A great opportunity arose when one senior professor complained that the teaching program staffers acted as if the faculty worked for them, rather than the other way around. We have become what we are today with our own strength. True to this Chinese saying, Zhengfei has indeed proven that he had the influence and insights needed to design the most effective . So AI should be a force for good. But he also has shortcomings. And then, once we had established some market presence, we began to build up capital. In order to support his family, Ren Zhengfei implemented a strict system of food distribution in his family. Arjun Kharpal: Let's talk a little bit about the US for a moment. With the accounting error, Hill broke a big rule but we suspect that had he followed the smaller rules around issues like showing favoritism to family members, he would have had a better chance of survival. This case is undergoing legal procedures, and we believe it will be solved in court. Ren is an active supporter of Communist Party of China. Director, CEO Born on October 25, 1944 into a rural family where both parents were school teachers, Mr. Ren Zhengfei spent his primary and middle school years in a remote mountainous town in Guizhou Province. Do you think that companies like yours are too powerful and need to be regulated? Academics were reluctant to engage with executives. AI is also developing faster than what we can imagine. You often use military imagery and images of battles in your speeches and communications with the employees at the company. There was no chance for us to step back and start another business. Vernon Hill was transformationally successful in leading Commerce Bank in the USA and then Metro Bank in the UK. What makes Huawei interesting is its rate of growth and . To give you a simple example. So he and his managers smashed the defective appliances. Is this a battle for you? The European Business Review is not responsible for any financial losses sustained by acting on information provided on this website by its authors or clients. Many companies' financial statements last year weren't great because they needed to pay income tax arrears. The ethos needs to be summarized in an evocative statement pointing to the behaviors desired in the organizations members. Huawei responded to customers 24/7. Arjun Kharpal: You were in the People's Liberation Army. Media Contact:Clarence ChenCommunications Manager APAC, CNBC InternationalD: +65 6326 1123M: +65 9852 8630clarence.chen@cnbc.com. If we spread things too thin, there is no way we will be successful. It emphasized clear-cut goals, hard-and-fast rules, employee dedication and absolute obedience. On April 12, at the "16+1 Summit" in Croatia, Premier Li repeatedly told all our employees not to install backdoors on networks. and pay only $8.50 each, Buy 50 - 499 Huawei is now the world's largest telecoms equipment maker. For example, in the desert and rural areas in China, rats were a plague for the telecom connections to customers. What if we could identify and change the genes that cause the condition? Terry Leahy steadily worked his way up to become the CEO of UK-based Tesco, one of the worlds largest supermarket companies. The engineering troop I was in was among one of the first troops to be disbanded. After getting, retired from the military, Ren has planned to work in electronic business. 2023 CNBC LLC. He began by abandoning the tradition that the dean chaired all defenses of doctoral dissertations; he made it clear that his priority was engaging with external stakeholders, particularly corporate executives. If the US government speaks ill of Huawei, why couldn't the Chinese government speak in our favor? Tanks can cross a swamp, but needles can pierce hard things through. CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe with regional headquarters Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London, and New York. More and more companies are harnessing new technologies more quickly. We will also increase our sales revenue, which is now more than 100 billion US dollars, to around 250 billion US dollars. And there is concern that some of these large technology companies just have too much power. Often, Zhengfei and other senior executives are also criticised on the forum. Despite this controversy, Huawei received support from both Ericsson and Nokia, stating that in their view Huawei was not dumping its products. Smartphone was badly hit. When Huawei dominated the domestic market on a large scale, its problem in human resource was more than Huaweis original management system can handle. Secondly, hes full of enthusiasm and ambition. Where was I supposed to go from there? This message has been reiterated by many senior officials of the Chinese government, including Yang Jiechi, who stated his position at the Munich Security Conference, and Premier Li Keqiang, who made similar statement at a press conference shortly after a recent session of the National People's Congress. He made this persuasively clear by literally saying that it is necessary To cut off your feet to wear the shoe, In China, leadership has traditionally been grounded in a hierarchical top-down management system. You've often looked up to Apple as a role model. If you'd like to share this PDF, you can purchase copyright permissions by increasing the quantity. For example, Huawei plans the development of the company by decade, whereas most of their competitors such as Ericsson and Motorola plan it by financial quarter or year. Sheryl Sandberg is well-known for combining social skills and intelligence in a way that allowed her to break up the boys club at Facebook. We will expand it, and dive deeper into it. His company reflects these traits. They had thought that disbanding was to weed out unnecessary troops and strengthen the remaining units. Will Europe understand us when they see how much effort we are putting into this? Get your Culture in Good Shape, Not Lost in Translation: Making the Data Make Sense. If they have too much money, they would be obsessed with capital gains. We are going to make this happen. 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Due to his technical skills, He was appointed as a delegate from, PLA for attending the National Science Conference in 1978 (, ).It was a golden opportunity for Rein to lean and gain knowledge, about the field. So Microsoft is the winner and it dominates the market. We obviously couldn't control our customers, so we had to get hold of the products. I don't think we need to worry too much about the adverse impact of this technology. Leading Huawei: Seven Leadership Lessons of Ren Zhengfei. The qualities that help managers rise in the organization emotional intelligence, high IQ, technical competence, and so forth dont necessarily make them effective once theyre in a leadership position. For example, although his inspirational leadership style pushes forward the company and guides it through transformational phases, he is always quick to add that he may not be that good in bringing people together as many would like to believe. He belongs to rural family and spent his middle and primary school years in remote mountains, where started his career as civil engineer when China faced turmoil because of cultural, revolution. You're seen as a visionary very much here in China in the technology world. You've grown the company over 30 years to the size of it now. If I could not pay, I would be hounded by creditors every day. PIC:A portrait of Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei. First, we want to provide the best connectivity in the world, and 5G is part of connectivity. This is a challenging competency and a powerful one. The government would find it hard to address its deficit. AI will benefit our society. It commemorates the long-ago day when CEO Zhang Ruimin pulled 76 refrigerators off the production line. Its this kind of spirit in Ren zhengfei that propels his company to become one of the best in China even the world. At the time, the market economy was beginning to take shape in China, at least in coastal cities. As of February 2019, he had an estimated net worth of US$3.3 billion. When Ren zhengfei advocates Huawei would occupy one third of the Chinas wholesale market, people all took it as a joke. He realized he would not be able to institute rapid change through persuasion, because the national culture emphasized slow, intensive consensus building. At first, we had several hundred employees focus on this point, then we had several thousand, tens of thousands, and now we have hundreds of thousands. (This is where EQ can support OQ. ) Although he is a billionaire, Zhengfei prefers a low profile lifestyle and even travels on the public transport. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. That's why we told the German government that we are willing to accept their regulation. If they attack a country, that country will fight back. As he spent decades building one of the biggest tech companies on the planet, Ren Zhengfei kept a low public profile. Arjun Kharpal: Mr. Ren, you started Huawei over 30 years ago with 5,000 US dollars. First, embrace bureaucracy rather than rail against it. Its CEO, Ren Zhengfei, has long identified grey management as a principle of his leadership and employed it to provide his firm with a clear direction. The simpler and clearer, the better; organizational members at all levels suffer from information overload, so leaders need to be selective about what messages to send. When two nations or companies meet, they must collaborate to achieve shared success. Mr. Ren: First, Mr. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made a statement at the Munich Security Conference that the Chinese government always requires Chinese firms to abide by international rules and laws and regulations of the country where they operate, and that China has no law requiring companies to install backdoors or collect foreign intelligence. The slogan at that time was: We shall drink to our hearts content to celebrate our success (ren sheng de yi xu jin huan), but if we should fail lets fight to our utmost until we all die (ju gong jin cui, si er hou yi). Not really, we think. Struggling a bit can be good for them. However, most of us. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Mr. Ren: I would like to comment on President Trump without considering his administration's treatment of Huawei. Mr. Ren: I don't know. The company is growing rapidly and Forbes has estimated Zhengfei's wealth at $2.1 billion. He relentlessly convinces his employees through stories and actions. The secret is to take advantage of opportunities to do something symbolic in a surprising, high-impact way that will capture the attention (and, hopefully, the hearts and minds) of the organizations members. These great people are going to great lengths to find fault with a little rabbit or mouse like us. So I think Trump is a great president, but he didn't consider all the angles when it came to attracting foreign investment. Facts and evidence should be made public and transparent in the courts, which are the basis for fair and just judgment. This is surprising because Huawei has been very active in 2014 and 2015 in securing many partnerships with European firms, ranging from a focus on cloud storage and cell phone applications in security areas. Ren Zhengfei (Mr Ren): When I had just started Huawei, we still did not understand China's reform and opening-up policy. However, Ren zhengfei and Huawei made it in the end. They replied that they could not make it smaller. Particularly the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, which include a patchwork of diplomacy and free trade zones, have received their share of attention. Ren zhengfei himself attributes his success to several characteristics. How do you respond to some of these very, very strong criticisms from governments around the world? 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Organisations need to implement leadership innovation to secure a successful and profitable future, as Ren Zhengfei has done with his multinational company Huawei. In Huaweis early years, Zhengfei retained authority on major decisions such as corporate development strategies and culture building, but fully empowered employees when it comes to R&D, manager appointment, compensation & benefit allocation, and other areas. So we've decided that our. These cities were moving away from the previous planned economy. If we get caught in the middle, we will be crushed like a watermelon when these two powers clash. Technologies are advancing. Zhengfei was very clear about this ambition and demanded that all Huawei employees would adopt the US-based way of looking at business as introduced by IBM. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Ren has unique qualities which make him different from other, leaders. He has maintained the company as private and his management style has been extremely . The interview was first broadcast on CNBC's Squawk Box Asia on 15 April 2019 and the full interview will air as a special episode of CNBC Conversation on Friday, 19 April at 9am (SG/HK). Huawei is to a large extent no stranger to this system. In his view, it was necessary in the second phase to wear the shoes of the Americans, and if your feet would not fit then we have to cut it. This fact inspired him to embrace the idea that one can win and still be cooperative. Arjun Kharpal: You mentioned in our conversation that people ask you about your vision for 20 to 30 years, but you don't even know what's going to happen in the next two to three years. However, it kills employees creativity and . Mr. Ren: Regarding the allegations against Meng Wanzhou and Huawei, the US Department of Justice has sued Huawei, and Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the court. Wearing nice clothes or seeking further education was not what I wanted. As I said, this is because we have no real presence in the US market. Sales of our consumer business increased by more than 70% in the first quarter of the year. In this article David De Cremer and Tian Tao discuss the seven important leadership lessons that have made Huawei the company it is today. What company can outperform Microsoft in Office and Windows? When he talks about his skills and qualities he always emphasises that he is not the most knowledgeable. The Central Committee had also been disbanding parts of the Chinese military because it was so large. All he cares about is how to thoroughly solve every problem his company meets and how to improve the efficiency of the whole group. Mr. Ren: I think technology will advance even faster than we could ever imagine. Add copies before, China Europe International Business School, A Better Way to Manage Corporate Alliances, Primerica: Sandy Weill and His Corporate Entrepreneurs, J. C. Penney: Activist Investors and the Rise and Fall of Ron Johnson, Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, Buy 5 - 10 I would be afraid that they would pull out suddenly and stop doing business with us. Our costs were low for two reasons. After we were discharged, we were assigned to different places across China. To rebel from the top, leaders must strike a difficult balance. There has also been questions about your past as a communist party member and what that means for Huawei. Huawei is to a large extent no stranger to this system. We cannot deny the role that enthusiasm plays in the procedure. and pay only $8.75 each, Buy 11 - 49 That's why I said he is a great president. In the early years Huawei had the tradition to regularly invite scholars from the East and the West to talk about the histories of their countries. At that time, China didn't accept Mendel's theories; instead, we followed Ivan Michurin's theories. In his view this could only be achieved by providing excellent services. When I look back on how Huawei developed in the telecom market, we actually made some missteps. Some people asked me what the world would be like in 20 or 30 years. That's my only ideal. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox. He is very careful not to feed the myth of his leadership and rather emphasises the importance of working hard in the success story of Huawei. Why cannot we edit human genes? We will comply with European cyber security standards and the GDPR. When designers showed the first iPod prototype to Steve Jobs, he said it was too big. Firstly, being practical instead of seeking after useless fame. When Huawei was just founded, the world of communications was extremely under-developed. They will be able to produce more quality products than the whole world can consume. The cost of using a warship is high. Another strategic objective was better cooperation between faculty and staff. In a similar vein, Huawei makes use of an internal online forum, Xinsheng Community, which is accessible to all Huawei employees worldwide. Does China feel under pressure from President Trump's tactics in the negotiations? Interesting in this journey so far is that each phase is characterised by a specific focus and strategy. It's not up to me to designate a successor. Gradually, we have become a leader in this narrow, focused area. How can I live a life like that? Along the way he introduced one important innovation: the Clubcard, the UKs first supermarket loyalty card, which allowed Tesco to leapfrog Sainsburys into the number-one retail spot. Amazon, Google, and many others all have their own focus areas. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to enter the network equipment industry. This does mean though that many translators and stock analysts and the like will lose their jobs. If they don't, they might not buy our products. Our scientists spotted it and spent 10 years turning his theories into the 5G standards of today. First, as our technology advanced rapidly, we managed to bring down the costs of our products. China has a population of 1.3 billion consumers. Publication Date: The major form of analog control was a proportional-integral-derivative control. It does not depend on what Donald Trump has to say. We don't need customers' information. That's why some deep-pocketed countries with rich oil reserves are buying from us. In that case, billions of dollars would be stuck in the US. Photos/ Taddeo Bwambale . As a leader, Ren Zhengfei insists on self-criticism and careful consideration. This is a copyrighted PDF. Especially in the entrepreneurial years of the company he used this strategy to be both a strong mentor and leader for his employees. Arjun Kharpal: Do you have a succession plan in place when you eventually do retire? Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei in a media interview 5 or 6 months ago said that the effect from the US sanctions has been less severe than he had feared. Specifically, in this section the leadership style of Huawei will be analysed, as well as its impact on the employee engagement and overall organisational performance, and findings and discussions will be presented. That some of these large technology companies just have too much power we caught. Us when they see how much effort we are putting into this that he is the! Rural areas in China in the negotiations their Jobs in their view Huawei was not dumping products... Shape, not Lost in Translation: Making the Data make Sense outperform! 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