Xiaomi seeks change: 7 structural adjustments, building 6 major departments, and establishing 4 committees

August 2018 is a unique time for Xiaomi, not only because it became a listed company, but also because Xiaomi has undergone intensive structural adjustments since then. In the first major structural adjustment of Xiaomi on September 13, 2018, Lei Jun also stated that Xiaomi will make a series of adjustments and optimizations in the next two years.

As expected, as of July 1, 2019, Xiaomi ushered in its seventh structural adjustment since its listing.

Let's take a look at what changes Xiaomi has made in the latest structural adjustment:

• Xiaomi appointed Group Vice President Zhang Feng as Chief of Staff, reporting to Lei Jun. The previous Chief of Staff was Xiaomi Senior Vice President Wang Chuan. According to previous official statements, the goal of Xiaomi Group's General Staff is to assist the CEO (Lei Jun himself) in formulating the group's development strategy and supervise the strategic execution of Xiaomi's various business departments.

• Zhang Feng was also appointed as the chairman of Xiaomi Group's Procurement Committee, reporting to Lei Jun. The Procurement Committee is responsible for integrating the procurement needs of various departments of the company, improving procurement capabilities, and optimizing procurement processes and efficiency.

• A Group Design Committee was established to enhance the design capabilities of technology products, build a design culture and cultivate design talents, and Chief Designer Zhu Yin was appointed as the committee chairman. It is worth noting that Zhu Yin reports to Cui Baoqiu, chairman of Xiaomi's Technical Committee, which shows the relationship between design and technology within Xiaomi.

• General managers of the Nanjing and Shenzhen branches were appointed respectively, and both report to Qi Yan, senior vice president of Xiaomi.

• Zhu Yin, the chairman of Xiaomi's design committee, was appointed as the vice president of the mobile phone department, reporting to Lin Bin, president of the mobile phone department; that is, Zhu Yin needs to report to Cui Baoqiu and Lin Bin respectively. At the same time, Xiaomi appointed Li Jun as the general manager of the supply chain department of the mobile phone department, reporting to Lin Bin and Zhang Feng, chairman of the procurement committee.

Xiaomi's official website's introduction to Zhang Feng

From this change, it can be seen that Zhang Feng's role has been emphasized; on the one hand, he serves as Xiaomi's chief of staff and advises Lei Jun; on the other hand, he is responsible for Xiaomi's procurement and is also responsible for Xiaomi's mobile phone supply chain. According to the introduction from Xiaomi's official website, Zhang Feng worked at Inventec from 1993 to 2012 and served as the general manager of Nanjing Inventec; later in 2012, he founded Jiangsu Zimi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., which became a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise; in 2016, Zhang Feng joined Xiaomi and began to be responsible for the mobile phone supply chain, becoming the main force in solving Xiaomi's supplier component and mobile phone supply problems.

Today, Zhang Feng personally serves as Xiaomi's chief of staff and chairman of the procurement committee, which shows that Lei Jun himself attaches great importance to Xiaomi's procurement issues.

According to Xiaomi insiders, the establishment of this procurement committee indicates two messages. The first is the integration of the mobile phone supply chain and the AIoT (artificial intelligence + Internet of Things) supply chain, which is in line with Xiaomi's "mobile phone + AIoT" dual-engine strategy, and is also conducive to the unified management of the supply chain, which will help improve the efficiency of supply chain management and control. Zhang Feng's many years of supply chain management experience can also be maximized.

However, with the promotion of Zhang Feng, Xiaomi's senior vice president Wang Chuan no longer serves as Xiaomi's chief of staff. As early as May 2019, Lei Jun himself took over the position of president of Xiaomi China. Prior to that, in the structural adjustments in September and December 2018, Wang Chuan was appointed chief of staff and president of China respectively ( see previous reports on Leifeng.com for details ).

In this regard, The Paper reported that Wang Chuan's personal energy will be mainly focused on Xiaomi's large home appliance business. In the structural adjustment in May, Wang Chuan was transferred to the position of president of the large home appliance department, responsible for the business development and team management of large home appliance categories such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. in addition to TVs, and reports to Lei Jun.

It can be seen that Wang Chuan still assumes the role of an internal entrepreneur who expands territory and conquers new fields.

In addition to Zhang Feng, what is worth noting in this change is the establishment of the Xiaomi Design Committee, which at least reflects Xiaomi's emphasis on design itself. However, relatively speaking, judging from the reporting relationship between Zhu Yin and Cui Baoqiu, the status of design within Xiaomi is one level lower than that of technology. Of course, it may also be determined by their qualifications.

Leifeng.com learned that Zhu Yin, chairman of Xiaomi's design committee, previously served as Xiaomi's chief designer. Zhu Yin joined Xiaomi in February 2015, when Xiaomi acquired the design company RIGO Design and absorbed the entire team. RIGO also became an independent department of Xiaomi, with founder Zhu Yin serving as chief designer and head of the department.

Earlier, Zhu Yin served as the design director of Microsoft Asia Design Center. He and some core design members of the Microsoft design team at that time designed well-known Microsoft products such as Windows Phone, Windows Vista, MSN, Office, and Surface.

Leifeng.com learned that after joining Xiaomi, the design team led by Zhu Yin has also achieved very good results. According to Xiaomi's 2018 annual report, as of December 31, 2018, Xiaomi has won 43 international industrial design awards, including the iF Design Award, the Red Dot Design Award, the IDEA International Design Excellence Award, the Good Design Award and the Asia's Most Influential Design Award, among which the Mijia Panoramic Camera and Mijia Smart Rearview Mirror won the iF Design Gold Award and the Red Dot Best Design Award respectively.

It can be seen that Zhu Yin's promotion this time was also a natural thing.

Regarding this adjustment, Xiaomi said that it has completed the overall construction of 6 departments. At the group level, there are already three major departments: Finance Department, General Staff Department, and Organization Department (the heads of each department are Zhou Shouzi, Zhang Feng and Liu De respectively), as well as three major group committees, namely the Quality Committee, Technical Committee and Procurement Committee (the chairmen of each committee are Yan Kesheng, Cui Baoqiu and Zhang Feng respectively) - it can also be noted here that the Design Committee is not among them.

In Leiphone.com's view, Xiaomi is currently in a critical period of internal business adjustments. Especially with Xiaomi's domestic sales of mobile phones declining and Lei Jun personally in charge of the Chinese region, adjustments to the personnel structure are indeed a reasonable move for Xiaomi to actively seek change. Right now, the first new phone in the Xiaomi CC series, which Lei Jun has high hopes for, is about to be released, and Leiphone.com will keep a close eye on it.

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