• Text / Hong Tianfeng, chief tutor of Huaxia Cornerstone Business School Master School, former vice chairman, chief operating officer, and first EMT rotating chairman of Huawei
• Source: Huaxia Keystone e Insight
• According to the content of the lectures taught by Teacher Hong Tianfeng of “Learn from Huawei·Master School” of Huaxia Keystone Business School

One, Become a professional management organization that values ​​entrepreneurship

1. What is professional management

Entrepreneurial management and professional management have different performances in many aspects. For example, the profit of a startup company can only be reflected at the end of a fiscal year, while a professional organization, because it is profit-oriented, will have a very clear profit target. Especially for listed companies, due to the increasingly strict supervision of listed companies, companies will have very formal strategic planning, operational planning, budgets, roadmaps, risk management, and so on. Relatively speaking, entrepreneurial management has a lot of arbitrariness, even without clear goals. The responsibilities of professional organizations are also clear, complete and exclusive, and there will be no unclear definitions and boundaries.

In terms of performance management, specialized organizations have standardized and clear control systems, while entrepreneurial organizations have the characteristics of non-integrity, fragmentation, and lack of operational control.

In terms of cadre management and budgeting, entrepreneurial organizations and professional organizations are also very different. Although entrepreneurial organizations are sometimes very clear, they often cannot follow up on changes immediately. Under such circumstances, in the face of sudden adversity such as the epidemic, the market is unsustainable, but expenditures still cannot be reduced. This situation in turn proves the importance of budget management and budget control. For example, when the market is shrinking, some companies have to spend more money on advertising in order to expand sales. More importantly, companies cannot follow changes in the market or the situation, and many companies fall into an existential crisis. A truly professional management not only has a professional budget, but also has performance goals, and can also manage changes in accordance with standards.

In terms of innovation, entrepreneurial companies value major innovations and are willing to take major risks, often “betting”, while professional management values ​​incremental innovations and are willing to take “calculated risks”, preferring continuous gradual growth and long-term growth. Support major innovations that do not require rapid returns. Therefore, for a professionally managed company, the investment tendency is long-term, focusing on the development of the product rather than the product itself. Just like our goal is the rice in the pot, the rice in the pot, or the rice in the field? There is a difference. For reasons such as insight or strategic vision, startups will not invest because of strategic opportunities. They will only, or can only invest funds in current visible profits.

Regarding corporate culture, entrepreneurial companies generally have a broad definition of culture, emphasizing “family-style” culture. However, professional management has clear definitions and management methods, and can understand the source of sustained competitive advantage. So, for entrepreneurs, where do we take the company? Only by becoming a professionally managed organization that values ​​entrepreneurship can a company have hope. Therefore, professional management is a goal of enterprise growth and management reform. At the same time, we must also attach importance to entrepreneurship, that is, entrepreneurial spirit, and maintain vitality, otherwise the enterprise will only have a dead end.

2. What is professional management

If we take entrepreneurship and professional management as the horizontal axis and vertical axis respectively, these two indicators, from low to high, can divide organizations into four categories, namely bureaucratic organizations, emerging organizations, hierarchical organizations, and excellent organizations. The bureaucratic organization is obviously the category we want to be the least, and its two indicators are the lowest.

The second category is emerging organizations, although their entrepreneurial spirit is high, but they lack specialization. If the company has been in this state, because of the lack of professional management, it will always need entrepreneurship to lead. When entrepreneurs still have the ability and energy to lead the enterprise forward, the enterprise can of course continue to grow, but from another perspective, it can be said that our management capabilities and human resources are always at a low level. Moreover, entrepreneurs will become fatigued and entrepreneurial spirit will decline. In order to prevent enterprises from regressing and becoming bureaucratic organizations due to the lack of motivation mechanism, or going to decline, enterprises must improve their professional management level.

The third category is hierarchical organizations. It is the opposite of the second category. Entrepreneurship is not high, but the degree of specialization is good.

Finally, there is excellent organization, which is the kind of heart of all enterprises. After the professional management ability of the emerging organization is improved, with the blessing of entrepreneurship, it will surely become an excellent organization. At this point, I think Huawei is a good model.

What is entrepreneurship? Spirit should be reflected in behavior and action. Entrepreneurship is a collection and abstract expression of entrepreneurial special skills (including spirit and skills, such as unique personal qualities, value orientation, thinking mode, business philosophy, courage and charm), including organization The comprehensive ability of establishing and operating an enterprise is an important and special intangible factor of production, and it is a transcendence and sublimation of the rational and irrational logical structure of entrepreneurs. It is neither purely rational nor irrational.

What is professionalization? Professionalism is an inherent manifestation of achieving the same quality and standards with the least cost when doing the same thing. It is a combination of entrepreneurship and professional management. It is not the suit, tie, and briefcase in our stereotypes, nor is it a sense of sophistication that is common in officialdom. With this kind of professionalism and entrepreneurial spirit, we will seek to achieve the best quality standards with the least cost, and we must pursue “no minimum, only less.”

two, Build a team that can support the continuous operation of the organization

In this combination process, The first is to solve the entrepreneur’s own growth problem, and the second is to solve the problem of corporate strategy and organization . To solve the problems of entrepreneurs themselves, it is necessary to divide the development of entrepreneurs into two parts.

The first part includes:

① During the start-up period, based on feelings, passion and pursuit of excitement. Entrepreneurship, all people are entrepreneurs as the center.

② There is passion, but also by feeling, because the pursuit of success continues, the game mentality emerges.

③ I have ideals and started to look for ways, but feel the difficulty and are willing to learn. Pursue the expansion of scale and hope to have more projects.

④ From ideals to dreams, although I am grateful and willing to seek professional assistance, I am not convinced, pursue power, like exposure, and have a tendency of self-expansion. On the contrary, I create a bottleneck for myself and enter a predicament and embarrassment.

⑤ Strategist: Have a vision, clarify the business model, dig deeper and expand the concept, balance, clarify roles, high visibility, and good clarity.

⑥ Sustainable development company: The vision is particularly clear, dig deeper and expand the master, balance, changeable roles, and infinite resources.

There is a huge gap between these two parts. Just like the Chuhe Han world in the middle of a chess board, most entrepreneurs cannot break through, and it is difficult to reach the fifth and sixth stages. Unless he is willing to make a very big adjustment.

The first four stages are all centered on entrepreneurs, and they are a state in which everyone revolves around entrepreneurs. At this stage, it is also difficult for entrepreneurs to break through the bottleneck and move on to the next stage.

If you want to cross the Chuhe-Han realm of entrepreneurs’ own development, it is necessary to establish a corresponding team. In the process of cooperation between entrepreneurs and professional teams, the core of the enterprise has shifted from the boss to multi-center cooperation. At this time, entrepreneurs should turn more attention to the future of the enterprise and the development of the industry, that is, the pursuit of organizational compound interest. The pursuit of organizational compound interest means that entrepreneurs must have long-term considerations, because one or two years is not about compound interest, and only ten or eight years before they can see organizational compound interest. To achieve long-term compound interest for ten or eight years, one must consider product issues. Which products have compound interest? How to do it strategically and culturally? Therefore, the organization must reposition and begin to build professionalism.

After such a stage, to consolidate the foundation of such an enterprise, entrepreneurs can actually leave at any time, because the company can indeed continue to operate in a healthy manner without relying on the individual abilities of the entrepreneurs, and truly achieve sustainable development. At this time, the entrepreneur, spirit and vision remain in the organization, and the physical body can be separated. It is also possible to be a wild crane or to pursue another life. He may no longer be important to the business, but important, The team that can support the continuous operation of the organization has been successfully formed, and he has truly made the leap from the first stage to the second stage.

Therefore, the question that entrepreneurs must be clear about is, are we entrepreneurs’ enterprises or enterprise entrepreneurs? Entrepreneur’s enterprise, the enterprise was founded because of me, everything must take orders from me, and it must be me as the center. And the entrepreneur of the enterprise, the enterprise is above me, and I am a part of the enterprise.

Therefore, whether the enterprise is big or the entrepreneur is big, this is a very important question. To truly build organizational capabilities and develop into a world-class enterprise, entrepreneurs must be prepared to eliminate themselves. The goal of entrepreneurs should be to eliminate themselves and the company remains strong. So we said to crown the company.

At this point, let’s look at Ren Zhengfei’s approach. Although his current exposure rate is high, it is helpless. In the past, he hardly accepted media interviews, and he didn’t need a halo. In other words, he only hopes to put the halo on the company, to crown the company. Therefore, when looking at the relationship between oneself and the company, the first thing to do is to be an entrepreneur in the company, and not to let yourself become an indispensable figure in the company, at least to be absent occasionally to slowly eliminate yourself. Second, entrepreneurs should think about problems with enterprises as their management objects.

therefore, Based on the six-stage model of entrepreneur development, we know what exactly we are going to do at different stages of enterprise development. Be clear about your priorities and do the right thing.

three, Top-level design according to different development stages of the enterprise

At different stages of enterprise development, what are the priorities of entrepreneurs? What should an enterprise build?

We divide the enterprise into three stages, namely the start-up period, the growth period and the mature period.

In the start-up period, entrepreneurs spend most of their time and energy on business, and less on management, strategy, and so on.

In the growth period, entrepreneurs spend more time and energy on business, but more energy on corporate philosophy and self-transcendence. Because it is difficult for entrepreneurs to achieve self-transcendence without thinking about the enterprise’s career theory and reconstructing the enterprise’s management philosophy. At the same time, entrepreneurs must build management and strategic thinking, and also consider the improvement of leadership that drives the company’s development.

After the enterprise reaches its maturity period, the role of corporate philosophy has weakened, and the attempt to self-transcend has faded because they have been solidified through corporate processes, systems, and culture. At this time, the role of operation, management, strategy and leadership is crucial. Therefore, no matter from the perspective of the enterprise or from the perspective of the entrepreneur, different changes will occur at different stages of development. To change a company, the first thing to change is not our value, but ourselves.

four, Become an outstanding entrepreneur and effective leader

How to become an outstanding entrepreneur and effective leader?

First of all, there must be positioning.

It means “traveling thousands of miles, reading thousands of books, seeing thousands of people, and doing one thing”; it is arranging formations, arranging soldiers, and eating with customers; it is also forming a team, setting a strategy, and leading the team.

Teacher Wu Chunbo of Huaxia Cornerstone described Ren Zhengfei as “walking thousands of miles, reading thousands of books, seeing thousands of people, and doing one thing.” That’s true. Ren Zhengfei reads a lot and remembers well. He accompanies customers to dinner, and has many meals with cadres and employees in the Huawei canteen. He has extensive contacts from high-level to grass-roots. His requirements for himself included three things, arranging an array, arranging soldiers, and accompany customers to dinner. Arrangement is organization building, and arranging troops is building a cadre team. To accompany customers to dinner is to take the customer as the center.

Lenovo’s Liu Chuanzhi also has nine-character requirements for himself, “build a team, set a strategy, and lead the team.” Probably the meaning is almost the same. The only difference is that Huawei is customer-centric, while Lenovo is strategy-focused. Regardless of the differences between the two companies in their later development, first of all, they must have a positioning, which is positioned in organizational construction and talent training.

The second is basic skills.

The basic skills of an enterprise include:

① Skill requirements: Conceptual skills, interpersonal skills, business skills. Enterprises not only need professional skills, business skills, but also interpersonal skills, because we need more people to follow. At the same time, because the environment and business we face are becoming more and more complex, we also need to establish concepts for complex things, including corporate concepts, process concepts, and so on. Conceptual thinking can help us understand the main elements and main contradictions in things, how to understand the relationship between elements and contradictions, how to transform between them, and so on.

② Time management: do the right thing, “do something wrong” . Clarify the vision and priorities, and allocate time accordingly.

Because everyone’s time is limited, how to achieve management changes? First, we must structure the time. The structure of time can keep us from chaos when facing complex problems, because the efficiency of solving problems one by one according to the established rhythm is the highest, and it is busy and orderly. Before 2004, Huawei had no structured time management, so it was busy and disorderly. Later, the situation was completely reversed due to changes in the governance structure, process-oriented construction and structured time management.

Secondly, on the basis of time structure, define the focus of each period of work. Some people criticize this approach as treating people as machines. But it turns out that this is the most efficient. Of course, structured time management is only for the work itself, and cannot be handled like this for the part of personal life outside of work.

The third is to clarify one’s own priorities and match the time with the important tasks. This is the basic requirement for performing duties. Many times, people will be led by “problems”. Solving the problem is of course the correct behavior. However, around the endless problems, if we can’t have a certain rhythm and order, and can’t distinguish the responsibility boundary of the problem, the problem may be continuously enlarged. We say that whoever holds his child is to perform his own duties. If I hold the baby for you, what will you do? So to follow the “important tasks”, everyone must know what their priorities are. Why Huawei puts forward the “Ten Major Work Priorities” every year? It is to clarify the priorities of each department through strategic decoding, so as to be consistent from top to bottom and to align left and right. This is actually a basic content of process organization.

③ Communication: The best communication starts with selling “why”.

People need to communicate with each other, and many people need to communicate even more. There are two very important aspects of communication, first, why, and second, what is. Regarding the importance and skills of communication, we can obtain it through many channels, so I will not expand it here.

④ Counseling: Give feedback, receive feedback, and actively seek coaches for yourself.

The so-called coaching is not teaching, but a kind of feedback. Many times, learning is achieved through a kind of interaction and feedback. Collision, sharing, and discussion may make it easier to deepen understanding and understanding, and then a systematic knowledge system can be formed. Everyone needs external feedback for their growth, and at the same time, in the process of giving feedback to others, they will also have their own recognition and improvement.

⑤ Collaboration: conflict management and active dialogue, effective integration.

Collaboration is not necessarily smooth and willing, collisions are inevitable, and conflicts often break out. Therefore, how to treat conflicts and resolve conflicts becomes crucial. Of course, the conflict here should be confined to the scope of “benign”, a collision of non-subjective and non-malicious, rather than mutual attack and framing. Collision generates sparks. For benign conflicts, how to resolve them through active dialogue, adequate management and effective integration are the basic skills that entrepreneurs and senior managers need to develop.

The third is to enhance awareness.

There are four stages of improving cognition: ①Don’t know you don’t know; ②Know you don’t know; ③Know you know; ④Don’t know you know.

I don’t know I don’t know. Successful companies think that they are outstanding and extraordinary. However, a sudden crisis may bring the company back to its original shape. Only when you know you don’t know, will you have awe and be cautious in your words and deeds. Knowing that oneself knows and understanding the boundaries of one’s abilities, based on the boundaries of the capabilities, can be trusted by the rein, beyond the boundaries of the capabilities, and able to stop in time, this is a realm. I don’t know that I don’t know that I don’t have a sword in my hand and I don’t have a sword in my heart. It is the highest state of martial arts.

The continuous improvement of cognition is actually a PDCA cycle, which is the process of continuously forming self-cognition and new self-cognition through learning-action-feedback. The improvement of ability and the change of behavior are not an event, which can not be formed through a training or activity, but a long-term continuous process, a process that is done every day and is highly personalized. Among them, the continuous improvement of self-cognition is the starting point of its development, and the key experience and accumulation are the most effective method for its development, and it is also an effective means to verify its ability.

Based on this, we must continue to give young people opportunities to experience, let them participate in more projects, accept challenges, and accumulate experience. Huawei’s training experts have a rotation system and a rotation system. A manager can rotate from a project manager to a product manager or department manager. He can also do sales experience, and he can also run in various countries around the world. He can also be in touch with planning, process, and procurement. Such experience can make people understand the whole process.

Senior leaders also have to personally participate in many projects, including some major event negotiations or undertaking major reform projects, all for the needs of exercise and promotion. Whether it is an entrepreneur, a senior manager, or everyone who is pursuing progress, he must determine his own goal and direction, and decide which level he wants to go up to, based on his own reality. The core is to do the right thing, grasp the main contradictions and the main aspects of the contradiction, and do things correctly.

So, what is the right thing? For entrepreneurs, it is nothing more than the following:

① Establish the faith of righteous faith, do not engage in opportunism, build ability on the organization, embrace professional management, and reward one’s diligence, no one can casually succeed;

② Regarding the enterprise organization as the management object;

③ Construct career theory;

④ Pay attention to the construction of corporate culture;

⑤ Do a good job in the construction of organizational capacity from strategy to execution, and worthy of it;

⑥ Pay attention to the formulation of policies;

⑦ Create a learning organization, etc.

Entrepreneurs and senior leaders should not indulge in enjoyment, but must focus on their work to achieve profitability (to promote a reasonable benefit-sharing mechanism in an all-round way), and strive to achieve a goal (strategic guidance, strategic traction), so as to achieve continuous personal abilities Promote. This is what we are talking about. Entrepreneurship must be reflected in behavior and results. If done, everyone can become an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs can also become outstanding entrepreneurs and efficient leaders.

In reality, there are actually many entrepreneurs who are unable to distinguish the difference between operation and management. They believe that all their actions are carried out around management. But in fact, operation and management are two completely different concepts. What we think of as “management” is actually just “operating”. Although both are the themes of enterprises, they are the ability of enterprises to achieve their own interests. But in the operation and management of enterprises, our focus and focus are different. Specifically, operations are mainly focused on efficiency. And where do the so-called operating benefits come from? It comes from customers. In other words, we need to get money from customers, and our operations must be customer-centric, and what we pursue is efficiency. And management is work-centric, work performance-centric, and its focus and goal is to improve efficiency. If entrepreneurs are only concerned with benefits, they are only focusing on business operations. Conversely, if the focus is more on efficiency, it is on management.

The two focuses will naturally be reflected in the assessment indicators, and there is also a big difference between the two. For example, a company that focuses on revenue, profit, gross profit and other indicators must focus on operations. And companies that focus on indicators such as human efficiency, average efficiency, and turnover obviously pay more attention to management.

Fives, Eventually realize the balanced development of business operation and management

If an enterprise wants to obtain higher benefits and achieve operational success, what exactly must it rely on? Is it opportunism to win, or to do a good job in corporate management? Obviously, We must pursue high management efficiency to obtain high operational benefits, that is, an organization that transforms from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven.

In fact, Chinese companies have strong operating capabilities, and their business models are not lacking in unique designs. Some Internet companies even vividly put forward ideas such as “the wool comes out of the pigs and the dog pays the bill”, and they are also very popular in the market. However, there are common problems in our management, especially the imbalance between operation and management. In particular, the backward management efficiency stifles the operating efficiency and cannot allow the elements to form power, which brings many problems to the enterprise and prevents the enterprise from seizing more opportunities well.

Ren Zhengfei once pointed out clearly in an article , The important factor for truly defeating competitors is management and service, not talents, technology, capital and other essential resources. Despite the existence of these elements, enterprises cannot achieve their goals because they “do not form strength without management, and lose their direction without service”. Ren Zhengfei also once pointed out that “management and service are the only way for Chinese companies to go to the world”, so companies must spend time on management and efficiency.

(Text finishing/editing Li Zehui)

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