Lining: Lining Is My Dream. It Depends On Everyone.

When I took the gold medal, I realized the dream of the world champion of the whole Chinese people. At that time, I finished it alone.

And create first-class sports in China.

From the world champion to entrepreneur, Lining attributed his success to the passion and dream of athletes.

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How did Lining pform his personal dream into an organization's dream? How did he realize this change in cognition? What kind of management philosophy and wisdom did he summarize from his past experience? What kind of role did he play in the development of the company? What unique management practices were introduced? The reporter interviewed Mr. Lining, founder and chairman of Li Ning Co, on these issues.

Personal value depends on team work.

Reporter: Mr. Lining, I am very glad to interview you in person.

Can you describe your first?

Lining: whether it is management philosophy or management style, I think the most important thing is to find a way to make business, including what business to do, how to do business, the skills needed to make a business, the choice of executive, the pformation of business and the action of execution, etc.

How to organize all kinds of resources according to the contents of the business is a core of management.

Specifically, it involves the most basic management contents such as sales, products and finance.

During the twenty years since the Li Ning Co development, although the business and market are constantly changing and enterprises are constantly changing and adjusting, these basic actions are indispensable.

After accumulating many years of experience, from the point of view of management methods, strategic formulation has gradually become an integrated organizational behavior from the past singleness and the direct decision of the company's top level, and it is a change through the integration of human resources to achieve the company's strategic objectives.

In the final analysis, the adjustment of any organization method and content is guided by the goal of completing the business.

Reporter: according to Jack Welch's point of view, every enterprise is ultimately to win.

But on the road to success, the road and style chosen by enterprises are different.

What elements can you sum up for Lining's success?

Lining: I am an athlete. My impulse to start in this industry is my personal pursuit and interest. I can say that my personal passion and dream always exist in the whole creation and operation of Li Ning Co.

It will embody or play a role in company pformation, development direction, culture or values.

However, if an enterprise wants to expand its scale and enhance its competitiveness, it must realize its organic structure through organizational capabilities, financial capabilities, human resources and management capabilities.

I expect Li Ning Co to become a professional company to provide specialized products for the market.

To achieve this, my passion and ability alone are definitely not enough, and I need a very strong professional team.

Passion and dream are the driving force of entrepreneurship, and team building and organizational capability are essential.

I have been implementing the professionalization of the company, the professionalization of management and business operations, which may not be the same as many domestic companies.

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Reporter: what experiences in your life have a profound impact on your entrepreneurial and managerial style?

Lining: from my personal experience, it is the passion to pursue dreams as an athlete.

In addition, years of hard physical exercise have enabled me to find goals and pursue continuously, and learn how to face difficulties and constantly find ways to overcome difficulties.

This passion and perseverance is the help of athlete training for my personal business.

For company management, how to turn a person's dream into an organizational behavior, the ability to structure a single understanding and ability of an individual into an organization, and finally win business gains is the key.

If a piece of business is not done well, my personal understanding is that our organizational capability has not kept pace, or the organization has lost some part of its ability, which has led to the loss of certain businesses rather than any person who has not done well.

Reporter: in the domestic private entrepreneurs, your understanding of the pformation and construction of personal capabilities to organizational capabilities is very rare. What experience inspired your understanding?

Lining: if a clear concept is formed in theory, after learning Peking University, I learned a lot of case studies, such as the comparison between Chinese catering and McDonald's, the comparison between Coca-Cola and Chinese drinks, the comparison between Chinese tea and Lipton, and so on.

In practice, though I personally participated in the design of the first dress, the first factory building, the location and layout of the first store, the first advertising filming and creativity, but from the beginning, I did not plan to act in person, or feel that these things are beyond me.

When I am an athlete, winning the Olympic champion is the dream of all Chinese people to enhance the confidence of Chinese people.

I win the gold medal by myself and realize the dream of the Chinese people.

However, creating a first-class Chinese sports brand is my dream, but it needs support from technology, finance, marketing and management. I can not do it alone, and it is up to everyone to fulfill this dream.

Reporter: from the Chinese dream to rely on personal strength to achieve, to manage enterprises to rely on everyone to achieve, this understanding of the span is still relatively large.

How did you achieve this pformation?

Lining: the experience of athletes made me contact Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Adidas and other international companies earlier. This is very inspiring for my personal business.

At the same time, I learned this spirit from my coaches and teammates.

I have always been grateful to my coach and teammates.

I was asked by a reporter long ago about the difference between being an athlete and being a boss.

When I was in the national team, I was very young, but I was the captain, which may also be a kind of savvy.

This concept may be related to personal values. There is a skill in gymnastics called "four man pyramid". Many people will focus on the top of the top. But in fact, he must rely on the support of three people below, including throwing, receiving, supporting and lifting.

Personal value is achieved by team support, which is also a must in the process of doing business.

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Professionalism is very necessary, but it is very difficult.

Reporter: what is your position in the management of the company? When and when will you come forward? Under what circumstances will you retire to the second tier?

Lining: first of all, my position is the spiritual pillar of the company, that is, dream and passion; the second is the decision of major directional problems.

My two CEO respects my opinion very much, but sometimes I consciously let them make decisions on their own.

If I am too strong, everyone will become weak.

Sometimes too strong a person, everyone is careful to work around you, will deprive a lot of opportunities to cultivate organizational capabilities.

Organizational capabilities should be constructed through market environment.

Only when the market is honed, will organizations grow and grow.

I will only participate in deciding the life of a company, involving shareholders and the company's basic values.

Of course, I will also take part in the formulation and approval of the major strategy of the company, but I am not involved in specific decisions.

This idea is also related to my experience as an athlete.

My coach will leave me a lot of space in training. When making training plans, from the training volume, the understanding of movement to the choice of technology, the coach will allow me to experience independently, let me understand, experience and pcend myself.

This is very important.

Some coaches are too careful to make the athletes lose their autonomy.

Reporter: what unique management practices have you introduced to the company? Why have you introduced these management practices?

Lining: professional management.

In 1996, I made an internal adjustment of my company. Please go to myself and other senior relatives and my teammates.

Many people think that I have suffered a lot of pressure, but in fact it is not.

Because I had no family business burden at the beginning, but family culture had a certain impact on the company.

For example, Lining is famous. Many people will come to recognize their hometown and identify their teammates, and will form such a culture of regional and gangster culture.

So at that time, I made up my mind to take the lead in leaving relatives and teammates away from the company. The goal is to enable others to come to the company with hope, not care where you come from, but whether you are qualified for this position, whether you are willing to pay for your dreams, so that the company can really embark on a professional road.

But I also feel that it is very difficult to walk professionalism in China.

When the whole society's understanding of professionalism is not thorough, many people are faced with external temptation. Professionalism is hard to embody the so-called "noble spirit". Instead, there will be some state owned enterprises' state of "one day, one hit one day" and half dead.

This is not what we want.

Reporter: have you ever met the conflict between interpersonal emotion and business rationality? Now look back, what do you think should be done to deal with the conflict between emotion and business rationality?

Lining: as a matter of fact, I left my teammates and relatives away, and no one turned up with me.

But at that time, some people felt puzzled.

Those who oppose it think that "fighting brothers, going to war with father and son", "brothers are united in mind, and their profits are broken", I think my approach is too simple, and openness and normalization are effective.

However, I believe that although this will affect short-term efficiency, it will ensure long-term efficiency.

Of course, we should have a careful account of the employees who are leaving. This is not just a personal problem. From the point of view of social interaction norms, we should maintain mutual respect and friendship.

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Social environment affects occupational values

Reporter: early in the production of the first batch of shoes, you pay a lot of effort, but the final quality is not qualified.

Have you ever hesitated in destroying the first batch of shoes?

Lining: there is no hesitation.

You can't sell anything you make. You can only continue to search for things that can be sold. This is the quality requirement.

As a newly established department, it is normal for a team to make mistakes.

What I have done is, first, to take responsibility for them; second, to give them space to pursue the right things and exert their passion.

Because their ambition is to make a brand that can be heard.

This so-called mind is also related to the athlete's experience.

We played many times, and everyone saw only the side of success, ignoring the failure. Actually, everyone was fighting.

Reporter: have you met any intolerable behavior in your management process?

Lining: it's the most intolerable act for me to take a kickback and get a kickback.

When such a phenomenon happens, it is very painful to carry out it.

There are social reasons for these phenomena, because China's social environment is rather complicated and its legal system is not yet sound.

Li Ning Co is still facing many problems of its peers today.

We must maintain a balance in the dilemma. First, we must avoid the act of eating out of the market and prevent the company from being hurt; second, we must ensure efficiency.

For example, the cost difference of 50 Fen of a single item often means a profit of $3. 5 billion.

Why Europe and the United States will shift many production lines to four small dragons in Asia, then to China and Vietnam? The main consideration is cost factors.

Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the corresponding mechanism and organizational capability to achieve the goal and adapt to the market changes.

Reporter: your observation on professionalism is very profound.

On the one hand, professionalism brings benefits, and on the other hand, it brings "the mentality of migrant workers".

You call yourself a "passionate worker".

How can we pfer this passion to the nerve endings, allowing managers and employees to work with passion and dreams?

Lining: I think it is not easy to create a professional enterprise environment in China.

China's self-sufficiency has been a tradition for thousands of years.

In the process of industrialization, the welfare needs of the whole society need to be popularized. Many people are still buying houses with fear. In fact, social security needs to be perfected. This social environment and cultural change is more difficult.

As a result, in the process of professionalization of Chinese people, the mentality of migrant workers will occur. At the same time, under such a rapidly changing social environment, Chinese people's mentality is hard to stabilize in the impact of environment and opportunity, and it will be hard to abide by the basic values of professionals.

Under the temptation of many free riders, the values of professional people will be challenged to a certain extent.

After the listing of Li Ning Co in 2004, we adopted options, restricted stock and other measures to improve the income and bonuses of core employees, and also to enhance the education and training of passion and dreams.

However, there will still be some managers' actions that cause damage to the company.

I think this is not only a personal problem, but a problem of the whole society.

Because the company's personnel come from the society, some of the social values that are prevalent in the society inevitably affect the company.

In the process of professionalization, it is an inevitable trend to raise the cost of human resources.

In addition, we must look forward to the progress of China's whole society.

Reporter: This is indeed a dilemma faced by Chinese entrepreneurs.

Western entrepreneurs are faced with a very mature social environment, and society can cultivate professionals with integrity and professional ethics.

In China, this problem is pferred to the responsibility of entrepreneurs.

Lining: in the west, people who do not abide by their professional ethics will be judged by the noble spirit and will be kicked out of the market. Under such pressure, it is difficult for him to find a similar position in the industry.

In China, the cost of job hopping is very low, and there is a lack of personal reputation control mechanism, so that a job change can be realized, and even unit certificates need not be produced.

Such a social mechanism has not been established, so it is difficult to restrict managers from outside.

Therefore, this matter can not be haste, because the biggest responsibility of enterprises is to develop, to be responsible to shareholders, and to realize the development of employees.

Although enterprises have social responsibilities, they can not replace the development of society.

We will consider how to gradually enhance the organizational capabilities and professional management in our own survival and development path.

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Have the ability to adapt to change.

Reporter: from the perspective of the competitiveness of enterprises, what do you think is the competitiveness of Li Ning Co?

Lining: compared with our domestic counterparts, our strongest part lies in the brand's management ability.

At present, this capability has room for improvement in effective integration with company development.

In addition, we also have strong organizational capabilities.

In the past twenty years, Li Ning Co has been in the process of reform.

From millions to billions of dollars, from single to diversified products, from single-layer to multi-level market, has been in the process of change.

But in general, our ability to constantly organize organizational mechanisms in "turbulence" is very strong.

In the late 90s of last century, we did not adapt to the ERP system at the beginning, but I firmly promoted change.

In the end, we completed the system well, and the organizational capability went up to a higher level.

Any change is not an individual, but a change of organization and system.

In the past one hundred years, western enterprises are also in the process of continuous changes and progress.

Three feet of ice are not cold in a day.

The ability of organizational change enables us to find the right direction, pool more resources, gain more space, and get more benefits from it.

Through continuous change, organizations will become more flexible.

Therefore, I have always been firmly committed to this path.

For example, we, as the first Hongkong listed company in this industry, have experienced great challenges in the early days.

At that time, a very traditional and local enterprise was going to operate according to the laws of Hongkong. It was faced with great pressure. Managers and financial personnel had gone through a metamorphosis.

Although everyone is tired and inconsistent, they are all following up and acting, and constantly understand and progress in this process.

It can be said that the advantages of our organizational capabilities are well reflected in these two changes.

Of course, there is still room for improvement in the capacity of business organizations.

Reporter: what are the most entrepreneurial and managerial experiences you would like to share with others?

Lining: from our company, we can see the epitome of China's economic development in the past twenty years.

However, it is still difficult to sum up some specific experiences.

From now on, it may be too early for me to share my mind and experience with my company.

Because some of our ideas may be outdated or still face adjustment.

For example, when the road to professionalization can be truly completed, it is a difficult question to judge.

The professionalization of Li Ning Co in three years is still open to question.

In fact, we just gave up some family and regional culture, and we need to further construct and enhance the efficiency of professionalization.

We must strike a balance in pursuing the coordination of business efficiency and basic values, otherwise it will not be in line with China's social culture.

Reporter: the champion's mentality is always striving for excellence.

If you use athletes' gold medal, silver medal and bronze standard to measure Li Ning Co, what kind of standard do you think it has achieved now?

Lining: at this stage, it can be said that the bronze medal.

We still have too much to improve.

This involves people's evaluation criteria.

The present situation is that you are more daring than others, dare to do something and do earlier.

When the market is still in its early stage, fewer people do it, and if it does, it will be successful.

Besides, if we analyze carefully, from the point of view of business, management, skills and market, we may not have anything to be proud of and conclude.

If we can create a new consumption demand in a highly saturated and completely competitive computer and mobile phone market, like Apple Corp, it is worth summarizing.

In the opportunities that the market has given, the Li Ning Co has gone a long way, and has accumulated a lot in the exploration.

The reason why it is a bronze medal, not a silver medal or a gold medal, is that there is still much room for Li Ning Co to create new business needs, gain more business profits, or have a lot of things to do in affecting the whole society's consumption behavior.

To create new products and needs, we must rely on the ability of the organization, not the ability of one person.