Another interesting nugget in Eva Dao's excellent book:
"By 1974, Ren had been transferred to Xi'an, the ancient gate of the Silk Road and the capital of Shaanxi Province, to train at the Xi'an Instruments Factory, which made thermometers, pressure gauges, and other specialized gadgets used in scientific labs and industry. It was there, through a university lecture by the Chinese computing pioneer Wu Jikang, that he learned about computers for the first time. Ren didn't understand much of the lecture, but he felt inspired." (p 24)
This is much of what I found over the two years I researched Huawei as a journalist. But that was 15 years ago. Nobody had yet done the work of connecting Ren's character to the company he built.
In the end, quite frustrating. I had carte blanche with my publication in the US. I told my media keepers this gave them an unparalleled opportunity to inform the narrative in the West, at that time suffering from a widespread understanding that the company was a slave to the Chinese communist party, whose purpose was simply to be a conduit to top secret communications inside the West.
That's when I learned another truth about the modern China's economy. Big companies hold their own communications people in quite low repute. I would get a half day of stunningly visionary insights from a senior executive, only to have the PR person squelch all of it. What was the problem? Not even they knew.
The corporate communications team even worked on a much lower floor of the headquarters building in Shenzhen, not even on the same elevators as senior management. In a business culture that is infused with the qualities of Feng shui, stuff like that makes a big difference
First, great interview - nice work getting Eva to come on! Really enjoyed her book. (Really wish it had come out before I finished my report on Open RAN. )
In the interview, you were searching for comparables - Samsung, other entrepreneurs of Ren's generation from China. I would put forward Andy Grove. Different generation - Grove was the highly unlikely survivor of WWII and the Holocaust and made it to the US and became part of the Intel Trinity. But the forged-by-fire / that-which-didn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger aspect is similar, as is the only-the-paranoid-survive aspect. In class, I put forward Huawei as an example of an antifragile company. They coopt the energy of the stressor and emerge stronger for it.
Another interesting nugget in Eva Dao's excellent book:
"By 1974, Ren had been transferred to Xi'an, the ancient gate of the Silk Road and the capital of Shaanxi Province, to train at the Xi'an Instruments Factory, which made thermometers, pressure gauges, and other specialized gadgets used in scientific labs and industry. It was there, through a university lecture by the Chinese computing pioneer Wu Jikang, that he learned about computers for the first time. Ren didn't understand much of the lecture, but he felt inspired." (p 24)
I interviewed Wu Jikang in Beijing 1985 and Wan Runnan in 1989. See my article for The Nordic Link substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordiclink/p/success-in-beijings-silicon-alley
This is much of what I found over the two years I researched Huawei as a journalist. But that was 15 years ago. Nobody had yet done the work of connecting Ren's character to the company he built.
In the end, quite frustrating. I had carte blanche with my publication in the US. I told my media keepers this gave them an unparalleled opportunity to inform the narrative in the West, at that time suffering from a widespread understanding that the company was a slave to the Chinese communist party, whose purpose was simply to be a conduit to top secret communications inside the West.
That's when I learned another truth about the modern China's economy. Big companies hold their own communications people in quite low repute. I would get a half day of stunningly visionary insights from a senior executive, only to have the PR person squelch all of it. What was the problem? Not even they knew.
The corporate communications team even worked on a much lower floor of the headquarters building in Shenzhen, not even on the same elevators as senior management. In a business culture that is infused with the qualities of Feng shui, stuff like that makes a big difference
I interviewed Want Runnan in Beijing in April 1989. He saw Stone Group as “China's IBM”. My interview is available on The Nordic Link substack.
https://nordiclink.substack.com/p/success-in-beijings-silicon-alley
Belatedly listened to this.
First, great interview - nice work getting Eva to come on! Really enjoyed her book. (Really wish it had come out before I finished my report on Open RAN. )
In the interview, you were searching for comparables - Samsung, other entrepreneurs of Ren's generation from China. I would put forward Andy Grove. Different generation - Grove was the highly unlikely survivor of WWII and the Holocaust and made it to the US and became part of the Intel Trinity. But the forged-by-fire / that-which-didn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger aspect is similar, as is the only-the-paranoid-survive aspect. In class, I put forward Huawei as an example of an antifragile company. They coopt the energy of the stressor and emerge stronger for it.
Why the china bashing…you jealous..? White twit..