The most amazing private enterprise in the world must be Huawei. Despite many years of US government sanctions and attacks, the company continues to survive and even thrive. What is the secret? How does it work?
Recently, I came across 5 Fundamentals of Leadership - Leadership Development | Simon Sinek. Sinek explained that there are finite games and there are infinite games. Finite games have known players, fixed rules, agreed objectives and scoring, and an end-point. Infinite games have known and unknown players, and changeable rules, with the only objective of keeping the game in play, endlessly. He said business should be an infinite game. It is not about being number one or winning etc. It is about surviving in the long term. I capture his presentation in the following mind map:
https://www.huxiu.com/article/302765.html 2019-06-05 10:56
任正非采访实录：对于华为而言，生存永远是第一位的
- 记者：您还是想在手机领域成为第一名是吗？
- 任正非：没有，我们可以变大，也可以变小。华为是非上市公司，不追求数量增大，也不追求利润高低，存活下来就不错了。
- 任正非：生存永远是第一位的，没有生存就不可能有发展。我从来没有做梦，去梦想怎么样，还是要用现实主义来解决问题。
- 任正非：自己对未来没信心，自己没有意志，自己没有坚强的努力，这才是真正杀死自己的最大杀手。
The translation:
Title: Interview Record of Ren Zhengfei: For Huawei, Survival is Always the Top Priority
Journalist: Do you still want to become the number one in the mobile phone industry?
Ren Zhengfei: No, we can grow bigger, or we can become smaller. Huawei is a non-public company, not pursuing a large market share, nor chasing high or low profits. Just surviving is good enough.
Ren Zhengfei: Survival is always the top priority; without survival, there can be no development. I have never daydreamed or imagined things; instead, I always use realism to solve problems.
Ren Zhengfei: The lack of self-confidence, willpower, and strong effort for the future is the true killer that can destroy oneself.
Notice that Ren Zhengfei is doing exactly what Simon Sinek suggested - the infinite mindset player playing in the infinite game. That is why Huawei is surviving despite the US government attack.
How did Ren Zhengfei have such a survival-first mindset --- the infinite game player mindset?
The answer is in Ancient Chinese Wisdom. A famous one is Sun Zi's Art of War.
So, going back to the mind map, I added in quotes from Sun Zi's Art of War. Contrary to most people's understanding of the Art of War, it is not about winning but about survival. Sun Zi started with warfare is about the principles (dao,道) of survival. Sun Zi also said that winning every battle is not the best; the best is to win without a war. Sun Zi said, winning does not depend on us but on the enemy making mistakes for us to exploit. But not to be defeated is our responsibility, Not to be defeated, is the foundation for winning, Then we can maneuver the enemy to make mistakes and defeat them.
The five fundamentals of leadership in an infinite game given by Simon Sinek are all covered in the Art of War. The Art of War covers much more than what Sinek had taught. To know how to survive and win often, we need to study the Art of War. Please see Sun Zi and The Art of War
Hope you discover the secret for survival in the infinite world and life that we are all in.
Lim Liat (c) 6 Aug 2023
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