Dialogue with the author of "Will Huawei be the next to fall?": Self-criticism is fundamental

The book "Will Huawei be the next one to fall?" Recently, CITIC Press published the book "Will the next one be Huawei?", which caused quite a stir. The authors of the book are Tian Tao and Professor Wu Chunbo of Renmin University of China. Focusing on this book, the business community, management circles, and the general public have launched many discussions on Ren Zhengfei and Huawei. In the early and middle stages of writing this book, Xu Yisheng, editorial board member and director of the Commentary Department of this newspaper, participated in the outline discussion and data collection of the book. As the book sparked heated discussions, this newspaper invited the two authors to have a conversation about the book and Huawei. "How can Huawei achieve excellence?" China Business News: "Will Huawei be the next to fall?" The earliest book in my memory was called "Excellence and Loneliness". Why was it changed to the current title? ? Tian Tao: After the first draft of this book was completed, my collaborator Professor Wu Chunbo disclosed this information to Huawei’s rotating CEO Xu Zhijun. His first reaction was that the title of the book was too false, and how could Huawei achieve excellence? It would be good if it collapsed. It was a big shock to us. We think from this, although this book reveals the logical factors of Huawei's success in the past 25 years, what is the basis of this logic? It is nothing more than the persistence and victory of core values. What do we rely on to maintain our values? Self-criticism - Self-criticism is fundamental. The key to whether Huawei will collapse or collapse lies in whether it can criticize itself over the long term around its core values. Therefore, the current title of this book was formed. Daily News: Your first impression of this book title is that it is a bit alarmist? Can 150,000 Huawei employees accept such a hypothetical word about "death"? I bet that if you were to write about most domestic companies with such a title, you would be criticized or even sued. Tian Tao, Wu Chunbo: Ren Zhengfei once said that "hypothesis" is the greatest way of thinking of mankind. For more than 20 years, Ren Zhengfei has assumed every day that Huawei will collapse tomorrow, and the nerves of Huawei employees have been roughened by crisis theory. This organization has ideals and even paranoia, but it has no superstition or illusions. Not many people know that Huawei’s Longgang base in Shenzhen used to be a mass grave, and the Nanjing Software Park is next to the Martyrs’ Cemetery. Among Chinese businessmen with a strong Feng Shui complex, Ren Zhengfei and Huawei appear to be very hard and alternative. At Huawei's international consulting meeting not long ago, a British consultant of Huawei asked Ren Zhengfei to look forward to Huawei's prospects for the next 10 and 20 years. Ren blurted out: "Huawei in 20 years' time, I can tell you, two words: 'grave' '." There were more than 30 Huawei's global consultants and Huawei's top management present. Huawei's German consultant, a former executive of Daimler-Benz, commented on this: "Mr. Ren can think so, Huawei will be even stronger in 20 years, and Germany can be where it is today because our nation always has Crisis awareness, Huawei is very similar to us." Therefore, the discussion in the book about "when will Huawei die" and "will it fall" will not cause any resentment or commotion among the 150,000 Huawei people. Is the crisis theory a "crying wolf"? Daily: In your opinion, what is the background of Ren Zhengfei’s strong awareness of the crisis? Could it be an allegorical cry of "crying wolf" to rally internal strength? Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: We say in the book that "a history of Huawei's development is a history of crisis management." This is undoubtedly based on a sufficient and large number of stories. Perhaps in the near future, someone will show Huawei's hardships, hardships, struggles and struggles to readers in the form of cases. Here I will only elaborate on the source of Ren Zhengfei’s crisis awareness based on the extremely unique endowment of the information industry. The history of the global information industry over the past few decades has been a "death race". There will always be unknown newcomers who find new business models, thereby destroying one or several century-old aristocrats. When the upstarts no longer When there is innovation and progress, another challenger will quickly occupy the stage. Its cruelty and even the level of tragedy can only be felt by those who have experienced it.

If the dragon's body is bloated and its tail is heavy, it must undergo "slimming exercise" or endure the pain of "cutting off its tail". Daily: Taking the front-line "leaders" as the foundation, it is also easy to understand the meaning of "taking the strivers as the foundation and persisting in hard work for a long time." Tian Tao, Wu Chunbo: Yes. The struggle around the actual and potential needs of customers is valuable, otherwise the "fat" will have to be removed. On the contrary, if the struggle is in the right direction and customer satisfaction is high, the team and individuals should receive material and spiritual incentives, so that the "fat" accumulated on the "dragon body" will turn into "muscles", and the "muscles" will become stronger Focus on the "leading" part.