Ren Zhengfei: Huawei has changed from "guerrilla style" to "local forces", but it is not "regular army"

On June 26, Huawei Xinsheng community published Ren Zhengfei's speech at the forum with representatives of gold medal employees in 2020. Ren Zhengfei told the representatives of gold medal employees in 2020: "you are rated as gold medal employees, but don't carry the" burden "of gold medal employees. Go home and give the gold medal to your family to hang up, forget it and continue to struggle. Don't think that you are different from others. Maybe you are the "successor" in the future.

At the forum, a representative from BG MSSD, an operator, asked Ren Zhengfei: what are your instructions and requirements on the digital expansion capability of operators?

Ren Zhengfei replied: we still need to strengthen the infrastructure construction, because Huawei has not become a "regular army" since it has transformed from a "guerrilla style" to a "local army". You can see how strong the organizational capacity of the regular army is now, but we are not enough, mainly reflected in: first, there is no unified development tools; Second, there is no uniform code warehouse. In the past, most of the R & D companies were "Princes" and some senior cadres were "bumpkins". They didn't know the technology and didn't have the ability. According to their "bumpkin" methods, each company developed its own tools, and each company had its own code warehouse. In this way, the developed tools were not unified. As I said earlier, it is so difficult to unify internal IDs. If the company did not force several departments to unite, it would still be a "guerrilla" organization.

Attached is the full text of speech at the forum between president Ren and representatives of gold medal employees in 2020

May 8, 2021

President Ren: in the process of exploring human history, we will find that everyone will make mistakes. A person who has no mistakes and is completely pure is actually a "porcelain", which will be broken as soon as it is smashed. People tend to move forward in the process of fighting against mistakes. You are rated as gold medal employees, but don't carry the "burden" of gold medal employees. Go home and give the gold medal to your family. Forget about it and continue to struggle. Don't think that you are different from others. Maybe you are the "successor" in the future.

I think that life should be a step-by-step and steady progress, do not aim too high, do not set too high a goal for themselves, may not be able to achieve, life will fail《 Pierpont, the songwriter of jingle bells, has set too high a goal for himself in his whole life. He has never achieved anything in his whole life. At the age of 87, he has achieved nothing. Later, I went out for Christmas and hummed a song on the sled, but it became a popular song. Therefore, we should not think that we are successors and thus bear a heavy burden. Put down the burden of gold medal, just work hard, a lot of things are natural.

1. Cheng (Human Resource Management Department): I am now in charge of the company's talent dam project. I am a veteran in the workplace, but I am also a newcomer to Huawei. I joined Huawei two years ago, two months before "May 16". I feel very honored to join Huawei at a critical moment.

President Ren: I would like to congratulate you on winning the gold medal in just two years. It's amazing!

Your main task is to bring external experience into Huawei, rectify the "guerrillas" and gradually turn us into a "regular army". Because Huawei has been crossing the river by feeling the stone for more than 30 years and has established its own system. Although we are learning from cats, we are not as good as cats. At least we can't "climb the tree". Now that you have brought professional experience, you need to teach us how to climb the tree. In this way, only after three or five years can we tide over the difficult period and have a stronger strategic position.

Huawei, like bdelloid rotifer, is a single gene culture, which needs multi gene conflict and fusion to produce mutation. These mutations are conducive to the explosion of potential.

2. Feng (group finance and Economics): as soon as I entered the company, I went overseas and stayed in Nigeria for eight years. This year, I just returned home to attend the training of CFO strategic reserve team of Finance and economics. Mr. Ren, what are the guiding requirements for our two types of CFO work?

President Ren: are you in Lagos? It's a very beautiful place.

Now our overseas policy is vertical promotion. Most of the outstanding students who graduated from finance, auditing and other majors at home and abroad go abroad to become proficient in the company's business through PFC. We financial people can not only "dial the abacus", we must understand the business, do not understand the business is called accounting, understand the business is finance. We let a group of people with real talents roll and climb out in practice, so that they will have the opportunity to shoulder some important tasks in the future. It's not about being appointed to study again, but being fully charged and ready. If you think you can be CFO of small projects, do you dare to be CEO of small projects? The work of a project CEO is much more complicated than that of a CFO. First of all, the CEO should make a plan. How can he make a plan if he is not familiar with the machines and equipment? Second, how can we make a budget if we haven't practiced and don't know the quota of working hours? Understand the plan, budget, accounting, can do CFO, then can do budget? If these are not very clear, the ascending channel will be narrow. After these baths, your ability is greatly improved.

We carry out the "Montgomery plan" overseas, so that outstanding personnel can take the road of vertical promotion. Now most of the backbone of the new departments and new companies set up by the company are selected and transferred overseas. For example, if you are the president of a regional department, you need to add a few more, and the positions of the people who add up have to be added, and a series of promotions have to be made, so as to give young people a space for vertical rise. Some ambitious and potential young people should go overseas as soon as possible.

Some people will ask: "at present, the overseas market is not as good as the domestic market. Why is the overseas market better than the domestic market?" This is to encourage young people to go. Some people misunderstand that "going to a hard country means living a hard life", which is incorrect. For example, our South Sudan representative office, with three Chinese employees, has two big villas, basketball court, swimming pool, cinema, concert hall, coffee shop... All equipped. We also need to speed up the implementation of overseas environmental improvement. Because the company stipulates that living in a hard country is to meet the living standards of the rich in Switzerland, and the working environment is to meet European standards, so they separate life from work. Overseas office environment and living environment should reach a certain high standard. Hard work means spiritual. We should advocate and create a quality environment to make overseas staff live and work more comfortable, open and efficient.

Why do we encourage employees to go to the hardest places? It is not only the exercise of mind and will, but also the need of business. Because the company will soon cloud, after cloud, as long as there is a "front station", our "cloud" can go there, so we can go abroad. Therefore, we should continue to implement and strengthen the care for overseas employees and those working in difficult areas. The care is mainly to solve two problems: one is the problem of material conditions, the other is the cultivation of ideas and business and promotion opportunities.

Why is it that the couplet at the gate of Huangpu Military Academy says "promotion and wealth, do not enter this gate", while our slogan in Africa is "promotion and wealth, please come to Africa"? Because Huangpu Military Academy is deconstructing a society, it can't create wealth by itself, so it requires students to have a sense of mission, a spirit of struggle, no material incentives, and don't go if they want to get promoted and get rich. Now we are building a "new society", creating wealth for the society and benefiting ourselves. At the same time, we have enough funds. Why not allow aspiring young people to get promoted and become rich? Moreover, the domestic conditions are so good that, by contrast, the safety and living security of employees and their families in foreign hard areas should be improved. The working and living environment of the whole overseas community should be improved to a higher standard. Therefore, our outstanding young people should not only have a sense of mission, but also get reasonable remuneration. We often emphasize "Lei Feng spirit", but we do not distribute the value according to Lei Feng spirit, but we should get paid according to work. We just emphasize that we should be "Lei Feng" in spirit and pay according to contribution in distribution. Of course, now our evaluation is not completely fair, but we will gradually move towards fairness, hoping that more people will make their own contributions in various positions.

3. Pei (operator BG): I'm a veteran of GTS. I've been working in the company for 16 years. I've been a project manager, the CEO of the small project you just mentioned. I just came back from the Philippines. What's your instruction for our work?

President Ren: since you have been a CEO of small projects, you should still want to go up in the future. Can you be a CFO and an auditor of large projects? You have to have these abilities. We have always stressed that some people in the company should always do professional work, gradually go up and make contributions to the company; Cadres should be familiar with many fields, otherwise they may make mistakes in decision-making. The U.S. military has made it clear that the highest non commissioned officer is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general.4. Wu (Manufacturing Department): I come from the manufacturing department. I am an employee of precision optical devices“ After "May 16", our device is also developing rapidly. Mr. Ren always uses the great wisdom of "paste" to bond the employees together, while we use glue to glue the small lenses. Of course, our requirements are nanometer and micron. I hope Mr. Ren can come to the scene to give us more guidance.

General manager Ren: technology fields are divided into science, technology and engineering. Science can only be discovered, because it is an objective law and can not be created; Technology is innovation, automobile is a technology, but there can be many kinds of automobiles; Engineering is the field of pursuing excellence. These three should not be confused, three different routes, three different assessment methods.

Science, don't be afraid of making mistakes. When I had a discussion with the University, I said: "in the history of science, there is a kind of bdelloid rotifer that has lived for 80 million years. It has experienced many disasters on the earth, and it is still alive. Why? How many scientists have studied it for decades, and some of them have caught fire because they can't find a male bdelloid rotifer. In fact, he has come to the edge of the Nobel Prize. Finally, a Belgian female scientist discovered that it is parthenogenesis. In hermaphroditism, the combination of two gene chains will produce mutation, and an excellent generation will be produced. " Looking back on 5000 years of history, all the people who can be prime ministers around the emperor must be excellent people. However, when a prime minister makes a mistake, he will be killed and his blood will not be left. In fact, he has broken this gene. The peasant uprising, going to the city to kill the rich, and cutting down the grass and roots, do not leave genes. However, many new things have emerged in the opening-up and reform. This is the excellent result of the opening-up and reform, the introduction of multi-cultural conflicts, and the mutation of the fusion of two genes. Why does the single gene chain of bdelloid rotifer survive for 80 million years? If the gene chain of single parent breeding has pathological changes and problems, won't it be extinct if it is inherited? Scientists have found that the gene chain of bdelloid rotifer will break and re integrate. Isn't this the fusion of two genes to produce mutation? So they survived 80 million years and many disasters. Huawei's culture is a single gene chain, and there must be conflicts to promote change. Heartfelt communities, cafes everywhere, at's tenure, the tenure system of expert committees, and the tenure system of the board of directors / supervisors all change the single gene inheritance to prevent entropy increase, precipitation, and involution.

In the field of engineering, we need to keep improving, which is not called inner volume. Inner volume is where we should not keep improving. Science can only be discovered after making a lot of mistakes, and technological innovation can also lead to a lot of failures. But engineering, such as the construction of a bridge, can not be innovated casually, so the bridge may easily collapse. The engineering scheme of the bridge has been demonstrated for thousands of times before it dares to use this formula to design the bridge. Therefore, when you make optical related devices, you should also take this route, be solid and keep improving.

5. Fan (Lab 2012): just now you mentioned scientists. How does the company position scientists?

President Ren: scientists, technology inventors and engineering experts actually have no strict boundaries in the company. This is a conceptual problem. Let's not bear the burden of thinking about scientists and technologists... We all refer to them conceptually, and we don't distinguish between employees. They may be strict in society. They should be in accordance with the status given to them by society and enjoy the treatment of the state. They have strict standards. Are we "cooking" for ourselves, just a code for sharing meals? Don't worry too much, and don't compare too horizontally. Just keep a close eye on your goals and the cooperation needs of the surrounding teams.

6. Chen (supply chain management department): I come from the supply chain and have the honor to participate in some supply chain battles in the past two years. In the future, the supply chain business will become more and more complex and difficult. What do you think are the professional abilities in the supply chain that need to be improved? Where are we heading?

President Ren: the supply chain is complex, but there are opportunities, because although it is complex, it does not mean that only our company is complex and others are not. It is certainly unreasonable for a company as big as ours to simply make things and sell them at such a high price. Therefore, we are not afraid of complexity, we have to face reality, solve problems, and then create value. Have the opportunity to learn some systems engineering, overall planning, cybernetics... Which will benefit your progress. The simplest reading material is Hua Luogeng's "optimization method" and "overall planning".

7. Deng (cloud and computing BG): I'm doing Kunpeng related business now. Do you have any guidance for Kunpeng?

General manager Ren: it is to do it unswervingly. It's impossible to do it halfway. How many partners will be harmed?

8. Xu (consumer BG): I'm an employee from tablet and PC PDU. Due to US sanctions, our business is very difficult. In the future, should we stick to the direction of localization?

President Ren: is China a part of the world? Yes. Therefore, our insistence on globalization also includes localization. We can not be closed, we must be open. We still have to learn from the United States, which has accumulated over a century and has a flexible mechanism. It is still much better than us in science and technology. I often see netizens on the Internet asking, "is the United States mentioned by Chen Ping and the United States mentioned by Ren Zhengfei the same United States?"? Chen Ping is talking about social problems. I'm talking about science, education and technology from different perspectives. I'm talking about the same United States. Social problems are too complex for politicians to explain; Science is truth, and there is only one answer. Science and education are relatively simple. In this respect, the United States is powerful, and its centenary foundation is relatively solid. We can't think that America is not a teacher because it oppresses us. If we don't learn from America, we will become autistic.

9. Yang (ICT strategy and marketing): I have been in Xiangtan Iron and steel company for more than a year. Our 5g tob has entered many industries. However, at present, we lack the ability of consulting and top-level design in the whole industry. The coal industry has set up a corps. In other industries, how do we consider it?

General manager Ren: the growth of any new technology needs a long process. 5g is not omnipotent, and development also needs a process. From the perspective of the information industry, it takes about 10 years for each new technology to mature, which is much faster than that in the industrial revolution. For example, it took decades from the invention of the train to the large-scale use of the train. The industrial revolution takes 60 years and the information revolution basically takes 10 years. We have just entered this market, and its application value still needs to be reflected in the future. In a short time, its value has not been reflected so quickly.

10. Wu (quality and process it management department): I come from process it. I used to serve inside the company. Now we have formed a legion to go out. What do you expect from Mr. Ren?

President Ren: now it's better to serve the interior honestly. For example, if the internal ID is not strongly promoted, the internal ID cannot be unified. Every time you log on to an internal platform, you need to re-enter the ID information. The unification of internal ID is so difficult. Where do you want to go? There are still many unsolved problems in it supporting our own internal development. Why go out? Therefore, although process it has done a good job in network security, we still need to do a good job in internal problems, which is the main goal, and then consider how to go out of the system instead of going out blindly.

11. Han (cloud and computing BG): I come from data storage. In the industrial society in the past, we felt that the blood of social flow was oil. In the information society in the future, the blood of social flow is data, and storage is the bottom cornerstone of data. What do you think of storage?

President Ren: I think the data will be bigger and bigger in the future, and the difficulties will be more and more. But in terms of coordination, Huawei is still a weak point, and its level is still very low. At present, the average utilization rate of CPU is only 15%. Is it able to increase the utilization rate of CPU to 35%? In this way, customers do not need to spend more money, they can double their capacity. Our computing power is to take the road of cluster computing. It is a great responsibility to improve the role of each computing unit. Therefore, there must be good middleware.

We should learn from the birds. The mother bird flies back to the nest with worms. With so many birds' mouths open and crying, how does it know which one has been fed and which one has not? This requires scheduling. Your data scheduling software, like mother bird, can do well. The middleware that we coordinate is done well. Each CPU gets even data and increases by 35%. In this way, customers can solve problems without increasing investment. How can they be dissatisfied? But in fact, we can't do it yet.

One of Huawei's biggest shortcomings is that they all have to use the best things and do the best things. For example, do you need the best storage system for the vegetable shopping lady? Do you need quartz glass? unwanted. Maybe after buying vegetables and collecting money, the data will not be needed. Is our storage classified and used in different ways for different customers to reduce the burden of customers? In the summary of my speech in cloud, Xu Zhijun added a sentence: "extremely simple structure, extremely low cost", I added a few words "extremely simple organizational structure, extremely simple reliable and reasonable process, and extremely simplified assessment of cadres and experts", otherwise we can not survive. Social competition, we can not change ourselves, it will change our destiny.

12. Geng (operator BG): I come from operator BG MSSD. In the past year, we mainly used digital tools to support the operation of BCM business. What instructions and requirements do you have for the digital expansion capability of operators?

General manager Ren: we still need to strengthen the infrastructure construction, because Huawei has not become a "regular army" since it has transformed from a "guerrilla style" to a "local army". You can see how strong the organizational capacity of the regular army is now, but we are not enough, mainly reflected in: first, there is no unified development tools; Second, there is no uniform code warehouse. In the past, most of the R & D companies were "Princes" and some senior cadres were "bumpkins". They didn't know the technology and didn't have the ability. According to their "bumpkin" methods, each company developed its own tools, and each company had its own code warehouse. In this way, the developed tools were not unified. As I said earlier, it is so difficult to unify internal IDs. If the company did not force several departments to unite, it would still be a "guerrilla" organization.

Fu, a former teacher, would have said, "first, skillful craftsmanship; second, skillful tools.". Huawei does not pay enough attention to the tool issue. We need to unify the "Princes". Now the company documents have required that all cadres should pass the qualification examination. If they do not have this qualification, they must change their posts. Last year, it seems that the turnover rate of software system cadres was 69%. It does not mean that all of them resigned, but transferred to other posts.

13. Li (global purchasing certification management department): I come from the production purchasing Certification Department. Now the international environment has changed a lot, and our contact with foreign suppliers is becoming more and more difficult. What's your suggestion?

General manager Ren: first of all, we should cooperate well and sincerely with others. The work is very difficult, no difficulties, why do you want to get such a high salary? If we have difficulties, it means that we can do it, but others can't, and it shows our value.

No step forward in human society is easy. I suggest that you take a look at "the age of awakening". In the early days of the founding of the Communist Party, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, in order to promote the revolution, took off their long clothes, went to work and peasants, and went to factories to teach workers to read, improve their cultural level, and spread the revolutionary truth. How many twists and turns have we gone through in the past century. You must watch such an important TV play.

Thank you. Goodbye!