Management is to resist entropy increase.

I met the word "entropy" in Chemical Thermodynamics in college, and many people may not be familiar with it. Entropy was put forward by the German physicist Clausius in 1865. It is one of the parameters that characterize the state of matter in thermodynamics, and its physical significance is a measure of the degree of chaos in the system. The greater the entropy value, the more chaotic the system is; The smaller the entropy value, the more orderly the system is.

The second theorem of thermodynamics, namely the entropy increase theorem, is that in a closed and isolated system, there is no energy exchange between the system and the environment, and the system always changes spontaneously in the direction of increasing chaos, which always increases the entropy value of the whole system. Any system is always in the trend of "entropy increase" unless energy is used to maintain order (that is, to reduce chaos).

Through this thermodynamic inference, assuming that there is nothing outside our universe, that is, there is no energy input to this universe, then our universe will become more and more disorderly, and the final result will be thermal silence (death). Of course, "the universe is an isolated system" is strictly an unproven hypothesis. The entropy increase theorem is rated as the "worst theorem" by many people.

Without external intervention, in a closed system, water can only flow from high to low, heat is always transferred from high-temperature objects to low-temperature objects, substances can only be transformed from dense to sparse, and trees can't be turned back to their original state when they are burned to ashes. Just like on the beach by the sea, there is sand and wind. A child builds a small castle on the beach and then makes the messy sand artificially orderly. People left, no one interfered with the beach, the wind blew the castle flat, and everything was in disorder.

Second, management and anti-entropy increase

? Peter drucker, a master of management, first introduced the concept of "entropy" in physics into the field of management. He said: there is only one thing for management to do, that is, how to fight against entropy increase. In this process, the vitality of the enterprise will be enhanced, rather than silently dying out.

Over time, an enterprise will inevitably become unorganized, bureaucratic, inefficient and even die out. The law of entropy increase is the largest scale and the lowest principle, which explains the dilemma of innovators. Why do big companies die is because of the law of entropy increase. So if you don't take any measures and actions, the organization will naturally go into chaos. Then the process of avoiding chaos and taking measures is management.

In 1998 Amazon's letter to shareholders, the word "anti-entropy increase" was mentioned. Bezos said: We should fight against entropy. Teacher Li Shanyou said that Bezos' first principle is anti-entropy.

So how to fight the increase of entropy, is there any way to "anti-entropy"? The theory of entropy increase has an important premise of "in a closed system", so the most effective way to resist entropy increase is to establish an open system that can continuously exchange and flow energy and matter with the outside world. This kind of open system science is called "dissipative structure", which was put forward by Puli Alarm. 1977 won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

? Bezos' anti-entropy increase has a great weapon. He opened almost all Amazon's functional businesses to the outside world, and the external service business was opened, and the internal functional business directly became the external charging business.

AWS？ : Amazon Cloud AWS was originally a system (API interface) within the company. The internal team of the company can access this interface at will, enjoy the development resources and improve the development efficiency. After doing it for several years, Bezos found that Amazon could be used. Why can't others use it? So there is the business of Amazon cloud, which has become the second curve of Amazon today, and Amazon cloud has almost been recognized by the United States. After the invention of the Internet in 2000, the most exciting invention was Amazon Cloud. Traditional companies, on the other hand, may outsource things at first, and then buy them when they grow up, so that their organizations become bigger and bigger, and Amazon is open.

Marketplace: This is Amazon's third-party seller platform, just like Taobao in China. At first, Amazon only sold its own things. Later, I felt that it could also be opened to third parties. Everyone can sell things on Amazon, and Amazon has also opened its own price comparison tools to all consumers. That tool was originally for my own use, just to make my price lower than others, but it was open to consumers to compare prices. This business will obviously harm Amazon's interests. For example, if you want to buy something, Amazon sells it, and others also sell it on the platform. By comparing tools, it is found that others' is cheaper than Amazon's own, so consumers will buy others', and the head of Amazon's business will be unhappy. But Bezos said, "So what? I just want to use the outside to force us to make my price the cheapest in the audience. " Introducing external competition through the open system injects energy into the system and promotes innovation well.

Third, open the system and increase traffic.

I think the best way to resist the entropy increase of enterprises and organizations and avoid the disorder and death of organizations is to "open the system", let organizations "flow" with the outside world, break the original closed system, let the outside world input "energy" to enterprises, and keep enterprises orderly and energetic.

The company is a closed system. Through the open system, we can provide energy for the company from the outside, so as to realize the anti-entropy function of the organization. There are two main ways to increase the flow between the company and the outside, one is the company and customers, and the other is the company and suppliers. The supply side refers to the part that provides resources for the company's products and services, such as cooperation with upstream raw material manufacturers, talent recruitment, free cash flow, etc., which belongs to this open system and resists the management mode of entropy increase. Customers mainly cooperate with the market and customers, such as customer demand research, customer orientation, and cooperative development with customers, which increase the "flow" between the company and customers. We often say that "customer-centric" is actually a way to open the system to customers and resist the increase of organizational entropy. The following are my thoughts and analysis of some companies, focusing on the lithium battery industry.

(1) The dispute between BYD and CATL

People in the lithium battery industry should be familiar with BYD and China Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., and they may often be compared together. Recently, CATL has attracted everyone's attention. CATL will soon be listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, and will shine brilliantly in CCTV's "Great Powers" and become a leading enterprise in the field of new energy vehicles in China. I have to admit that BYD is also a very excellent and respectable company, which plays an important role in the industry. However, in recent years, compared with its competitor CATL, it seems a little weak in growth. In the power battery market, in 20 17, CATL surpassed Panasonic and BYD to become the world's first power battery manufacturer.

What is the reason why BYD was quickly surpassed by CATL? Maybe different people have different opinions and analyses. Some people will say that it is because BYD has not invested enough in R&D and innovation, some people will say that there is something wrong with BYD's management, and some people will say that it is the choice of its technical direction. But I want to explain it from the perspective of "openness and liquidity": BYD is more closed, while CATL is more open. Companies with closed systems are complacent and lack of innovation, which will inevitably develop from orderly to chaotic and eventually die out. Open companies constantly get energy from the outside (capital, technology, talents, customers), resist the increase of entropy, and maintain the vitality of enterprises.

? The whole industrial chain or specialization? My answer is more inclined to specialize in my own advantageous industries and products. Of course, I don't object to the upstream and downstream extension, but we should combine our own advantages, enough is enough, and we must never form a closed loop. I think the best way to extend upstream and downstream is cooperation, cooperative development, cooperative establishment of companies and so on. Don't do everything yourself. The bigger the organization, the easier it is to get into chaos.

? BYD has formed a closed loop of the whole industrial chain from raw materials-batteries-automobiles, and it is its own wholly-owned company, with less cooperation between upstream and downstream. I think this is a big no-no. Such a closed development mode of the whole industry chain may bring certain cost and technical advantages in the early stage of industry development because of the immature supporting facilities. However, with the passage of time, the market is becoming more and more mature and the market competition is intensifying. This model will inevitably bring about many problems such as insufficient innovation motivation and internal management.

It is conceivable that if one's family supplies raw materials to oneself, battery enterprises will lose the competitiveness of raw material selection and raw material bargaining. At the same time, the raw material factory has stable customers in China. Without sufficient market competition, the product innovation power will be insufficient, the quality and price of raw materials will gradually lose competitiveness, and the cost and technology of batteries will also be affected. The same batteries in our own home are sold directly to our own car factory, BYD batteries are basically not exported, and car companies basically do not outsource them. The products of battery and automobile companies will lose their competitiveness in cost and technical quality. That's true. BYD is much higher than its peers in purchasing raw materials.

Now Wang Chuanfu sees the problem of BYD's closed development. I heard that he was doing business separation and independence last year, and the procurement and sales of raw materials, batteries and automobile enterprises should be open to the outside world. But there is still a problem now, because you are made by the whole industry chain, so for example, your battery must be used by your own car company and sold to competitive car companies. These car companies must be taboo. If you rob customers of their business, most customers will not be willing to buy your battery, and most of the same battery companies will not be willing to buy your cathode material. BYD has entered a "stall point". It is very difficult to reverse the downward trend, and continue to wait and see Wang Chuanfu's move.

What about Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.? On the contrary. It focuses on its own advantage-power battery, opens its own system to increase external flow and resist the increase of organizational entropy.

What I feel most is the openness and mobility of CATL to talents. CATL continuously introduces talents through a large amount of R&D investment, recruits a large number of R&D and technical personnel every year, and has a research and development technical team of hundreds of doctors, which ensures the continuous input of talents and injects new energy and vitality into the enterprise system. Assessment, wolf culture and industry headhunting have promoted the flow of some people. CATL is now the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the lithium battery industry, and all major battery companies have people going out from CATL, which also increases the communication between peers.

CATL has opened cooperation with more than 40 downstream car companies, including internationally renowned brands such as BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, as well as domestic car companies such as SAIC, Geely, Dongfeng and Yutong, among which SAIC, Changan and Dongfeng have invested in CATL. 20 12, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. cooperated with BMW, and international car companies put forward "high standards and strict requirements" on company management, system and product quality, which injected brand-new energy into CATL, which was an important step for the development of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. After the cooperation between Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. and BMW was finalized, the technical requirements sent by Germany were a thick stack of A4 paper, and the technical standards were staggering. But through this cooperation, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. is like a player trained by the devil, and its technical level has been qualitatively improved. 20 16 12 signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Dongfeng; 2065438+In February 2007, he participated in Weimeide Automobile Co., Ltd. in Finland; From 2065438 to March 2007, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Group invested 1 100 million yuan in Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd.; 20 17 cooperated with SAIC to establish a joint venture company; 2065438+September 2007, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., BAIC and Proud jointly developed a small "Lite" electric vehicle; 20 17 10 Changan and Dongfeng successively took shares in Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.

After careful analysis, the customers of BYD Power Battery are all BYD car companies, and there is only one. The customers of CATL power battery are more than 40 car companies at home and abroad, and the cooperation has invisibly brought all-round promotion to CATL company. BYD is its own company, and there may be lax requirements, or the market information source is too single, which will affect the judgment of product and technology development strategy. Yes, "Your customers decide your future". If your customers are excellent, you won't be bad, so choose your customers carefully. In addition, CATL and upstream enterprises are also fully open to exchanges and cooperation. Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. has deep cooperation with upstream manufacturers such as anode and cathode to develop new products and improve competitiveness. In addition, it also cooperated strategically with upstream enterprises to acquire Hunan Bangpu for lithium battery recycling.

(2) Handu Yishe small team "empowers"

? ? In the era of big data, combined with "amoeba management", in 20 17 years, the internet industry has produced a new management hot word "empowerment". Amoeba's business model is to divide the whole company into many small organizations, called Amoeba, and each small organization acts as an independent profit center and operates independently in the form of small enterprises and small shops. Handu Yishe is an enterprise engaged in clothing sales in Jinan with the help of network technology. It greatly improves the company's innovation and business performance by empowering organizations. Different from the traditional triangular (top-down) management structure, Handu Yishe adopts an inverted triangular management structure, which puts the management below, allowing employees to directly contact the market, while delegating the decision-making power from the boss to the employees. Handu Yishe takes the product team as the core model, so that every department can serve around the product team. There are three people in each product team, which realizes the unity of "responsibility-right-benefit" in the smallest business unit. Through group ranking, a mechanism of competition and mutual learning is naturally formed, which promotes the continuous growth of organizations. Handu Yishe, a small team, like the special forces in the army, has clear tasks and flexible and efficient actions, which is an effective strategy to deal with the complex and ever-changing market environment.

This bottom-up small team improves the efficiency of the company's external communication (rapid decision-making and feedback), thus improving the "flow" speed of the open system and playing a management role against entropy increase. This small team approach is worth learning, especially in the field of rapid changes in technology and market.

(3) China's reform and opening up.

According to the law of entropy increase, the more closed a country is, it will gradually fall into chaos and eventually die out; If a country is more open, it will become more orderly and prosperous. Comparing the backward beating of our closed door in Qing Dynasty with the fruitful achievements of China's reform and opening up for more than 30 years, the inference of the law of entropy increase is further verified.

I think the reform and opening-up includes two levels, one is the mobility and opening-up among provinces and cities in China, and the other is the opening-up and exchange between China and the international community. Small cities import human resources and capital to open big cities, and open cities also export products and services to other cities. At the same time, the influx of foreign capital into China, the exchange of technology and talents with other countries, China's accession to the WTO, and the great increase in bilateral trade have all increased openness and mobility. The reform and opening up have benefited the rural areas, towns and cities in China, but the most developed and benefited places are Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which are the most open and mobile at home and abroad.

Four. abstract

? Richard Dawkins said in Selfish Genes that human behavior is determined by genes and memes, and genes are difficult to change. We can only change ourselves by changing our memes. Meme is the genetic factor of culture, which is what we call thinking mode. This is another thinking mode that I want to implant in my brain-anti-entropy increase. The idea of anti-entropy increase is summarized as follows:

(1) Individuals keep an open mind and thinking, and communicate and link with the outside world (nature, others, etc.). It is often said that diversity and choice are the embodiment of openness. The more open, the happier and the more successful.

(2) Open system is the best way to increase entropy, which is suitable for organizations (countries, enterprises) and individuals. The more open and prosperous, the more closed and backward.

(3) Management is to resist the increase of entropy. Do the following things more: take customers as the center and increase exchanges and cooperation with customers; Develop business instead of relying entirely on yourself; Increase the flow of talents; Increase the flow of funds; Establish small teams to improve the speed of "flow".

Shallow understanding, for reference only, everything I said is wrong! )