Entering middle age, professional managers learn to “regress.”

Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “The power of machines” (ID: almosthuman2017) a>, the author is slightly fat, April.

Unlike many people, Zhang Yaqin has reached a level that others cannot reach in the first thirty years of his life. Although the roles of managers and professional managers have changed, child prodigies and scientists still seem to be the most eye-catching labels.

Microsoft has been involved in building Asia’s largest and strongest research institute for sixteen years, but he is at odds with changing the world. After five years in Baidu, as the “No. 2 person”, he did not master the core business and eventually chose to leave after several “vagabonds”.
  It is more like some kind of active “regression” to return to the university campus. … p

Opened his horizons outside the realm, making him feel satisfied with his mind, and at the same time, ruined his “ambition”. When it is impossible to change the frontal battlefield, how to keep the original intention unaffected becomes the next thing.

From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's

Finalizing Tsinghua University as the next stop in life, Zhang Yaqin didn’t hesitate much.

The operating mode in which major decisions can be made in five minutes has been with Zhang Yaqin for most of his life:
  From a nineteen-year-old love at first sight to a future partner, to the role of a scientist as a professional manager in a large company. ^

Unlike the scientist who respects cold reason, Zhang Yaqin always keeps a sense of emotion and even idealism in his bones. These not only created the arrogance of his decision, but also the curiosity buried from childhood “Conspiracy” prompted him to embark on cross-border and adventure trips again and again.

He is a world-class expert in digital imaging, multimedia, and the Internet. He is also the youngest academician in the 100-year history of IEEE. ^

He is the most important Chinese student of Bill Gates, and he also participated in the construction of Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific R & D system.Microsoft ’s first Chinese global vice president;

He is also the president of Baidu and the key to the growth of Baidu’s cloud business. ^

Being a first-class research institute, first-class technology and product, first-class manager, and first-class IT enterprise, Zhang Yaqin’s life is far richer and more exciting than other scientists.

However, in the eyes of many people, Zhang Yaqin has reached an unattainable height in the first thirty years of his life.
  From beginning to end, prodigy and scientist are still his most eye-catching labels. ^

For sixteen years at Microsoft, he has lost touch with changing the world. For five years at Baidu, the “second person” did not master the core business, and after several “vagrancy”, he eventually chose to leave.

Returning to the university campus is like a reincarnation.
  Evacuation of the main battlefield is more like some kind of active “regression.” He opened his eyes outside the realm and made him feel satisfied with his mind. At the same time, he also destroyed his “ambition”. ^

When it is impossible to change the frontal battlefield pattern, how to keep the original intention unaffected becomes the next thing. Under the sharp resume, he is still the engineer, scientist and mentor who has been kindly called “Yaqin” and has not even gotten angry.

1 Microsoft executives who have lost touch with changing the world

From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's

In 1998, Kaifu Li put a sincere invitation in front of Zhang Yaqin, who founded Microsoft China Research Institute and served as chief scientist.

At that time, only thirty-two years old was not only a world-class expert in the field of multimedia, but also the youngest academician of the American Electrical and Electronic Engineering Association for a century. He held dozens of US patents and dozens of technological innovations became international standards.

“Yaqin is definitely a technical genius,” said Kaifu Li.

To retain this genius, Jim Karns, owner of Sarnoff labs, sincerely stated that after retiring for a few years, he will be one of the most promising candidates for the CEO of the company, and also reminded him of his outstanding achievements from mainland China. Will still be coloredThe mainstream of glasses is ignored. However, it took only five minutes for Zhang Yaqin to decide to move from Snarnoff to Beijing Sigma Building.

“It’s not the numbers, it’s the feelings.” He later explained that this was not an ordinary job change, but a return to China.

Unlike the scientist who admired Leng Bingbing’s rationality, Zhang Yaqin always carried a sense of sensuality and even idealism in his bones, which also created his arbitrariness when he decided.

Under the leadership of Zhang Yaqin, Microsoft China Research Institute has not only upgraded from “China” to “Asia”, but has also been selected as the “World’s Hottest Lab” by the MIT Technology Review. There are 72 technologies used in Microsoft’s core products, such as software and hardware platforms such as Office XP, Office, Windows XP, X-box, and tablet computers.

Zhang Yaqin’s expertise in the field of multimedia ranks among the world’s first-class standards. Newly-developed research fields–wireless communication and digital entertainment–have also reserved sufficient technical ammunition for Microsoft’s global strategic shift in the mobile era. Many studies today seem quite forward looking.

From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's

They predicted the advent of the era of massive data according to Moore’s Law, and tried to propose “similarity” and “frame theory” to allow computers to understand images and videos, and solve the problem of multimedia search efficiency other than text. Among them, among many powerful image search systems, a face recognition system is also included.

By introducing the “Attention Model” in Windows Movie Maker (WMM), version 2.0 WMM can determine the importance of the picture by itself based on the content of the video, and realize the original without human intervention. The choice and combination of video materials.

They even equipped Windows and Office help files with translations at the time.

The great success of Microsoft Research Asia is largely due to the fusion of Zhang Yaqin’s two outstanding capabilities-technical insight and management capabilities. Regarding the former, Kaifu Li once summarized it as “thinking of ways to turn technology into products and being able to appreciate the ability of the market.”

Different from the thinking of scientists who first consider the significance of technology to science and industry, Zhang Yaqin, trained by Snarnoff Lab, has learned to look at the market benefits of the project itself from the perspective of customers. For example, what are the technological trends after three or five years? If the project is done, what benefits will it bring to users?

In Zhang Yaqin’s opinion, what he is doing at the Microsoft Asian Research Institute and many corporate research institutions are closely related to what he is doing. An important consideration when choosing a topic is how to increase the competitiveness of Microsoft products after success?

In the end, this technical insight and outstanding management skills sent Zhang Yaqin to Microsoft decision-making. In 2004, he was relocated to Microsoft headquarters to be responsible for the mobile and embedded business.

For Zhang Yaqin, who has been working for Microsoft’s acquired profits, this is the first time that he has actually made a product, which ultimately affects Microsoft ’s performance and even changes society. It is the product, not the research, which also means his professional manager Career opens new heights and possibilities.

In fact, both Nadella, Lu Qi, and Shen Xiangyang, who reached their respective representatives before the peak of Microsoft’s career, had fought in the most competitive and hot potato department (search), and later in the Promotions in Microsoft’s global architecture are also inseparable from the record of these key battles.

But perhaps more importantly, there was no Apple or Android in 2004. He and Microsoft stood at the forefront of the global smartphone industry. He and Microsoft phones had the opportunity to completely change the world.

As a world-class expert in the field of communications, Zhang Yaqin has seen that 3G mobile phones will completely change the way information is exchanged. It will become a communication device owned by everyone, a powerful and open platform that can do many things, such as access to music and images.

In 2005, Windows Mobile 2005 (codenamed Magneto) was officially released. The new version of the software not only greatly improves efficiency, but also adds some multimedia features. Microsoft is also a newbie in the field of mobile devices. Zhang Yaqin decided to quickly increase the weight of Windows Mobile 5.0 in the industry chain and expand its influence through the extensive establishment of industry alliances.

Based on these accurate judgments, Windows Mobile 5.0 quickly killed a bloody path in the fierce competition in the mobile market. One year after Magneto was launched, Microsoft ’s share of the smartphone market quickly rose from almost zero to close to a quarter, an event that industry analysts call a “watershed”.

“In front of such a genius, your frustration will be particularly strong.” Li Kaifu once commented on Zhang Yaqin.

However, Zhang Yaqin, who has just put his business on the right track and has a mature set of ideas for mobile and embedded development, was hurriedly transferred back to China in 2006 for fire fighting. At that time, Kaifu Lee entered the Chinese market on behalf of Google, and Microsoft and Google burned the war to China.

Zhang Yaqin even thought about moving the business to China, but in the end everything stopped abruptly with the launch of the returning aircraft. Zhang Yaqin’s years of MicrosoftTowards the first half of the peak, turn to the second half of the wave.

A few years later, Vanity Fair attributed the death of Microsoft’s mobile business to corporate bureaucracy in an in-depth report.

This is also one of the important reasons that led to the failure of many technologies of the Asia-Pacific R & D Group in charge of Zhang Yaqin. Since it is difficult to change, then leave. Microsoft lost ten years in the mobile era, and many people are tired, including Zhang Yaqin.

2 Wandering Baidu

The pursuit of the next excitement once again drives Zhang Yaqin to choose Baidu to create the next highlight moment. This choice, as always, took only five minutes, however, the highlights of the expectation did not appear.

In 2014, Baidu has made a big splash on O2O, claiming to invest 20 billion yuan as a universal platform for 360 lines. Zhang Yaqin, who joined as Baidu’s president, was appointed to head the emerging business group, leading the team to use O2O as a breakthrough to open up boundaries for Baidu. It is not difficult to predict the end of a professional manager with a technical background in this area that is not high in technology and not good at companies but has significant commercial implications.

Only one year later, Baidu adjusted its structure again. The new business group and user consumption business group in charge of Zhang Yaqin were adjusted the most seriously, and were basically divided up by other business groups. At the same time, Baidu set up a financial services business group to benchmark Ant Financial, becoming the fourth pole of Baidu’s business group.
From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's Although Zhang Yaqin also obtained new business from Baidu And team-Baidu big market, public relations and government relations team, but it turns out that this is just a hot potato that will sooner or later become thunderous. Soon, “Sell Hemophilia Posts” and “Wei Zexi Incident” broke out one after another, Baidu was pushed to the cusp of public opinion, the stock price plummeted, and Zhang Yaqin also encountered a dark moment in the career of a professional manager.

In the first two years of Baidu, Zhang Yaqin’s title was very high, his record is not good, and he is actually not the second person. When Baidu moved from Shigekura O2O to AI in 2016, the mobile medical division it was responsible for was abolished as a whole, and Baidu Doctor, once regarded by Zhang Yaqin as an important product and breakthrough for the department, was also officially shut down.

However, at the same time as the O2O business came to an end, Zhang Yaqin also began to usher in the spring of Baidu.

From November 2016, Baidu Cloud began to exert its strength. After two years, it was upgraded from the business department to the Intelligent Cloud Business Group (ACG). Zhang Yaqin’s foundational contribution to Baidu Cloud’s differentiated play is undoubted. To date, his most prominent Baidu label is still the key Mr. Baidu Cloud.

Starting to do cloud business now that the basic pattern of the IaaS market is set, for the nascent Baidu cloud team, sometimes it takes courage to believe. However, Zhang Yaqin is no stranger to this.

When Nadella was responsible for Microsoft’s cloud services, the cloud was also a small department with only a few people and was severely marginalized. Faced with the Amazon Cloud, which has billions of dollars in revenue each year, how can Microsoft, which is four years behind, compete with Amazon?

Nadella ’s strategy is: It ’s better than different. The Microsoft cloud is not a better cloud than Amazon, but a unique cloud for large enterprises, such as intelligentization, and a large number of tools and software placements.
From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's In Zhang Yaqin ’s view, the same is true for Baidu Cloud . He proposed the future strategy of Baidu Cloud-ABC, that is, AI + BigData + Cloud, the Trinity. Baidu won the cloud service list by output data analysis (B) and AI (A) capabilities. Baidu’s best AI is like bullets, and the cloud is the barrel that carries the commercial mission of delivering ammunition to the industry. This distinguishes Baidu from Amazon and Alibaba Cloud and other cloud service providers that mature IaaS and PaaS first, and then add AI capabilities one after another.

Three years later, when he heard that competitors also started to talk about ABC, Yin Shiming, general manager of Baidu Yun, who was led by Zhang Yaqin, recalled that it was the coolest day of the year. Is n’t it proof that we have contributed to the industry? “

However, the value of Zhang Yaqin lies not only in market insights on technology trends, but also in the rich 2B experience accumulated during his time as a senior executive at Microsoft.

It is not a simple matter for Baidu, a company that is essentially 2C, to open up its technology to make money. Without experience in serving non-Internet industries (such as government, finance, manufacturing), they don’t even know how to do solutions, how to do project management, and in-depth understanding of the industry is not enough.

“Good steel is used on the blade.” A former Baidu executive pointed out that Zhang Yaqin is familiar with many Microsoft processes, which can help Baidu quickly build models for relatively unfamiliar areas of enterprises, provide services to enterprises, and enable Baidu to obtain corresponding responses. Business services revenue.

Third-party market research firm IDC released the “China Public Cloud Service Market Semi-annual Tracking Report” in July 2018, which shows that Alibaba Cloud’s market share exceeds 45% and Tencent Cloud’s 10%. Among the top five cloud service providers, except for China Telecom, which is an operator, all others are Internet cloud service providers (Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Jinshan Cloud, and AWS). Baidu Cloud has not entered the top ten.

Baidu Cloud has made rapid progress in the fourth quarter of 2018 and is expected to become an important player for Internet cloud giants. Although entering the mainstream camp of China’s public cloud is just the beginning, Zhang Yaqin took Baidu Cloud to the wind.

3 The dilemma of the innovator

From the leader to the side coach, Zhang Yaqin's

For Silicon Valley executives with a technology background like Zhang Yaqin, Baidu chose roughly the same reason. In many ways, Baidu has the advantages of leading the world of artificial intelligence among Chinese companies. It has both advantages in data and expertise, and it is also one of the world’s largest companies investing in artificial intelligence technology.

However, these Silicon Valley executives have left Baidu for similar reasons.

Although giant innovations often face the contradiction between cash flow business and tomorrow’s new business, and know that it is often difficult to figure out the direction of change, they also underestimate the cultural characteristics of Chinese Internet companies, Baidu management and cultural genes Such as historical inertia to bring great resistance to the transformation, here even includes some things that are not familiar to Zhang Yaqin’s Silicon Valley executives, with a family color.

In fact, Baidu’s transformation is not only always slow, but also twists and turns, and even costly. Beginning in early 2017, with Lu Qi entering Baidu as a node, Baidu’s adjustments to the original organizational structure have marginalized some businesses not related to artificial intelligence. But after Lu Qi left, Baidu as a whole began to return to traditional core business. Each time the focus of the business swayed, a group of executives “cleared out.” Zhang Yaqin has repeatedly moved between different departments, or is he paying a price.

As a high price consideration, Baidu’sIndustry Research Institute (AIR) “, with autonomous driving, artificial intelligence + Internet of Things, and brain-like intelligence as key technological directions, to create a world-class innovative research and development platform.

The careers of the professional managers of the two top Internet companies in China and the United States have made Zhang Yaqin, but also to some extent destroyed his “ambition”-when he is difficult to do something to change the front battlefield pattern After the event, how to keep the idealist’s original intention from being affected by this outside world becomes the next thing.

Returning to campus and becoming a scientist is more like some kind of active “regression.”

There is no longer the pressure and restraint of commercialization and KPIs, nor is it overwhelmed by uncontrollable factors. Idealists can chase new technologies in a more autonomous and free way, such as the master of artificial intelligence technologies-autonomous driving.

At this point, he wants to train more international CTOs and architects for the age of artificial intelligence at the best universities in China.

“Academic has always been my point of interest, both in the past and in the future. When the future of academic and industrial integration is fully integrated, I believe my enthusiasm will be more stimulated.” Speaking of the next stop, Zhang Yaqin was full of expectations again.