Family Culture and Strongman Control in Huawei
Family culture and strongman Control in Huawei
Being ranked No. 1 of “most influential Chinese business leaders” by Fortune China in three consecutive years from 2011 to 2013, Zhengfei Ren, the founder, controlling shareholder and CEO of Huawei is almost regarded as hero of the company.1 He has been the man who is influencing and inspiring the whole company since it was founded in 1987. Now, Huawei is a global leading company in ICT (information and communication technology) solution with revenue in 2012 more than 35 billion dollars.2 The magic rise of Huawei is largely attributed to the family based strongman culture with strong executive force from the top and ability to make long-term planning, but, as far as I can see, will hardly ensure future success.
The inner network of relations called “organizational enthusiasm” plays an important role in Huawei’s internal management. Ren, is the one who “set fire” in the company. After serving in the PLA (Chinese Liberation Army) for several years, Ren created the Huawei Empire almost from nothing in his forties. He is described as extremely optimistic and strong. 3 As a small team with few resources, Ren’s enthusiasm and strong entrepreneurship is what kept people around him, working with him to their best. Rather than relationship between boss and staff, this, original from Chinese guanxi culture, this organizational enthusiasm is more like personal loyalty, trust and affection. Stronger than pure staff loyalty, this relationship like brotherhood and sisterhood pushed Huawei harder during its early days. As Huawei expanded rapidly, the enthusiasm was spread in a larger scale to different levels of the employees by passionate speech and slogan delivered by Ren, and also by the top to bottom passing. Ren is conveying his personal philosophy to everyone and make is become the philosophy of Huawei so that after a while, most of the employees just believe and trust whatever Ren said, willing to follow him from inside.
Being ranked No. 1 of “most influential Chinese business leaders” by Fortune China in three consecutive years from 2011 to 2013, Zhengfei Ren, the founder, controlling shareholder and CEO of Huawei is almost regarded as hero of the company.1 He has been the man who is influencing and inspiring the whole company since it was founded in 1987. Now, Huawei is a global leading company in ICT (information and communication technology) solution with revenue in 2012 more than 35 billion dollars.2 The magic rise of Huawei is largely attributed to the family based strongman culture with strong executive force from the top and ability to make long-term planning, but, as far as I can see, will hardly ensure future success.
The inner network of relations called “organizational enthusiasm” plays an important role in Huawei’s internal management. Ren, is the one who “set fire” in the company. After serving in the PLA (Chinese Liberation Army) for several years, Ren created the Huawei Empire almost from nothing in his forties. He is described as extremely optimistic and strong. 3 As a small team with few resources, Ren’s enthusiasm and strong entrepreneurship is what kept people around him, working with him to their best. Rather than relationship between boss and staff, this, original from Chinese guanxi culture, this organizational enthusiasm is more like personal loyalty, trust and affection. Stronger than pure staff loyalty, this relationship like brotherhood and sisterhood pushed Huawei harder during its early days. As Huawei expanded rapidly, the enthusiasm was spread in a larger scale to different levels of the employees by passionate speech and slogan delivered by Ren, and also by the top to bottom passing. Ren is conveying his personal philosophy to everyone and make is become the philosophy of Huawei so that after a while, most of the employees just believe and trust whatever Ren said, willing to follow him from inside.