Yang Yuanqing’s story

In 1988, 24-year-old Yang Yuanqing was writing his graduation thesis at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences while imagining his future. The life goal he set for himself was to get a doctorate in the United States and then find a job in the famous Silicon Valley. Many of his classmates have taken root in Silicon Valley in the United States, which makes him very envious. "In the late 1980s, if a science and engineering student from a prestigious university chose to stay in China, he would be considered to have no future." Yang Yuanqing later recalled, "Two-thirds of the students at Jiaotong University are abroad, and there are more students in Silicon Valley than in Beijing. Much more; let alone the University of Science and Technology, the classrooms are empty before graduation. "He believes that the distance from the Institute of Automation to Silicon Valley in the United States is not far, only a few thousand kilometers, and only a dozen or so flights. hours. However, the top priority is to find a job first. On the one hand, I still need practical experience and experience. On the other hand, I need to make money to fill my stomach. I need funds to study abroad. My major, especially English, needs to be strengthened. All in all, he needed to find a springboard. He first thought of Zhongguancun. In 1988, Zhongguancun had been designated as a high-tech park and was known as China's Silicon Valley. ?

The first company he thought of was Lenovo, because he saw the recruitment notice of this increasingly famous high-tech company a few days ago. He found Lenovo's office building based on the address published on the notice. In an office on the second floor, the examiner interviewed him. Although his eloquence was not very good, his answers still satisfied the examiner. After half an hour of the preliminary test, there was a retest. When he knew When he was admitted, he was very happy, but not ecstatic, not only because there were relatively few high-level high-tech talents like him at that time, but also because he only used Lenovo or other companies as a springboard. Thinking about another Silicon Valley. Later he learned that in 1988, Lenovo publicly recruited 58 employees from 500 applicants from across the country, and Yang Yuanqing was just one of them. ?

Of course, this is also something worth celebrating. After all, we are one step closer to Silicon Valley in the United States. What’s more, Lenovo is a well-known high-tech company in China. A place of use. But when the company announced his job position, he felt a chill. The job the company gave him was a salesman, and he was to promote other people's products, Sun workstations (Sun is the name of the company, which is actually the abbreviation of the three English acronyms of Stanford University Network, which means "Stanford University Network" in Chinese. Sun was originally founded by four graduate students at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, including Scott McNealy. It was officially registered in February 1982. It first focused on the design and production of workstations and began to generate profits six months later. The number of employees worldwide reached More than 26,000 people), and Sun workstations using INTEL386 chips were still unfamiliar to people at the time and not very practical. ?

Many years later, he still clearly remembers many scenes of promoting Sun workstations. He rode a broken bicycle he bought from a used car market, walking through the streets and selling workstations that he was just getting familiar with. He still remembers the scene when his phone was thrown to the ground by a customer. He still remembers the feeling of waiting at the customer's door for several hours. Of course, he also remembers the feeling when he sold his first workstation. The first workstation he sold was to the State Administration of Medicine. When the order was finally signed, his mood was complicated. His excitement was mixed with a bit of guilt. He was excited because the business was finally open, and guilty because I feel like I can't help my customers. A PC is enough for the National Medical Administration, but I try my best to make them believe that Sun workstation is their only choice. Later, Yang Yuanqing recalled: "You can imagine how happy I was at the time, but I still thought that, in fact, this customer should not have bought a workstation like Sun's at that time. Buying a PC would solve the problem. Of course, we still pushed it. This workstation is built.

"As compensation, he tried his best to meet various service requirements put forward by users. Yang Yuanqing later admitted frankly: "It's embarrassing to say that Sun's workstations were not very successful at that time. The product we represent is not a good product. It is Sun's only workstation using the Intel 386 chip. The user's usage situation is not good - either it is not applicable or it is not sufficient. Although the product is not ours, it is a product sold by our agent after all. Therefore, I felt both excited and guilty when selling the workstation. "?

It was the sale of this first workstation that gave him a feeling and confidence in sales. It was also the experience in sales work that enabled him to face all difficulties in the future. It was also It was Yang Yuanqing's excellent service and good response to customers that caught Liu Chuanzhi's attention. He originally regarded sales as a temporary job, but gradually he became interested in receiving customers, issuing invoices, and welding network cables. , debugging machines, and providing after-sales service. In the gratitude of customers, he felt the value of the work he was doing. Although he did not use much of the computer knowledge he had learned for seven years, he learned new things from sales. That is: benefits come from the market, and the market comes from services. Many years later, when he became a senior manager of Lenovo Group, one of his business ideas was to make Lenovo a "Lenovo of service." Later, someone asked Yang Yuanqing for advice. In life experience, Yang Yuanqing looked back at his work experience in the initial stage and came to a conclusion: "Young people in their twenties, fourteens and fives are originally laying the foundation. Professional counterparts are certainly good, but they are not very important. Young people do not You should carry the burden of having a professional counterpart. "?

During this period, Yang Yuanqing successfully passed the GRE and applied for admission to a higher education institution in Chicago, USA, waiting for feedback from the school. At this time, Yang Yuanqing was appointed as the general manager of the Computer Assisted Equipment Department Manager, this was in 1992.

The CAD department manager who can’t even speak well?

On April 20, 1992, Lenovo Group announced a new appointment list. , Yang Yuanqing's name is on this list, and he was appointed as the general manager of the CAD Department. However, people pay special attention to the names such as Guo Wei, Wang Pingsheng, and Chen Jian, rather than Yang Yuanqing. This is because of the CAD Department. , the abbreviation of Computer Aided Design, which means computer-aided design) is still the grassroots sales department and is contributing. On the other hand, it is also because Yang Yuanqing did not appear to be very outstanding among the young people at the time. Although his appearance was eye-catching, He is 1.81 meters tall, has broad shoulders, and has sharp edges on his forehead, but he is not good at words. When he speaks, he is always a little hesitant, especially when speaking to colleagues or subordinates in public, he seems not confident enough. He is a tall man, but always shows a hint of shyness when he speaks. He rarely talks, so he gives people the impression of being reserved. When he first became a cadre, he didn't even know how to speak in many meetings. People who worked in the CAD department later recalled that after that meeting, many people thought that Yang Yuanqing was not suitable to be a leader. Yang Yuanqing himself later recalled that the first meeting made him a little frustrated. He could feel that his colleagues were not suitable for leadership. His dissatisfaction. "They must think I'm not a good leader. "He said.?

But Yang Yuanqing has inherent potential. It was this appointment that allowed his potential to be fully utilized. CAD is the abbreviation of Computer Aided Equipment Department, but in fact it mainly sells HP Company From the sales of HP plotters, Yang Yuanqing learned another sales model besides retail and wholesale: agency and distribution. This sales model has specialized sales channels, a specific customer base, and stable sales. Agents and relatively fixed sales channels formed a huge sales network. Yang Yuanqing realized that the CAD department he led was actually a link in HP's huge sales network. HP established its own global sales network in this model. , occupying the largest market with the least manpower, and earning as much profit as possible. Yang Yuanqing was greatly inspired by this, and he began to envision a sales network centered on Lenovo.

In the month that Yang Yuanqing took office, the Lenovo CAD Department signed an agency sub-sales contract with a company in Zhongguancun. The company assumed the responsibility of sub-selling HP plotters, and the Lenovo CAD Department returned 3% of the turnover in return. This first agency contract signed to imitate the HP agency agreement has extraordinary significance for Yang Yuanqing. Since then, real distributors have been born in China's IT industry. Yang Yuanqing used this sales model to make CAD's sales continue to rise. In 1992, it doubled from the previous year, and in 1993 it doubled from 1992, from 30 million yuan in 1991 to 230 million yuan in 1993. . ?

Yang Yuanqing still remembers the joy when he discovered this sales method, which was no different than Columbus discovering the New World. Of course he also remembers the difficulty of "selling" the agency concept. He personally led the team, centered at the intersection of Zhongguancun Street, to large and small computer sales stores on both sides of the street. He first introduced the advantages of HP plotters represented by Lenovo, and then began to focus on explaining the concept of "agency" and publicizing it. The benefits of agency, and finally asked: "Is your company willing to be an agent?" At the beginning, people were unfamiliar with "agency" and "distribution" and were doubtful about the many promised benefits, so they had to leave empty-handed. But finally there was the first one, and then there was the second one. Soon CAD brought together the merchants who were interested in being agents and held a small agent meeting. Although not many people attended, it was very important to Yang Yuanqing and Lenovo. It is of great significance. It was from this meeting that Yang Yuanqing formed a new marketing concept. He later used this model for the sales of Lenovo PCs, changing Lenovo's destiny. Yang Yuanqing later admitted that he used HP as his teacher when he was selling PCs. In 1994, Lenovo had launched the "Lenovo" brand of computers. Yang Yuanqing's first move as the person in charge was to copy the "HP model" - transforming from direct sales to a complete agency system. Yang Yuanqing also learned HP's skills in organizing sales teams while selling HP plotters. He formulated plans based on HP's "Ten-Step Planning Method" and listed HP's senior manager course "Management Process Control" as a subordinate manager. our compulsory courses. According to Lin Yang, the current executive vice president of Digital China, "from 1994 to 1996, all the tricks Yang Yuanqing used during this period were learned from HP. It was only after 1996 that he had innovative tricks." Lin Yang was Lenovo at the time. Deputy manager of CAD business department. ?

Yang Yuanqing’s success in the CAD department shows his talents, that is, he is good at learning, summarizing experience, discovering, and applying. This allows him to excel in a profession that is unfamiliar to him and has nothing to do with him. The unrelated sales field is like a fish in water, and it is in sales that Yang Yuanqing shows extraordinary management capabilities. He has never studied management, nor has he read a few books on public relations and negotiation skills. He himself is not good at words, but he has the ability to win "big deals." He later concluded: "There are two key points in negotiation, one is honesty; the other is to design the content of the conversation." Even if he can't speak well, it does not prevent him from becoming an excellent marketer, and it does not prevent him from becoming an excellent marketer. lead. It can be said that Lenovo's work arrangements for Yang Yuanqing were in line with his own inner potential and gave full play to Yang Yuanqing's talents. ?

It was Yang Yuanqing’s brilliant achievements in just two years when he was in charge of the CAD department from 1991 to 1993 that attracted the attention of Liu Chuanzhi, who promoted him at Lenovo’s most critical moment. He is the general manager of the PC department, and Lenovo's future is bet on him. ?

A thousand-mile horse and Bole?

Han Yu lamented: "A thousand-mile horse always exists, but a thousand-mile horse does not always exist." In Bole's view, a thousand-mile horse is truly worth cherishing. In the real world, the only way for Chollima and Bole to meet is by chance. ?

Liu Chuanzhi summed up his experience in business management and said: "In addition to requiring keen insight and strategic judgment, cultivating talents and selecting people to succeed them are probably the most important tasks of business leaders. "Business leaders should first have Bole skills and be good at identifying and selecting talents.

Liu Chuanzhi once summarized Lenovo’s successful internal management into three elements: team building, strategy setting, and team leadership. The core of the three elements is the cultivation and use of talents. The reason why Lenovo can survive in the computer market with so many strong players, and why it can create a brand and occupy a place in the world's IT industry, is ultimately the success of its talent strategy. Typical examples of successful talent strategies are Yang Yuanqing and Guo Wei. ?

The story of Liu Chuanzhi and Yang Yuanqing is considered to be a typical example of Bole knowing a thousand-mile horse. If he had not entered Lenovo, if he had not met Liu Chuanzhi, Yang Yuanqing would have had a different fate. In a certain sense, Yang Yuanqing would not be as successful as he is today without Liu Chuanzhi’s insight into talents. ?

In 1991, Yang Yuanqing served as the general manager of Lenovo's CAD department, mainly acting as an agent for Hewlett-Packard's products. Liu Chuanzhi gave Yang Yuanqing a warm environment and suitable soil, and Yang Yuanqing grew desperately. From 1991 to 1993, CAD sales increased from 50 million to 110 million, and then from 110 million to 180 million. Liu Chuanzhi gradually discovered that Yang Yuanqing had a strong sense of professionalism and was a "general" talent with strong execution ability. When Yang Yuanqing graduated with a master's degree, he had always dreamed of going abroad. When the HP headquarters in the United States extended an invitation to him, Yang Yuanqing packed his bags and prepared to leave. At the end of 1993, due to the large influx of foreign computer brands into the Chinese market, China's computer industry was in crisis. Lenovo failed to achieve its set goals for the first time. Liu Chuanzhi admitted that he had lost the battle. He left Yang Yuanqing, who came to bid farewell, to save Lenovo's computer business. The burden was given to him. ?

On March 19, 1994, 30-year-old Yang Yuanqing was appointed as the general manager of the Computer Division. Within a short period of time, Yang Yuanqing reorganized the Computer Division and computer sales increased significantly. Liu Chuanzhi was very satisfied with Yang Yuanqing's performance, but Yang Yuanqing did not know how to compromise, and conflicts with other people gradually affected the company's evaluation of him. Under such circumstances, Liu Chuanzhi made up his mind to educate Yang Yuanqing. After Yang Yuanqing cursed him in front of many senior executives of the company and some of Yang Yuanqing's subordinates, Liu Chuanzhi wrote a letter to Yang Yuanqing overnight, expressing his good intentions. Yang Yuanqing quickly understood Liu Chuanzhi's expectations of him and gradually learned to compromise. ?

Liu Chuanzhi did his best to clear obstacles for Yang Yuanqing, so that Yang Yuanqing could boldly explore the market with confidence. By the end of fiscal year 1996, Lenovo's sales had become the first in the domestic market, and Lenovo computers had emerged in the world PC market. After being trained as the general manager of Lenovo Computer Company, Liu Chuanzhi felt that Yang Yuanqing had the ability to control the overall situation. In April 2000, Lenovo was split into Lenovo Computer and Digital China. Yang Yuanqing took charge of Lenovo Computer. After another year of training, on April 20, 2001, Liu Chuanzhi officially handed over the banner of Lenovo to Yang Yuanqing. ?

Human resource management is the core of Lenovo Group’s management. Lenovo has a strict talent system, which has formed a standard system for high-level talents in practice. Talents who can assume certain responsibilities must first have beliefs and values ??consistent with Lenovo's corporate culture, be loyal to the company, and have a spirit of sacrifice. , one must have the command ability to assess the situation and act independently, the management ability to build a team and lead the team, the ability to unite the majority and coordinate cooperation, and the ability to learn tirelessly and learn new things. Good moral qualities, excellent professional accomplishment, dedicated professional attitude, awareness of crisis and competition, awareness of cooperation and supplementation, good at learning and summarizing, etc., are regarded as qualities that talents must possess. ?

There is no enterprise without talents. Enterprises must not only use good talents, but also cultivate good talents. Lenovo's successful experience is to cultivate talents in the process of identifying talents and to cultivate talents in dynamic practice. Liu Chuanzhi used "sewing insoles" and "making suits" as metaphors for cultivating talents: "Cultivating a strategic talent is the same as cultivating an excellent tailor. You cannot give him a piece of high-quality wool to make a suit from the beginning, but He should start by sewing insoles. After the insoles are made, he can make shorts, then trousers, shirts, and finally suits. "For example, Guo Wei started as a secretary at Lenovo. Worked in more than ten positions.

For example, Yang Yuanqing, when he was in charge of Lenovo's Microcomputer Division, Liu Chuanzhi gave Yang Yuanqing the power that originally belonged to several departments, including personnel and finance, so that he could operate the entire division independently without any constraints, and he also had computer sales. 50% of the excess profit will be handed over to the group company, and the other 50% will be handled by him for rewards or benefits. In the year when computer performance was the best, Yang Yuanqing used the money to buy a car for every manager with outstanding performance. All this gave Yang Yuanqing a sense of accomplishment. ?

If Liu Chuanzhi, the "bo Le", discovered Yang Yuanqing, the "thousand-mile horse", then the development of Lenovo's second-generation marshal Chen Shaopeng is also inseparable from Yang Yuanqing's discovery and appointment. In a sense, Yang Yuanqing is Chen Shaopeng's "Bo Le". ?

Chen Shaopeng’s experience has many similarities with Yang Yuanqing. In 1992, Chen Shaopeng graduated from Beijing Institute of Light Industry. Because of his excellent grades, he was qualified to study in Beijing and was assigned to work in a computer center under the then Ministry of Light Industry. In February 1993, Chen Shaopeng saw two recruitment notices in the Beijing Youth Daily. One was for a communications company to recruit technicians, and the other was for Lenovo. There was a sentence on the Lenovo advertisement: "If you want to stand up, To stand tall and see far, please be a Lenovo person. "Of course Chen Shaopeng wants to stand tall and see far. He sent his resume to both companies and soon received an interview notice from the communications company, but Lenovo was where he wanted to go most. After waiting for two days, I received an interview notice from Lenovo and turned down the communications company. In a canteen near the old Lenovo headquarters, Chen Shaopeng and more than 70 others took a written test and then an interview. On March 3, 1993, Chen Shaopeng received a notice that he was hired. Like Yang Yuanqing, Chen Shaopeng originally applied for the position of technical research and development staff, but was assigned to the sales department. When Yang Yuanqing reorganized the Lenovo Microcomputer Division, Chen Shaopeng became one of the 112 people Yang Yuanqing selected to retain. When Yang Yuanqing "killed" the more than 100 remaining sales staff, leaving only 18 people, Chen Shaopeng became one of the "18 Green Pines". ?

Yang Yuanqing appointed Chen Shaopeng as the manager of Lenovo's southwest region and sent him to the southwest region to develop markets. Chen Shaopeng came to Chengdu alone. At that time, the southwest market centered on Chengdu did not even know the name "Lenovo". Chen Shaopeng hired a local boy and after a month of preparation, he opened the first Lenovo computer store in Chengdu. Due to Chen Shaopeng's outstanding performance, Yang Yuanqing transferred him to the Northwest District. With superhuman perseverance, Chen Shaopeng developed the market in the western region where there was no foundation and created the legendary story of Lenovo Computer's western development. ?

In 1996, Chen Shaopeng was sent to develop the South China market. That year, he encountered unprecedented setbacks. Due to the influence of Hong Kong, the local market in South China generally only recognized PCs from big international brands, and did not recognize Lenovo, which was not very famous at the time, at all. In addition, Chen Shaopeng, who was born and raised in the northwest, did not understand the language when he arrived in southern China, which made communication very difficult. When he first arrived in South China, Chen Shaopeng visited the largest agent in Guangdong seven times to persuade him to sell Lenovo products, but still failed. ?

At the Beidaihe summary meeting that year, Yang Yuanqing criticized the South China District without naming him, because computer sales in the South China District only increased by more than ten percent. That time, the strong Chen Shaopeng shed tears for the first time. But Chen Shaopeng quickly came out of his depression. After he returned to Guangzhou, he changed his strategy and cooperated with a well-known computer city in Guangzhou at the time to hold a "Computer Festival", which made Lenovo's name familiar to people. , agents began to come to negotiate the sale of Lenovo computers. The situation changed. In 1997, Lenovo's sales performance in South China increased by 585% year-on-year compared with 1996. ?

Chen Shaopeng’s success has made him a legend in Lenovo, just like Yang Yuanqing. His success all the way from northwest to southern China also contributed to his legendary promotion speed within Lenovo. Chen Shaopeng is known as Lenovo's practical general, and he is a blessed general who succeeds in every task. Any area he enters seems to be able to achieve an astonishing jump in performance.

When he served as the general manager of Lenovo's commercial desktop computer division, he was the main force and seized the opportunity with his keen business sense. He achieved outstanding results in the battle to build Lenovo's PC leadership position. While serving as Vice President of Lenovo Marketing Systems, he successfully initiated strategic changes in Lenovo's marketing model and organizational structure. The various novel sales techniques he experimented with when he was the vice president of Lenovo Sales Systems are considered classic cases of business marketing. ?

On September 30, 2005, Chen Shaopeng was appointed as the general manager of Lenovo Greater China. For the first time, he truly stepped down from the sales front and entered the public eye. He said: "Before this, I was responsible for the sales business of the entire China region, but I never, at least at that time, thought that I would sit on the position of president of Greater China." Soon after he took office, he quickly formulated a plan The four major strategies after integration are: building an international brand, establishing a flexible enterprise, breaking through the four key markets and giving full play to the Think brand business. ?

On November 10, 2006, at the key dealer conference held at the Haiquanwan Resort in Zhuhai, Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of directors of Lenovo, did not hesitate to praise Chen Shaopeng. He said to the dealers: "You can safely cooperate with Shaopeng, he is completely trustworthy." He told reporters: "It is because of my confidence in Shaopeng 120 that I handed over the Greater China region to him. I will also tell him at the agent conference My old partners are working hard with Shaopeng. "Yang Yuanqing believes that the reason why Greater China has achieved such good results shows that Lenovo has not lost its focus on the Chinese market after internationalization, and Lenovo's business model is successful. , but more importantly, the team led by Chen Shaopeng has extraordinary capabilities: "For nearly 7 consecutive quarters, it has never dropped the chain. With a market share of more than 30%, the Greater China region can still be higher than the industry average growth rate. It is not easy. "Nearly 40% of the group's revenue comes from the Greater China region led by Chen Shaopeng, which has become Lenovo's rear area. Yang Yuanqing was "120 assured" of Chen Shaopeng, and Chen Shaopeng did not embarrass Yang Yuanqing and handed in a satisfactory answer.

(Editor: Momo