From Engineer to Organizer: Key Lessons from Building Huawei

Ren Zhengfei explains that creating Huawei required him to shift from being an individual expert to becoming an organizer, recognizing that personal expertise alone could not achieve success without harnessing the strengths of many.

He recounts his early life influences, the realization that personal heroism must give way to teamwork, and how his own sense of insignificance led to an appreciation for the power of organized groups.

When founding Huawei, he introduced an employee shareholding system to align interests and motivate staff, despite lacking knowledge of modern equity incentives. Early on, he allowed regional "guerrilla leaders" great autonomy, listening to their reports and ideas without imposing strict control.

Facing chaotic growth and internal conflicts after 1997, he convened scholars to draft a "basic law" that unified the company's culture, which emerged organically from employee consensus.

In 2004, with guidance from an American consulting firm, Huawei established an Executive Management Team and introduced a rotating chairmanship, later evolving into a rotating CEO system where eight leaders each served six‑month terms, balancing power and fostering broad leadership experience.

The rotating system helped smooth internal contradictions, encouraged CEOs to focus on strategy and institutional building, and delegated day‑to‑day decisions to business groups, supporting steady expansion.

Ren emphasizes that collective effort and institutional mechanisms are far more reliable than reliance on a single leader, and that continuous adaptation, openness, and employee empowerment are essential for long‑term resilience.