Contrasting Leadership of Zhang Ruimin and Ren Zhengfei as They Face Selection of Their Successors

张瑞敏与任正非在选择接班人方面的领导力比较

 —– Joint Seminar by Guanghua School of Management and IACMR

Speaker: Arie Y. Lewin , Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

演讲人：《组织管理研究》主编乐文睿教授

Date and Time: Friday, 5 May, 10:00-11:30 am

Location: Room 111, Guanghua Building #2 , Peking University (光华管理学院新楼111教室)

Abstract:

Recent research suggests that the leadership of Chinese companies does not seem to follow conventional western leadership theories and practice as they increasingly emerge as serious global competitors. This paper contrasts the leadership of two iconoclastic Chinese companies – Haier, and Huawei. The analysis is based on longitudinal qualitative historical analyses from founding to the end of 2015. Both companies have become global leaders in their sectors at a record time when compared with their competitors in White Good (in case of Haier) and in Telecommunications Networks and Smart Phones (in case of Huawei). Both leaders have imprinted themselves on their companies but they differ in their basic values, vision of organization and beliefs in how to organize. Both companies have unique founding conditions, followed a different growth journey and are not government owned. But each has some government affiliation. The central question of this paper is to compare and contrast the succession dilemma that the founders face at both companies given the different organizations and culture that both leaders imprinted on their companies.

About the speaker:

Arie Y. Lewin, Professor Emeritus Strategy and International Business, Duke University; Distinguished Visiting Professor: Fudan University School of Management, Shanghai Jao Tong University Antai College, and School of Economics and Management Tsinghua University. Professor Lewin is the founding Editor in chief of Organization Science, past Editor in Chief of Journal of International Business Studies and currently is Editor in Chief of Management and Organization Review which focuses on management research in context of transforming economies. Professor Lewin’s research and consulting focuses on organization adaptation and change, directed co-evolution of innovation, sustaining open innovation organizations, and global sourcing in the context of emerging economies especially China. He was the Lead Principal Investigator (PI), of the multi-year global Offshoring Research Network (Duke ORN) project that tracked the evolution of unbundling and dispersal of work (especially innovation activities) enabled by advances in information and communication technologies. Recent research and consulting involve case studies of open innovation at Haier and out sourcing of ITO and BPO at 15 of the largest global banks. His book “China’s Innovation Challenge: Overcoming the Middle Income Trap” has been published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. The Chinese translation was published by Peking University Press.