Written by | Cold Zelin
Edit | Wu Xianzhi
On the first day of September, Xiaomi's WeChat public account announced the completion of the industrial and commercial registration procedures of the automobile company, and the official finally recognized the car-making matter. At the same time, Lei Jun's WeChat public account was updated synchronously, setting the tone for the above events with "key milestones".
Both channels released a photo of 17 people in two rows. According to Xiaomi insiders, the front row is the xiaomi management, and the back row is the heads of each business, and the person in the back row who wants to find business cooperation has to find the person in the back row.
Among the nine people standing in the front row, there is a lot of information worth paying attention to. From left to right, they are CFO Lin Shiwei, partner Zhang Feng, co-founder Liu De, partner Wang Xiang, founder Lei Jun, co-founder Hong Feng, partner Lu Weibing, senior consultant Qi Yan and vice president He Yong.
In 2019, in the "11.29" organizational structure adjustment, Qi Yan, who had retired for "personal reasons", appeared in the second right position in the front row of the photo. At that time, she and Lai Wanqiang were appointed as senior consultants at the same time.
Qi Yan has the name of "Zhongguancun Big Sister" in the industry, and there is a detail in the public information that may be able to peek into its government and enterprise capabilities:
It only takes two months to straighten out the relationship between the market that cannot be opened, complete various procedures and certificates, and open smoothly, and the initial 5% investment rate will reach 90% in only 9 months.
The front row on the right is Xiaomi vice president He Yong, according to public information, he was formerly the deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Government Office in Beijing, and his ability in government communication, public affairs, regional economy, and enterprise services is outstanding.
Combined with the resumes and backgrounds of Qi Yan and He Yong, it can be seen that more important than the registered capital of 10 billion yuan, Xiaomi's talent reserve in government and enterprise resources is at least the most luxurious team in the new force car-making team.
In the past decade, the Xiaomi mobile phone supply chain has always been one of lei jun's most laborious things, and the supply chain and compliance requirements of car manufacturing are far higher than mobile phones, and the above-mentioned person arrangements are likely to avoid falling in the same place for a second time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > people who should have appeared but did not</h1>
If Qi Yan and He Yong were unexpected, then Wang Chuan was the one who should have appeared on camera but did not appear.
On January 15 this year, Xiaomi began to promote car-making projects, and then co-founder Wang Chuan began to conduct research in the automotive industry.
The outside world began to rumor that Wang Chuan would lead the car-making project, not out of thin air. In the past decade, Xiaomi has discussed car-making options three times in total, the most recent of which was when it launched the preliminary investigation of the "micar" car-making project internally in 2018, and the Staff Department was the direct promotion department.
Timeline and internal structure adjustments also point to Wang Chuan. In the 2018 "9.13" organizational structure adjustment, a new group staff department was established, and Wang Chuan served as chief of staff until February 21, 2020, when he was transferred to CSO (Group Chief Strategy Officer).
A Xiaomi insider told Photon Planet that Wang Chuan had previously led the car-making team to work together in Building A of the Xiaomi Mobile Internet Industrial Park, and the heads of multiple Xiaomi internal teams were drawn to Building A, many of which were management personnel at the level of 20 or above, and Wang Chuan would attend regular meetings related to car-making every week, when the internal car-making was almost recognized by Wang Chuan. However, recently Wang Chuan seems to have kept a lot of low profile, and rarely directly participates in car-making related meetings.
Interestingly, Xiaomi officials and Wang Chuan himself have not responded to reports about Wang Chuan's responsibility for building cars in the past few months, but they are surprisingly quiet, and Wang Chuan's circle of friends has not updated any dynamics this year.
In the latest official photos, Wang Chuan did not appear, which may indicate that some unknown change has taken place during the preparatory process.
A person who had worked around Wang Chuan told Photon Planet that wang Chuan's responsibility for Xiaomi's car manufacturing had been widely spread before, and now not showing up was also a cooling down for the previous rumors, after all, there was only one boss in Xiaomi.
After Xiaomi officially announced that he had obtained the industrial and commercial registration qualification, the outside world knew that the legal person was Lei Jun, and then looked at the text of lei jun's public account article, and the direct person in charge was Lei Jun. The article first briefly described the facts, undertook a group photo of 17 people who built the car, and the line below the photo combined with the time clue seemed to be in response to the media report at the time:
At the end of March 2021, I said in my speech that I would personally lead the team to start the last major entrepreneurial project of my life, betting on all my reputation...
In total, 718 character punctuation, "I" was used 7 times and "we" 3 times. This not only shows that from decision-making to research to the implementation level, Lei Jun is inserted to the end; at the same time, it is very rare to use the sentence form of "the last major entrepreneurial project in his life" to express his determination to build a car.
People generally remember that Lei Jun first made a similar statement when he founded Xiaomi's mobile phone.
In fact, in the Xiaomi executive team, Co-founder and Vice Chairman Lin Bin is also a well-known car enthusiast. The above-mentioned person told Photon Planet that Lin Bin often participated in outdoor off-roading in the United States in his early years, with first-class driving skills, and later bought a Tesla Model X, while Lei Jun bought a new top version of Maybach after Xiaomi was listed.
However, in the car-making team, there is no Lin Bin figure. Insiders generally believe that Lin Bin has gradually sought to fade out after Xiaomi's listing net worth of tens of billions, rarely fighting in the front line of the business, and more behind the scenes to support the company's development.