Now, many managers still prefer the "self-reliance" development philosophy, shutting themselves off to ponder over management challenges. Yet, racking their brains often yields no ideal answers; occasionally, someone comes up with a good idea, but it's like a shooting star—irregular and unrepeatable, with success rates akin to gambling.
For SMEs, how can they avoid losing direction and going astray in blind exploration? How can they steer onto the fast track of healthy development, without repeatedly paying tuition fees for success that belongs only to a few? Let's explore this from the perspective of leveraging external resources. How can SMEs continuously surpass themselves and achieve leapfrog development through borrowing?
Shortcut 1: Introduce Professional Managers
After entering a period of rapid growth, SMEs begin to face coordination issues between operations and management. At this point, companies cannot focus only on operations and neglect management; they must learn to walk on two legs: balancing operations and management. Since most companies won't neglect operations, we emphasize management and the targeted introduction of management talent.
Management talent refers to those who not only know what to do but also why, and these individuals require professional training. Generally, one might become an operational talent without professional training, but rarely a management talent, because operations can rely on talent and effort, while management depends on professional knowledge and experience.
Management talent should possess the following traits: First, they know how to lead a team, i.e., cultivate subordinate talent. One criterion for measuring management talent is whether their team is capable. Second, they gradually establish standardized processes, methods, tools, and behavioral norms in their work, turning personal knowledge into collective wisdom. Third, the most typical trait is knowing how to allocate time between "managing people" and "managing tasks," rather than just doing things themselves. Finally, they excel at planning and budgeting, fully utilizing and integrating existing resources, prioritizing tasks, and delivering qualified results within budget.
Talent needed during the entrepreneurial phase differs from that in the growth phase. Core team members who participated in the startup are mostly "conquerors." They have unique insights and approaches, are typically highly effective, and can capture markets. However, letting these highly "lethal" people guard the city may cause problems because they dislike institutional constraints and excessive rules, preferring to act on whims and follow their feelings, unwilling to adhere to prescribed processes, standardized tools, or methods—all of which are essential for a growing enterprise. In such cases, only by introducing professionally trained professional managers who are willing to play by the rules can the healthy development of the enterprise be ensured.
Shortcut 2: Introduce Management Consulting Advisors
Currently, the most booming consulting firms in China are not truly "management" consulting firms; most are "operations" planning firms, a uniquely Chinese "alternative" consulting type. Because many domestic enterprises are still unfamiliar with the market economy, unable to operate according to its rules, and lack a market-oriented philosophy. This is China's national condition, which has spawned a large number of planners and planning firms. This approach only yields short-term results; even if a product sells well, brand awareness rises, or the company makes big money, if they rest on these laurels, major problems will eventually arise.
Therefore, after those accidentally successful companies have earned their "first pot of gold," they must recognize that future healthy development depends on a sound management system. They must not overemphasize operations and neglect management; otherwise, it will be too late to seek management consulting when problems emerge, because even the most capable consulting firm cannot save a dying enterprise. Management consulting firms are more like health doctors than surgeons; they don't offer quick wealth but focus on improving management levels, regulating internal operating mechanisms, and streamlining relationships to make operations smoother.
Once a relatively backward management enterprise faces operational issues or even declines, a second startup becomes difficult because employees lose passion and confidence, and the company is no longer the same scale, making management harder. Therefore, SMEs should gradually establish management systems in all aspects while operating well, forming sound supervision and incentive mechanisms, and transitioning from success to maturity quickly. Achieving this is often difficult with the company's own management team; the most effortless way is to solve problems through external management consultants, laying the foundation for healthy development. By introducing professional management consulting firms, companies can improve management levels. Through consulting firms, they can summarize and refine the successful experiences of the first startup, elevating them to a theoretical level for repeatability. Thus, successors can stand on the shoulders of giants and continue past successes.
Shortcut 3: Introduce Specialists
For SMEs, cultivating professional talent internally is very difficult. To accelerate talent development and improve quality, they should hire outstanding specialists with high salaries or lease professional talent through outsourcing, making various experts serve their needs.
Toyota's Lexus is its high-end brand, representing the pinnacle of Japanese automobiles. However, for years, its designers were not Japanese trained by Toyota but experts brought from Europe. Because the Japanese knew their own talent couldn't design such products.
Similarly, many domestic enterprises have recognized the importance of "foreign aid" and achieved gratifying results. For example, to break through in technological innovation, Hisense recruited R&D personnel from renowned Japanese home appliance companies, escaping the old path of copying and imitation in China's home appliance industry. Now, Hisense holds numerous independent intellectual property rights and core technologies in appliance manufacturing.
Some might say these are large companies that can afford specialists, while SMEs may not. Actually, that's not the case; once you change your mindset, you'll find a way. Maowang Furniture is a small private enterprise specializing in differentiated furniture design and production. In an environment where the domestic furniture industry generally copies, replicates, and imitates, it spends heavily each year to hire renowned German designers for product design, achieving market success.
Shortcut 4: Replicate Excellent Companies' Management Systems
Unlike copying or replicating other companies' products, I believe SMEs can borrow or even replicate successful companies' practices in systems and management systems, without starting from scratch. Since others have spent decades summarizing successful experiences, we can simply adopt them, making minor adjustments based on our industry and company characteristics. Therefore, SMEs should adopt the concept of replicating systems and management, while innovating in products. Replicating systems and management is the smartest approach—it avoids intellectual property issues and reduces detours.
In this regard, Vanke is a very successful example because it excels at learning from excellent multinational companies, achieving leading management levels among domestic enterprises. In the past year, Vanke purchased all management training courses from HP Business School, conducting comprehensive training for its managers. This systematic training and continuous learning spirit is rare among other domestic companies.
Another typical example is Huawei, which rapidly improved its management through learning. Huawei spent heavily to invite foreign experts to assist with projects, targeting its relatively backward areas, treating projects as a means of employee training. Despite high consulting fees, Huawei cultivated talent through projects, mastering work skills, processes, methods, and techniques. As far as I know, Huawei employees going abroad for technical or management training never think about sightseeing; instead, they strive to uncover advanced management experiences and technology development methods from foreign enterprises, hoping to obtain the "true scriptures." This learning spirit is truly admirable.
(This article is reposted from Gao Jianhua's Sina blog)
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