The confusion of Double CEO

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-Journalist Liu Lijuan

December 8, 2006, the long rumored Google global vice president and Greater China Joint President Zhou Chining will leave the news is finally confirmed. Zhou's departure makes Google in China's "dual-head system" management, back to Kai-fu Lee one person to monopolize China's business track.

Starting from October 2005, the original UT Tatsu Kang COO Zhou to start with the Microsoft through the file of Kai-fu Lee jointly run the Google China Business, week is mainly responsible for keyword advertising sales, business development, Agent channel construction and other marketing work, And technology hero Lee is focused on promoting Google's search technology influence in the Chinese market.

Because of Google's market in China's road to open up a number of factors outside the constraints, responsible for the market Zhou Ning left rather than "a mountain difficult to tolerate two tigers", rather than the cause of unsatisfactory performance. However, from the other multinational companies "double-headed" management in China's career trajectory is not difficult to find, "dual-head system" itself, the characteristics of the decision Zhou Ning's departure is sooner or later inevitable.

The hard dance of the Pas de deux

For the "dual-headed" management of the instability, the most thorough deduction of a case occurred in May 2006, the Intel China United general manager Rai Yirong and Jiang Qi also announced their departure. Before leaving, Rai Yirong mainly in charge of sales, Jiang Qi responsible for marketing and brand remodeling, Rai Yirong took office only 18 months, Jiang Qi is less than 8 months. In the eyes of Intel's global CEO, Paul Otellini, the departure of two people, the Xu of Intel's Asia Pacific President, to steer the Chinese business again, will be the starting point for China's business restructuring. According to Intel's tradition of "nonblank in One Box" (double) in important management positions, Liangbon from the Asia Pacific region also serves as the general manager of China, but he is in fact only assisting in the management of sales and marketing in South China.

In fact, Siemens, GE, Intel, BASF, Dell, and so on have been in China to try double CEO management, can not everyone escape the failure of fate? Sien Consulting company General manager Jiang Ruxiang told Business Week: "The" ' Dual-head system ' success, the key lies in the strategic implementation of checks and balances and power distribution. ”

Goldman's success proves it. In the second half of 2005, Weike and Majing jointly responsible for Goldman Sachs Asian investment banking outside Japan, weike to open up Chinese investment banking, and majing is responsible for the investment bank's equity and debt finance Unit in Hong Kong. There is no affiliation between the two sides, but coordination and cooperation. When Goldman deals in the mainland, Majing will fly from Hong Kong to the mainland to help Weike, and when mainland Chinese companies need to expand overseas, Weike will help majing to carry out overseas business. Even at Goldman Sachs ' peers at Deutsche Bank, Weima is a pair of tacit partners.

According to this reasoning, Weikolian and majing control of resources and target markets are different, so they can complement each other and achieve collaboration, which is to maintain the Goldman Sachs in China, the key to a relatively stable partnership. However, if this generalization of the "dual-head system" applicability is too simple, at least, "dual-head system" management success or failure of the company's specific strategic environment is closely related.

A former senior executive at Intel China Company told Business Week that Malaysian Rai Yirong and American Jiang Qi have been working for many years at Intel and appointed them as joint managers in China because of the importance the company attaches to China's business. At that time, AMD's 64-bit dual-core processor with its low-cost, high-speed, power-saving characteristics, the Chinese Internet cafes in the market, the status of Intel's boss posed an unprecedented threat. As a result, Intel's global CEO, Paul Otellini, had hoped that the two Intel veterans of Rai Yirong and Jiang Qi would be able to work together for years to ease the decline of Intel China in the 64-bit market. The idea makes sense, and the division of labor between the two will make Intel more solid in sales, partnerships and pre-sales promotion in the face of AMD's aggressive market campaigns. Intel's "dual-head" management in China is clearly trying to engage in a more nuanced process with its rivals.

The problem, however, is that Rai Yirong and Jiang Qi do not have practical experience in the mainland. Blond Jiang Qi Promotion of the British platform, did not get the support of mainstream PC manufacturers in China, when the Rai Yirong of pure Malaysian descent, the implementation of GapP also in the domestic neglected, the castle-style "dual-head system" is naturally forced to draw a period.

Zhong, a researcher at the Economic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the "dual-head system" management is generally a transitional and not very stable management, is under specific conditions for the diversification of enterprise risk to make the choice.

In his view, the two-headed system has three reasons:

One is the two strength equivalent of the merger, dual-head system management can maintain the balance of interests between the two sides, Unilever to maintain the dual chairman of the system is such a reason. The dual-head system, with the main purpose of balancing interests, is usually related to decision-making power. For example, Oracle hostile mergers and acquisitions at the beginning of the PeopleSoft, in order to maintain the overall business stability, and from the formal respect for the decision-making power of the senior, Oracle Global CEO Ellison temporarily compromise with the company sent to the Yan branch of the executive joint CEO, and admitted that the company sent the president of the decision to vote.

Second, when a business entrepreneur in the retirement of two or more candidates to determine a suitable candidate but do not want to let the Enterprise division, at this time will also choose to set up a dual-head management system. Qualcomm founder Avan Jagburg, for example, had intended to make Jeff Jagburg and Paul Jagburg responsible for technology and business development before appointing Paul Jagburg as heir to the global business.

In the third case, when the business expands in different places, the new business headquarters and the original headquarters responsible person form the joint President, this in the 1960 's Japanese enterprises are more common.

Accelerator or Chaos?

When the changing Chinese market becomes the focus of market development, many multinationals hope that the "dual-head system" management will become the accelerator of China's local strategic upgrading. Jiang Ruxiang pointed out that the "dual-headed system" as a decentralized risk and power checks and balances management, itself has increased the uncertainty in the management of factors. "When multinationals are wavering between globalisation and China's localization, dual-head management becomes commonplace, but there must be more conditionality for success," he said. ”

Jiang Ruxiang that the success of the "Double headed system" is related to the power boundary that two "brains" can achieve.

It seems that Google is smarter than Intel's policymakers by sharing roles in the "dual-headed system" of managers familiar with Chinese business, and by using a "double head" to stabilize the initial business before Google's Chinese business is on track. But the dual-head system is ultimately a balance of power, when the desire to expand power beyond the limits of disposable resources, the dual-head system is not so much a counterbalance, rather a potential confusion.

In staff and outside view, Kai-Fu Lee is the preacher's image, not only good at government communication, research and development resources management, talent recruitment, but also good at dealing with the high-level relationship between Google. and Zhou Ning's birth is residents′demands overall business operations Officer, UT KANGDA internal staff to the week's evaluation is "independent, have the overall picture, good at sales." They all give the impression of being gentle. However, Zhou Chining and Kai-fu Lee are two stubborn "all-round players."

Unlike the weike and majing environments, the business environment is in the midst of a trial period and resource allocation is not clearly defined, as the start-up phase of Google lacks more control over the Chinese business itself. This is also Google in the experience of the "dual-head system" after the failure, and then let Lee Kai-fu one person to control the Chinese business reasons.

Obviously, another additional condition for choosing a "dual-head system" is that the enterprise has a mature and stable business and management model. Dell is a recent example. In the latest appointment list of Dell China Company, Liu and Min Yida together as Dell China and Hong Kong president, two directly to Dell Asia Pacific and Japan Region President Steve Phillis report. Min Yida, a former Dell China sales general manager and a loyal customer of the Dell Direct marketing model, was formerly managing director of Small and medium enterprises in the Asia and Pacific region of Avaya, and was good at performance management and client relationships.

"Admittedly, the efficient Dell model needs to be improved when it comes to the extreme, but this pattern management focus is very clear." "It also sets a clear line between the responsibilities of the two-headed manager," Jiang Ruxiang said. ”

Although the "dual-head" management failed to save Siemens in the communications and consumer electronics sector, but in the mature stable management model of business-to-business business, dual-head management has given the old technology giant's energy, power, health care sector has brought huge wealth. Siemens insiders told Business Week: "Two managers, one manager in charge of financial process management, and other managers in charge of technology and research and development, so as to ensure that the project-centric business unit more secure." ”

In any case, "dual-head" management is being seen by more and more foreign companies as a tool to reduce risk and strengthen internal process monitoring in the transformational growth of China market. It should be pointed out that the "dual-head System" management method can not be lightly adopted by local companies in China. "Dual-head system" requires strict power control system, when Chinese corporate governance structure is not yet perfect, the management system is not transparent, local companies are not suitable to try this relatively complex management.