China is good at "iterative innovation"

Summary: Innovation Workshop CEO Kai-fu Lee (information picture) lead: The United States "business Weekly" online version of the Thursday, titled "Lee Kai-fu, China's innovative Idol" (Lee Kai-fu, Chinese "s innovation Idol), a lengthy article." Lee said in an interview that Chinese companies are good at

Innovation Workshop CEO Kai-fu Lee (information picture)

Lead: In Thursday, the Web edition of Businessweek published a lengthy article titled "Kai-Fu Lee, China's Creative Idol" (Lee Kai-fu, Chinese ' s innovation Idol). In an interview, Lee said that the "iterative innovation" that Chinese companies are good at will eventually lead to bigger and better breakthroughs, and Weibo is the typical representative of Chinese-style innovation. At the beginning of the microblogging service, Kai-Fu Lee began to use, published about 16 daily microblogging, usually every half hour to 1 hours will be released one.

The following are the main points of the article:

China is good at "iterative innovation"

Lee is China's most important innovation preacher, his office is located in Beijing, a 12 floor office, the basement is a huge electronic city. Hot summer, the weather is overcast, the scene outside the window makes people cannot lift the spirit. But that has not affected Lee's thinking about Steve Jobs. "Some people think that because China's population is four times times that of the United States, so the United States a Steve Jobs, China should be out of four." "But in fact we don't have one," he said, leaning on the Golden box. ”

How to find "jobs in China" has become a puzzle for the whole country since the iphone was introduced into China in 2009. While China's new generation of leaders has been emphasizing "economic restructuring", the results have been discouraging in the search for disruptive innovations.

From 2006 to 2011, government investment in research and development maintained a growth rate of 20% per annum. 2012, China's research and development funds more than 164 billion U.S. dollars, awarded 217,105 new patents. China is investing in projects such as supercomputers and superconductivity. Although the universities here have developed a lot of postdoctoral people, Chinese companies often lag behind in developing groundbreaking products.

And this is the opportunity for Kai-Fu Lee to show his skill. The 51-Year-old likes to wear starched khaki trousers, a computer engineer, but his online followers are comparable to Justin Bieber (Justin Bieber). Whenever he appeared on a college campus, it was sure to cause a sensation. For 20 years, Kai-Fu Lee has been standing in the central stage of China's IT industry. Prior to 2008, he was the head of Google China and is now the CEO of the Innovation Workshop, a company that integrates entrepreneurial incubators with venture capital funds. Kai-Fu Lee's technical and commercial excellence, and his in-depth knowledge of Silicon Valley in the United States, make it a benchmark for Chinese entrepreneurs.

Lee said that despite some restrictions, Chinese internet companies still have a lot of room to grow. "We believe that China is innovative, but not as innovative as Apple and Google," he said. "he said. Instead, Chinese entrepreneurs are adept at "iterative innovation", what he called "Facebook-style innovation"--adapting existing models or ideas to the Chinese market. These seemingly insignificant adjustments will eventually lead to bigger and better breakthroughs, he said. (Sina Technology Note: "Iterative innovation" refers to some existing products, services or models, make some innovative adjustments, and constantly accumulate adjustments.) It can also be referred to as "micro-innovation". )

"What Lee said is not disruptive innovation. "Adam Segal, a Chinese research expert at the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, said Adam Sigel. He believes that Lee and other investors are focused on safe investments such as mobile gaming and the Android operating system.

Weibo is a representative of Chinese innovation

Kai-Fu Lee in the Office of Innovation Factory is surrounded by glass, you can see all the staff, which is very rare in China. He is adept at meetings, acquaintances, and chats. He has always been very low-key, with the exception of a bushy black hair. Although Kai-fu Lee's hair is not long, and neatly combed to the sides, but because of the very thick, still make his head look a lap.

Lee has more than 50 million fans on Sina Weibo. Other fans are also the top ten entertainment stars, and a lively host of happy camp. "You can see different opinions here," Kai-Fu Lee said as he turned his computer around to show a few recent news, "in China's education system, teachers usually only tell students a standard answer, but now you see a lot of different ways of thinking." This is a wonderful source of knowledge and news. ”

Weibo is the typical representative of the Chinese-style innovation that Kai-Fu Lee believes in. Like Twitter, the platform allows users to post 140 words, but the content is richer because the same length of Chinese information is greater than English. Twitter has a different look and function, such as inserting video, music, emoticons, and occasionally using Plug-ins to poll.

A mentor who is passionate about speaking

Kai-Fu Lee was born in Taiwan, China, 11 years old emigrated to the United States. His brother was a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, so Lee's parents sent him there. "I got into the computer in high school and I liked it right away." He said, "There was no PC ... We have an old IBM mainframe that has to be programmed with a punch card. ”

These experiences make Lee quite touched. He believes that early access to technology can provide a framework for future innovation. "Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have been in touch with computers two years earlier than me. If Gates is poor and has no access to computers, he may not have a chance to achieve what he is doing today. "Lee later got his Ph. D. In computer, and wrote early speech recognition software at Carnegie Mellon University in the late 1980. In 1998, Microsoft sent Lee to China to set up Microsoft's first research and development center in China.

"Before I met Lee, he was already famous," he said. He often went to college to talk to students and students treated him as an entertainment star. Ye, who once worked for Lee Kai-fu, said he is currently the CEO of mobile phone game developers Doodle Mobile and has been supported by innovative workshops. It is these speeches that make Lee aware that the deep-seated reason for restricting China's innovation ability comes from education system and culture.

"China's education system encourages students to study hard, teach them solid fundamentals, and students are very good at mechanical learning." "Lee said," but this can not cultivate creative thinking. Many times, the idea of breaking stereotypes is often drowned out by successive exams. "Even if they are not, they will be isolated by the people around them and their parents will think their children are crazy," he said. ”

Under the leadership of Kai-Fu Lee, Microsoft Laboratories developed the most accurate pinyin input program, and for China developed a voice input and media compression standards. The CEO of the software giant Jinshan and the CTO of Alibaba have all worked for the lab. The Government is very welcome to Microsoft when American technology companies have just entered China. "It's like a dream--we do what we want, and everyone likes us." Lee said.

When he switched to Google in 2005, the situation became complicated. Job-hopping is not easy: Microsoft sued the Washington state court for Google and Lee to violate the Non-compete agreement. Google and Microsoft finally reached an out-of-court settlement.

In charge of Google China during the period, Kai-fu Lee in various universities in the speech was sought after. So in each speech he had to find a back door to leave when the crowd was in poor order. At a university in Chongqing in 2008, 10,000 teachers and students lined up in the rain for 2 hours to listen to Lee's speech.

Through the investment dissemination innovation

Kai-Fu Lee left Google in 2008, creating a pioneering incubator innovation workshop. Lee's project has attracted the attention of Chinese entrepreneurs nationwide. He established a management team composed of eminent persons in the fields of technology, finance and media. In September 2009, Kai-Fu Lee announced that he had received 115 million of dollars in investment from Foxconn, the United States China Economic Co-Chen Shijun Group and the YouTube co-founder.

Kai-Fu Lee said that China's VC industry's big environment has led to investment in the type of start-up companies are very limited. "Many VC companies prefer safer investments," he says. VCs don't like unconventional investments. "In the second quarter of 2013, the total financing of China venture capital was $73 million trillion, far below the 250 million US dollar in the same period last year," according to VentureSource. Lee's Fund is now worth 500 million of dollars. Innovation workshops have invested more than 50 companies, including the smartphone operating system company Dim sum movement, the graffiti movement created by Ye, the Friends of Mobile analytics, and the desktop based Android management tool pea pods.

Kai-Fu Lee encourages innovation in China, invests in start-ups through innovative workshops, and talks at universities. In the early days of Weibo's rise, Lee began using the tool to publish about 16 messages a day, usually every half hour to 1 hours.

Innovative workshop investment in a tool pulse network helps Lee to better use Weibo: track his followers, analyze when the followers are online, and when most likely to forward and comment. Mornings are usually the best time to attract Chinese white-collar workers because they usually browse the microblog before they start working. Users usually do not surf the internet during lunch or dinner, so Kai-fu Lee usually does not post messages at noon. In the evening, people usually relax and enjoy more recreational activities, so Kai-Fu Lee will release some jokes. Users also often browse Weibo on their mobile phones, so Lee has released many photos and videos.

Lee said his main goal is to allow Chinese entrepreneurs to think in an innovative way. Incremental innovation, he insists, will open more doors and change the minds of more people over time.

Lee said: "I firmly believe that technology will break the status quo." We need to give people technical tools, social networks, search engines, give them a way to use technology, and decide what they want to learn, what they want to be, what is good and what is bad for society. This is the way things change. ”