Goal-driven, performance-led, and principle-guided are the three basic qualities of innovative enterprises, and talent is the key element that closely connects them. In order to innovate, a company's talent strategy needs to be aligned with the business strategy, it is transparent and authentic, and it includes the strong commitment, broad participation and accountability of the top management, as well as the corporate culture of "developing leaders", which can help companies expand globally and take local roots in the complex post-globalization era, and promote breakthrough growth while unleashing team passion and sense of purpose.
In this regard, the vision approach can provide some references. As a next-generation global technology company, Envision adheres to a global layout, recruits top talents, proposes new product concepts, and selects the best talents on a global scale to realize its vision. Whether it's a fledgling campus rookie or a seasoned social talent, they can participate in solving global "challenges" at Envision.
Challenge-oriented
In 2009, Qian Zhenhua, who had just graduated from university, participated in Envision Energy's first school recruitment. At that time, the development of China's new energy industry was accelerating, especially the explosion of wind energy and photovoltaic sectors, which gave birth to a number of large enterprises and start-ups.
Qian Zhenhua set his sights on these two fields, carefully considering where he was going, and an interview question from Zhang Lei, the founder and CEO of Envision, made him make up his mind to choose Envision.
"What do you think happiness is?" Zhang Lei's focus on the individual made Qian Zhenhua feel that he might be able to do different things in a company with such a cultural atmosphere.
"A good corporate culture can help employees constantly improve the spiritual world, find happiness, and make them more calm, calm, peaceful and satisfied. Enterprises have such responsibilities, which is also the meaning of corporate culture. Zhang Lei said. The ambitious entrepreneur, whose mission is to "solve challenges for a sustainable future for mankind", worked closely with Zhou Hongwen, another founding team member and executive director of Envision Energy, to develop Envision's talent strategy.
In the process, both men wanted to use dialogue beyond their expertise to screen out those who have a challenging spirit and see them as the company's core competencies. Zhang Lei has been personally involved in Envision's talent selection as the "Chief Talent Officer", and even if he can't find time to participate in the interview, he will review the background information and interview summary of the interviewee online before making the final admission decision. This is the only thing that must be approved by Envision himself, and employees are called "challengers".
Zhou Hongwen told Forbes China that Envision is a mission-driven company that gathers outstanding talents from all over the world with mission as the link, and the "challenger spirit" is the core of the company's DNA and corporate culture, which is used to select, cultivate and develop talents.
Envision's talent system has three pillars: first, the talent growth and development challenge system, which can support employees to integrate resources, solve technical and management challenges, and cultivate organizational capabilities, so as to create greater internal and external value, second, the 34 behavioral labels that measure the vision spirit of "integrity, fraternity, truth-seeking, pragmatism, and courage to challenge", and the third is the 360-degree multi-dimensional feedback system.
Driven by the "challenger spirit" and talent system, Envision continues to inject innovative vitality into the new energy industry: from being the first to launch low-speed wind turbines in China, to establishing an intelligent IoT platform to facilitate the full life cycle management of wind farms, to the commissioning of the world's first zero-carbon industrial park, and the global implementation of energy storage systems and power battery factories, Envision has become a global zero-carbon technology partner for many multinational enterprises and governments with its leading and complete solutions, and has grown into a "challenger" with about 12,000 of the globalization group. As one of the first green technology companies in the world to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations, Envision is trying to solve new challenges in the fields of green hydrogen, green metallurgy, and biosynthesis, so as to promote the realization of carbon neutrality in the "green new industry" system and the entire value chain.
"Since its establishment, Envision's per capita revenue and per capita profit have been leading in the industry. Zhou Hongwen said confidently. The "challenger", who has persevered for 16 years, pointed out that as long as it is an "excellent challenger", the company is willing to provide more growth opportunities and better compensation and benefits, but the cultivation process may not be easy and even painful.
Envision 2022 trainee graduation camp, Zhang Lei, Zhou Hongwen and trainees together
Learn and grow
Regarding Zhou Hongwen's statement, Qian Zhenhua has a deep understanding. When he joined Envision, China's wind turbines basically used foreign brand pitch systems, not to mention the high cost, and its failure rate and poor coordination with the control system brought a lot of quality and safety hazards to the operation of the wind turbines. As a result, Envision launched its own research and development of the wind turbine pitch system, intending to create a product that has both the functions of energy conversion and system life improvement.
"There's a lot of responsibility involved, and I'm glad to have had that experience. In Qian Zhenhua's view, because the vision pursues industry innovation, it has high expectations for employees, even if they are newcomers recruited by the school. After successively serving as the technical R&D leader of Envision Energy's wind turbine platform and wind farm electrical system, Qian Zhenhua is now the CTO of Envision Energy Storage Products, responsible for energy storage core technology, major technical solution decision-making, and participating in the group's top level meetings.
Envision once had a "cruel word" for young employees: push off the cliff and grow wings. In order to maximize the full potential of the "challengers", there is no prior warning of the arrival of new challenges, but if there are indeed insurmountable difficulties, the company's management and experts will help to analyze and solve the problems together, which is of great help to personal progress, and also allows Vision to see the vitality, enthusiasm and plasticity of the "challenger" group.
"I didn't feel like I was being pushed off a cliff. Chen Xiaohua, who graduated from Tongji University with a master's degree in 2014 and entered the prospect as a school enrollment, said. She started as an electrical project manager, starting with something as small as "experimental equipment management", and worked her way up the ladder to become the HR director of the large development system in her early thirties. Today, Chen Xiaohua has entered the management level, undertaking the operation and management of the group office, focusing on the implementation and closed-loop of the CEO project. She not only has to undertake the CEO's instructions without deviating from it, but also has to plan, deploy and supervise with the business leaders, and the pressure from all aspects makes her feel anxious. At this time, she will communicate directly with Zhang Lei, who will give encouragement and guidance.
"It takes time for a new person to grow, but opportunities are fleeting. We want to use different actual combat and positions to quickly test and improve the ability of newcomers at the same time of daily training, and promote the flow and adaptation of talents within the organization. Zhou Hongwen said, "We believe that employees can get the best recognition and motivation from a battlefield where they have made great achievements." ”
As the person in charge of the long-term talent system, Zhou Hongwen attaches great importance to the cultivation of school enrollment. With the expansion of its business scale, Envision has increased its campus recruitment efforts (its demand for campus recruitment has doubled every year in the past three years), and at the same time, it has improved its training system and launched a series of trainee programs covering mentorship and diversified training. Through the three-stage training of exploration camp, growth camp and graduation camp, Envision hopes to pave the way for new employees to take on work responsibilities and accept the "challenge level" assessment, and the training camp not only has activities such as team building and re-taking the road of entrepreneurship, but also arranges top management personnel to explain the overall situation of the group.
In addition, Envision has launched the Envision General Trainee (EGT) program for the Class of 2024 graduates, using cross-business lines and cross-job types to cultivate diversified talents with a global vision, systematic thinking, and breakthrough capabilities.
Zhou Hongwen said that in terms of technology, Envision hopes that the majors have a certain degree of relevance, but there is no compulsion, and in the non-technical aspects, there are almost no restrictions on any majors. He emphasized that compared with majors, Envision pays more attention to whether the school recruits identify with the "corporate mission" and "challenger spirit", whether they are good enough in a specific field, and whether they have strong learning ability, and the pursuit of these traits is summarized in a slogan: "Paranoia" in search of dreams. At present, 65% of Envision's employees come from campus recruitment, and 25% of them have grown into senior management.
Zhou Hongwen awarded emblems to the prospect challengers
Inclusion and collaboration
This method of cross-border selection based on spiritual ties and underlying abilities is also used in the social recruitment of long-term vision. In terms of manufacturing, Envision is looking for people from the automotive field, which has a history of more than 100 years, in terms of safety, it will target the chemical industry, and in terms of business operation and management, it will focus on management consulting talents.
At the same time, Envision will "recruit talents" on a global scale, that is, Zhou Hongwen emphasized that "where the talent is, the organization will be built". In the early days of its establishment, Envision set up R&D centers in Denmark, and later set up offices in Silicon Valley in the United States, Houston in the United States, Hamburg in Germany, and London in the United Kingdom to recruit local talents in different fields such as digitalization, aerodynamics, wind farms, and finance. For example, the CTO of the blade division of the Danish R&D center has worked for a well-known multinational company and has rich experience in wind turbine development, the CTO of the drive chain business in Dortmund, Germany is a senior German doctor, and in the United States, some pneumatic and conceptual design experts have been working in Envision for nearly 10 years.
Zhou Hongwen said that Envision will spare no effort to recruit outstanding leading talents, because they can quickly open up new situations. To this end, Envision will "deploy talents in advance" according to its business strategy. "When you don't have someone to learn and imitate, and you have to take the lead in exploring, talent is not a cost, it's an investment in an unknown area that has potential returns. Of course, sometimes this investment lasts for a while, but at some point there will be a tipping point in the development of things. We have a clear idea of the direction of our business, so we have faith and determination to invest in our talents. "To date, Envision has R&D centers and manufacturing bases in more than 20 countries, with more than 6,000 international employees, accounting for more than half.
John Lee is one of the leading talents found by Envision to focus on international market expansion. He is the General Manager of Envision Energy Asia & Africa, and has 10 years of experience in the international market in the telecommunications sector, having been responsible for part of the overseas business of a large Chinese telecommunications company. In 2016, John Lee, who is optimistic about the prospects of new energy, joined Envision and led the team to open up markets in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
"I think it's the power of inclusion that Envision can bring together people from all over the world with a variety of career paths and habits, bring their individual strengths to work, and bring them together in one direction. John Lee sets out the background of the various international business leaders at Envision. "I didn't have the experience of going from 0 to 1 in my career, so I wanted to take on a challenge and make up for it. ”
John Lee added that the overall "sense of boundaries" in the vision is that people will expand their boundaries outward, and if they find an unattended position, in most cases someone will cover it or discuss a solution together. This increases the comfort of work, reduces internal friction, and allows everyone to concentrate more on fighting the war.
An inclusive environment, coupled with management tools such as the "Big House" (similar to a "war room" that organizes different functions to work together on specific projects), has led to an ever-increasing increase in the effectiveness and synergy of Envision. With the cooperation of Chinese new energy experts and power battery engineers from Japan and Europe, Envision Ordos Zero Carbon Industrial Park was completed, at Envision Digital's headquarters in Singapore, employees from 26 countries with different cultural beliefs will work together to develop a product, and experts from Envision Energy, Envision Robotics and Envision Power will provide support in mechatronics/electronic control technology, software algorithms, weather forecasting, battery technology and other support to ensure that Envision Formula E Team continues to win championships on the field.
This process has allowed Envision's horizontal integration and vertical functions to be exercised, and has also given rise to more market opportunities. Customers will value Envision's multi-business collaboration and linkage capabilities – such as its technology and experience in wind-storage and off-grid hydrogen production projects, which are difficult for many companies. Envision can build a platform through its own strategic layout to connect all participants in the global industrial chain.
Therefore, the vision plan focuses on the two dimensions of "business area" and "product line" to carry out organizational changes, not only to let the domestic and international business regions carry all product lines, but also to develop the market value of product lines, which means that the company's demand for talents has increased, further opened up the space for talent flow and growth, and also brought challenges to the new generation of managers of the company.
The daily collaboration scene of Envision International challengers
Break through bottlenecks
"This year, I just talked to the leaders about my development bottleneck. John Lee paused, "Envision's international business is moving from a pioneering 'rangers' model to a more stable 'positional warfare' model, and with more and more team members who have the ability to take charge of their own affairs, I have to think about how to move from a business role to a management role." How should we balance the investment in business and management, what are the current management problems, what kind of management will be needed in the future, and these are questions that I have not encountered. "In response to the new landscape, John Lee is learning to build and optimize end-to-end business process standards so that things can run autonomously and efficiently.
Qian Zhenhua also emphasized the importance of the end-to-end process, and said that he never saw himself as an "engineer". "Envision advocates 'global thinking'. Although my main job is product development, I will strengthen the thinking and practice of market expansion, supply chain management, product line planning, etc., because one of my decisions may affect many people. He also mentioned that due to the rapid development of the company, managers should be good at using and dare to promote outstanding young people.
"We have been reminding ourselves to adjust the management of young people according to the actual situation, and the company has also set up a special intergenerational management course. Zhou Hongwen said, "We must respect their individuality and not rigidly use traditional standards to trap them." But there is one requirement that will not change, and that is the pursuit of the 'challenger spirit'. ”
In addition to Zhou Hongwen, Zhang Lei also constantly emphasizes the "challenger spirit" and "righteous mindfulness" internally. "Righteousness" means having a sufficient sense of responsibility and mission, and "mindfulness" is the view of the system and the overall situation. Zhang Lei said that as long as you are a "righteous and mindful" enterprise, you will win the respect of customers, the industry, the society, and even the country.
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