Creative Communication III · Homework 5
He Did Not Issue an Order.
He Capped His Own Profit
What Lei Jun taught me about the difference between a dictator and a great leader.
A real leader, not a dictator
Drag it up. Xiaomi signed a resolution in 2018 promising it would never pass five.
Where I started
One Score. Six Conductors. Six Leaders.
Talgam's conclusion is the line this whole deck is built on: the greatest leadership is the kind that can disappear — and the music still happens.
First of all
Dictator, or Great Leader?
- Commands. Tells you what to choose.
- Qualifies the person, not the facts.
- Needs to be obeyed.
- People comply.
- The music exists only in his head.
- Leaves you the facts, his feelings, the choice.
- Never qualifies the person.
- Needs to be understood, not obeyed.
- People become capable.
- The music belongs to everyone in the room.
Drag either way — the room stays still, only the split moves.
Our handout: “do not tell him or her too directly what to choose. By inventing it by him or herself, your partner will be an activated participant in the solution.”
By my own opinion
Why I Chose Lei Jun
He is a CEO — the most commanding job title in business. And days before his own IPO, he voted to cap his company's profit. Forever.
In April 2018 Xiaomi was weeks from listing in Hong Kong. Lei Jun held 31.4 per cent of the shares and, through a dual-class structure, 55.2 per cent of the votes.
I choose him not because he is famous, but because he refused the easiest tool he had: his own votes.
On 23 April 2018 he used none of it. He took the cap to his shareholders instead.
His style and philosophy
His Philosophy, in Three Sentences
True story I · the problem
The Situation, and the Obvious Move
Xiaomi, April 2018. The company is weeks away from listing in Hong Kong. Once it is public, capital will demand growth and margin. Lei Jun believes he can hold the line himself — and he does not believe he will be chairman forever.
What would anyone else have done?
Both of these were true at once: the line was worth keeping, and the man holding it was going to leave.
True story I · what he did
What He Did Instead
He had the votes to overrule every one of them. What he offered instead was the reason: excellent companies earn profit, great companies win people's hearts.
They agreed. Eight years on, the line still stands.
True story II · inspiration
How He Inspired the Others
January 2021. The board asked management to study electric cars. His first reaction was refusal: “We spent five years on the phone business. That war is not over. Will a car distract us?” For two months: “a hundred reasons by day to do it, a hundred more by night not to.”
- 85 visits to the industry
- 200+ senior people from car-making
- 4 management meetings
- 2 formal boards
Then on 30 March 2021, on stage: “This is the last major venture of my life. I am willing to stake my whole reputation on Xiaomi's car.”
The test
If He Were a Dictator, the Story Runs Backwards
Same profit motive. Same shareholders. The only variable is whether the limit lives in a man's head or in the company's documents.
So
A Great Leader Is Not Obeyed. He Is Believed.
For discussion