Will Huawei Fall Next Recently, CITIC Publishing House published Will Huawei Fall Next, which caused quite a stir. The authors of this book are Professor Tian Tao and Professor Wu Chunbo from China Renmin University. Around this book, business, management and the public have had many discussions with Ren and Huawei. In the early and middle period of writing this book, Xu Yisheng, editor and director of the review department of this newspaper, participated in the outline discussion and data collection of this book. When this book sparked a heated discussion, this newspaper invited two authors to have a conversation with Huawei about this book. "Where is Huawei worthy of Excellence?" China Business News: This book "Will Huawei fall next?" I remember the earliest book called Excellence and Loneliness. Why did you change it to the current name? Tian Tao: After the first draft of this book was completed, my collaborator Professor Wu Chunbo gave this information to Huawei's rotating CEO Xu Zhijun. His first reaction was that the name of the book was too empty, and Huawei was not outstanding enough. This is a great blow to us. We think from this that although this book reveals the logical factors of Huawei's success in the past 25 years, what is the root of this logic? It is nothing more than the persistence and victory of core values. What do values depend on to maintain? Self-criticism-self-criticism is fundamental. Whether Huawei will collapse or not depends on whether it can criticize itself for a long time around its core values. So it formed the present title of this book. Daily: Is the first impression of this title alarmist? 1.5 million Huawei employees can accept such a hypothetical language about "death"? I bet that if you write about most domestic enterprises with such a title, you will be accused and even sued. Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: Ren said that "hypothesis" is the greatest way of thinking of human beings. For more than 20 years, Ren has always assumed that Huawei will close down tomorrow, and the nerves of Huawei employees have long been rough by the crisis theory. This organization has ideals and even delusions, but it is not superstitious or illusory. Not many people know that Huawei's Shenzhen Longgang base used to be a chaotic cemetery, and Nanjing Software Park is next to the Martyrs Cemetery. Among Chinese businessmen with strong feng shui complex, Ren and Huawei are very hard and different. At the recent international consultation meeting of Huawei, a British consultant was expected to blurt out: "Huawei in 20 years' time, I can tell you two words:' grave'." There are more than 30 Huawei global consultants and senior management personnel. Huawei's German consultant, a former Daimler-Benz executive, commented on this: "Mr. Ren can think that Huawei will live stronger in 20 years, and Germany can have today because our nation has always had a sense of crisis. Huawei is very similar to us." Therefore, the discussion about "when Huawei will die" and "whether it will fall" in the book is believed that it will not cause any resentment and turmoil among10.5 million China people. Is the crisis theory "wolf coming"? Daily: So in your opinion, what is the background of Ren's strong sense of crisis? Could it be an allegorical cry of "wolf coming" to unite internal forces? Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: We said in the book that "a history of Huawei's development is a history of crisis management", which is undoubtedly based on sufficient and rich stories. Perhaps in the near future, someone will show Huawei's hardships and struggles to readers in the form of cases. Here, I only explain the source of Ren's sense of crisis from the extremely unique endowment of the information industry. The history of global information industry in the past decades shows a "death race". Unknown newcomers will always find new business models, thus destroying one or several centuries-old aristocrats. When the upstarts no longer have innovation and progress, other challengers will quickly occupy the stage, and their cruelty and even tragic degree can only be felt by the witnesses. Ren is, of course, a witness to great history. Coupled with his innate sense of mission and the pursuit of idealism, it is impossible for him not to feel the pressure of crisis all the time. Over time, he formed the mindset of "ideal spirit and crisis consciousness" and transmitted it to all aspects of Huawei culture. Daily: So, what is the core factor of Huawei's success? Is it a sense of crisis or self-criticism? Some people think that the core of Ren's management thought is pessimism, and Huawei is the victory of pessimism. Is this correct? Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: Pessimists can't organize and lead, which is the character element of poets and artists. Businessmen can be anxious, but they must be nervous. Excellent entrepreneurs are Don Quixote-style idealists. Ren is good at telling stories. He has been drawing cakes for employees for more than 20 years. He is a "master of deception" with inflammatory and infectious remarks, but he is sincerely "fooling" his followers and himself, thus igniting the flame of top-down struggle and finally turning one hypothesis into reality. Most people who have listened to Ren's speech have a feeling that you are listening to a person who is full of philosophy and even has a strong literary cell. Can a person with this personality be a pessimist? The word "hedging" is very suitable for Ren. If he is a pure idealist, he will be paranoid if he has no contrary worrying thinking or crisis consciousness to "hedge". We know that Ren suffers from depression, so he is obviously not a naive optimist. Ren's management thought always stirs and balances between the two poles, which is a major feature of his way of thinking. We call it "the victory of dialectics". The last chapter of this book systematically discusses this. "Self-criticism" cannot be defined as the core factor of Huawei's success, it is just a tool. In the final analysis, Huawei's success is the core values and value system. "Common Sense and Truth" Daily: Are the core values three sentences repeatedly emphasized in this book, "Customer-oriented, Struggler-oriented, and Long-term Hard Work"? You call it "common sense and truth". Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: Yes, this is the true soul of Huawei. "Customer-centered" is the "customer is God" of westerners. Unfortunately, with the decline of industrial capitalist culture and the rapid development of western financial capitalism and technological capitalism, the concept of "customer first" seems to be outdated and neglected, and "shareholder first" and "technology worship" have become popular trends. Huawei, on the other hand, regards an ancient common sense as truth and spreads and implements it to the extreme with great enthusiasm and willpower. In our book, Huawei's "God worship", that is, "customers are God", is a vivid embodiment of this. In the final analysis, apart from the "gray theory", Ren didn't have much innovation in management thought, but this just proves that Huawei and himself are on the right path: why should we be creative and develop a set of so-called "independent" management thoughts? To follow common sense is to stick to the truth. What is the common sense of commercial organizations? That is: whoever is willing to pay for your product is the only value of your existence, and who is the "god" who cannot be "two". Unfortunately, whether in the East or the West, many enterprises often forget or distort common sense. Who is the boss? "Who is the grandfather and who is the grandson" was originally an ironclad natural law, but in actual business practice, it has always been subverted. After 20 years of development, Huawei has become the second in the world. Ren Zheng Fei still said, "Keep your eyes on the customer and your ass on the boss". This shows Huawei's persistence and persistence in "common sense is truth". Second, it also shows that Huawei has problems in this regard and must vigorously correct them. Daily: I've heard you talk about Ren's "leading theory" before. Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: The "leader" of Huawei's management philosophy is the core values, and the "leader" of Huawei's organizational philosophy is "customer-centered". The first line of customers and the market is the "dragon head", which commands the dragon body and the dragon tail. Ideological and organizational changes must be based on the swing of the "dragon head" and follow the changes of the "dragon head" to "criticize" and adjust the "dragon body and dragon tail". If the dragon's body is bloated and the dragon's tail is heavy, it is necessary to "slim down" or "cut off the tail" with great pain. Daily: Based on the "leader" in the front line, we can better understand the meaning of "Struggler-oriented, long-term hard struggle". Tian Tao and Wu Chunbo: Right. It is valuable to struggle around the reality and potential needs of customers, otherwise, the "fat meat" will be removed. On the contrary, with the correct direction of struggle and high customer satisfaction, teams and individuals should be encouraged materially and spiritually, so that the "fat" accumulated on the "dragon body" becomes "muscle" and the "muscle" is concentrated in the "leading" part.