The person who understands Ren Zhengfei best
The key is to “understand” Ren Zhengfei best.
This article is originally created by China Business Strategy
First published on WeChat public account: China Business Strategy (ID: hstl8888)
Author: Wang Zaixing and Gao Dongmei
In Huawei's circulated documents, only Sun Yafang and Ren Zhengfei can sign as "Mr. So-and-so", while everyone else has to sign their full name.
Special Chairman
Public information shows that Sun Yafang and Ren Zhengfei are both from Guizhou, born in 1955 and graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 1982. Before joining Huawei in 1989, Sun Yafang worked as a technician, teacher, engineer and other positions within the system. There was a widely circulated story about her first highlight moment at Huawei:
Around 1992, Huawei had a serious cash flow problem due to slow collection of payments. All employees did not receive their salaries for several months in a row, morale was low, and some even requested to resign. At this time, Huawei received a payment for goods, and the company's top management discussed how to use the money. Ren Zhengfei was unsure what to do.
Finally, a woman who had just joined the company stood up and made a decision for Ren Zhengfei with a courage that did not match her appearance: the priority was to pay the employees' salaries first. As a result, the employees who had been waiting for months received their long-overdue salaries, and their enthusiasm immediately increased. Various problems within the company were solved. New products were quickly developed, and Huawei successfully got out of the predicament.
There are also reports that Sun Yafang had shown a different side before this.
In 1989, Huawei was officially registered in Shenzhen for only two years. In its early days, it often faced difficulties in capital turnover. Sun Yafang, who had been working in a stable and decent state agency, chose to join Huawei in that year. In the social environment at that time, it was extraordinary for a woman to dare to give up her job in the system and join a startup company.
There are also rumors that before joining Huawei, Sun Yafang, who worked in a state agency, had already been grateful to Ren Zhengfei for his help. She used her personal connections to help Huawei obtain a loan and "saved Huawei's life." Sun Yafang, who had only worked in the system for a few years, was able to have such connections and achievements, and her personal ability was also extraordinary.
Classmates once commented on
Sun Yafang
, saying that when she was in college, she was very popular among classmates and often took the lead in organizing class activities. Her grades ranked in the top 10 among the 90 students in the class, and she was also a learning representative. After graduation, "she was very enthusiastic towards classmates. If you asked her to do something, she wouldn't do it for you just because you were a classmate, but there was no problem getting together with her for a meal
.
"
It is said that Huawei originally did not have a chairman position, and Ren Zhengfei was responsible for everything in the company. But around 1998, Huawei was questioned by the outside world for marketing tactics, equity, loans and other issues. Ren Zhengfei, who was exhausted, felt the importance of the company's external communication. Therefore, in 1999, he "dictatorially" proposed that Sun Yafang be the chairman of the board to be responsible for external communication and coordination, while he continued to serve as president and focused on internal management.
Liu Ping, former vice president of Huawei, once described the situation at that time in his book "Huawei's Past":
The company held a shareholder representative meeting at Shenzhen Qilin Villa. Huawei's shareholder representatives were basically all the company's vice presidents plus a few senior staff from the finance department. The theme of this meeting was to elect the company's chairman, and there was only one candidate, Sun Yafang.
Mr. Ren personally introduced Sun Yafang's resume and work experience at the meeting. Finally, Mr. Ren said: "I am old. I don't have the energy to deal with various social relationships. Comrade Sun Yafang is young and energetic, and is good at handling various complex social relationships. I will focus on doing a good job in the internal management of the company. Please elect Sun Yafang as the chairman of the company."
At that time, there were some objections from the company's senior management, so the vote was not immediately held in the morning. During the recess, Mr. Ren talked to some senior managers individually, probably to persuade them. In the afternoon, a secret ballot was held. While waiting for the vote count, Mr. Ren seemed very relaxed and happy.
The votes were counted and passed unanimously. Sun Yafang officially became the chairman of Huawei. At the dinner, Ren was very happy. He usually never toasted, but he broke his habit and toasted everyone frequently, and drank a lot himself.
Why was Sun Yafang elected as the chairman? Some commentators attributed the reason to "Sun Yafang's eloquence, grace, and elegant manners, and she is a master of diplomacy," and therefore she is suitable to be responsible for external communications.
This is key.
Ren Zhengfei, who calls himself a "country bumpkin", has a straightforward and clear personality and never minces words. Sun Yafang, on the other hand, is more Westernized and has studied at Harvard Business School. Her fluent English and outstanding temperament make her "Huawei's business card."
From then on, Sun Yafang began to appear in many external activities of Huawei, and Ren Zhengfei, who has never been sociable, naturally "retreat" behind the scenes.
Since then, Huawei has been thriving on the world stage and its image has become increasingly brilliant.
In the intellectual property war with Cisco, Huawei cleverly mobilized media sentiment and gained public support, and the leader was Sun Yafang. In 2012, at the International Communications Technology Conference, she amazed the guests with her English speech, and her eloquence and demeanor impressed the foreigners.
But Sun Yafang's strengths extend far beyond international affairs and diplomacy. She is not only good at diplomacy, but also a strong internal leader of Huawei .
The chairman of a company usually plays a role in planning the company's business or making decisions. It is generally believed that the chairman is either the top leader who holds the power of life and death, or a vase or decoration. But at Huawei, the situation is special. Sun Yafang is neither the top leader nor a vase or decoration.
Her real role is to be the assistant, adviser and political commissar of President Ren Zhengfei. Especially in situations where Ren is unwilling or inconvenient to show up, Sun Yafang acts as a special envoy, which is more helpful in solving problems or advancing work.
This actually established a high-level management model with Ren Zhengfei in the top position and Sun Yafang in the second position, and opened a new era of "Fei on the left and Fang on the right" for Huawei.
The real powerhouse
As Huawei has attracted worldwide attention, Sun Yafang has also received widespread attention and praise.
In 2010, she was listed on the annual list of "Most Powerful Women" published by Forbes magazine along with US "First Lady" Michelle Obama, and was the only Chinese woman selected;
In 2011, she topped the list of "China's Most Influential Business Women" published by Fortune China, and is the only person with real power to manage a Fortune 500 company;
In 2013, she again made Forbes’ annual list of “Most Powerful Women,” ranking 77th;
In 2016, she was one of the “25 Most Influential Business Women in China”;
In 2017, she ranked second in the "China's Most Outstanding Business Women List" released by Forbes.
In addition to these, the outside world has also given Sun Yafang many labels, such as "Huawei Queen" and "Secretary of State", to show that she enjoys great honors in Huawei. Behind the honor is her outstanding achievements and pioneering contributions in Huawei.
Comprehensive analysis shows that Sun Yafang played a key role in Huawei's rapid development in at least the following two aspects:
Establishing Huawei's "wolf-like" marketing system
When
Sun Yafang was
in charge of the market
, she realized that it was difficult for Huawei to distance itself from its competitors by developing technology and products at that time. Establishing a strict market system might help Huawei stay ahead of its competitors and win unexpectedly.
In 1996, she began to establish Huawei's "wolf-like" marketing system, and eventually stood out among a group of capable people. She built Huawei's marketing system into an
iron army with the largest personnel scale, quality, distribution, and income among Chinese companies
, and established her own position as a powerful company.
Forbes magazine therefore described her as a "market killer".
Tang Shengping, who once worked in human resources at Huawei and was one of the main participants in Huawei's advanced assessment system and job qualification system, once described the special features of this team in "Out of Huawei":
Huawei's sales staff will do this: If you don't see me for one day, I will wait for you for one day; if you don't see me for a week, I will wait for you for a week; if I can't find you during work, I will find you during holidays. Huawei's sales staff will even find you on an island if they know which island you are in for a meeting.
Ren Zhengfei once said in the early days: "Huawei's products may not be the best, but so what? What is core competitiveness? Choosing me instead of you is the core competitiveness!" It was also relying on such capabilities that after selling first-class markets in its home country, Huawei began to expand across Asia, Africa, Europe, and even brought the war to the United States.
Industry insiders summarize the development of Huawei's marketing talents into three stages:
The first is "coyote". Due to environmental constraints, coyotes do not hunt large prey, but feed on ants to ensure their survival. In the early days of Huawei, most of the sales staff came from the wine, health care products and other industries. They relied on coyote-like hunting styles and rural guerrilla-style combat methods to seize market gaps.
This market strategy ensured the survival of the company in the early stage, but as the industry developed, it gradually became difficult to cope with the centralized procurement model of the headquarters that was constantly moving upward. Ren Zhengfei and other Huawei executives saw this change, so there was a collective resignation of marketing personnel led by Sun Yafang in 1996, which started the coyote's transformation journey.
The second is "lion". Just like the lions running on the African savannah using urine to mark their territory, Huawei has cultivated a group of "lion"-type marketing cadres who are good at dividing the market, operating territory and cooperating in the market development. They were baptized by the market and quickly grew into industry elites with a global vision.
During this stage, Huawei's marketing organization and combat model made great contributions to the company's development. In 2008, Huawei completed its global layout, with total revenue exceeding 100 billion.
The third is the "elephant". Elephants are huge, travel in teams, have strong risk resistance, and do not feed on other animals. As the operator market matures, Huawei, like an elephant, begins to focus on strategic cooperation, operational excellence, and risk management. At this time, a group of R&D and service-oriented marketing cadres were formed.
They can think about problems from the perspective of operators, combine the advantages of the enterprise to plan the future together, and thus sign large orders. Starting in 2012, Huawei pioneered the replication of this marketing capability based on the service operator system to the corporate customer and individual customer markets, forming three "elephant groups" and laying the foundation for its global dominance.
The evolution from "coyote" to "lion" was led by Sun Yafang before she became the chairman. After becoming the chairman, she still served as vice president, in charge of marketing and human resources departments, directly leading and realizing the advancement of "lion" to "elephant".
Sun Yafang, who came from the communications industry, has always maintained a clear understanding of the development of the industry. She proposed very early that in order to make the communications manufacturing industry prosperous, "only when operators gain profits and viability can equipment suppliers survive. Therefore, former competitors can become partners."
Based on this concept, Huawei has continuously cooperated with industry peers and has greatly increased its strength.
In 2016, Huawei's sales revenue exceeded 500 billion for the first time, reaching 520 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32%, and its net profit exceeded 37 billion, making it a veritable leader in the communications industry.
Establishing a model human resources evaluation system for Huawei
In 1996, while launching the construction of the marketing system, Sun Yafang also actively upgraded and transformed Huawei's human resources system.
The landmark action was the internal training campaign of "voluntary resignation and re-competition for the job" in Huawei's marketing department in 1996, which lasted about a month.
Sun Yafang, who was the general manager of the market system at that time, personally led the 26 office directors of the team to submit two reports to the company at the same time - a resignation report and a performance report. The company would decide which report to accept from each submitter based on the human resources needs after the organizational reform. To
put it more simply, all employees would be laid off first, and then the company would select the best candidates based on the new needs. Those who could not be hired would be dismissed.
This campaign, known as "re-entrepreneurship", established Huawei's talent management mechanism of "being able to move up and down", which was later often mentioned as a heroic feat of Huawei people maintaining their "wolf nature".
In 2000, Ren Zhengfei commented on Sun Yafang's feat in his speech: "The collective resignation of the marketing department has a profound and far-reaching impact on the company's present and future. Without the impact of the mass resignation on Huawei's corporate culture, no advanced management system would have taken root in Huawei."
In 1997, Sun Yafang led Huawei to make a top-level design for the entire human resource value management, proposing that labor knowledge and entrepreneurial capital, knowledge innovators and entrepreneurs are the dominant factors in Huawei's value creation, and also tilted Huawei's core treatment system towards entrepreneurs and knowledge innovators.
It is generally believed that the core of corporate human resource management is not to study how to distribute the cake, but to study how to make the cake bigger, clarify who can make the cake bigger, and establish a scientific, comprehensive and systematic value evaluation system so that human resource management has a law to follow. The establishment and use of Sun Yafang's system is precisely under this goal.
In 1999, the vice presidents of the marketing department discussed the issue of department cadres together. Everyone believed that some middle-level cadres were content with the status quo, lacked fighting spirit and wolfishness, and the key reason was insufficient pressure and lack of awareness of crisis, so they unanimously agreed to hold another middle-level cadre competition in the marketing department similar to the 1996 competition.
After receiving the report, Sun Yafang said firmly: "I disagree. The competitive recruitment was a special practice that we had to resort to at that time because we could not accurately judge a person. It was a practice of a small company. Huawei's human resources evaluation system has been relatively complete in recent years. We should examine cadres through the operation of the system. The 'lack of pressure' is because we did not implement the evaluation system, not because we did not initiate the competitive recruitment."
So, she further upgraded it and
transformed Ren Zhengfei's management philosophy of "focusing on strivers" into an advanced
human resources system
that can be clearly implemented, allowing Huawei to gain a clear advantage over its competitors in talent team building.
Sun Yafang also contributed to Huawei's R&D system.
A landmark move was that in 1997, Sun Yafang, as the "front-line commander", initiated a major transformation of Huawei's business processes by introducing IBM IPD (integrated product development) and ISC (integrated supply chain management), allowing Huawei's "growth gene" to extend from the most successful market sales to the back-end product development and supply chain.
Among all Huawei's departments, marketing, R&D and human resources are regarded as the three with the greatest contributions, and Sun Yafang's wisdom and achievements shine in all three.
On behalf of Ren Zhengfei
Sun Yafang's position in Huawei
can be described as second only to one person and above ten thousand people. Although the company has several executive vice presidents, they all need to report to Sun Yafang directly or indirectly
.
Some personnel appointments and important documents can basically be passed as long as Sun Yafang has read and agreed; in Huawei's company-level documents, only Ren and Sun are referred to as "General" in the copy column, and the names of other vice presidents must appear; the documents of the marketing and human resources departments directly under Sun Yafang are only copied to her; other vice presidents call Sun Yafang "General Sun", and Ren Zhengfei also calls her "General Sun" in public, and calls other vice presidents by their names.
An old subordinate who left described in the book "Leaving Huawei":
"At Huawei, only Sun Yafang's scolding of her direct subordinates is comparable to Ren Zhengfei's. In fact, Sun Yafang is even more strict with many people than Ren Zhengfei. In the occasions I have experienced, except for Vice President Xu Zhijun who dared to talk back to Sun, others always stayed away from her and never confronted her head-on."
Huawei has never lacked outstanding frontier officials or local lords, so why is it Sun Yafang who is on par with Ren Zhengfei? Some industry insiders believe that strong work ability is of course one aspect, but the more critical thing is:
Sun Yafang is the person who "understands" Ren Zhengfei the best.
Some reports analyzed that Ren Zhengfei had a bad temper but a broad vision and a strong ability to observe and learn new things. The two factors combined made him often feel that his subordinates found it difficult to understand his intentions, and he habitually called them "stupid as pigs", but Sun Yafang always understood what he meant at the first time.
He started his business at the age of 44, almost from scratch, and after going through hardships, he stood at the top, but it was lonely at the top, and Ren Zhengfei's loneliness was obvious to all. It is said that his only hobby in his spare time is reading, and he has almost no friends. But everyone needs a friend who is closer to the soul and safer, especially after the Li Yinan incident, especially for someone like Ren Zhengfei who has both the roughness of a soldier and the delicate thoughts.
Sun Yafang is that friend.
Inside Huawei, Ren Zhengfei often gives his subordinates "topic writing" assignments like a dignified class teacher treats his students.
Sun Yafang is also her most proud "student".
In 1998, Sun gave Ren a report and put forward three viewpoints which Ren Zhengfei agreed with. These three viewpoints were later quoted by Ren Zhengfei in his article “How long can Huawei’s red flag be raised?”
1. In the era of knowledge economy, the way social wealth is created has changed. It is mainly created by knowledge and management, so institutional innovation is needed; 2. Let those who have the desire for personal achievement become heroes, and let those who have social responsibility become managers; 3. The foundation for the long-term stability of an enterprise is that the successor recognizes the company's core values and has the ability to self-criticize.
In addition, Sun Yafang's long article "Exploring the Traces of Israel's Rise" was designated by Ren Zhengfei as one of the guidance reports for the "Huawei Basic Law"; her short article "Small Victories Rely on Wisdom, Big Victories Rely on Virtue" was engraved on a stone tablet and erected at Huawei's headquarters. In the important articles widely circulated by Ren Zhengfei and Sun Yafang, they also like to use the "war methodology" to discuss Huawei's market gains and losses and corporate strategy.
Sun Yafang and Ren Zhengfei have a high degree of rapport, which is reflected in all aspects:
When Ren Zhengfei's mother got into a car accident, she was the first to arrive at the scene. When Ren Zhengfei needed a gun, she would step forward and charge into battle, such as "collective resignation". After Li Yinan's "betrayal", she gave the answer "Don't be a 'hero' who turns the tide" in Ren Zhengfei's "examination"; when an employee's "death from overwork" caused all kinds of external condemnation and suspicion and internal unrest, she did not forget to write an article "On the Original Family" in addition to her "anger".
Moreover, even in front of Ren Zhengfei, she is not a submissive person. An old Huawei employee said:
Once, the senior executives of the marketing department held a meeting to discuss marketing strategies and human resources related matters. Sun Yafang was also present. The vice presidents were discussing when Ren Zhengfei suddenly walked in from outside and started to express his views without thinking, "Your marketing department should select those cadres with wolf-like qualities. For example, cadres like so-and-so should not be promoted."
As soon as Ren Zhengfei finished speaking, Sun Yafang continued, "Boss, so-and-so is not what you say he is. You don't know him well enough to look at him in that light."
Ren Zhengfei was speechless for a moment, turned around and walked out, muttering: "You guys continue the discussion."
Later, the "someone" named by Ren Zhengfei was promoted from office director to senior vice president.
There was a commentator who said, "Sun Yafang has power, which means she represents Ren Zhengfei in Huawei."
In China, there is probably no other top executives of a large company like Ren Zhengfei and Sun Yafang, who have been the best partners for nearly 20 years.
China Business Strategy mentioned in the recent article "Ren Zhengfei's Difficult Times" that the Meng Wanzhou incident may bring Huawei another tough battle. Sun Yafang is definitely the key person to lead Huawei to face the battle.
Best wishes to Chairman Sun, and best wishes to Huawei!
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