On April 23, Mr. Frank Ning, Chairman of Sinochem Group, attended the “2018 China Green Companies Summit (CGCS)” held in Tianjin and delivered a keynote speech on corporate management.
The “China Green Companies Summit (CGCS)” was hosted by the China Entrepreneur Club. The theme of this year was "Age of Smart Business -- High Quality Growth and Value Creation." Chairman Frank Ning, Mr. Jack Ma, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, Mr. Liu Yonghao, Mr. Guo Guangchang and other well-known entrepreneurs held brilliant discussions around the eight thematic modules such as “Globalization”, “Smart Business” and “Talent and Organization.”
In his keynote speech, Chairman Frank Ning primarily shared the company’s seven principles on “talent management”:
First, an organization must have a spirit, vision and broad-mindedness. It is only when an organization have a spirit can it last long. The principle applies to all organizations even for a restaurant. Whether it is a state-owned enterprise, a private enterprise, a restaurant, or Alibaba, spirit must be present, which is always brought by the vision and broad-mindedness of the organizations’ leaders.
Second, all organizational structures are flexible and an informal organization must be formed. It won’t do by juts establishing the organizational structure or setting up several departments at headquarters to determine how to control people and how to report. An flexible organization must be formed. This flexible organization is itself a goal because it is closely linked with culture. Flexible organizations can produce flexibility and efficiency. The more bureaucratic, the less efficient an organization will be.
Third, good managers are selected, not cultivated or trained. I have gradually discovered that it is possible to develop skills and techniques. However, for other qualities like ideas, personality, entrepreneurship, capability, leadership and innovative spirit, over 70% are born. Your responsibility is to screen these people out instead of fostering them.
Fourth, in order to innovate, we must change the entire organization. I have worked in several state-owned enterprises. State-owned enterprises always want to innovate. Finally, they find that it is almost impossible to make innovations partially. Partial innovation is very difficult, product innovation is also difficult. Innovation requires a change of the entire organization, process, and culture. When many people say that they want to innovate, they go to the Innovation Department to convene a meeting. When it comes to research and development, they go to the R&D Department for a meeting. In the end, you find nothing is done.
Fifth, internal cultivation of talents should be the main strategy. The so-called internal cultivation is simply internal promotion. For several times we introduced outsiders in and the insiders out, and they brought great shocks to the company. Internal cultivation should still be the company's main approach.
Sixth, company’s system is created by people, and should be used to serve people; and yet very often it in the end transforms people, producing “institutional people”, which becomes a vicious circle. How to use excellent people to constantly change the system is the core of human resource management.
Finally, (I suggest) give more time to our new managers. We are often too eager to replace one when we don’t feel good about him/her. A replacement comes and after two years, we feel the same again, and replace him/her again. New comers won’t live up to our expectations either. So offer our managers a bit more tolerance and time to develop and perform better.
In addition, Chairman Frank Ning and Mr. Wang Yusuo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ENN Group, and Ms. Tong Wenhong, Chief HR Officer of Alibaba Group, initiated an interactive discussion on talents and organization at the summit. In the dialogue, Chairman Frank Ning stated a company should have strategies and missions. The accomplishment of a company's mission will also meet the manager's goal. He used his own experience as an example to illustrate that the talents needed by enterprises are "self-driven, sincere and passionate." He also stressed that people in SOEs are "of high realm,” and “we must hold the belief that people are kind and kindness could only be returned with kindness.”
