As a Chinese Internet giant, Baidu's layout and transformation in the field of artificial intelligence have attracted much attention in recent years. Some of the company's executives' inappropriate remarks and management style have raised questions about Baidu's corporate culture and values, and the company has had to take decisive measures to demonstrate its determination to face up to the problem and have the courage to innovate itself.
1. The cause of Xuan Jing's resignation
The inappropriate remarks of public relations executives have sparked controversy
At the beginning of May 2024, Xuan Jing, vice president of public relations at Baidu, posted a number of videos on her personal social media account about her indifferent attitude towards employees' family life and improper handling of departing employees, which aroused widespread doubts and criticism from netizens.
In the video, Xuan Jing bluntly said that "I approve the employee's breakup and resignation in seconds", "why should I consider the employee's family, I am not her mother-in-law" and other views, understanding the employment relationship as a purely economic interest relationship, ignoring the humanistic care needs of employees and lacking empathy. This style of management has been accused on the Internet of being "ruthless" and "impersonal".
Xuan Jing also revealed that Baidu's public relations department has internal management problems such as overtime culture and serious employee turnover, which further exacerbates the outside world's doubts about Baidu's corporate culture.
Baidu's stock price fell in response, and the top management responded quickly
On May 7, Baidu's Hong Kong and U.S. stocks both fell, and their combined market value evaporated by more than 12 billion yuan. The company had to respond to the matter.
In order to control the situation, Baidu's founder Robin Li and head of human resources Cui Shanshan held an internal staff meeting on May 9. Robin Li was emotional at the meeting and commended a group of outstanding employees, saying that they are the most authentic representatives of Baidu.
Cui Shanshan bluntly pointed out that Baidu does have a series of big factory diseases such as "demarcating territory and setting thresholds", "coaxing up and bluffing down", and "relying on subordinates to communicate with superiors", and the management is working to solve them.
Second, Baidu's top management decided to resign quietly
Baidu's proprietress Ma Dongmin personally "clapped"
At a time when internal public opinion is fermenting, some Baidu insiders revealed that Xuan Jing's resignation is the "masterpiece" of Baidu CEO Robin Li, and it is related to Robin Li's wife Ma Dongmin.
According to reports, Ma Dongmin is the actual decision-maker behind Baidu, and Robin Li has publicly stated that Ma Dongmin is the source of "courage" in Baidu's spirit, and can always put forward the bravest suggestions at critical moments. At that time, Ma Dongmin was studying with his children in the United States, and he was angry at Xuan Jing's incident, and immediately flew back to China, and dismissed Xuan Jing.
Xuan Jing had received public relations training beforehand and apologized after leaving the company
Interestingly, before the incident broke out, Xuan Jing went to Yantai and spent nearly 6,000 yuan to receive a three-day "Douyin Trader" public relations training course. These training sessions do not seem to have helped her resolve the PR crisis.
In the early morning of May 9, the day before her resignation, Xuan Jing issued an apology statement on her personal social platform, admitting that the improper method had caused harm to the company, and that she would sincerely accept criticism and correct her mistakes. But the apology was not recognized by the outside world, and Xuan Jing was eventually forced to resign.
Third, Baidu is facing transformation pains and management dilemmas
The pace of AI transformation has been stymied
For Baidu, Xuan Jing's departure is undoubtedly a heavy blow, which not only affects the company's image in the public eye, but also hinders the company's transformation in the field of artificial intelligence to a certain extent.
In recent years, Baidu has been vigorously promoting the "All in AI" strategy and continuously increasing investment in artificial intelligence technology. But at the end of last year, the emergence of generative AI applications such as ChatGPT made Baidu passive on the AI track. Companies have had to accelerate the development and iteration of AI-native applications to keep up with the pace of industry development.
The frequent occurrence of internal management dilemmas and public opinion crises have affected and hindered Baidu's AI transformation plan to a certain extent. How to establish a good corporate culture and management system while maintaining the vitality of innovation is still a difficult problem to be solved.
The construction of corporate culture has a long way to go
It can be seen from the Jingjing incident that Baidu still has many problems in the construction of corporate culture. Executives' inappropriate words and actions, poor internal communication, and overtime culture are all areas that need to be focused on and improved.
As Cui Shanshan said at the internal meeting, "The noise of public opinion will always pass, and our self-innovation will never stop." "If Baidu wants to truly realize transformation and upgrading, it must pay attention to the cultivation and construction of corporate culture, establish correct values, create a good working atmosphere, and truly achieve "simple and reliable".
Xuanjing's resignation once again pushed Baidu to the forefront of public opinion. As a technology company in transition, Baidu not only needs to work technological innovation, but also needs to pay attention to soft power such as internal management and corporate culture construction, in order to truly win the trust and recognition of users and society, and remain invincible in the fierce market competition.