Wen / Wu Xiaobo, Professor of Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management, Zhejiang University, Qiushi Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University; Xu Guangguo, Ph.D. in Psychology, Zhejiang University, Senior Consultant of Huawei Management Training; Zhang Wujie, Ph.D. in Engineering and Postdoctoral Fellow in Management, Zhejiang University
Source: Huaxia Cornerstone e Insights
Excerpt from "Activating the Organization - Huawei Endeavor's Code" (CITIC Publishing Group), Huaxia Cornerstone e Insight is published with permission
When the warp (longitudinal) and weft (horizontal) are woven, the same node will be directed in two directions, and there is also a method called "twisting twist" in Huawei, that is, using the organizational route of "multi-path, multi-echelon, multi-scene" to fully stimulate the power on the node and avoid rigidity.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" >, Huawei's organization is always expanding and unbalanced</h1>
Each post on the main channel of China has two lines to manage. One line is the department head (or business chief), such as an employee of the Argentine representative office, the Argentine representative office determines the employee's performance evaluation, bonus evaluation, stock award, which enables the department head to issue work objectives and requirements to the employee, and process guidance and supervision. The other line is the industry line supervisor (or professional supervisor), such as the employee belongs to the Argentine wireless product marketing department, then the organ (regional department or Shenzhen headquarters) will have a functional department responsible for the employee's professional skills training, qualification certification, global transfer, etc., which enables the industry line supervisor to issue strategic requirements for the industry line to the employee and land at the grassroots level.
Everyone has two supervisors, which is the basic form of Huawei Matrix Organization.
This seems to violate the basic principles of hierarchical management. Drucker once said: "The principle of hierarchy also guarantees that a person has only one superior, which also protects the subordinates." Otherwise, subordinates may be caught up in two conflicting orders, interests, and demands for loyalty. An old peasant proverb says, 'A bad master is better than two good masters.' But Professor Huang Weiwei, a consultant to Huawei and a Chinese University, published an article in Huawei Ren in 2003 entitled "Twisting Twist", which very vividly explained Ren Zhengfei's "twist twist" philosophy:
Entrepreneurs or managers who manage large enterprises probably have a deep understanding of the proportions of policy. Enterprise is a utilitarian organization, "the world is bustling, all for profit; the world is bustling, all are for profit", it is not easy to integrate so many profit-seeking individuals into a joint force. On the other hand, the enterprise is a contradiction, such as expansion and control, centralization and decentralization, teamwork and respect for individuality. ...... Can we establish a mechanism in which the two sides of the contradiction are both opposed and promote each other, so as to avoid the ups and downs of development? ...... This is a way of managing contradictions, and in ren's words, it is called "twisting the twist." Two opposing forces act at the same time, opposite each other, like twisting a hemp rope, one to the left, one to the right, the result is that the rope is tightened tighter and tighter. Ren Zhengfei once mentioned that when he visited the Egyptian pyramids, he found a hemp rope displayed in the window more than 4,000 years ago in the exhibition hall, which is still tightly twisted to this day... Twisting can be done in a variety of ways. It can be twisted back and forth, that is, to add a dimension of time, a period of emphasis on a major tendency, a piece of relaxation, wave development. It can also be left and right, establishing expanding departments and restricting departments in the organization, you expand, I restrict, you attack the city strategically, I manage the operation. It can also be screwed up and down, the senior leaders of the enterprise are screwed in the strategic direction, and the middle and grass-roots supervisors and employees are screwed up to efficiency and interests. It can be more internal and external screwing, internal pursuit of shareholders and employee interests, external satisfaction of customer and partner interests, maintenance of which party's interests must be based on the reasonable realization of the interests of other parties as the premise, damage to the interests of which party will harm the interests of all parties.
Huawei's matrix organization makes the same person in the same position have two "masters" (that is, supervisors), so it may receive two conflicting requests or commands, which makes Huawei's employees very tired, may be squeezed by both sides, tired of coping with the state, equivalent to the "two masters" on the same position and the same person. Huawei's organization on the main channel is this kind of matrix organization of "twisting twists", twisting the two ends to squeeze in the middle.
But such a mechanism has led to Huawei's organization always being expanded and unbalanced. For example, the Argentine representative office said that it only needs to complete the target of $500 million this year, because it has increased by 20% to 30% over last year, and the overall performance of the representative office's wireless sales will reach A as long as it completes $350 million; if there is still room for growth in wireless sales, it can be saved until the next year, so that the performance of the representative office next year will not be very bad. At this time, the regional department or the company's wireless marketing department may not agree, because they also have their own KPIs or strategic requirements, the entire company's wireless sales target is 20 billion US dollars, the gap is still very large, and according to the Argentine wireless marketing personnel usually report upward sales opportunity points, the global wireless marketing department believes that the Argentine wireless sales opportunity space may be close to 600 million US dollars. At this time, it is necessary to find an Argentine wireless marketer to twist the twist and ask argentine marketing to set a revenue target of at least 500 million US dollars. Therefore, such a twisted organization is always expanding, and it will not be kidnapped by one person, nor will it be decided by one person. This is the secret that Huawei can grow after being suppressed by the United States in 2019: constantly twisting, squeezing out the moisture, and prompting the organization to move forward, which is Huawei's unique twisting and twisting philosophy.
At the same time, the matrix organization can replace any position at any time, and any person, any line, may be replaced, without affecting performance too long-term. In contrast, in many companies, especially on the sales front line, if a supervisor is suddenly removed, the customer relationship may be taken away, and it often takes a long time for another supervisor to build the organization. Such a company could be kidnapped by someone, such as a sales officer. Any position of Huawei, even the representative of the representative office and the president of the regional department, can be withdrawn, and the successor can be competent in a relatively short period of time, because Huawei's ability is based on the organization. Usually managed by two lines, the information is connected. So any one person can be replaced, and the organization will not be kidnapped or suspended, which is another effect of Huawei's twist organization.
In his speech on March 10, 2015, Ren Zhengfei elaborated on the characteristics of matrix organization:
Why do we insist on matrix management in the main channel? How to deform the matrix and constantly adapt to the new requirements of the company's development?
The company's main waterway business needs to face rapid changes in the internal and external business environment, customer needs and industries. In order to seize the opportunity and build a leading edge, our combat team must produce adaptive changes in any situation, but the combat queue cannot be chaotic, which is the process and matrix. As the environment changes, the array changes, but the interrelationship between the queues cannot change, otherwise they will be incapacitated. This is the characteristic of matrix management. We use matrix management, and that's what we do. The so-called matrix is a square grid, and the queue is very neat. If stability is required, the square lattice should not be deformed, such as the steel mesh of the building. But we're going to change it randomly. The advantage of matrix management is a large platform, experience, skills and various types of resources are fully reused and shared, but the price is that the internal management relationship is more complicated, that is, Guo Ping said that the dual responsibility system, high management costs. But in order for thousands of troops to stand on the Ganling Mountains, we had to do this only to the large troops.
But the company's development can not be so stable, stability is only a relatively short period of time, it will be with the business environment, transaction quality, the quality of people... Deformation occurs. Therefore, matrix management should be "deformed" on a stable basis and constantly adapt to changes in business needs. How do matrices "deform"?
Take the motivation of personnel in the matrix, in order to stimulate the upward force of the organization, priority should be given to promoting excellent personnel, lifting the "program" of the network, so that the grid is upwards and deformed to positive energy. The rules of the matrix are predetermined, and these interrelationships are relatively fixed to keep the formation from being chaotic. For example, the snake's head is constantly swinging, the body is constantly following the swing, and the snake's body is not chaotic. Under any conditions, it is still necessary to maintain the structure and combat strength of the queue, and always strive to restore the rules and return to a new matrix state, and after the "program" is "deformed", the matrix will also drag the progress of other personnel to reach a new equilibrium state. In this way, by constantly breaking the balance and constantly deforming forward, the organization is driven forward and rejuvenated, thus driving the company to new success. So why eliminate backwardness? Because you don't deform with the advance, you drag the matrix and distort it. The company's main waterway department is using this kind of management.
Ren Zhengfei's speech on March 18, 2015 further explained the relationship between stability and change in matrix organization:
The main channel troops implement matrix management with the aim of producing higher efficiency and selecting outstanding cadres in the main channel faster. ...... A matrix is a square lattice, and a block matrix is a grid array. We bundle up the reinforcement of the house one by one, and it is also a matrix. If we ask the company to be stable, we will treat you as steel bars and pour concrete into it to form a stable structure. The house needs to be stable, so the relationship between the reinforcement bars cannot change. Matrix management is used to assess the main channel troops, which is related to the advance of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, and the main channel troops must implement strict systems and combat plans, and cannot do whatever they want. This matrix is constantly changing, so that it has vitality, but the interrelationship between nodes is unchanged, no matter how you change, maintain a reasonable queue, form combat effectiveness.
In fact, Ren Zhengfei has already formed the idea and specific practice of matrix organization in the 1990s, which may be the fundamental reason why Huawei can be indestructible no matter how many personnel changes and how difficult the organization endures. Ren Zhengfei reported in a discussion with the Shanghai Post and Telecommunications Administration on May 30, 1997: "Huawei's organization is still characterized by its matrix structure and help network. After the organizational platform is established, if you just allocate resources and goals according to the top-down vertical command system, planning system, and budget system, then the system is likely to be deadlocked. It cannot plan for changes, changes occur in the process of planning implementation, it is unpredictable, and many changes are unfathomable. Opportunities are difficult to predict, planning can predict resources, projects can be predicted, but it is difficult to predict opportunities. Huawei's horizontal management is a business process, and the key lies not in distinguishing the size of the authority, but in how to reasonably control the operation of the process. At the forefront of the process are often grassroots cadres, who are very sensitive, and because the process flows through his section, he has the authority to solve the problem. However, due to the limited ability of any executor to understand everything, it is necessary to ask for help and ask for help from relevant resources. How can the vertical functional system be flexible during operation? How to dynamically allocate resources? How does such a large platform work? It is by relying on this matrix network and help network, which is a very big feature of Huawei. The matrix network is from the most grassroots, closest to the customer, closest to the development of the frontier of the staff, from the grassroots supervisor, to capture opportunities, capture change, they are the most sensitive to opportunities and changes.
So what to do once you find an opportunity? It is to ask for help from resources, directly upwards, and get authorization to deal with problems. This is the flexibility to allocate resources, gather resources to opportunities, and centrally allocate resources. To do something is by no means like we used to, like a state-owned enterprise, to hold a meeting to decide what this is, which department you are in charge of, you do it, I will finally check it. No, it's definitely not enough. ”
Ren Zhengfei's speech on June 30, 1996, talked about the pilot of matrix organization, like the pilot of separating the use of soldiers and the cultivation of soldiers: "We are experimenting with the separation of administrative management and business management, and promoting the compatibility of an orderly hierarchical management organization with the matrix management of business information networks. Establish a multi-level, multi-level, multi-professional responsibility center, and through limited authorization, delegate the power and responsibility to promote business operations to the institutions and people who know things best. Establish an open multi-layer, multi-level professional management platform to ensure the rapid development of the company's business activities. The responsibility center of each plane has a clear division of labor and clear responsibilities. Through the coordination and cooperation of multi-level responsibility centers, an open management platform has been established. No matter when and where, employees at any level can be supported in a timely, direct and fast manner, shortening the workflow, increasing the accuracy of support, and greatly improving work efficiency. Support is a matter of fact, not a person-level decision, in order to ensure that the line operation business activities can make timely and effective decisions to achieve the work objectives and overall objectives of each administrative system. In other words, the linear administrative command system will make full use of the multi-level business management platform and the networked business information bridge formed hand in hand by the secretary management system to effectively manage the business objectives and benefit distribution. Administrative system management is the program, business management is the purpose, and the program is the purpose. This innovation in the management system will fundamentally overcome the bottlenecks and failures caused by poor information and distortion in the past management process, and make the responsibilities in place and the division of labor clear, which is conducive to making an objective and fair evaluation of various institutions and employees, forming a strong constraint mechanism, so as to obtain further openness in management and greatly improve the correctness and effectiveness of the work. ”
Now it seems that ren Zhengfei's idea of matrix organization that he tried in the 1990s is very forward-looking!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="24" > saturation attacks of two, multipath, multi-echelon, multi-scenario, and matrix organization are the most important ways to stimulate organizational vitality</h1>
1. Desperate bets when resources are limited
As we mentioned earlier, in 1998-2000, Huawei bet on the WCDMA standard when developing 3G products because of its limited financial, material and human resources, missed the development opportunity of Unicom CDMA in 2000, and also missed the development opportunity of PHS telecom in 2000-2004.
If Huawei's funds can be slightly freed up as they are now, then the WCDMA system at that time should be developed, the CDMA standard should also be developed, PHS will also be developed, and the later TD-CDMA system will also dare to get on the horse, from different paths for research and development, there will always be a product path that is most conducive to Huawei's development, then there will be no Huawei winter, and there will be no depression and pain of Ren Zhengfei. But now, Ren Zhengfei's choice at that time was successful. Although this process caused great pain to himself and the company, fortunately, both he and Huawei survived the winter.
On August 20, 2019, Ren Zhengfei was interviewed by the Associated Press about why he did not choose PHS and related pressures, and also talked about the things that caused him to commit depression and suicide. Here are some excerpts from the relevant content:
Associated Press reporter Joe Macdonald (hereinafter referred to as "Macdonald") asked: Are there any examples of Huawei's strategy in solving problems? Someone mentioned the example of PHS to reflect Huawei's strategy, and Huawei made a decision on whether to do PHS at that time. What do you think about the PHS business?
Ren Zhengfei replied: The appearance of PHS in China is a "freak", and this "freak" is formed by the system, not naturally. Because China's 1800M frequency, surplus 55M, this 55M frequency can be completely distributed to telecom, telecommunications can be on GSM, there is no need to go to PHS. But this 55M is not divided into telecommunications, telecom to find a product that is not subject to frequency jurisdiction, just PHS frequency signal is very weak, itself is a home phone, they enhance it, just do social phone. PHS is a temporary product, because telecommunications do not have wireless, it is used to replace wireless. I think it's important that strategy is to look at the problem in the long run, what exactly is the need of this society. PHS is a promising product that consumes a lot of energy, how to focus strategic forces on promising areas in the future?
McDonald: We've also learned from other places that there's a lot of internal controversy over the PHS, and even internal divisions because of it. Can you tell us about the situation at that time?
Ren Zhengfei: We are not afraid of external pressure at all, anyway, we are determined not to do it; internal pressure, if you don't do it, what if Huawei really falls behind due to my misjudgment and dies? At that time, Huawei was under great pressure to survive, and in that case, we still focused on making 3GPP standard products. This process has gone through eight years, and many people inside are writing reports to do PHS, they want to make a little more money, think that PHS is very simple, can be on. Every time I saw a report, it was an inner struggle, and the pain was unbearable, and maybe the depression became serious at that time. It wasn't until eight years later, when China decided to release a 3G license, that our hearts really let go.
MCDONALD: You just mentioned depression. You've told your employees before that you were under tremendous pressure around 2000, often waking up at night thinking about how to pay their employees, and even having suicidal thoughts. I want to confirm if this is true? If that's true, can you tell us about the situation?
Ren Zhengfei: This kind of painful thing will not be told, their legend is true.
Ken Moritzgu (then Associated Press Beijing bureau chief): Can you ask what you learned from this painful experience? What has changed for you? How did you finally overcome this challenge?
Ren Zhengfei: There is nothing to learn from that thing, because pain does not gain anything. If we "hammer in the east and a mallet in the west", we are doomed to failure, and we should unswervingly work in the right direction to succeed. Later, we called the goal of struggle "the direction is roughly correct", the absolutely correct direction does not exist, and the general correct direction can be. In addition, the organization should be energetic and aligned with one place. This is a bet on science and technology, and it is possible to make a mistake. Fortunately, the bet was right, the pressure was released, and then I didn't want to commit suicide.
MCDONALD: If you compare the current crisis to the pain of the PHS experience in 2000, how do you see the current crisis?
Ren Zhengfei: Today's crisis should be only 1/10 of the pressure at that time, because now we are full of confidence in getting through the crisis, and the crisis at that time was an unknowable fear. Now I am not afraid, and then I am so frightened that I am mentally tortured to produce depression. Now we are making up the "hole" step by step, from 5G to the core network this line of the "hole" is all completed, now to make up the terminal of the "hole", the terminal of the "hole" is one or two, we are confident that it will be completed in two or three years. So we are still very confident now, we were not confident then; moreover, now we have money, and at that time people were not at peace, and there was no money.
On July 23, 2019, Ren Zhengfei was interviewed by the BBC's "Story Factory" documentary, and also talked about why Huawei did not seize the opportunity of China Unicom CDMA, because Huawei chose the 3G standard CDMA2000 that year, and the market bid for the 2G standard CDMA standard IS-95. Ren once again talked about the painful choices of 2000-2008 that led to his personal mental torture and the arduous process of Huawei being forced overseas.
The following uses the original words of the parties to reproduce the facts at that time:
BBC "StoryWorks" documentary filmmaker Nikolai M. Elliott: At the time, because Huawei did not choose to invest in CDMA technology, a lot of opportunities were lost. CDMA technology later became one of the mainstream technologies in the Chinese market. If you go back and choose now, will Huawei make a different choice? Will you invest in CDMA?
Ren Zhengfei: This is a piece of history. Since 2000, China has been in contradiction in the choice of wireless communication standards (CDMA, GSM, etc.). Since the state did not issue wireless licenses to China Telecom at that time, they made PHS technology eliminated in Japan into PHS in China. We judged at the time that PHS might make a lot of money, but without prospects, it didn't. CDMA we did, but did not do IS-95, the backward system, we did 1X. But the Chinese market tender only as long as is IS-95, not 1X, so we lost the election, did not get the choice of the Chinese market. These two are setbacks for us.
From 2000 to 2008, when the state decided to go on 3G, during the eight years, when we decided on the wireless route, I was personally mentally miserable and almost broke down. Because I firmly follow the 3GPP, GSM, and UMTS roads, I don't take those two roads. I am not afraid of the pressure from the outside, how to pressure me outside, I am not afraid, or firmly go on. I was afraid of pressure from within, and internally there were constantly high-level letters and reports to me: "Your decision is wrong, and it will bury Huawei." "In those eight years, I lived like a year, and no one else was responsible for this decision, and I had to bear the responsibility for my own choice. In those eight years of seeing others make a lot of money, we can't make money, seeing that we ourselves are much more difficult than others, and a lot of articles outside are satirical and sarcastic to us, what if I am really wrong? Eight years later, China finally issued a 3G license, releasing our energy at once. At that time, it didn't feel like we had won, it was just that the pressure was reduced and our equipment was ready to use.
At that time, we did not have a chance in the Chinese market, so we invested a lot of energy in overseas, and began to enter the overseas market for many years, but we could not see customers, let alone contracts, and could not earn money. At that time, when All kinds of Chinese daily necessities were sold to Russia, the Russian Minister of Posts and Telecommunications said a sentence: "What high-tech does China have?" Nothing but fakes. "We are saddled with our own products, and we have to mix with Chinese counterfeiters to get customers to identify with us, which is a difficult period." However, if we do not open overseas markets, we will face a more difficult situation if we do not have market opportunities in China. At that time, I personally traveled to Africa and Latin America for many years, and there were very few family contacts and contacts. I am very remorseful about this history, because the child is growing up, and I hope that my father will play games and hide and cats, but I did not do it. I came back from overseas, exhausted and out of breath, so I lay in bed and slept. So, I didn't communicate well with the kids, but it was for survival, for survival.
Around 2000, people overseas began to buy us a little bit of equipment, give us a little contract, only then have the opportunity to reflect Huawei's service spirit, and slowly customers accepted us. At that time, we could not talk about the word "excellent", and we could not reach the level of competition with Western companies. Why is Africa receptive to us? Because of the war, the Western companies have all run out, Africa wants equipment, we can sell it to Africa, but also because of the plague, the extreme environment... We can sell some products and accumulate some successful experience overseas. Today, when we promote cadres, we are required to have worked in difficult overseas areas such as Africa, and we use the US army's assessment criteria for officers to "have been on the battlefield, shot, and injured" to determine whether cadres are qualified to be promoted, and overseas successful experience must be an indicator. Otherwise, people from overseas who have come back from hard work will let the high-quality cadres who are "under the moon before spending time" take away their official positions, and such a value evaluation system will not work. This cycle does not necessarily best use good people, but it builds the first strong teams. Therefore, today our team is very strong, the United States is such a strong blow, our company is not only not broken, but also morale is high.
During the period of losing the opportunity in the Chinese market, we went overseas, but after we came back, China moved to a new stage of development, and we had the opportunity to transfer some outstanding generals from overseas to "kill back the carbine" and regain success in China.
On February 27, 2016, Ren Zhengfei also talked about why Huawei did not go to TDSCDMA in time at the Pakistan Exhibition (that is, mobile world congress in Barcelona) and Ukrainian companies: "The role of leaders is a sense of direction, not whether you carry a hoe and dig trenches, but whether you can lead everyone out of the predicament and find a way forward." A sense of direction is to give a definite judgment in the midst of multiple uncertainties, especially when resources are limited. Of course, it also includes vague judgments that lead everyone out of chaos. We used to follow the world, and in the future you will lead the world, what do you do? At that time, for a PHS, a TD, I almost lost my life, why? Eight years, ah, see people PHS vigorous, everyone wrote a report, said that 3 months can be made, do not do; and TD, in the end can not be on. You say those eight years, how did I come over? Leadership is so hard to do! Don't do it, how to do it wrong; do it, at the point of non-strategic opportunity, consume the strategic competitive force, will there be today? Now it's your turn to lead the world, and you'll feel like you're being roasted on the stove. It is difficult to be a leader, we have to be a leader, we have to reform, without reforming our system, we cannot lead the world. We must be leaders, Huawei can not be rigid. ”
The above minutes can be said to be invaluable original materials, and from Ren Zhengfei's dictation, we understand the decision-making psychology and painful reality behind the most important strategic choices.
2. Saturation attack when resources are plentiful
Huawei has probably come to the first place in the field of communications since 2013, and it is no longer a small company, it has entered no man's land, and there is no one in front of it to lead the way, and it needs to explore a path from uncertainty. At this time, it is necessary to change the guiding principles of research and development, no longer like small companies to bet on the future technical direction of the luck, but also need to try a variety of technical directions, even if it is to choose a route, but also to take the way of the Red and Blue Army for repeated investment, who can develop faster, use whose program. On the one hand, this reflects the research and development concept of accumulation and thin development, on the other hand, it also stimulates the vitality of each team, so that each team will always have crisis and pressure.
Ren Zhengfei pointed out in his speech on July 2, 2015:
For industrial trends, we can not only gamble on one opportunity, in the research and innovation stage, we must have a variety of assumptions, multiple offensive paths and multiple technical solutions for the realization of future goals, and multi-echelon attacks. Large companies use intensive investment to shorten the time to explore directions.
In the era of big data traffic, no one knows how much traffic will be in the future, and fixed networks will play an important role and have huge market opportunities. Now that we have determined the direction in which the army is rolling forward, we must regard the multiple opportunities to achieve the goal as a way to attack the target. You can't just gamble on one opportunity, it's a practice where small companies don't have enough money.
We are a large company, with sufficient financial support, to dare to invest, in the research and innovation stage, from multiple offensive paths, with a variety of technical solutions, multiple echelons to attack the target. Rowing in a variety of ways in the main channel is not a diversification investment, not a departure from the main channel.
The world is changing too fast now, don't gamble, it's hard for companies to succeed in one way. Because once the strategic direction is wrong, the losses will be huge.
Huawei advocates making the flare of the technology strategy bigger, including various technologies, routes and directions, and the backward should also be included, while adopting the competition mechanism of the red and blue armies. Ren Zhengfei pointed out in a meeting with the Belarusian Academy of Sciences on October 18, 2016: "The trumpet mouth of technology should be large enough to fully open up cooperation and strengthen global coordination." The future company has two major strategies, one is the customer strategy, one is the technology strategy, the technical horn mouth should be large enough, the various technologies, routes, directions are included, backward should also be included, backward places may be temporary, not forever, the future it may become more advanced. In the same research direction, we can repeat the investment in different places. In the past, it was divided into the Reds and the Blues, and now everyone is the Blues, and whoever wins is the Reds. Our cooperation is open, and we invest in scientists, not seeking the results of their papers or patents, but only a right to know how to solve problems, or to know the lessons of failure. When the results come out and then practice too slowly, we must consider the engineering application synchronously from the beginning of the theory. Partners don't have to succeed, and the lessons of failure are also successes. Like a lighthouse, it can illuminate both me and others, and the lighthouse is still yours, and it does not affect your own industrialization. ”
In his speech on July 2, 2015, Ren Zhengfei explicitly proposed the role of the Blue Army: "The Blue Army must fully play its role, and the commander of the Red Army should be selected from the Blue Army." If the commander of the Blue Army can find something to break the Red Army, it means that he has used his brain; if he can't find it, it means that the Blue Army is backward, and it turned out to be a 'major general', and he can be transferred to the 'cooking class' to be the 'lieutenant colonel squad leader', and another person who understands can continue to charge. If the Blues don't oppose it head-on, how can they see a star shining? The Voice of Hearts community has an article criticizing SDN (Software Defined Networking), I don't care if his opinion is correct, in our company, to be able to stand up against it, that's great. You Red Army can also write articles, the Blue Army attacks first, the Red Army defends again, and plays a game, and the more opinions there are, the more ideas will produce a blowout of thought. Now that SDN hasn't been practiced or competed on the Web, listening to the opposition may help our products to be healthy. ”
On February 27, 2016, Ren Zhengfei clearly mentioned in a conversation with Ukraine at the Pakistan Exhibition that it is necessary to develop in a multi-path, multi-echelon, saturation attack, and there can be no sudden new direction of technological development (black swans), and even if there is, we must let the black swans fly in our coffee cups:
Don't understand the main channel as the only channel, multi-path is towards one goal and direction, which is not called deviating from the main channel. Our company is moving towards no man's land, as long as there are multiple paths, there will be no rigidity; as long as there are multiple echelons, there will be no laziness. Because when each echelon is charging, his vision has been focused on that hill, all the peripheral things he can't see, he doesn't want to, he just wants to attack the "Shangganling"; the second echelon is a broad vision, pay attention to the starry sky, sweep the periphery, the first echelon breaks through the city wall, has been exhausted, should go up the second echelon. Therefore, as long as we retain multi-path and multi-echelon, we will not be rigid and lazy, and we can attack no man's land on the problem of large information traffic transmission.
We must unswervingly follow the path of software + dedicated chips, and this point should not be shaken. We also need to multi-path research and development, in the future, multi-module superposition, parallel, nothing more than a little larger, but the flow is large to a certain extent, so that when the single module is washed away, we still have a response plan. Of course, the delay is also larger. If a single module is the trend of the times in the future, the talents cultivated by multiple modules can also come and join, so we must take multiple paths. Multi-module will have a large delay, how to do?
Xu Zhijun said that we should increase investment around the pipeline strategy, and we will not be wrong strategically, and we must have a variety of methods in terms of methods, not exclusion. Don't bet only one method, small companies will gamble on one method, because he doesn't invest enough, gamble right and win, large companies have enough money, why not take multiple paths? A certain path "failed" and gave us a lot of people, and these people joined the main channel with gamma globulin, and there are many inconsistencies with the thinking of the main channel, and this alienation may also make it more correct. As long as we stick to the direction of multi-path, we will not be rigid, and we are attacking each other, how can we be rigid?
In this way we form the "black swan" echelon, the reserve echelon, the skilled craftsman echelon..." Black swans" are possible, but hopefully appear in our "coffee cups." We must be open, we must support scientists in the same direction, we must support the understanding of crooked melons and crack dates... "Black swans" come to our company to fly, and we allow you to fly and subvert yourself.
The Blue Army wants to materialize, and it also has its assumptions, ideas, theories... A complete set is not enough to write just two critical articles. A large number of echelons can be in the Blue Army, and the Blue Army should be a team that is almost the same as the Red Army. For example, there are six echelons of the Red Army, in fact, the Red Army is one, and the rest are all Blue Army. The Red Army unswervingly took the road of special chips + software, and the Blue Army was ready to do what to do when the road in the future was 10 times or 20 times wider than this road; how to do the multi-module superposition, the delay; the key to transmitting images was the cost, what to do. Without low cost, 4K cannot be widely used. Without low latency, AI (artificial intelligence), AR (augmented reality), and VR (virtual reality) are difficult to online on a large scale. We want to make sure that the Blues are just research teams, not development. Development is a deterministic work with a focus on delivery. Intel uses general-purpose computing + software to change the pipeline infrastructure, which is actually the Blue Army, and we should also pay attention to it.
Ren Zhengfei's speech at the Shanghai Research Institute on October 17, 2018, made a visual explanation of multi-path, multi-ladder and multi-scene:
What is multi-echelon? We develop from scientific experiments and verifications to scientific prototypes, commercial prototypes, multi-scenario prototypes, fully simplified prototypes, and cycle optimization. For scientific experiments, we have to fail boldly, and success too quickly is conservative. A echelon only engages in scientific prototypes, whether the prototype makes money or not, whether it is with "diamonds" or "gold" as scaffolds, it is the feasibility of the argument theory, it is not feasible and successful, do not make or break the hero, to boldly explore. Echelon B is responsible for the development of commercial prototypes on the basis of scientific prototypes, and it is necessary to study its applicability, high quality, easy production, easy delivery, and good maintenance. C echelon should be oriented to multiple scenarios, according to customer needs, multi-scenario products are reasonable, applicable and economical products, which is conducive to the reduction of user construction costs and operation and maintenance costs. Just like the Natural Star farm network product you made, it is a kind of scenario. The D echelon studies tolerance design and ordinary parts to make the best products to come. Best quality, easiest to use, install, produce and maintain, lowest cost architecture. The challenge is extremely great, your "bayonet" is aimed at your own chest, bold experimentation, courage to innovate, revolutionize your own life, is to revolutionize the life of the entire network. For example, the design of Japanese television sets is tolerance design, they are not every component is optimal, but the whole is optimal. Why can't our 5G base stations reach the level of TVs? Tolerance design is a reasonable cost architecture.
We must multi-echelon, maintain the leading position of the strategy, maintain long-term manpower iteration, and go forward and follow. The human resources department should develop an assessment model, and adopt different assessment methods for the four echelons of A, B, C and D, not all echelons have to bear great delivery pressure, and some echelons are to release the pressure, and light loading can stimulate imagination. A echelon, D echelon, failure to increase wages, success will increase the level. We fully estimate their difficulty, failure, as long as the path is clear, it is also a success, "not to succeed or fail on the hero" is this meaning.
Multi-path, that is, technically explore multiple forms of implementation, do not lightly veto. Of course, we can also study the path of globalization, the path of regionality, and we may all go. We must adhere to global standards because we are already a global company, but we must also be ready to respond to the demands of various countries. The world is changing, is it possible for us to change this change? We can't change it, we can only adapt and respond with multiple paths.
At the same time, we must have the strength to stand on our own feet, and we must have the ability to solve the problem of substitution. When I said ten years ago that we should prepare for war according to extreme situations and build spare tires, most people at that time did not believe it. I said that the world's largest spare tire is the atomic bomb, when did it ever go to a nuclear war? Never played once. We must insist on using the dual version, about 80% of the time to use the mainstream version, but the alternative version also has about 20% of the applicable space, to maintain this dynamic spare tire state.
Solve network problems in multiple scenarios and reduce construction costs and O&M costs. Multi-scenario networking is very complex, and we can solve it through AI. We have only solved the product problem now, not the network problem. In the future, 5G large traffic will be rolled out around the world, the network will be congested, we set up theoretical departments in several research institutes in China in advance to study the problem of network traffic diversion. At present, the Russian Research Institute has a method of successfully channeling network traffic, which allows the Russian Research Institute to guide various theoretical departments and solve the traffic problem of 4G one after another, and to the congestion of 5G network traffic, the dredging has experience. In addition, the Shanghai Research Institute can also recruit a part of the doctors in mathematics, physics, neurology, etc., starting from the research of anti-fraud software. In theoretical research, we also have to have a ladder, we work with a lot of professors, and we also have to make a list to see how many PhDs under the professors are working with us. We also recruit some PhDs, and then send them to cooperate with professors, the research results are professors, we just apply, and after ten years, the iteration ladder is established. In terms of basic research, we must pay more attention to and increase investment. For example, terahertz may be the future, and I propose whether to recommend Professor Liu Shenggang as the "father of terahertz", of course, not to the world, but to us. We need to support great scientists like Liu Shenggang and Li Xiaowen, who are beacons.
Ren Zhengfei's speech at the Institute of Japan on November 21, 2018, further made a visual analogy of the R&D investment of "multi-path, multi-echelon":
In Japan, you have achieved some success, and when research is at the forefront of the world, we will encourage failure. Failure, everyone discusses together, see if the failure is justified, there is a applause, a salary increase, everyone to try, even if most of the failures, talent has also been cultivated. There will always be a success, and once it is successful, when all the losers go to success, they bring the knowledge, ability, and experience that they have increased through failure, and converge on the pipeline of success, and they will be more successful. It's not a single approach, it's the convergence of multiple approaches, and that's multi-path forward.
Now that you are engaged in scientific research, first of all, it does not matter whether it is useful or not, you just continue to explore and move forward on a mystery, and those who fail must also be correctly evaluated. As I said at the Shanghai Research Institute, the scientific experiment team A does scientific prototypes, the B team does commercial prototypes, the C team does multi-scenario applications, and the D team does the best and cheapest and simplest products of human beings, and loops up. Throw at least one sesame seed 1 billion light-years away from us; drop an apple 200 light-years away from us; and 5 kilometers away from us, throw in the amount of Van Vliet ammunition. We don't have to take on the responsibility of leading the world, we can't lead, but it's okay to give some funding in the forefront, this side to the sesame seeds, this side to the apples, this side with the VanVleet ammunition volume to fully invest. In the process of investment, encourage failure, do not always encourage success, encourage success vision will be too close, encourage failure, find the opportunity and possibility of success in failure, scientists will also be very happy, failure can also pay bonuses, in fact, scientists also want to fail, their ideals are very far-reaching.
All kinds of technological innovation, itself can not be absolutely correct, failed, this path you explain clearly, the boundary is fully demonstrated, tell me where the boundary is, to this boundary, can not go through, is success. For example, the oil industry, oil has been gathered in this hole for tens of millions of years, if we hit this hole with oil, it is the level of the top croak, but can the underground be accurate? Electromagnetic waves can not penetrate, we hit this place, found no oil, and then hit that place there is no oil, and then hit this place a little oil, is not the early two points are not counted as achievements, three years can not increase wages? The two points played early tell you where the boundary of the oil layer is, and the reserves can be calculated according to this boundary and the thickness of the oil layer. It is difficult to hit the oil once, just hit it a few times, you can't think that there is no merit in hitting the side, only those who hit the oil have merit, then China's petroleum industry has no credit. So unsuccessful scientific research is also a success.
Here is a brief explanation of Van Vliet's ammunition quantity. During the Korean War, the commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, James F. Kennedy, was killed in a position to speak to the United States Army VanVleet used heavy fire against the active forces of the Volunteers, using more than 5 times the amount of ammunition required by the U.S. Army. The so-called vanVleet ammunition volume refers to the intensive bombardment and shelling of a huge amount of ammunition at any cost, and the implementation of a strong suppression and devastating blow against the enemy, with the intention of quickly annihilating the enemy's living forces, making it difficult to organize effective defenses, and minimizing the casualties of our personnel.
In short, the multi-path, multi-echelon, multi-scene organizational route, as well as the red and blue army mechanism, is also Ren Zhengfei's "twist twist" way to stimulate the vitality of the organization, that is, every path, each echelon, and the people in each scene must be active, because any path, any ladder, and any scene is not as stable as Mount Tai's position, whoever leads will use whom, who wins is the Red Army, and whoever captures Shangganling will make greater contributions. To put it bluntly, it is a competition mechanism, an innovative activation method that makes the business units of large organizations think of danger, tremble and dare to charge.
Large companies tend to adopt this approach, otherwise it is difficult to activate. For example, the development of Tencent WeChat is this model. After the development of Sina Weibo in 2010, the number of active customers in qq space was decreasing, and Tencent planned to develop a mobile social networking application to solve this problem. After the project was established, Tencent has three teams doing it at the same time, all called WeChat, namely the computer QQ team, the mobile QQ team and the QQ mailbox team.
In the end, the QQ mailbox team led by Zhang Xiaolong of the Guangzhou R&D Department won, and the team in Chengdu was disappointed, they only made it a month late. Tencent often has multiple teams developing the same type of product at the same time, which is a huge waste of resources in the eyes of many people, but it is an optional way to activate a huge organization.
Another example of multipath development is the iPhone's development process. Apple's product that changed the whole world was the iPhone. In fact, since 2000, the world has been doing 3G, but it has been tepid, the world has not found a killer application that can really ignite 3G, and everyone does not know what 3G's high bandwidth and large capacity can be used for. It wasn't until the iPhone that the mobile Internet was truly born, and we moved from the era of feature phones to the era of smartphones, and 3G really had a place to play. But as you know, when Apple's Jobs made the iPhone, there were also two groups of people competing, one based on the development path that made the iPod bigger, and the other based on the development path that made the Mac smaller. The iPod team and the Mac team "started a full-scale religious war", competing with each other to see who could make the phone Jobs wanted faster, and the latter won, the iPhone with the power of mobile computers, ushering in a new era - smartphones and 3G communications.
We want to illustrate through these cases: multi-path, multi-echelon, multi-scenario saturation attacks, and matrix organization are the most important ways to stimulate the vitality of organizations!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="80" > third and third eyes: how to avoid rigidity of tissue</h1>
Organizational centralization and decentralization are like two irreconcilable points of conflict, which in layman's terms mean "one tube is tight, one is loose". So how can organizations reconcile these contradictions and avoid rigidity? This involves the meridian layer, the weft layer, the business layer, etc. of the organization.
We believe that Huawei's effective approach is to establish a matrix organization so that two or even multiple conflicts can reasonably collide within the organization but will not be incompatible. Huawei's philosophy of matrix organization or twisting is difficult to explain, and we try to interpret it in plain language:
(1) Assuming that there are two conflicting but reasonable acts A and B in the organization;
(2) At this time, the organization is by no means a single choice, as long as A or as long as B, but all, let A and B contain each other; (3) when one of the A or B becomes strong, the organization must support the other party to compete with it, so that they each operate in a reasonable range.
We believe that another manifestation of Huawei's avoidance of organizational rigidity is the organizational behavior of "multi-path, multi-echelon, and multi-scenario". In short: the organization has the main channel, but never one way to the black; the organization has strategic goals, but it never hopes to achieve it once or in one way.
Similarly, the matrix form has some positive implications for organizational activation, but it is by no means applicable in any context, and it also has some shortcomings:
1. The responsibility of the project leader is greater than the power. There are not enough incentives and punishments, and it is difficult for the project leader to direct the project team members from various departments.
2. The project team members have no responsibility and no right, are squeezed by two dimensions, the work pressure is larger and there is not much right to speak, plus they still have to return to the original unit after the task is over, which is easy to produce temporary concepts and affect the sense of responsibility for work.
3, the ability of the project team members in the organization of the role is no longer as linear as the linear system has a relatively large impact, the matrix organization more emphasis on "everyone to collect firewood and flame high", this mechanism allows employees to become operating machine parts and lack of differentiation.
4. Matrix organization is often suitable for the complex scenarios of large enterprises, which requires a superb management level of enterprises, which is a great test of the ability of all aspects of enterprises.
5, similarly, Huawei can launch a "multi-path, multi-echelon, multi-scenario" saturation attack, also because there is enough strength, not any enterprise can do it, many companies in order to survive may only be able to "one way to the black".
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Huaxia Cornerstone e Insight: Led by Professor Peng Jianfeng, a giant in China's human resource management, a pioneer in the consulting industry, and one of the drafters of huawei's Basic Law, and co-founded by Mr. Song Jinsong, a senior media person and corporate culture consulting expert, we strive to provide the most original, ideological and practical management articles, which is China's top management think tank platform and the source of original Chinese management ideas. Authoritative, rational, insightful, senior managers must read
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