Smarter Talents Promise Less Cost

By Peng Jianfeng

In the eyes of Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of China's Xiaomi Corporation, the smarter a talent is, the less the cost will be. He once said that the best strategy to employ the most intelligent people is to seek advice from all sides and to chat with people everywhere we go. If we happen to know somebody is a “big fish” in a certain field, we need to set down his or her name on a list. When the list reaches 30, then we start to invite them to dinner one by one.

For instance, to hire an outstanding engineer, Lei Jun himself made over 90 phone calls and asked his partners to visit him in turn until the engineer was moved by their sincerity and accepted their invitation.

The same strategy has been adopted by Lee Kun-hee, the former president of Samsung, who chatted around the world to poach the top talents in design, technological innovation, and quality management. Once the name list was decided upon, he would make appointments with those on the list for dinner, promising to offer them a salary 3-5 times higher than competitors, and no one turned him down.

Lee Kun-hee found that if the salary offered is twice the market price, corporate culture may matter; however, if the salary offered is more than 3-5 times higher, corporate culture does not work. This best explains how Lee Kun-hee could recruit many top talents in his so-called Genius Talents Program. Lee Kun-heebelieves that one genius is equal to 200,000 normal employees.

Lei Jun believes that a good CEO should do well in the following three things: namely, finding talents, raising funds, and positioning the vision. It is somewhat different from the notion of “deciding on the vision, setting up the team, and leading the team” initiated by Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo. In the beginning, Lei Jun spent at least 80% of his time finding the right personnel, who finally formed Xiaomi's seven-member core team. After Xiaomi was founded, half of his time was spent recruiting talents every day. He had personally met and talked with the first 100 employees of the company. From the very beginning, Lei Jun has been seeking career-oriented talents who are highly motivated, with high potential and that are highly endeavored. The most important thing for a company is to be clear about the type of talents needed for the company's development at the time. Lei Jun's recruitment standards include the following elements:

First, the company will offer equity for those with enterprising spirits—those who don't just work for money, but for their future. Second, they strive to find the best talents in a field, be it management or technological innovation. Third, they recruit those with ultra-strong learning capacity, for they have high potential and are quick to learn anything with slightest help.

Finally, finding those who dare to face challenges themselves and who can fight hard for the company's development.

When talking about how to take advantage of a talent, Lei Jun is a follower of what he calls a “fewer but better” principle, He believes that less is more, and that the fewer in the company, the more responsibilities they will have to undertake, so that they can be fully occupied every day.

For an innovative enterprise, each employee should shoulder more responsibilities. If there are too many employees in a company, a third of them are likely to be either idle or, at the very least, less productive.

(From Peng Jianfeng's Teaching Material of “Entering Xiaomi.” Translation: Liu Jie)

这样寻找聪明人才

文/彭剑锋

在雷军看来，最聪明的人才，成本是最低的。他说，我们要雇用最聪明的人，最好的办法就是到处请教、到处聊天，某某是这个领域的牛人，就记下名单，记到二三十个人，就开始挨个儿请名单上的人吃饭。

为了找到一个非常出色的工程师，他曾经连续打了90多个电话，然后让合伙人轮流去找人家，一直找到人家不好意思拒绝为止。

这一点跟三星的李健熙是一样的。李健熙当年为了挖顶尖的设计人才、技术创新人才以及质量管理人才，到全世界去聊天，锁定行业里面最厉害的团队，一旦名单定下来，老板亲自约他们吃饭，代价是按国际市场价的3到5倍挖人，没一个拒绝他。

李健熙研究过，待遇高1倍以内，企业文化起作用；如果待遇高过3到5倍，企业文化基本上不起作用。李健熙就这样去挖全球最顶尖的人才，叫天才人才计划，他认为一个天才相当于20万人。

雷军认为，CEO要做好三件事：找人、找钱、定战略。这跟柳传志的“定战略、搭班子、带队伍”稍有不同。初期，雷军至少花80%的时间找人，最后建立了小米的七人核心团队。公司成立以后，他每天都要花一半时间来招募人才，公司的前100名员工入职他都亲自见面并沟通。

从创业开始，雷军就在找一批高意愿、高潜质、高绩效的人才，而且这批人都是追求事业的。一个企业最重要的是要明确在当前发展阶段需要什么人才。雷军的用人标准是：

第一，有创业精神的人，不是为了眼前的工资，而要给他股权，他愿意为未来吃苦；

第二，专业领域最牛的人，不管是管理领域还是技术创新领域，一定找专业领域最牛的人；

第三，学习能力超强的人，这种人潜质很好，一点就通，这叫高潜质学习型人才；

第四，敢于挑战自己、挑战人生的人，这样的人才是真正能够跟你志同道合去打江山的人。

雷军的用人哲学是，人一定要少而精。他认为少就是多。人少事多，就天天24小时忙不过来。

创业型公司一定要一个人顶两个人用，如果养一大堆人，就会有三分之一是闲人和干不成事的人。

（摘编自彭剑锋教授“走进小米”授课内容）