ESG Seminar – How Huawei & US Army Release Power of Teamwork to Win

The Executive Study Group (ESG) seminar 2017 – Teamwork Strategy named “How Huawei & US Army Release Power of Teamwork to Win” was held by the ESG, Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp (HKSTP) on 8 May 2017.  I would like to summarize the seminar for sharing below.  Fortunately, I met Mr. Shih Wing Ching (施永青) (Chairman & CEO, Centaline Group) in the seminar and I appreciated his support to publish my 5 articles about the Extenics in am730.  Then we took a photo for memory.

In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee briefed the history of ESG establishment and discussed the Corporate Retreat for traditional sunset industries.  We needed to simulate your management to change that is the aim of this two hour seminar.  Then he briefed the contents included “Team are Critical for Revitalization”, “The Legend of Huawei”, “Pitfalls of Teamwork discovered by Hauwei”, “Iron Triangle Strategy for Stakeholder Management”, “7 Measurement Strategies for Teams” and “Group Discussion”.  

Firstly, Dr. Mark Lee briefed Zara case to indicate the team with different talents together so their response fast that was the result of knowledge integration.  Then he introduced Zara’s coexistence of hierarchies and teams. Cross Function Teams invited other departments to support your project.  

Then Dr. Mark Lee introduced Mr. Ren Zhengfei (Founder, Huawei) who serviced in army until 1982.  Then he moved to electronic business.  The Vision and Mission of Huawei were “To enabling the future information society” and “Building a Better Connected World”.  They had consistently invested over 10% of annual revenue in R&D.  Approximately 80,000 employees were engaged in R&D, comprising 45% of their total workforce with CNY 76 billion R&D expenditures in 2016.  Moreover, Huawei ranks number 7 in Global R&D Spending in 2016.  

Dr. Mark Lee told us the pitfalls of teamwork which were discovered by Hauwei.  He mentioned a Huawei case about lost customer in North Africa. He quoted Mr. Ren statement that Functions with Too Much Power and Resources that power were at Headquarters and too many control policy.  Moreover, many of team member served departmental KPIs rather than team.  

Based on the above pitfalls, Mr. Ren said “Whoever hear the sound of guns should make the firing decisions”.  

Then Huawei formed “Iron Triangle” from Africa as “North Africa Combat Unit”.  It had team advantages and broken functional barriers through the common team goal.  Mr. Ren said “Timely Role in Providing Effective Support” that backend as a service.  

After that Dr. Mark Lee mentioned 7 Measurement Strategies for Building Stronger Teams below.

1.      Design Measurement to Help Teams But Not Top Management

It helps team to evaluate its progress and for corrective action but don’t use it to control the team.  Mr. Ren said “Teams make the calls” and reduced “Too much unnecessary control”, indicating that the decision-making power was at the frontline team.  HQ and departments are at rear to provide protection and proactive support that means to serve Customers rather than Departments.

2.      Empower Team to Design Measurements with Clear Boundaries

Dr. Mark Lee quoted Mr. Ren statements that “US Military Forces in Afghanistan” that team structure with 3 experts included “An information intelligence specialist”, “A firepower bomb specialist” and “A combat specialist”.  Moreover, they needed to know each other’s expertise.   “Authorization is by Scales of Combat” also said by Mr. Ren.

3.      Track Value-Added Processes by Measurements

Dr. Mark Lee said the value of team was not followed the routine process but was responsible for a value-delivery process.  Teams should create measures that support their mission.

4.      Use More than Financial Measurements for Executable Actions

Financials are necessary but not sufficient because of lacking action indication.  Process measures provide action steps (or work instruction).

5.      Avoid Just a Simple Collection of Departmental KPIs

Dr. Lee quoted Ford’s new luxury model included “Using multifunction teams for New Product Development”, “Collection of the individual measurement”, Problem of equal importance”, “Disagree factors”, “Lack of Market-Driven” and “Department measurements override team’s one”.

6.      Filter Few Critical Measurements with Big Impacts

Dr. Lee suggested filtering not more than 15 measures and then ranking the priority.  So those key measurements increase functional heads confidence.

7.      Step by Step to Build Measurements and the Team Spirit

“Build measures to build teams through common language” said by Dr. Lee.  There are four steps of learning for re-discovery.

Step 1: Critical Tasks and Capabilities

Step 2: Everyone Understands the Logic Behind

Step 3: Develop New Individual Measurements and Risk Conditions

Step 4: Mutual Presentation to Help Understanding

Before the end, Dr. Lee asked us to do excise to select two most difficult measurement strategies and pick the easiest one for discussion.  

Mr. Shih Wing Ching (施永青) also joined the group discussion.

At the end, Dr. Mark Lee invited Mr. Shih to give us a speech to share his idea.  He said organization and organ were two concepts.  Eventhough you understood each organ, you did not integrate it to be living organism; indicating that you understood each department, but you might not understand the whole organization.  Mr. Shih believed Self-organization (自組織) that could growth by them (rather than 他組織). His philosophy is to govern by doing nothing (無為而治).  

After the seminar, I chatted with Mr. Shih and introduced to use the Extenics for the housing agent competition in China after my study completed of the Extenics Level 3 in May 2017. 

Reference:

HKSTP - www.hkstp.org

Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (亞太策略研究所有限公司) – www.apifs.org