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Wang Zhuo, A New Leader In Investment And Entrepreneurship

2013/9/5 21:04:00 20

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white shirt, jeans, and Wang Zhuo's casual dress appeared in the life building of Beijing Wai Wai Street, bringing a little refreshing to us just experiencing the temperature of the outside fire.

Wang Zhuo was tall and thin, smiling and elegant. He had a "literary and artistic" character on his body, and only slightly gray hair revealed his age.

Wang Zhuo, who has just stepped into the year of knowing destiny, came to Beijing in the capacity of WatchGuard CEO. Although he was a native of Beijing, Wang Zhuo said with a smile that his own "South tune" has made many people who first met think he is a southerner.

relaxed and indifferent temperament easily overlooks the background of Wang Zhuo's "amazing" background. He is called the representative of the third generation of Chinese American entrepreneurs after Wang An and Wang Jialian.

In 80s, he went to the us to start his own business and successfully sold it to Symantec. Later, he made the desktop management software provider LANdesk "Jedi" every 4 years in a short span of 12 years, earning 12 times profits for investors and becoming a hot star CEO in Silicon Valley.

"As a CEO, just like Hollywood stars create box office, they must create value for shareholders."

However, Wang Zhuo added, "I hope this process is joyful, not painful, and this is the state I pursue."

Now Wang Zhuo's definition of success is "free to do what one wants to do".

making money is means freedom is the purpose

Wang Zhuo, who was admitted to the computer department of Peking University in 1980, was actually P's original ideal to learn literature. It originated from the edification of the parents working in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. But at the time when "learning all over the world", they forced Wang Zhuo to choose science.

And this has laid the direction of Wang Zhuo's future life.

However, unlike the science students who love to drill the bull's horn, Wang Zhuozong's love from the outgoing and lively brain challenged the customary practice and practice. He used his logic to think about the possibility of the unknown, and was full of enthusiasm and curiosity about it.

After graduating from the domestic database authority, Mr. Sarkozy, Wang Zhuo did not follow his or her classmates' employment or pursue advanced studies, but chose to study and manage in the US.

A book called "the dream of Silicon Valley" has led him to the impulse and idea of starting a business. "Everyone has a pursuit and a goal. They all hope to achieve that goal, but I think the process of pursuing and achieving goals should be an interesting thing, otherwise, even if we achieve this goal, what is the point?"

Although in China in 80s, entrepreneurship was still a distant word, but Wang Zhuo thought that the scenery on this road would be more wonderful. He looked forward to performing the new success story of Silicon Valley.

At the same time, Wang Zhuo also knows that to run a company well, only the technical background is not enough. We must have a management concept.

For this reason, with a sense, Wang Zhuo chose a management project in University of Southern California focusing on communication and high technology, instead of the traditional < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > MBA < /a > "now think of it a little bit of a straight beat", Wang Zhuo said with a smile.

The story after is developed according to Wang Zhuo's planning.

After graduation, Wang Zhuo did not rush to go out to set up his own company, but first found a job as a product manager.

Due to his excellent performance, he was promoted to vice president at the age of 25.

Now, when Wang Zhuo meets some new business people who have entrepreneurial aspirations, he always suggests that they start with product managers.

Because the product manager is not only skilled in technology but also very closely integrated with the market, so that he can get a timely insight into the direction of product development with commercial value.

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in the process of becoming a product manager, Wang Zhuo's entrepreneurial orientation is gradually clear.

An accidental opportunity to create a "cloud" company with an investor, and develop a software program based on DOS system to pform report character interface into graphics.

At that time, the report making software in the market could only play the characters of rows and lines, while Wang Zhuo could not only help customers to make parts graphics while making parts database, but also even send photos of employees in the personnel management database.

According to common sense, Choi Yun's product positioning is very successful, sales curve straight rise should be logical.

But success is often not based on single line logic, and the factors that affect success are always multiple.

This is what Wang Zhuo did not expect before. He encountered the first setback in his pioneering work, and it was also a valuable lesson.

Wang Zhuo paid too much attention to the market value of products, but he did not deal with the problem of gold chains.

In a mature market such as the United States, a new software product is very attractive, but without promotion is no market.

In the development of products, need to promote the cost to make up, the funds are not in place, Wang Zhuo watched the product "aborted."

Later, Wang Zhuo summed up the experience of the venture and said helplessly, "what I learned most at that time was how to clean up the mess."

at this point, relying on investors to become Wang Zhuo's "pain point", the second time he set up a 20/20 company, he chose his own investment.

Although the first venture failed, Wang Zhuo firmly believes that he is keen on the industry, and still continues to think of the color cloud products. But in the past, Microsoft's graphical interface Windows3.1 has completely broken Wang Zhuo's "back road".

"Technology should be seen in front of the market. If you see the market, you have to take a step forward."

Wang Zhuo summed up his experience again.

In this way, 20/20 has "changed", and quickly developed an installation PC-Install based on < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_f.asp" > Windows < /a > platform, so that users can install programs faster and more conveniently.

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to devote oneself to IT is like entering an endless war, innovation, imitation and innovation. Every day, Wang Zhuo lives in such a cycle.

"The real turning point of the company is the change in business mode."

Wang Zhuo decided to take the OEM road. He thought that for small companies, it would be the most effective way to find a few large companies and pfer their technology to them without too much money for market promotion.

Through the bundling of the software department with Intel's < a href= "http://fz.sjfzxm.com/ > LANdesk < /a >, the installation procedure of 20/20 company has expanded rapidly in the market.

"If a few big companies are bundled up like this, profits will be rich at once.

You don't have to spend money on marketing or marketing anymore, because they have done it.

This is Wang Zhuo's grope in the "scrimmage" mode, also laid the success of 20/20, so far the company is still ranked second in the field of subdivision.

Wang Zhuo is deeply influenced by the "Silicon Valley dream". The symbol of successful entrepreneurship in the US is listing or selling.

Although 20/20 has made a great effort, Wang Zhuo has sold it to Symantec.

Wang Zhuo said, "actually, it was very painful at that time, and it was the most unpleasant stage in my life."

For a long time, Wang Zhuo was worried about whether the wages of the second day employees could be sent out and find money everywhere. Sometimes, hundreds of thousands of dollars of projects were difficult because of the harsh demands of investors.

In addition, Wang Zhuo was full of guilt for his family. He even had doubts about his choice for some time. "If you can't do it again, you can't earn any more money."

So at that time, Wang Zhuo thought that if he could be financially independent, he would not have to work for money, that is the goal.

Finally, the opportunity came. Symantec bought 20/20 and Wang Zhuo earned the first pot of gold.

For him, without the pressure of making money, he had the freedom of choice. He began to do business in his own way.

repositioning: Entrepreneurship + investment

What is Wang Zhuo going to do to restore "free body"? P needs to reposition himself.

Before finding a new direction, Wang Zhuo received an invitation from Symantec, hoping he would be vice president.

This means Wang Zhuo wants to pform professional managers from entrepreneurs to the former, but the former pformation of the latter seems not easy.

"Sometimes it's like walking on a foggy day, you can only see the distance of the first one hundred or two hundred meters, not too far away," but at that time Wang Zhuo thought he could at least raise the ability to manage and control the global market on this platform, and Symantec was the leading global enterprise in the field of information security.

"Before the company is relatively small, you have to take the lead, but in a big company, as a top manager, the most important thing is to arrange the right people to do the right thing.

People's energy is limited, you can't help but can't participate, otherwise you can't see the forest.

It is a trade-off between what to manage and how much to manage. "

Wang Zhuo said, this is what he hopes to learn in big companies.

In less than two years, Wang Zhuo doubled the sales volume of his software department and became the highest internal profit Department of Symantec, P.

However, at the same time, Wang Zhuo also saw the so-called "big company disease" and the "political struggle" between the Department and functional departments in terms of interests.

"In retrospect, I prefer to start a business when I prefer to go on my own way, and I don't need to spend time doing this kind of wrangling."

Wang Zhuo said that even later in his company he tried to avoid the breeding of corporate politics.

The entrepreneurial experience of 20/20 made Wang Zhuo learn how to make the company survive under limited resources. In fact, many people are discussing this topic today. "This requires leaders to have the ability to judge priorities and devote limited resources to the most important things."

And Symantec's manager tried to make Wang Zhuo have the vision and confidence of global operation.

Opportunities are always left to those who are well prepared. In 2002, LANdesk, who was independent of Intel, was looking for CEO, and Wang Zhuo entered their line of sight.

"LANdesk has strengths and weaknesses. The strength is because it is stripped from Intel and technically strong, but the market and sales are very weak.

The technology gene it possesses is congenital advantage, and I can configure others.

For this reason, Wang Zhuo decided to take over LANdesk.

Unlike other CEO, Wang Zhuo has another identity, that is, investors, he co worked with PE to acquire LANdesk.

At this time, Wang Zhuo found the most suitable location and the most comfortable feeling.

"I like to invest in my own company. On the one hand, I am confident that I can do it well to confirm my investment vision. On the other hand, I also enjoy the sense of achievement brought by the appreciation of the company."

does investment status help to make management decisions? Wang Zhuo has spoken of the advantage of being "two jobs": "if you are 100% of the managers employed, you may not be in the position of shareholders so much that they invest for you.

And if you invest yourself, you are equal to them. "

And equal status can guarantee Wang Zhuo freely to expand his entrepreneurial skills.

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according to the previous diagnosis of LANdesk, Wang Zhuo began a radical pformation.

Wang Zhuo knows well that an excellent talent is worth a lot of mediocre talent.

"The company is absolutely not stinting money in the use of people.

It would be better to hire a good person at 10 times than to hire 10 mediocrity. "

He "dug" 5 vice presidents in charge of the company's finance, marketing, sales and services.

In order to eliminate the "chronic illness" retained by the big companies in the past, Wang Zhuo wants to turn LANdesk into an entrepreneurial company.

To this end, he changed the decision-making mechanism of the company and put the power and responsibility of the decision-making on the leadership of the Department instead of the organization.

In the past, a product decision of LANdesk had to be discussed for a long time before it could be fixed. When Wang Zhuo changed his democratic decision to centralized decision-making, the speed of decision making increased, and the reaction speed of enterprises to the market correspondingly increased.

under the flat organizational structure, Wang Zhuo also reinvented the process.

Previous customer complaints or services were first reflected to partners, partners notified sales engineers, and then pferred to product managers, and then to R & D personnel, this is a very long process.

Wang Zhuo suggested that any customer's complaint can be directly forwarded to him by the salesperson.

This decision has reduced a lot of wasted time in the intermediate links, putting the interests of users first, greatly improving the response time of after-sales service, and has been widely recognized by customers.

The effect of the reform is remarkable. LANDesk's first quarter profit has increased by 12% compared with the same period. The profit growth rate of the first quarter, the second quarter and the third quarter of 2003 has reached 26%, 31% and 66% respectively.

the experience of IT in many years has made Wang Zhuo summed up many sales strategies.

As a provider of computer desktop management solutions, LANdesk has strengthened its cooperation with Intel, Symantec and other global IT companies, and has rapidly expanded its business worldwide through sales integration solutions.

With the efforts of Wang Zhuo, LANdesk took the first place in the desktop management software market in just a few months.

with the experience of Symantec, Wang Zhuo's "prescription" to the company's politics is corporate culture.

"The culture I advocate is based on the interests of the company rather than the interests of the individual and the Department."

Wang Zhuo started from the weekly executive meeting. In the past, everyone at the conference considered from their own perspective, encountered problems in the business, and the departments were responsible for each other.

"My approach is to put the problem out, not to blame specific departments, but to solve this problem and avoid similar events in the future.

For example, sales believe that because of poor technical support, how should sales be done under existing conditions instead of complaining about technology.

Everyone wants to solve the problem from their own point of view.

After a year or two of running in, the culture of the company will gradually form.

This way of thinking was also used by Wang Zhuo as CEO's WatchGuard company.

there are not many Chinese CEO companies in the US high-tech enterprises.

Wang Zhuo admitted that in the corporate culture of the United States, personal charm is essential as a leader, and charm is also related to personality.

Management is a social work. We must have an extroverted character and be good at communication.

"CEO is actually a sale, but it sells ideas, and communicable to your employees, investors and customers, and persuaded them in different ways.

So EQ is very important for CEO. "

Wang Zhuo, who has lived abroad for many years, thinks that the so-called cultural conflict between China and the west is only a mental obstacle. If we keep an open mind and communicate with each other, we can avoid it completely.

following the typical American entrepreneurial philosophy, Wang Zhuo has "retired" after listing in LANdesk.

Wang Zhuo is not interested in keeping a job. "Many companies increase 5%-10% every year. There is not much change, which is not stimulating enough for me."

So in 2006, Wang Zhuo bought and bought the world's oldest network security vendor, WatchGuard, as global president and CEO.

Using her own judgment of the industry and the resources of the industry, Wang Zhuo redefined the product direction for WatchGuard: the firewall, IDS, Web filtering, IPS, anti spam and other functions are concentrated in a box, so that users no longer need to buy multiple boxes to solve the information security problem.

Wang Zhuo attaches importance to channel construction and has established branches and partners in 150 countries around the world.

By 2013, WatchGuard's global sales grew by more than 8 times over the acquisition period, and exceeded 2 digits in 9 consecutive quarters.

Some people say that Wang Zhuo is the "magic doctor" of the enterprise, which can make a troubled company into a healthy company and bring about ten times profit return for investors.

But Wang Zhuo prefers to use his "art" to describe his work. "It's like making a sculpture or painting a picture. You turn a pile of mud into a beautiful sculpture and make beautiful paintings on the painting paper. In this process, your effort is converted into their value. This is a very exciting and satisfying thing for me."