 60 books per capita a year, while we may read less than 5 books. Some people in the business family love to read, some may not love to read so much, and everyone is also confused, it seems that some entrepreneurs who don't read well are doing well. Can you talk about the benefits of reading books from a reader's perspective?
Song Zhiping: A student asked me what was my biggest experience in doing business in the past, and what factors prompted me to do something successful. I said that the first is learning, the second is innovation, and the third is responsibility.
It is very important to me about learning, I studied polymer chemistry and I don't know what a company is. After I came to the company, I studied all the way through, first I studied Japanese industrial education and also took a course in business administration.
In addition to studying, I read a lot, I still spend 2 hours every night reading, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't play ball, I spend a lot of time reading, I have books in my bag wherever I go.
I think learning is actually learning from the practice of others, and some people do well without learning, and that kind of person is a genius. People like me are not geniuses, on the one hand, they have to do it themselves, and on the other hand, they have to learn from the practices of others.
The best way to learn from other people's practices is to read books, and I think it's important that you can communicate with the best, most successful people, and you know how they do it.
In the past, the chairman of Hyundai Korea wrote a book, and he said that the college students recruited by Hyundai Korea every year were very good, but after three years, they were divided, some were very good, and some were average. In the end, they found that all outstanding cadres were very fond of studying, and they also studied and read books outside of the eight hours.
Therefore, I think that reading books not only increases my knowledge and learns some of other people's experiences, but also my personal attitude towards life. If you can calm down and read, this is also a training for yourself, so I advocate deep learning, at least one hour or so of reading every day, at least two or three hours a day of serious work without interruption, and about half an hour of deep thinking every morning.
Only deep learning, deep work, and deep thinking can produce results and do things that others have not done. Some people ask me how I have so much time to read, and I say that I spend your leisure time reading. Therefore, we still have to spend more time on study and work.
I think reading is particularly important for entrepreneurs, of course, some people say that reading is a shelf, you see that the bookshelf of entrepreneurs is full of books, that are all for show, of course, there are such people, but you can't deny the meaning of reading because of this, I still advocate that everyone really read.
Today, if a person does not learn and has no knowledge, you say that he can still do a good business, it is really difficult, in the early years, he may be bold, but today he can't. Most of those outstanding entrepreneurs are knowledge-based in science and technology, and the society is progressing, so I still advocate that entrepreneurs should read more books than ordinary people read.
Chen Wei: Yes. Mr. Song also made a good example for people who love reading, just like the "Theory of Practice" said, in addition to their own direct experience, it is very important for people to absorb indirect experience, and the direct experience of others and predecessors is our indirect experience, how to absorb this indirect experience? The most important thing is actually reading.
Typography | Edited by Shen Wangwang | Xingchen Editor-in-Chief | Sun Yunguang
