Should You Change the Ship or the Sea? Insights on Tech Management and Decision‑Making

On June 8, 2018, the GTLC Global Technology Leadership Summit, organized by TGO Kunpeng Club under GeekBang, was held in Beijing. Suning.com IT Headquarters Executive Vice President Jo Xinliang delivered a speech titled “Change the Sea or Change the Ship? – Insights and Decisions in Technology Management,” emphasizing that decisions stem from insight and that a person's cognitive level determines decision‑making ability.

Technology Management Insights

Jo identified three perspectives for analyzing insight: the inevitable view of chance, the future view of the present, and the negating view of today.

1. Inevitable view of chance – Many events are inevitable. For example, Trump’s success is seen as an inevitable decline of the U.S. middle class, and the rise of AI is inevitably linked to the success of cloud computing, which provides the data foundation required for AI.

2. Future view of the present – Decision‑makers must consider the future when evaluating current situations. The 2013 bet between Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu, which predicted Xiaomi’s revenue surpassing Gree’s within five years, illustrates the importance of focusing on model and technology innovation.

3. Negating view of today – Suning’s evolution from air‑conditioner sales to 3C appliances, chain stores, and finally e‑commerce demonstrates continuous self‑negation. Today Suning employs 8,000 R&D staff and aims for 10,000, recognizing that without technology investment the company would be left behind.

Insights into Decision‑Making

Decision‑making is a core responsibility of managers; correct decisions are vital for enterprise growth. Effective decisions follow a systematic process with five key elements:

Establish long‑term rules and avoid “daily decisions.”

Observe boundary conditions to prevent ineffective decisions.

Consider the correct solution and avoid compromise decisions.

Incorporate actionable commitments, avoiding “paper‑only” plans.

Personally verify execution, acting as the “general of execution.”

The decision‑making process consists of three stages:

Option discovery : Gather facts and data, encourage team members to voice opinions, and debate to uncover diverse perspectives.

Option evaluation : Assess alternatives from negating and future viewpoints, welcoming dissenting opinions to gauge the best choice.

Overcoming decision fear : Confront the natural fear of major decisions, be prepared to correct mistakes quickly, and demonstrate the courage required of a CIO.

Suning Cloud Insights and Decisions

Technology is the engine of Suning’s growth. From a technical architecture perspective, Suning has evolved through three generations: POS + ERP, WCS + POS dual‑line, and the current O2O‑integrated architecture. Jo proudly stated that Suning is the only large Chinese enterprise achieving perfect online‑offline integration, with the entire group operating as a single cloud platform.

Suning plans to expand its R&D team to 1,200 members with a 500 million CNY investment. Its 8,000 IT staff develop, manage, release, and iterate products on Suning Cloud, with front‑, middle‑, and back‑office systems fully integrated.

Enterprise cloud demand falls into three categories: building, migration, and governance. While the market for cloud building is mature, migration and governance present future opportunities. Suning Cloud offers comprehensive migration capabilities (hardware virtualization, network cloudification, software cloudification) and a governance model driven by a CTO office that manages over 3,000 systems and 25,000 services as digital assets.

Jo concluded that Suning Cloud’s decision is to become a next‑generation, full‑stack enterprise cloud solution provider, addressing both the migration and governance challenges faced by large‑scale enterprises undergoing digital transformation.