"From the master's degree to the end of 1998, I have been engaged in engineering and technical work. Since I became the general manager of A.O. Smith at 1999, I have become a so-called leader. " When he first became the leader of a company, Ding Wei was a little uncomfortable. "I also have the common problems of engineers and technicians such as' self-righteousness' and' not listening to others'."
At this time, the headquarters of American A.O. Smith Company also thought that Ding Wei's "team spirit" was not enough. One day, Ding Wei's overseas boss told him, "There is something wrong with your behavior." After that, Ding Wei was forced to take part in a "closed training". In this training, Ding Wei's biggest gain is "understanding that collective decision-making is much less risky than individual decision-making". For example, in a discussion activity, 24 people who participated in the training were divided into 6 groups with 4 people in each group. In front of them is a box of matches, a bag of bread, a knife and other survival tools in the field, and then each group should rank these survival tools in order of importance. "I stubbornly believe that the competition must come first, so I had a heated debate with other members of the same group." Ding Wei said. The authoritative answer of the field survival experts released later showed that matches were not the first, but the last. "Through a series of similar activities, I learned about the personality defects exposed in management work." Ding Wei, who returned to China headquarters in Nanjing, became much more modest. He also respected the opinions of his superiors and referred to the feedback from his subordinates when making decisions.
Force subordinates to "brainwash"
The corporate culture of American A.O. Smith Company is not superstitious about "airborne troops", but tends to promote talents from within the company. However, after these elites with outstanding personal abilities take up leadership positions, the conceit brought by outstanding personal performance in the past will form obstacles in management.
Ding Wei, who has tasted the sweetness of "brainwashing", has been letting middle and senior managers of A.O. Smith attend similar training overseas for several years, thus enabling them to achieve excellent management. Since 1998, when A.O. Smith's Nanjing factory was put into production, A.O. Smith appeared serious "acclimatization" in design, production and marketing channels in the first two or three years when he entered the China water heater market, and the company suffered serious losses. For example, in terms of production design, American consumers' family villas have a large area, and water heaters can reach several hundred liters or more, while China consumers usually only need water heater products with a capacity of tens of liters to 100 liters. When A.O. Smith put a large water heater designed according to the prototype of American products on the China market, naturally there was no market. At the same time, in the United States, more than 95% A.O. Smith water heaters are sold by large wholesalers through the new real estate market. However, the water heater market in China is completely a retail market, and there are various complicated sales channels such as regional distributors, large household appliance chain stores and supermarkets.
Many foreign managers in A.O. Smith's factory don't know much about the current situation of China's specific consumer market, but they are often opinionated. After Ding Wei sent executives from production, R&D and sales departments overseas for brainwashing training, they began to sit together calmly and discuss solutions. With the concerted efforts of various departments in Qi Xin, a set of design, production and marketing promotion schemes was discussed. In 2000, A.O. Smith vigorously launched an "automatic energy-saving water heater" specially developed for the China market, and with the correct marketing channel construction, the market share has been rising since then. At present, A.O. Smith has ranked second in the water heater market in China. Ding Wei is very proud to say that the second phase factory invested by American A.O. Smith Company in Nanjing will be completed and put into operation this year (2007), which can double the annual output of A.O. Smith water heaters.
Promote the construction of values
"It is not enough for corporate cultural values to stay in slogans, but also to be guaranteed by a series of systems in order to truly turn them into actions." Ding Wei said. At present, the company spends nearly 4 million yuan/year on the construction of corporate culture, and there are a series of systems to ensure the recruitment, retention and training of people in the company: every new employee will receive two pamphlets: "Looking for a better way through research-the history of A.O. Smith" and "The guiding principles of A.O. Smith". "We entrust a third party to supervise. If employees find any violation of the guiding principles, they can call the' Integrity Help Hotline'. If something violates corporate values, the company can solve the problem in time. " No matter which management trainee he is, he should know the company's historical story and guidelines in the first three months, and introduce his feelings in combination with his own work case and practice six months later; After two years of practical work, many people can directly enter middle management positions. Since 2004, "value promotion" has become the most influential and popular activity of A.O. Smith Company.