[Feng Qitang original | Do not compile or pass on, have a source and evidence, share the entrepreneurial legend of the business world, and interpret the management wisdom of the big guys. 】
Resources:
Tian Tao is the author of "Will Huawei be the Next to Fall", "Huawei Interview", "Concept · System · People", Wu Chunbo "Huawei Has No Secrets", Tian Tao and Yin Zhifeng edited "Huawei Series Stories - Accumulation and Thin Development", etc.
Huawei, as described by the president of a multinational company, is the only company in the world that makes good use of Chinese and non-Chinese talents.
Ren Zhengfei also proudly said: Today, everyone sees that Huawei has a lot of successes, but in fact, a very important point of success is foreign scientists...... Many foreign scientists are working for Huawei.
His name is Renato lombardi (Chinese translated as Lombardi), a Italy person, a well-known microwave technology research expert, after joining Huawei, the job name is 900004.
As the fourth foreign employee of Huawei Research Institute Europe and the first foreign employee of Italy Milan Microwave Branch, Lombardi is proud of his Huawei label and likes to show others his Huawei ID card and introduce his 900004 job number.
01
First impressions of Huawei
Prior to joining Huawei, Lombardi worked at Siemens.
In 2004, Lombardi approached Huawei for a project in Cambodia that involved the application of microwave technology, and was responsible for selling Siemens' microwave products to Huawei.
One of Huawei's marketing triads is to invite customers to visit Huawei's headquarters, and as Huawei's partner, Lombardi also visited Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters soon after.
I have to say that Ren Zhengfei's headquarters of Huawei Bantian (the full name should be Banxuegang Base, which includes the three administrative villages of Bantian, Xuexiang and Gangtou) built at a cost of 10 billion yuan has shocked countless customers and partners, and Lombardi is no exception.
After visiting the "tall" F1 exhibition hall, inspecting Huawei's manufacturing plants, and understanding Huawei's development trajectory from the grassroots, Lombardi sighed: Huawei is not a Chinese company in the general sense!
Lombardi also found that Huawei has a small number of manufacturing employees, but a very large proportion of R&D personnel, indicating that Huawei is more focused on long-term innovation and development.
After the visit, Lombardi made a report to his colleagues at Siemens, telling them that we will see Huawei grow in the next few years or even months!
The positive first impression laid the groundwork for Lombardi's subsequent joining of Huawei.
02
Joining Huawei: An interview is not an interview
If Huawei wants to develop its own microwave technology, it needs top research talents, and Lombardi, an expert from a major Western technology company, obviously meets the requirements.
However, if such foreign experts want to leave their hometown, where they have lived for decades, join Huawei, and become Huawei strivers,
High salaries and high positions alone are obviously not enough.
However, Ren Zhengfei's open talent strategy is not to "build a nest to attract phoenixes", but to "build a nest where there are phoenixes".
Therefore, Huawei wants to build a research center in Milan, Italy, where Lombardi is located.
At the end of 2007, Huawei contacted Lombardi to make an appointment to meet, which was also an invitation to join Huawei for an interview.
However, this is an interview that is not an interview.
It was a special interview, and there was not much back and forth about the various conditions of joining such as treatment and rank, but it was like a planning discussion between two executives about the preparation of a new business.
At that time, the director of Huawei's European Research Institute and Lombardi, talked eloquently about the business plan of Huawei's microwave product line, Huawei's establishment of its own microwave R&D capability center, and even where should the R&D center be located? How many people to recruit, how much investment is needed, how much time is needed, etc.
Although it was the first time they met, the two agreed that Huawei's microwave R&D center should be built in Milan, because world-renowned companies such as Siemens, Aaron, and Ericsson all have microwave R&D and sales organizations in Milan, and the local area has rich microwave talent resources and complete ecological conditions.
It was this atmosphere that made Lombardi decide to leave Siemens and join Huawei to start a new life.
Huawei, Milan Microwave Research Center, was officially established.
03
The appointment of Huawei executives is not to listen to reports, but to give support
At Siemens, Lombardi goes to meet with senior leaders, usually to report back.
But at Huawei, Lombardi found that he went to Huawei's headquarters not because the leaders wanted to listen to his work reports, but because the leaders asked him one by one: "How do you need us to support you?" ”
In addition, after meeting with senior leaders, Lombardi will be told by other colleagues on the phone that "the job assignment has been received".
Since then, every time Lombardi goes on a business trip to the Shenzhen headquarters, he will be "interviewed" by many senior leaders, and finally he will always ask: "How can I support you?" ”
Of course, Lombardi may not have known it at the time, but this is Huawei's front-line artillery culture, allowing people who can hear the sound of artillery to make decisions!
When Lombardi was preparing to build the laboratory, in order to let customers see the strength of Huawei's microwave technology team in Milan, Huawei very much hoped that Huawei could put the POC test after Huawei won the bid for the Vodafone project in Milan.
But the problem is that the Milan research center has just been built, the office has just been renovated, and the laboratory has not yet been established, so it stands to reason that both Huawei and customers will choose to place the test site in other laboratories that are more mature.
As a result, Lombardi approached Vodafone and asked the customer to take the initiative to propose to Huawei that he choose to test in Milan.
The results went well, and the test location was determined in the Milan laboratory.
Since then, the Milan team, regardless of weekends and days and nights, has fought continuously and successfully passed the test of customers, and fired the first shot of Huawei Microwave Research Center in Milan.
Afterwards, Lombardi explained to the president of the product line why he took a shortcut to pull the test to Milan.
Unexpectedly, the president said that Huawei had already decided to put the test in Milan because of his joining!
It turns out that this is Huawei's support for the front line.
It is this culture of Huawei that makes Lombardi, a foreigner and a research-oriented executive parachuted into a large Western factory, feel Huawei's support, firm his choice, and find the most suitable way to cooperate with himself and Huawei's headquarters and other teams.
04
Adapting to Huawei: An Italy Fellow who struggles more than Huawei people
Many people who come out of Western manufacturers to Huawei will have a long sense of discomfort in the face of the cross-cultural differences in Huawei's striver culture, and even have to leave Huawei in the end.
But Lombardi doesn't seem to have this sense of disobedience at all, and has even been jokingly called him "very Huawei" by some Chinese colleagues.
Lombardi's recipe is simple, two words, "adapt".
First, start with knowing and understanding.
Starting from understanding China, understanding Huawei, understanding Huawei's culture and way of thinking, can we communicate better.
Lombardi's approach is to take a look around the area and experience the traditional culture of the country whenever he travels to China.
Lombardi's experience in adapting to Huawei's culture is that learning some basic Chinese, especially not eating Western food, but learning to eat Chinese food, is an effective way to understand Chinese colleagues.
Lombardi doesn't speak Chinese, but he can speak hundreds of Chinese words, which is his "survival tool".
The second important point is "Don't complain, smile more, and look at the positive side of things." ”
Accustomed to the systems and processes of large Western manufacturers, many foreigners can't adapt to various problems in Huawei's growth process, and it is common to get angry and slap the table.
But none of that, Lombardi doesn't have, he's always smiling.
A colleague asked, "Why don't you ever get angry?" ”
Lombardi replied, "Huawei invited us to find problems, make suggestions, and solve problems. Any company will have all kinds of problems in the development process, and Huawei is no exception. If there is no problem, then what else do we need to do? ”
Look at the positive side of things, which is also Lombardi's trick to adapt to Huawei.
Some Huawei people commented on Lombardi: "An Italy Fellow who struggles more than Huawei people."
After joining Huawei, Lombardi always arrived at the institute earlier and returned home later.
After dinner with his family, he usually turns on his computer and continues working.
Lombardi spends about 140 days a year traveling around the globe. When I am on a business trip, whether on a plane or on a train, I turn on my computer whenever I have time.
"I'm thinking about it all the time, and whenever I have an idea, I'm going to write it down. ”
"I really enjoyed this job and never thought of drawing a clear line between work and life because that's my life."
Lombardi believes that he is fortunate to be able to contribute his new ideas and ideas to Huawei, and to achieve common achievements with Huawei.
Ren Zhengfei said, "Huawei has not only done a good job in 5G, but also done a good job in microwave, and the two together have done the best in the world".
Lombardi said with a smile that some people say that Huawei people are full of "wolf nature", but fortunately, they are also "wolves".
"Building a nest where there is a phoenix", Huawei set up a research institute for Lombardi in Milan, integrated into Huawei with Lombardi, and became a foreign Fellow who struggled more than Huawei people, which is probably only Ren Zhengfei's Huawei can do.
Compared with Huawei, which is "the only one that can use Chinese and non-Chinese talents well", why can't there be a Jobs in China?
There are two reasons for this:
First, Qian Xuesenzhi asked: "Why can't domestic universities cultivate outstanding talents?" ”
The second is what Ren Zhengfei mentioned: "Why can't Chinese chickens be left on Chinese soil to lay eggs?" ”
So, how can Huawei retain Chinese talent and attract overseas talent?
In the words of Professor Tian Tao, because Ren Zhengfei is a master of human nature.
It is precisely because of Ren Zhengfei's insight and control of human nature that Huawei has an open striver-oriented culture that is "striver-oriented" and "will never treat Lei Feng badly".
In essence, Huawei's striver culture is based on human nature.
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