Liu Chuanzhi's speech at Peking University

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Liu Chuanzhi's speech at Peking University [Copy link]

Liu Chuanzhi's speech at the Peking University International MBA Senior Manager Class

Lenovo's management rules sound very simple, but in practice they have very high requirements for managers . The president generally has to do two things in the company. The first is to formulate strategies and design tactical steps to implement the strategies. The second is to lead the staff team well and enable your team to implement the strategic goals. If these two things are done well, the company will be able to develop in a good direction. But before doing these two things, there is another more important thing to do, which is to build a team. The company must have a good leadership team, otherwise after you arrange things, the people behind may not do it according to your wishes. Only with a good team can we pool our wisdom and strength, and at the same time, we can restrict the top leader. Without a good team, we cannot formulate a good strategy and lead a good team, so the leadership team is actually the first. Lenovo summarizes the above into three elements of management: building a team; setting strategies; leading a team. Facing the national conditions in today's China, to be a good president, you must have another ability besides the three elements, that is, the ability to adapt to and transform the Chinese environment. The meaning of the phrase "primary stage of socialism" is too rich. Everything is in the primary stage. There will be a lot of things outside the economy and enterprises that bother us. In this regard, the president must also consider whether it is possible to transform the overall environment for the enterprise? Generally speaking, it cannot be changed, so can we partially transform the small environment in which we live? If it still cannot work, can we adapt to the current environment? Can we immediately make big moves in the future when conditions allow? This is a question that must be considered to be a good president in China. Mechanism issues are often not decided by the president. Mechanism issues are a necessary condition for running a good enterprise. If you spend half your life to make the enterprise big and good, and you have nothing to do with it once you retire, it will be very difficult to accept. So there is the 59- year-old phenomenon of Chu Shijian. I have sympathy for this matter. It is absolutely wrong for him to break the law, but before he broke the law, he was a good president for 18 years and created hundreds of billions of profits and taxes. What a huge amount of money! But his personal total return in 18 years was only 800,000 yuan, which is too disproportionate and unreasonable. This is unreasonable first and illegal later. It is absolutely wrong to break the law, but the state should also reflect on it, otherwise this kind of thing may happen again in the future. We have summarized four ways for bosses of state-owned economy to fight against the state: the first is what Chu Shijian did, which is completely illegal. Once caught by the state, it is completely over; the second is to turn the enterprise into a unified management. For example, I run a state-owned enterprise here, and then let one of my most capable subordinates run a company somewhere else, and then I introduce good business to him, and all the profits go to him, where my investment is, or I don’t invest and finally get dividends. This is not illegal, but can this enterprise be run well? The third method is a bit more passive, that is, when I am about to retire, I choose someone I like to promote to take over my job, so that my retirement benefits can continue to be maintained. This practice is the most common and most frequent. But if the CEO does this, the Party Committee Secretary does this, and the Executive Vice President does this, and two of them do this, a faction will be formed in the enterprise, and there will be no cure, and the enterprise will eventually be in a mess; the fourth situation is to do the job for a day, not work hard, and protect yourself, which will also fail to run the enterprise. Therefore, if the mechanism problem is not solved, it is indeed a big problem. When we study high-tech enterprises, we must keep four major checkpoints: one is the concept; the second is the mechanism; the third is the environment; and the fourth is management. Management is important, but in the special environment of China, if the CEO does not study the first three aspects, things will not be done well. There are two requirements for the CEO in this regard: the first is to have high goals and treat running a business as a career, so that you can endure grievances and be full of righteousness. The second is to have the ability to see through the environment at a glance, to be able to judge the situation, to see things clearly, to know whether it can be done or not, and what the consequences will be. Lenovo has studied this issue seriously. We have a public relations and external relations department, which is dedicated to dealing with various state ministries and commissions to see how to keep our company running normally and how to get as much support from the state as possible. This is a subject of study, a special case in China, and it is not taught in Harvard courses. Three elements of management 1. Team building Strategy should be formulated by the team, and the team should be led by the team, so team building is the first of the three elements. If the team is not harmonious, nothing can be done. There are two situations when the team is not well built: one is " 1+1<1" , that is, a team does not do as well as the top leader alone. The main reason is unprincipled disputes and factions. The second is "1+1<2" , that is, after having this team, it is indeed better than you alone, but it is far from the ability it should play. This is mainly because the enthusiasm of the team members has not been fully mobilized. How can it be mobilized? How to prevent conflicts when the enthusiasm is too high? How to prevent factions and unprincipled disputes in the team? This is not difficult. The core is to solve the problem of whether the top leader puts the interests of the company first. If you take the initiative to exercise self-discipline and strictly demand yourself, you can put all problems on the table and discuss them openly. You can boldly criticize the signs of sectarianism and unprincipled disputes. Lenovo has taken some measures that sound very rustic to prevent such things. For example, we do not allow our children to join the company, so as to avoid forming a force that cannot be controlled. There is a deeper meaning here. For example, my son studied computer science at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and later studied for a master's degree at Columbia University. If he came to work at Lenovo, it would greatly affect the enthusiasm of other young people. If some leading departments and relatives recommend people to come to the company, they must take a written test. After passing the test, three vice presidents must sign before the person is allowed to come in. No one person can form a separate relationship with the outside world. We must show such a kind of righteousness. One year during the Spring Festival, my aunt teased me, saying that her child had to take an exam to join Lenovo after graduating from college, but her classmates in the class got in through the back door. I went back and found that it was not only her, but there were several others. I got angry and talked about it at every meeting and dealt with it. In order to curb unprincipled disputes, we have a rule that when such disputes occur between the top leader and the second or third leader, if the department's performance is acceptable, the second leader will be transferred unconditionally, but the top leader will be warned - if this happens again after a change of leader, it means there must be something wrong with you and sanctions will be imposed. This way everyone will be very careful. How to achieve " 1+1>2"





























First, the team members must understand their relationship with the overall situation, and also make it clear what will happen if this thing is done well, and what the consequences will be if it is not done well. This will initially mobilize their enthusiasm. Second, why do you say you have done a good job or a bad job, and why do you give you this kind of reward or punishment. If this is stipulated, not determined temporarily by humans, the enthusiasm will be mobilized to a greater extent. Hong Kong Lenovo once had a general manager who had dividend rights, warrants, and options in his pocket. He would announce how much he would give to whom at the right time. Today, it seems that there are not many things given to people, but no one thanks them, and no one is really motivated by this. Third, this rule should be recognized and studied by the team. At this time, the enthusiasm will be more fully mobilized. Lenovo's senior team is the main engine, and the teams at all levels below are small engines, not some gears without power. Everything is moving, and it moves very coordinated, which feels very good. Of course, if the top leader does not put the interests of the company first, it will not work. The three major problems in building a team are the three problems that everyone will encounter. The first is how to get rid of an incompetent person after he joins the team. There are two points to pay attention to in solving this problem. First, all the people who join the team must have both moral integrity and ability, with moral integrity as the main thing. This is extremely important, otherwise it is difficult to get rid of incompetent people with a clear conscience. The morality of senior leaders is to take the interests of the enterprise as the highest interest. The second is to put things on the table. The first time he does something inappropriate, he should be criticized. Even if two people talk behind closed doors, it is also put on the table. You can't understand it in your heart and not tell him. The Academy of Sciences replaced the leader of a company, and he ran the company in a mess. When replacing him, he was coaxed down in a coaxing way. He didn't want to, and he cursed at night when he drank too much. In fact, why didn't you tell him face to face earlier when the company was in such a state? If I explain it all at once, I'm afraid he won't be able to handle it. Why not explain it all to him one by one earlier? It's best if he changes after I explain it once. If he still can't change after I explain it the second time, I'll criticize him publicly. If he makes the same mistake again for the third time, I'll remove him. What else can he say? Whether things can be put on the table is the key to the unity and integrity of a team. If the top leader really puts the interests of the company first, there that cannot be said publicly. The second problem is that there are different opinions on major issues, and the proportion of both sides is about the same. What should I do? The method is to talk about principles first. The top leader should talk to everyone one by one, not talk about specific things, but talk about the highest principles related to the matter. For example, when setting wages, we should first talk about why wages are set, is it for fairness among certain people, or for better development of the company? Which one should come first and which one should come later? After the big principles are set, we can then set small principles step by step, and then talk about specific issues, and it will be easy to solve. The top leader should be cautious in using power. When there is a disagreement with his subordinates, if I am not sure about this matter and he is very confident, then I will do as he says, but I should summarize after the matter is done. If I do a good job, I will find out what I was thinking at the time, and he should be praised. If I do not do a good job, he should also explain the reason. If you think things through and think that it is really right, you will make up your mind and do not need to discuss it too much. If you do things correctly several times, everyone will agree with you in the future. We also have a voting system in our company, but we have not used it yet. Things are always solved in this way, and there is nothing that cannot be overcome. The third major problem is how to improve the quality of team members. What should I do if the quality of the staff is not high when the enterprise is just established? At this time, the top leader should pay attention to centralization first and then democracy. That is, I set the rules and everyone follows them. After gaining the trust of others, gradually improve the quality, replace the team members, and realize the command of the team step by step. There are three working styles of the top leader : directive style, guiding style, and participatory style. When it comes to guiding style, the people below are all engines. Lenovo is now between guiding and directive, and it has to be done step by step. If you take over a large company with a good cultural background and good employee quality, it will not be like this. Another important point in building a team is that the top leader values the long-term interests of the company and wants to run it for a long time, so a rule and a method of discussion should be formed. The chairman of Citibank in the United States told me three years ago: " My assessment should be based on the stock value of Citibank after I retire. If it is still good five years after retirement, it means that I have done a good job. " This statement has greatly inspired me. I am about to retire and should also accept this assessment standard. Second, set strategy The essence of setting strategy is to determine the goal, and then how to achieve this goal and how to break it down. The medium and long-term goals are far-reaching, so we have to do it in stages. Lenovo has a five-step method . The first step is to determine the company's vision. The slogan we put forward is: Lenovo wants to become a long-term, large-scale high-tech enterprise. We don't do short-term behavior, and we don't do things that are not in high-tech enterprises - I mean Lenovo's current listed company, not the holding company. The second step is to determine the medium and long-term development strategic goals. The length of corporate goals varies. We believe that Lenovo can only formulate a five- year vision plan at best . Because some core technologies in the computer field are still in the hands of others, we are just following the trend and cannot make longer-term plans. The third step is to formulate the overall route of the development strategy. This is a relatively important part of formulating a strategy, and there are many specific steps: 1. Investigation and analysis before formulation. The first is external investigation and analysis - investigation and analysis of the world and regional politics and economy, and analysis of the status and prospects of the industry. 2. Review of internal resource capabilities, including analysis of each link in the value chain; analysis of core business processes; analysis of core competitiveness, etc. The third is analysis and comparison of competitors. Analyze competitors' strategies, actual conditions, etc. After investigation and analysis, it is time to formulate a route. The fourth step is to determine the strategic goals for the year (for the headquarters and each subsidiary), and break them down into specific strategic steps for implementation.

The fifth step is to check and adjust to achieve the goal.

sw

Well, he still seems to be the godfather of Lenovo, but I don't know how Lenovo people feel about it.

shuangshumei

Doesn't look that easy.