In the case database of Harvard Business School, there are only two enterprises in China, one of which is Lenovo. In this case named "China Science and Technology Miracle-Lenovo in China", Harvard University economists believe that among all the developing China countries in the world, no country has a world-renowned information technology enterprise, except China and Lenovo.
From 17, from a communication room to a modern office building, from 1 1 technicians to tens of thousands of employees, from the initial capital of 200,000 yuan to the annual turnover of more than 28 billion yuan, from sitting in the last row of foreign product agents to becoming the first in Asia-Pacific, from
From obscurity to becoming the "leading boss" in the domestic computer industry, Lenovo Group has created a miracle of enterprise development in China.
Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo, and Yang, president and CEO of Lenovo, both summed up Lenovo's success in two words: "innovation". They all stressed that it was continuous innovation that created the "Lenovo miracle".
"Without mechanism innovation, all innovations are scattered gold and broken silver"
Liu Chuanzhi often talks about his "house theory" with great interest: enterprise management is like a house-the management at the operational level is the "roof", the management at the process level is the "fence" and the management at the grassroots level is the "foundation". Only by tamping the foundation can the whole house be built. "Tamp the soil and sprinkle another handful of soil."
So what is the "foundation" of the enterprise? Liu Chuanzhi believes that it is a mechanism and concept. He said, "Why do some enterprises have a good idea once, but not next time?" ? Because they don't have a good mechanism and a developing idea, which is the source of good ideas. "Liu Chuanzhi believes that all innovations are based on mechanism innovation. Without this line, all innovations are scattered gold and silver.
Yang also believes that the conversion mechanism is the basis for developing core technologies. Only good mechanism and management can ensure the continuous production of new technologies and the continuous transformation to new products, and then continue to develop into a large-scale and powerful enterprise.
As early as 1984, Lenovo won the decision-making power, personnel power and financial power from its superior unit, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and then completed the docking of planned economy and market economy in several steps, realizing the "soft landing" of this large state-owned enterprise by changing the fundamental mechanism. 1994, Lenovo, as a state-owned and private system, creatively set up an employee stock ownership meeting, distributing 35% of the dividend rights to each employee, and converting them into shares in 200 years, so that employees can truly become the owners of the enterprise, which is the driving force for Lenovo to take off again. In Lenovo's history, this time changes in equity was called "35% is worth a monument".
After the transformation of enterprise management mechanism, Lenovo began to improve its unique management concept, which Liu Chuanzhi called "three elements of my management". The first is to build a team, with a prestigious and passionate leadership team to motivate employees at all levels; Secondly, make a strategy to let everyone know the vision, goal and development route of the enterprise; The third is to lead the team, so that enterprises can obtain a steady stream of talents and succeed others. These three elements saved Lenovo from many losses and promoted Lenovo's continuous success.
"Technological innovation is the most dazzling pearl"
Liu Chuanzhi is a figurative person. He compares all kinds of innovations to pearls, and the management concept is like a golden thread, stringing them into a beautiful necklace.
The first pearl is to dredge the logistics system before 1996, and launch a "price war" to reduce inventory. As we all know, computers, like fresh fruits, can't be put more. The longer and more the backlog, the weaker the competitiveness. Lenovo is the first computer in China with a price below 10,000 yuan, which broke the situation that foreign companies dominated the market in the past and soon became the first computer seller in China.
At the same time, Lenovo realizes that home appliances can easily become price wars, so it is necessary to increase the gross profit of products. This gave birth to the second pearl-the development path of "trade technology". To improve gross profit, we should start with technology; What should I do if I want to engage in technology, but I don't have the funds and I don't know the market? Only by engaging in "trade", that is, scale distribution, can we master a series of basic management skills such as market development, logistics operation, fund management, sales network construction and after-sales service through "trade", and then form scale manufacturing, that is, "work". The full combination of "trade" and "industry" has opened up all links of changing technology into currency and promoted technological innovation. In this way, "weak" Lenovo not only survived in the highly competitive IT market at that time, but also reached the scale of 1000 billion yuan, forming a research and development team of1000 people.
Then, Lenovo turned "enterprise-driven" into "market-driven", pricing at any time according to market changes, forming an "elastic production and supply model" that even suppliers have to constantly adjust. Yang is always in high spirits when he talks about this pioneering work of "combining safety inventory with make-to-order production": "This inspiration comes from the relationship between computer CPU, memory and cache. The user's order is CPU, which needs quite fast speed; Customization is like memory, which is slower; Therefore, the varieties that users often buy on a large scale are first produced in large quantities and put into safe inventory, just like a cache area, where more than 80% of orders are placed, which can not only meet the number of products immediately, but also meet the personality required by users. "
If the elastic model is the third pearl, then the fourth pearl is the innovation of organizational structure. At first, all departments only emphasized their respective rights and responsibilities, and even the planning department could set the price without consulting the marketing department. Since 1994, Lenovo has integrated more than a dozen departments into a microcomputer business unit integrating production, supply and marketing, which is the predecessor of Lenovo Computer Company. At that time, 29-year-old Yang became the general manager of this department, and decisively turned direct sales into distribution mode to turn the tide and resist the "big soldiers" of foreign computer companies.
In this necklace, technological innovation is undoubtedly the most dazzling pearl. From focusing only on typing, computing and playing games to advocating "application computers", "functional computers" and even "one-click Internet access" and "home cyberport", Lenovo began to transform into a technology-driven enterprise. Since then, a series of innovations have been introduced, which are really "like pearls poured in a plate of jade."
Lenovo is a "stage without ceiling"
Standing on a high podium with her back to a row of colleagues with open arms, Wang Guixin of the brand promotion department got up the courage and fell flat ... From this moment on, she learned to trust others. This is the "introductory training" that every new employee of Lenovo has experienced.
"In addition to' trust', we must learn to' share'. In Lenovo, everyone wants to tell others immediately when they learn something, and they all want to be teachers. " Wu Xiaorong of the training center told us a story:
Employee Tang Changjun set up a "quick learning gas station" by himself. Every morning, he sends some short stories and tips to all his friends by email, and these short stories and tips will be forwarded to their friends. Over time, although colleagues in many departments have never met Tang Changjun, they all shared the joy of gaining new knowledge with him. Open his mailbox, and a series of XX stations of fast learning gas stations come into view. Various titles, such as learning with the other eye, what is a successful and effective learning model, make little progress every day and sell wooden combs to monks. ...
Tang Changjun believes that helping others is a happy thing, and expressing knowledge to others can also deepen your memory and understanding. And doing it every day is also a test of your perseverance. More importantly, this form gave him a new understanding of "knowledge": "People all know that' money is an external thing', but in a sense,' knowledge is also an external thing'. It's no use covering up or hiding. Only by understanding and using it can you have it. So sharing knowledge is good for people and for themselves. "
Lenovo knows that the battle for high-tech enterprises is actually a battle for talents. Only by grasping outstanding talents can we clench our fists in the competition. Liu Chuanzhi, who is famous for his "ability to employ people", believes that an enterprise is like a "wooden barrel", and its "water capacity" depends on the shortest piece of wood. How to employ and retain people determines whether an enterprise can continue to innovate and develop.