A philosophical question about Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin

1. According to Marx’s positioning in Capital, entrepreneurs are commanders and supervisors.

Modern management theory says that entrepreneurs are leaders and managers.

Both positionings show that under entrepreneurs, there are a large number of people with clear hierarchies and orderly arrangements.

How to mobilize these people with different responsibilities to unleash their potential? To maximize the overall advantages derived from the structure? In traditional Chinese culture, this is called the way of being an official, and the golden rule of being an official is

It is: Don’t doubt the people you employ, and don’t use them if you doubt them.

Zhang Ruimin responded tit for tat and clearly pointed out that "it is reactionary under the market economy to employ people without suspicion and not to doubt people."

On the surface, Zhang Ruimin deliberately ran counter to traditional Chinese culture. In essence, he truly kept pace with the times, and his judgment of the nature of the situation was both accurate, practical and operable.

First of all, the way of being an official was proposed in the field of political life in feudal society, and the essential feature of this field is the rule of man.

Secondly, this golden rule does not take into account the institutionalized restraint mechanism. Emotional maintenance and arbitrariness are inevitable outcomes.

Zhang Ruimin's judgment is based on the market economy.

Here, value pursuit can be diversified, but no matter what dimension the value pursuit is, it must be based on the performance of functions derived from responsibilities.

The acquisition of positions, the assumption of responsibilities, and the performance of functions are all judged based on ability and performance.

This is an inherent requirement of the market economy and an essential and important ideological premise for running a business.