Smarter Talents Promise Less Cost

By Peng Jianfeng

In the eyes of Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of China's Xiaomi Corporation, the smarter a talent is, the less the cost will be. He once said that the best strategy to employ the most intelligent people is to seek advice from all sides and to chat with people everywhere we go. If we happen to know somebody is a “big fish” in a certain field, we need to set down his or her name on a list. When the list reaches 30, then we start to invite them to dinner one by one.

For instance, to hire an outstanding engineer, Lei Jun himself made over 90 phone calls and asked his partners to visit him in turn until the engineer was moved by their sincerity and accepted their invitation.

The same strategy has been adopted by Lee Kun-hee, the former president of Samsung, who chatted around the world to poach the top talents in design, technological innovation, and quality management. Once the name list was decided upon, he would make appointments with those on the list for dinner, promising to offer them a salary 3-5 times higher than competitors, and no one turned him down.

Lee Kun-hee found that if the salary offered is twice the market price, corporate culture may matter; however, if the salary offered is more than 3-5 times higher, corporate culture does not work. This best explains how Lee Kun-hee could recruit many top talents in his so-called Genius Talents Program. Lee Kun-heebelieves that one genius is equal to 200,000 normal employees.

Lei Jun believes that a good CEO should do well in the following three things: namely, finding talents, raising funds, and positioning the vision. It is somewhat different from the notion of “deciding on the vision, setting up the team, and leading the team” initiated by Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo. In the beginning, Lei Jun spent at least 80% of his time finding the right personnel, who finally formed Xiaomi's seven-member core team. After Xiaomi was founded, half of his time was spent recruiting talents every day. He had personally met and talked with the first 100 employees of the company. From the very beginning, Lei Jun has been seeking career-oriented talents who are highly motivated, with high potential and that are highly endeavored. The most important thing for a company is to be clear about the type of talents needed for the company's development at the time. Lei Jun's recruitment standards include the following elements:

First, the company will offer equity for those with enterprising spirits—those who don't just work for money, but for their future. Second, they strive to find the best talents in a field, be it management or technological innovation. Third, they recruit those with ultra-strong learning capacity, for they have high potential and are quick to learn anything with slightest help.

Finally, finding those who dare to face challenges themselves and who can fight hard for the company's development.

When talking about how to take advantage of a talent, Lei Jun is a follower of what he calls a “fewer but better” principle, He believes that less is more, and that the fewer in the company, the more responsibilities they will have to undertake, so that they can be fully occupied every day.

For an innovative enterprise, each employee should shoulder more responsibilities. If there are too many employees in a company, a third of them are likely to be either idle or, at the very least, less productive.

(From Peng Jianfeng's Teaching Material of “Entering Xiaomi.” Translation: Liu Jie)

這樣尋找聰明人才

文/彭劍鋒

在雷軍看來，最聰明的人才，成本是最低的。他說，我們要雇用最聰明的人，最好的辦法就是到處請教、到處聊天，某某是這個領域的牛人，就記下名單，記到二三十個人，就開始挨個兒請名單上的人吃飯。

為了找到一個非常出色的工程師，他曾經連續打了90多個電話，然后讓合伙人輪流去找人家，一直找到人家不好意思拒絕為止。

這一點跟三星的李健熙是一樣的。李健熙當年為了挖頂尖的設計人才、技術創新人才以及質量管理人才，到全世界去聊天，鎖定行業里面最厲害的團隊，一旦名單定下來，老板親自約他們吃飯，代價是按國際市場價的3到5倍挖人，沒一個拒絕他。

李健熙研究過，待遇高1倍以內，企業文化起作用；如果待遇高過3到5倍，企業文化基本上不起作用。李健熙就這樣去挖全球最頂尖的人才，叫天才人才計劃，他認為一個天才相當于20萬人。

雷軍認為，CEO要做好三件事：找人、找錢、定戰略。這跟柳傳志的“定戰略、搭班子、帶隊伍”稍有不同。初期，雷軍至少花80%的時間找人，最后建立了小米的七人核心團隊。公司成立以后，他每天都要花一半時間來招募人才，公司的前100名員工入職他都親自見面并溝通。

從創業開始，雷軍就在找一批高意愿、高潛質、高績效的人才，而且這批人都是追求事業的。一個企業最重要的是要明確在當前發展階段需要什么人才。雷軍的用人標準是：

第一，有創業精神的人，不是為了眼前的工資，而要給他股權，他愿意為未來吃苦；

第二，專業領域最牛的人，不管是管理領域還是技術創新領域，一定找專業領域最牛的人；

第三，學習能力超強的人，這種人潛質很好，一點就通，這叫高潛質學習型人才；

第四，敢于挑戰自己、挑戰人生的人，這樣的人才是真正能夠跟你志同道合去打江山的人。

雷軍的用人哲學是，人一定要少而精。他認為少就是多。人少事多，就天天24小時忙不過來。

創業型公司一定要一個人頂兩個人用，如果養一大堆人，就會有三分之一是閑人和干不成事的人。

（摘編自彭劍鋒教授“走進小米”授課內容）