On May 11th, Huawei ’s Ministry of Public and Government Affairs released the interview summary of Ren Zhengfei ’s acceptance of the South China Morning Post in the Huawei Voice Community. March 24. Source of this article: Xinsheng Community, original title: “Ren Zhengfei interviewed by
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Tan Weier (Editor-in-Chief of South China Morning Post) : Hello, Mr. Ren, thank you very much for accepting Hong Kong Interview with South China Morning Post. The Chinese often say that “things are divided into two.” This interview was conducted in the context of the spread of the epidemic. The good thing is that I finally got the opportunity to talk with President Ren. Unfortunately, it is impossible to face each other during the epidemic. But because of the advanced communication technology, this is a brand new attempt. Thank you for your communication with President Ren through the new technology.
Now the new coronary pneumonia epidemic is spreading all over the world, and the outbreak in the mainland is slightly controlled. Speaking of the epidemic, please talk about whether the epidemic has a great impact on Huawei’s production? How did Huawei respond to this outbreak? Tell us about the latest situation.
Ren Zhengfei: The impact certainly exists, but the world is always changing, and we have to adapt to this change. This change has a little impact on us. The growth is not as rapid as before. We have resumed more than 90% of normal production and R & D. During the Spring Festival, we have more than 20,000 scientists, experts, engineers working overtime, why? To keep up with time, and before the United States may increase sanctions against us, we have been working hard for the continuity of production.
Our company started to work formally on February 1st. From the initial 70%, 80%, 90%, 90% and so on … gradually restored production capacity. However, in terms of material supply, the supply of materials is multinational and cross-company, and difficulties exist. Many small companies and factories in China do not have epidemic prevention conditions and have difficulties in starting construction. We will help to solve protective equipment (such as masks, etc.) , sanitary conditions The problem is to encourage the local government to let them start work, and the supply of parts can keep up. Second, give reasonable incentives to truck drivers who deliver goods. Truck drivers do not have food on the road, and give each person a freeA box with coffee or tea in a thermos, yogurt, sandwiches and masks. There are tents where truck drivers unload their cargo to let them eat, so truck drivers have a lot of enthusiasm to help us transport the goods. Third, the transportation cost of international air transportation is very high. Now many flights are stopped, and the freight of air transportation has increased by 3 to 5 times. We need to increase some expenses to protect customer demand and supply. Therefore, the entire industrial chain has an impact on us, but it is not so big, and it can still guarantee the supply.
There are a lot of maintenance personnel in order to ensure smooth communication. They cannot be isolated at home. They must run to maintain the network all over the world. The more serious the epidemic in the world is, the more network services are needed, and they have not stopped. We provide them with better sanitary protection conditions, and also increase the subsidy. The domestic subsidy of 2,000 yuan per day and the subsidy of 150 US dollars per day overseas provide them with good conditions to protect themselves when serving customers.
Except Hubei, we have almost no employees with pneumonia worldwide, and neither Sakata nor Songshan Lake have appeared. And the infected people were cured quickly, mainly in the Wuhan area.
Tan Weier: It ’s very rare. You just mentioned that you must race against time to catch up with the time. Before the US sanctions, scientists rush to work before the US sanctions are further strengthened. Can you tell me what the new thing is for scientists to rush to work? Compared with the US sanctions, is the epidemic severely affected or will the US sanctions affect Huawei more seriously in the future?
Ren Zhengfei : US sanctions have affected us, but not much; the epidemic has affected us, too. The impact is minimal and can be carried over.
Tan Weier: What is the new thing about rushing to work just now?
Ren Zhengfei : As a company, we survive without problems, but we still have questions about whether we can continue to lead the world. After all, the United States is the most developed country in science and technology in the world, and its talents, education, etc. are the most developed in all aspects. If we do not have the support of these development factors in the United States, we cannot continue to lead the world. In the next three to five years, we will make these supporting elements ourselves, otherwise we will not be able to continue to lead the world. Therefore, our investment in these areas is greater than before.
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Zheng Shangren (Editor of Business News, “South China Morning Post”) : Just now you said that you are competing to restore productivity, please ask the epidemic for sales to Huawei Is there any impact on the equipment demand with customers? The epidemic situation in China has stabilized recently, but the epidemic situation abroad has developed very violently. This is the second wave. For an international company like Huawei, how do we face the second wave?
Ren Zhengfei : First, China ’s epidemic situation has stabilized, and our development may accelerate. Everyone also saw the role of new technologies in preventing the spread of the epidemic, including telemedicine, teleeducation, teleconferencing, telecommuting … you can see the importance of the network. Everyone urgently wants to improve the network, and we must really meet the needs of the network. Second, even though western countries are now affected by the spread of certain epidemics, quite a few of our projects are capacity expansion projects and capacity enhancement projects. These projects are not entirely in the wild, and may be completed in the computer room. Therefore, we have not been greatly affected by customer service and development. There must be an impact, but not so big, we have a solution.
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Zheng Shangren: Just now you also mentioned US sanctions. In your personal entrepreneurial journey, you have borrowed many American companies and even the experience and wisdom of American politics. But in the past two years, the friction between the United States and China has intensified. The United States is a bit of a situation that has caused Huawei to die. Do you think the United States is an enemy or a friend?
Ren Zhengfei : If we do n’t want to die, we must learn from the best people; even if the other party opposes us, we must learn from him, otherwise how can we advance? Technology companies must die if they are not advanced. Therefore, study hard if you don’t want to die.
Huawei sanctions are just the opinions of a few Americans. They do not represent the entire American people or American companies. Our cooperation with American companies is still very serious, and we sincerely strengthen cooperation with the US technology industry, American companies … There are a lot of scientific papers on the Internet, and the papers are open all over the world. Let’s read them too. There can be no parochism, but we must seriously learn from the United States because it is the most powerful.
Zheng Shangren: Your modest attitude is very admirable. From a long-term perspective, is friction between China and the United States an inevitable trend, and is Huawei becoming a chess player between China and the United States? ?
Ren Zhengfei : First of all, I do n’t know much about the conflict between China and the United States, there is no contradiction between them, and I do n’t know very well. What we study is how Huawei can survive. The only way for Huawei to survive is to learn from all the advanced teachers. Confucius said “three people must have our teacher”. Less than three people also have our teachers. We should learn from them and we will have the possibility to move forward Sex. Narrow populism and narrow national feelings will cause us to fall behind.
Our entire company has more than 200,000 employees from top to bottom. Today, you can’t hear an anti-American slogan. Everyone is seriously studying the advanced of the United States. Several recent articles from the US Department of Defense, “5G Ecology: Risks and Opportunities for the Department of Defense,” and “Matisse’s Command on Military Deployment” are posted on the company’s Internet, and we think it is well written. They can deeply understand how to hit us, and we can understand how to continue to make ourselves a little better.
Zheng Shangren : When you started your business very early, you went to the United States to learn from the experience of American business, including politically and the US Constitution. You think there are many lessons for you. In the past two or three decades, based on your own experience, which event or time period do you think contributed to the vicious circle between Huawei and the United States?
Ren Zhengfei : There is no such time period. Because we thought that the United States was very strong from the beginning, and we learned from Silicon Valley companies how they struggled. We came to work hard. The US legal system is also very sound. We also work hard to learn how the US legal system can regulate our own companies. The separation of the three powers in the US is also very proper. Our company should avoid having to make a final decision. These are the foundations that contributed to the good development of our company today. There are no milestones in the development process. How to get to today, we are also confused, and may be confused to tomorrow.
In short, don’t give up self-effort and self-criticism at any time. The biggest advantage of our company is self-criticism. Find an employee to tell him where he is doing well? He couldn’t say a word, but let him say where he can’t, and he can’t stop talking. Because the management team only needs to say that they are good, they are stepped down; as long as they say that they are not good, everyone understands that the more they say that they are not good, the better. As long as he knows that he is not good, he will definitely change, this is Huawei’s culture-“self-criticism.” The United States is a model of self-criticism. The plot of American movies has always set the US government to lose. Now he is working while impeaching Trump. This is the self-correction mechanism. We have to learn these mechanisms and we cannot let one person make the final decision, otherwise the company will be very dangerous in the future.As long as the United States is good, we will learn it, and it will not conflict with our feelings. It does not matter.
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Tan Weier: What you said about studying in the United States is very interesting and interesting. Can you share, how do you personally transfer good things from the United States to Chinese soil? Many people say that some things on Chinese soil cannot be copied from the West, but Huawei is a different example. American culture, such as the separation of powers and the legal system you mentioned … How to cultivate a Huawei on Chinese soil, is there a place for ideological struggle?
Ren Zhengfei : There is no internal ideological struggle. At the beginning of our company ’s reform, IBM consultants put forward a condition “the result of the reform is to wipe out your own power” during the consultation. They made it very clear that the reform put all power into the process, and the process has power The supreme leader has no power and can only make rules. Therefore, when I changed to the final result, I became a “puppet”. The more I am a “puppet,” the more I prove that the company’s reform is successful.
After learning the process from the West, every link has power. If you want to cross the power to intervene, you can only change the rules. Changing the rules is our power, but the rules ca n’t be changed if it ’s changed, and it can only be changed after repeated discussions. Like American legislation, it has not been able to stand up for many years. The more noisy the more, the more noisy the more realistic. What may be ideal is often not achievable, and what is discussed and achieved is often realized slowly. Therefore, the highest-level leaders within us, and the higher-level leaders have less power, are granted through authorization. These are our experiences in the reform process.
Although Western countries invented process power, Western companies still put their power in the CEO ’s hands. The CEO is in charge of everything. What if the CEO dozes off and does not answer the phone? And many of our things, we do not know the cycle is over, there can be small cycle, medium cycle, large cycle, self-cycle optimization, different cycles have different processes, different power distribution, different supervision mechanisms. In these respects, we are seriously studying the world’s advanced management experience.
Zheng Shangren: Just mentioned the so-called “foreign for Chinese” concept. Huawei’s shareholding structure is also a very special case. Among the world’s enterprises, except for John Lewis Partnership, a long-established British department store, such a structure is rarely seen. When you first started a business, on what basis did you think of this structure? Can you share it?