When you have been at the helm of a company for more than 20 years and seen it grow from a single dilapidated
and debt-ridden factory to a global competitor with annual sales in excess of RMB100 billion, questions about succession
naturally begin to arise. I tend to deflect those questions, and not only because I personally want to remain
focused on enhancing the competitiveness of Haier. My larger hope is that the question of who sits in the CEO’s
chair is of less and less importance. Haier should not be a company ruled by one man or woman but, rather,
a self-sustaining system of excellent managerial processes. I have always liked what Peter Drucker said about
leadership’s having little to do with charisma and other qualities. As he put it, “Leadership is a means that is
mundane, unromantic, and boring. Its essence is performance.” Today, the biggest problem at Haier
lies in the fact that its leaders are still embroiled in operational execution issues. The enterprise will become great
when it is able to operate by itself, with employees acting as their own leaders, understanding what to do to satisfy market
and customer demand. The future CEO of Haier will then be able to focus wholly on strategic issues and make
decisions from a global point of view. If that sounds like the chief executive will be aloof or disconnected from
the rank and file, then I have created the wrong impression.Quite the contrary, it worries me that so many young people
join the managerial ranks of companies immediately after graduating university, never having been managed by others.
Coming of age in the Cultural Revolution, I of course missed the opportunity to attend university and was thrown
abruptly to the bottom of working society. There is no question in my mind that those years exerted a significant influence
on how I now go about leading others. When I dine with Haier workers, as I do nearly every day, or when I drop
in unannounced at a workplace, I am always looking to renew my understanding of their perspective. Perhaps I have
not achieved what Lao-tzu described – a populace unaware of the presence of their ruler. But that brilliance may be
within my successor’s reach.