Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 735: Five Candidates for CEO of the Other Shore
A global vision, profound technical accumulation, convincing practical performance, a high degree of compatibility with the cultural genes of the other side, plus the hard standard of "only men" - if we take any one of these items alone, there are still quite a few people around the world who meet the requirements.

However, when these harsh conditions were interwoven into an impenetrable screening network, even the elite think tanks of Tianji Pavilion could not help but become worried.

Initially, everyone still held the idea of ​​"keeping the wealth within the family", after all, internal promotion is the best way to ensure cultural identity.

If we count the existing senior executives on the other side, we can see that each of them is a capable professional, but they always lack that finishing touch in terms of comprehensive ability.

Either his qualifications are too short to convince the public, or he lacks the overall vision for cross-border coordination. The only one who meets all the requirements, Zhou Shouzi, has already served as an overseas CEO and is too busy to handle all the responsibilities.

As for those gold medal managers in the country, a closer look reveals that most of them were once defeated opponents of Chen Mo.

At the end of the screening, even top figures such as Martin (Liu Chih-ping) of Tencent and Xiaoyaozi (Zhang Yong) of Alibaba were included as candidates.

Everyone in Tianji Pavilion smiled bitterly at each other: "If this continues, I'm afraid we'll have to add 'Er Ma' to the list."

It's no wonder they are in such a difficult situation. After all, the benchmark set by the boss was too high. Every candidate was subconsciously compared to it, and naturally, like the stars and the moon competing for brilliance, they were all eclipsed in an instant.

After much difficulty, they managed to find several qualified executives from overseas giants, and in the end, they deliberately left out an Easter egg candidate.
Finally, we have this dream lineup of five people.
Chen Mo examined this list of the world's top professional managers:

VMware (global cloud infrastructure and mobile business solutions provider) CEO Pat Gelsinger: Intel's technical veteran successfully transformed into a cloud computing leader, with the meticulous thinking of an engineer and the keen sense of a business genius, perfectly matching the cultural gene of "technology-driven products" at the other end
Comprehensive recommendation index: 3 stars.

LinkedIn (LinkedIn is a social platform for the workplace) CEO Jeff Weiner: an expert in the global expansion of professional social networks, good at building B-side ecosystems. There are reports that LinkedIn will be acquired by Microsoft, and its recruitment success rate is quite high.

Comprehensive recommendation index: 3 stars.

AMD CEO Lisa Su (note: gender does not match): PhD from MIT, former Freescale CTO, has both the wisdom of a scholar and the courage of a business tycoon. In 2014, she was appointed to lead AMD in a time of crisis and is currently on a mission to revive AMD. Although she is a woman, it is recommended to consider
Comprehensive recommendation index: 3 stars.

Harry Shum, Senior Vice President of Microsoft: One of the "twin stars" of Chinese executives at Microsoft, leading AI projects such as Bing Search and Cortana, with strong technical strategy capabilities, born in Huaxia (undergraduate degree from Southeast University), well versed in the technology markets of the East and the West, able to promote the integration of other shore technologies with international standards, and has experience in managing teams of 10,000 people at Microsoft
Comprehensive recommendation index: 4 stars.

Chen Mo's eyes wandered between the "Men Only" label and Su Zifeng's resume.

This woman, who is respected as "Su Ma" by technology geeks, has indeed demonstrated impressive leadership.

Pulling AMD back from the brink of the cliff showed its remarkable courage and ability.

Although Tianji Pavilion's evaluation report clearly stated: "The recruitment success rate is 32%, and the degree of fit with the main business of Bi'an is 41%", a line of small words annotated in red ink at the end is particularly eye-catching: "It is recommended to be referred to Mi'an Xinsheng Semiconductor Division, with a fit degree of 83%."

If it was a choice between four, Su Ma's business was not very compatible with Bi'an, so Chen Mo would choose Shen Xiangyang, until he opened the resume of the last candidate and narrowed his eyes slightly.

This was the second time he saw this name: Lu Qi!
【Educational Background】

1987-1991 Bachelor of Computer Science, Shanghai Jiaotong University
1992-1996 Master of Computer Science, Fudan University

1996-1998 PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, under the tutelage of Turing Award winner Edmund M. Clarke
PhD Topic: Application of Formal Verification in Artificial Intelligence Systems

He conducted postdoctoral research at CMU and later joined IBM Research Center, focusing on search engine and database technology.

Career advancement track

1998-2008: Promoted from an ordinary engineer to executive vice president of Yahoo, leading core businesses such as search engines and advertising technology. During this period, he dominated Yahoo's early technological layout to compete with Google.

He joined Microsoft in 2008 and was appointed president of the Online Services Division (OSD), leading products such as Bing Search.

In just five years, a Chinese was promoted from department president to global executive vice president, reporting directly to the CEO, leading core businesses such as Office, Skype, Bing, Cortana, and driving Microsoft's transformation to cloud computing and AI.

He owns more than 40 patents, covering areas such as search, AI, and human-computer interaction.

He is known as the "ceiling of Chinese executives in Silicon Valley." Behind this title is an indisputable fact: among the American technology giants, there is no other Chinese who has ever reached such a high management position, and he can be said to be second only to the top.

Even compared with equally brilliant Chinese executives such as Kai-Fu Lee, Ya-Qin Zhang, and Harry Shum, Lu Qi's achievements are still unique.

Microsoft's strict job hierarchy has matured over decades of development:

Microsoft's job hierarchy is Bill Gates (founder) -> CEO (Chief Executive Officer) -> EVP (Executive Vice President) -> SVP (Senior Vice President) -> VP (Vice President) -> GM (General Manager).

The position of "Microsoft Global Vice President" that Kai-Fu Lee held at that time was actually just a VP level, which was two levels lower than Lu Qi's EVP; even the SVPs that Zhang Yaqin and Shen Xiangyang reached were still one level lower than Lu Qi.

Just like a pyramid structure, the higher you go, the bigger the gap becomes.

Each level up is a geometric leap, a huge difference.

As the helmsman of Microsoft's core business, Lu Qi leads a huge team of nearly 20,000 people:
In the search engine battle, he led Bing to face off against Google. Although he failed to overturn the situation, he helped Microsoft maintain a 21% market share.
He pushed for the transformation of Office 365 to cloud services and pioneered Microsoft's subscription business model;

As early as 2014, Microsoft proactively deployed the Cortana voice assistant, laying the seeds for artificial intelligence.
Tianji Pavilion's evaluation report is analyzed in detail: [Core advantages]

Born in China (graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University), top technical resume (core technical executive of Yahoo/Microsoft), global international vision (3 years of experience as Microsoft's global executive vice president), practical achievements (Bing, Office transformation, AI layout), experience in super-large-scale team management, integration of Eastern and Western business thinking
Theoretical recruitment success rate: 81%
The reasons are as follows:

In 2013, former Microsoft CEO Ballmer announced his resignation. The Microsoft board of directors considered selecting candidates from both inside and outside the company. The list at the time included:
Three internal candidates were nominated: Satya Nadella (head of cloud computing and enterprise business), Tony Bates (former CEO of Skype, joined Microsoft after the acquisition), and Qi Lu (head of application and service engineering).

External candidates: Alan Mulally (CEO of Ford Motor Company, withdrew due to age), Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google, not in-depth negotiations).

In the end, Indian-American Satya Nadella was elected.

Industry rumors have it that the reason for Lu Qi's failure was that he was known for his "technology-driven" style, but Microsoft at the time needed a leader who could reconcile internal politics and promote transformation, and Nadella was better at this.

Our in-depth analysis: As a Chinese executive, Qi Lu faces invisible barriers at the highest level of Microsoft. Nadella has been in office for three years. Although Qi Lu remains as EVP, his power has been partially weakened (for example, the Cortana project has been transferred to the Windows department). It is time for the other side to extend an olive branch.

In addition, Lu Qi's "technology-driven" style is very suitable for Bi'an. Looking back at the past, his capabilities in products, technology, and operations are quite comprehensive.

Comprehensive recommendation index: five stars!
After reading the frequency that Tianji Pavilion gave to Lu Qi, Chen Mo nodded in approval. Indeed, with him in charge, there was no internal politics or so-called factions on the other side, so Lu Qi could fully play to his strengths here.

Chen Mo's fingertips lingered on Lu Qi's file, and the past events that shocked the industry emerged in his mind.

There is another equally fascinating chapter in the resume of this technology leader.

That is in another time and space.

Li Yanhong recruited Lu Qi with the promise of "All in AI".

On the second day after joining the company, Li Yanhong solemnly announced in front of the media: "All business lines will report to Lu Qi, and my work focus will shift to company strategy and culture building."

In the news photo, the two people standing side by side were interpreted by the industry as "the perfect marriage of technological ideals and business realities."

In mid-2017, Baidu held its first AI Developer Conference. Lu Qi delivered a keynote speech and hosted the entire event, introducing all of Baidu's plans in the field of AI to the outside world. He was the real protagonist on the stage that day.

His reputation then reached its peak after the conference, a full five years before chatGPT was released.

If Baidu is determined to go ALL IN AI and remain unwavering, with its technological foundation, it may be able to make great strides and become the pig that takes off on the cusp of AI.

Unfortunately, Bole later broke his promise.

This seemingly "desperate" but actually "insignificant" experiment lasted only over a year before ending in failure.

With the adjustment of the organizational structure, business leaders such as Zhang Yaqin and Xiang Hailong will report to Li Yanhong again.

The media revealed the sharp conflicts between Lu Qi and the veteran faction (especially the search business team led by Hailong) over the monetization of medical advertising and long-term investment in AI.

Li Yanhong finally chose the conservative line and executed Ma Su with tears. This reform, known as the "Lu Qi Reform", was declared a failure.

As a result, when the news of Lu Qi's resignation broke, the reaction of the capital market was dramatic:
When Lu Qi joined Baidu, the stock price rose by 3.6% in a single day, indicating that the market was optimistic about Baidu's AI transformation.

The stock market performed similarly afterwards. During Lu Qi's tenure, Baidu's stock price rose 55%, reaching a record high.

Lu Qi's Microsoft background won Baidu the trust of Wall Street and he was regarded as a "reformer."

But then the situation suddenly changed, the news of his resignation was exposed, and Baidu's stock price plummeted 9.5%, from about US$279 to US$252.

The maximum intraday decline was nearly 10%, and it finally closed down 6.4% (the market value evaporated by approximately US$94 billion, equivalent to nearly RMB 600 billion).

In the following month, the decline reached nearly 20%.

Statistics from some institutions show that Baidu's stock price rose 55% during Lu Qi's tenure, but fell 35% within a year after his departure.

It was not until 2019 that Baidu's stock price gradually recovered, but it never reached the high point during his tenure.

The financial media reported it with a shocking headline: "The most expensive resignation in history - he took away not only personal belongings, but also Baidu's 900 billion market value."

Subsequently, the media generally used the analogy that "Baidu losing Lu Qi is like Apple losing Steve Jobs", emphasizing his irreplaceability.

In the end, Li Yanhong discovered that the person he had killed was not Ma Su, but Jiang Wei. Unfortunately, it was too late to regret.

(End of this chapter)