I. Management issues
Management is a science, which requires communication skills and thinking skills, and can be applied to any industry. But can professional managers manage everything? Obviously, it is impossible, because professional managers need not only the ability of communication and thinking, but also the knowledge and experience they have learned from their work. Experience is their weakness, and no one can learn 20 years of work experience in six months of on-the-job intensive training. Generally speaking, unless you have rich knowledge and experience in a certain industry, it is difficult to choose the right person to run this business. Only senior expert managers have the opportunity to lead the team to win in the competition.
Second, the issue of morale.
Many diversified companies will let managers rotate between departments, the main purpose is to avoid the solidification of managers' thinking. It is hoped that in this way, enterprise executives with comprehensive management ability will be cultivated, rather than narrow department managers. Many managers who want to be promoted try to avoid labeling themselves as "experts". The strength of management is to become an "expert", so the managers trained by the company are also experts. Diversified companies cultivate talents, which leads to the lack of expert managers and makes enterprises less focused.
Third, the issue of promotion.
General managers generally adopt two typical methods when choosing promotion targets. Either according to their performance or according to their comprehensive quality. Both of these options will lead to the lack of focus for enterprises.
What will happen to a company that selects managers according to their performance? Everyone pursues short-term performance at the expense of long-term interests, because if you don't get results in the short term, it means leaving. The best way for managers to make achievements in a short time is to introduce new products and services. However, the consequence of this is that the company has lost its center of gravity.
What about companies that select managers according to their comprehensive qualities? The criterion they choose is the candidate's ability to inspire and encourage others. However, just having a good comprehensive quality is not necessarily an excellent leader. In politics, war and other non-commercial fields, many successful leaders have a dark side of their personalities. Such as Winston Churchill and george patton. Managers with good comprehensive quality trained by rotation in different departments lack focus, and it is difficult for enterprises under his leadership to form focus.
In addition to these two selection methods, there is another selection method called democracy. That is, let employees in a specific business department vote for the best leader. However, it is also difficult to select outstanding leaders in this way of prestige competition.
So what is a good leader? A good leader knows how to get to the point, no matter how much interference he encounters. They know how to motivate and encourage their followers to continue to work towards the "best opportunity" without wasting energy on side issues. Good leaders tend to reflect on themselves rather than "assess the situation". They are good at observing their surroundings, but they don't always follow the crowd. Their motivation seems to come from their inner enthusiasm for work, which may be the reason why excellent leaders can avoid the interference of a lot of small problems and concentrate on one thing.
So how to select excellent leaders? The really effective way is to choose those who show leadership in their own work environment. In fact, natural leaders are often those who can quickly "seize" leadership in a power vacuum. You see, those dictators are actually excellent leaders, but they are not elected by everyone.
Fourth, organizational issues.
In order to maintain the normal operation of those diversified companies, it is necessary to increase management. For example, in the past, Pepsi's beverage department, snack food department and catering department all had their own directors, and there were several functional vice presidents above these directors. These people not only sit and check the data, but also actively participate in the operation of various departments. Such a setting will lead to bloated institutions and overstaffed people.
In addition, headquarters staff will often ask for information from various departments. Just as the US government levies a "document tax" on domestic enterprises, diversified companies will also levy an internal "document tax" on their business departments. This will not only consume a lot of management time, but also increase management costs.
Those highly focused companies have flat organizational structure, high management efficiency and low cost, so they can get more profit space in their operations. Therefore, when there is no focused company competition, it has the advantage of winning. Huawei is a highly focused enterprise. After years of development, this organization has become bloated. Because of the need of focus, we now simplify management, organize flat operation, strengthen horizontal cooperation and strengthen professional and technical management; Strengthen professional technical guidance and send experts to "South China".