Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 41 2 "It's safe and easy to hold": not future decisions, but the futurity of current decisions

To be an enterprise, you must be prepared for danger in times of peace and always plan for the future.

It is easy to hold.

—— "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 64
It is easy to maintain when the situation is stable.Therefore, in times of stability, managers must have a sense of crisis and consciously pay attention to the fate of the enterprise.Enterprise strategic planning does not involve future decisions, it only involves the futurity of current decisions.Decisions only happen in the present.The question facing the strategic decision maker is not what his organization should do tomorrow, but what must we do today to prepare for an uncertain future.

Drucker said: We tend to plan for certain things we do in the future.It might be fun, but it's useless.We can only make decisions in the present, but we can't make decisions just for the present.The most expedient and opportunistic decisions--not to mention the ones that do not make decisions at all--hold us accountable for a long time to come, if not permanently and irrevocably. .

In 2000, when Huawei ranked first among the top 152 electronic companies in China with annual sales of 29 billion yuan and a profit of [-] billion yuan, Ren Zhengfei talked about crises and failures. In "Huawei's Winter" written to all employees, he talked about Huawei is less than half a year away from bankruptcy.Ren Zhengfei's "winter" lasted for eight years.

The 2007 annual report shows that Huawei's sales revenue has reached 125.6 billion US dollars, ranking among the top five telecom equipment manufacturers in the world. Huawei has undoubtedly entered the "first-line" camp of global telecom equipment manufacturers.It seems that it should be the time to celebrate, but Ren Zhengfei shouted "winter theory" at Huawei, and this is the third time Ren Zhengfei has warned "winter".In an email to Huawei's EMT (core management) and some product line executives, Ren Zhengfei forwarded a short article titled "Cisco Prepares for Winter" published by the US "Fortune" and solemnly wrote down note:

"Cisco's today is our tomorrow. Of course, I am not motivating people, but warning people. They perceive the difficulty and cruelty of market competition more than we do. Cisco is smarter than us. We are relatively numb to the measures, but we are numb. The crisis is coming unconsciously. It is spring now, but winter is not far away. It may not be winter, but it may be winter for Huawei. Huawei’s winter may be colder and colder. We are still too young. After ten years of smooth development, our company has not experienced setbacks. Without setbacks, we don’t know How to go to the right path. Suffering is a wealth, but we have not experienced it, which is our greatest weakness. We are not psychologically and technically prepared to adapt to non-development.”

In order to strengthen employees' crisis awareness, Ren Zhengfei even incorporated this into the company's development plan.For example, in the "Huawei Basic Law" promulgated in 1998, there is such content: In order to make Huawei a world-class equipment supplier, Huawei will never enter the information service industry.Through the transmission of market pressure without dependence, the internal mechanism is always activated.

This point of view aroused heated debate at the discussion meeting. At that time, most people believed that information services can promote the sales of tangible products of enterprises, and there is huge room for development. There is no need for Huawei to limit its potential development opportunities.

Ren Zhengfei believes that Huawei has positioned itself as an equipment supplier, and Huawei will never enter the information service industry because it wants to break the boat and pass on the awareness of crisis and pressure to every employee.

The reason why I didn't enter the information service industry is because I have no internal pressure when I sell my own products through my own network. Over time, I will dilute the concept of "excellent service is the life of an enterprise".There is no doubt that such a company will die if there are problems and blame each other.In foreign countries, there are often opportunities to participate in the privatization of telecommunications. Huawei has not participated in it. It will be much more difficult to sell equipment in the future than it is now. This forces companies to achieve the best product performance, the highest quality, the lowest cost, and the best service. Otherwise it will be difficult to sell.This is to put it to death and survive, which will keep Huawei's internal mechanism in an active state forever, and will also force Huawei to become a first-class equipment supplier.

Through the "Huawei Basic Law", Ren Zhengfei integrated the sense of crisis into Huawei's corporate culture, so that employees can feel a tense atmosphere that is about to come. So as to curb the blind optimism of some employees and managers due to the rapid growth of the company.

Mencius once said, "Born in sorrow, die in peace." This is an advice to those who govern the country, and the same is true for running a business.Ren Zhengfei used this idea to find the fundamental purpose of enterprise development in the stable situation of "easy to hold": the enterprise should always survive and not die.And this requires a long-term crisis awareness. In the process of business management, various crises may occur. In the face of various uncertain crises, what will the managers do?Obviously, the best solution to any crisis is to prevent it, so it's not unreasonable to be constantly "worried".

(End of this chapter)