Why is Foxconn, known as the "OEM king", always questioned as a sweatshop? Why is the association caused by the word "OEM" always inseparable from the boredom, monotony and depression of the production line? The latest example is that the media disclosed that many employees of Foxconn Zhengzhou park go to the hospital every time they pay their wages, suggesting that they frequently cause physical conflicts in venting after receiving their wages. In fact, Foxconn has long sought the road of transformation. If so far it has not achieved the expected results, it is because it has not pushed itself to others. It is related to the fact that it has not changed the views of workers on the production line. Its concept remains on the demographic dividend. We can get such enlightenment from a hunting song of "rabbit place" in the bookofsongs, the earliest collection of poetry in China.
Have talent in your eyes
"Rabbit trap" is a hunting net for catching tigers and rabbits. The book of songs rabbit trap describes the plot of hunters piling up "rabbit trap" in ancient times. What they chant repeatedly is "Husu rabbit trap". This is what hunters do repeatedly, whether on both sides of remote roads or in the depths of dense jungle. However, in the "Ding Ding" sound of repeatedly ramming the wooden piles, people do not feel boring, monotonous and depressed at all, but can feel the infinite rhythm. Why? The poet tells us that in the eyes of the organizers, all hunters are "valiant men", worthy of being the best soldiers to defend the Marquis!
Some people think that it seems abrupt to link the hunters who pile piles and set up nets with the warriors who defend the princes. In fact, what is more abrupt is that ancient thinkers regarded hunters as the pillars of the country. This is not surprising at the level of productivity at that time. In the pre-Qin period, hunting was one of the major national events for practicing marching and array arrangement and commanding operations. "Zhou Li · Da Sima" said: "in the middle of the spring, we taught to invigorate the brigade... So we searched the fields (hunting)." Compared with resisting the attack of wild animals, and regarding the acquisition of wild animals as an important topic to create wealth, the experts who hunt wild animals are undoubtedly the talents of that era. Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty believed that this poem was praising that time "there were many vulgar, beautiful and talented people. Even though they were savages, their talents were still available. Therefore, the poet was beautiful because of what he did." What is more valuable is that at that time, they were not only formally courteous and virtuous but also courteous; Moreover, these practical talents have also been reused in essence, and are regarded as the "heart of the Duke".
In terms of labor organization, hunting and modern enterprise production are quite similar. The elimination of "elimination" is a kind of rectification, which is the result of organization; The rhythm of "Ding Ding" reflects the coordination of labor division. It is also a labor-intensive activity. In Foxconn, the world's largest IT OEM enterprise, why did "Susu" appear in a "silent mode", after a series of employee "jumping" events? Of course, this is related to Foxconn's development model of controlling costs and meager profits. The more important reason is that it regards workers as part of the machine. The modern production process does not allow any link to go wrong. However, it is not surprising that front-line employees have been mechanically repeating monotonous work for a long time. Their life and work are simple and boring, but their spirit is tense at any time, and their emotions are abnormal. It is not so much that the workers in the production line have no chance with "valiant men", but rather that the managers only have "population" and no talents, so it is impossible to lead the workers as "heart and soul".
Foxconn seems to have long realized that OEM is not a long-term plan, and put transformation on the urgent agenda; However, it ignores the old adage of "analogy". "Being able to draw analogies from others" means to draw analogies from oneself, to be able to reach out to others, and to think for others. That is to say, when you transform yourself, you should also consider the transformation of others, starting from changing your views on others. When it comes to the migrant workers around us or the new generation of migrant workers, we should not only see their "hands", but also pay attention to their intelligence. We should treat them as talents as described in the bookofsongs rabbit place. Unfortunately, Foxconn doesn't seem to notice that the new generation of farmers work for the post-80s and post-90s. They have received good education from childhood and have certain quality cultivation and personality. They want to use robots to replace manual operation. This kind of transformation makes the workers on the production line choose to leave one after another because they can not adapt.
Remove institutional barriers
It is said that Foxconn established the development strategy of "talent localization, talent technology and talent internationalization" to challenge the 21st century at the beginning of its establishment. In that case, why are we still facing various problems such as labor investigation, salary rise, production capacity obstruction, profit bottleneck and so on after decades? If there is no shortage of talent dividends in the Chinese market, and Foxconn failed to get ahead of the rich in talent accumulation, it is not so much because of the lack of talents, but rather because of various tangible and intangible barriers that make it difficult for potential talents to achieve localization, science and technology, and internationalization, so that the hunting "savages" never seem to be the "heart of Princes".
As an enterprise investing from Taiwan to the mainland, Foxconn naturally has barriers of "Taiwan cadres" and "land cadres". The "Taiwan cadres" can be described as the "heart of the Duke" of Foxconn factory, enjoying higher treatment than the "land cadres". This may be necessary at the initial stage, but with the expansion of the scale, the abuse of discrimination against "Lu Gan" has become increasingly obvious. In mid-2009, Terry Gou, the leader of Foxconn, found that "there are bottlenecks in organizational change, product adjustment, technology upgrading and management innovation. The important reason is that there are too few local talents involved." He personally launched a "talent localization" campaign. He clearly pointed out that "the focus of an effective talent retention strategy is not how to stay, but how to use it, and give recognition to talents in the process of using it." However, it is more difficult to know than to do. What people have seen in practice is that where the labor price is low, Foxconn's factories are more willing to move there. This migratory pursuit of demographic dividends makes it difficult for front-line workers to find a sense of belonging.
The mainland's own institutional malpractice has objectively constrained the mainland's "population" to meet the needs of Foxconn, which has also formed a barrier. An employee who left Foxconn said that it is impossible for Lu Gan to achieve a very senior position in Foxconn. It is not that Foxconn does not need you, but that you cannot assume the responsibility of Foxconn's international company. If you do a certain job, you need to be in the mainland today, in Taiwan tomorrow, in the United States the day after tomorrow, and in Japan or Europe the next day. Employees in the mainland cannot do it. This is not because employees are lazy, but because of the approval restrictions of various government departments. For example, it may take half a month to apply for a passport in Taiwan. Although this situation has been greatly improved at present, the urban-rural dual structure still restricts the household registration of front-line employees, although it is difficult to integrate into local life when working in factories. Shrouded in the psychology of "passers-by", they lack passion for career planning, and most of them can only wander in marginalization.
It should be acknowledged that as a labor-intensive enterprise, Foxconn's presence has provided certain local jobs; However, the sense of superiority created by Foxconn's bosses is easy to create a cognitive barrier. They can't see the potential talents at hand, which makes the mainland employees feel that "Feng Tang is old and Li Guang is hard to seal" in their growth. To break this barrier, we need to enter the realm of rabbit place. First of all, "Su Su rabbit set, Ding Ding Ding. A valiant man, Duke Hou Gan Cheng". The managers directly regard the front-line workers as the core competitiveness like the shield and the city wall, and truly establish their foothold on the people-oriented basis. Secondly, the "shusu rabbit device" is applied to the Zhongkui. A valiant man is a good marquis. ". Managers should not only see the talents of front-line workers available, but also reflect the spirit of a gentleman, and take the initiative to find the excellence of front-line workers. Thirdly, the "Husu rabbit device" is applied to Zhonglin. A valiant man is the heart of a marquis. "He treats front-line workers like his confidants and gives them enough trust.
Ensure that talents get rich first
According to Gou, "for an enterprise, if it has talents, it will have money; on the contrary, if it has money, it will not have talents." Indeed, "those with talent must have money, and those without talent will not last long." However, a problem that Gou Taiming ignored is that if we want talents to create more talents for enterprises, we should let talents become rich first. Just as the transformation of enterprises needs to first change their views on workers, enterprises need to change the dilemma of workers' low income by relying on talents to create wealth. This is the most fundamental "analogy", which truly reflects a kind of thinking of pushing oneself to others.
"The Analects of Confucius Yong Ye" says very clearly: "if you want to stand up, you can stand up, and if you want to reach up, you can reach people.". If you want to achieve or develop yourself, you need to let others achieve or develop; In the process of constantly helping others achieve or develop, you will achieve the expected achievement or development goals. If investors want to get rich by talents, they must ensure that talents get rich first. The same is true. But we can not say that only those who get rich first are talents. It should be acknowledged that some people who get rich first have accumulated legendary stories that deserve the trust and respect of the society; But there are also problems such as devouring the demographic dividend. If the "sweatshop" wants to rebuild its image, it certainly needs to raise the low proportion of labor in the initial distribution in time. According to Zhu Xi, the reason why the "savage" became a pillar talent was the manifestation of "the king of literature's virtue". Although this statement is a compliment to the rulers, the wisdom of reaching out to others embodied in it is worth learning from.
Of course, professional managers also belong to talents. It cannot be ruled out that professional managers get rich first; The problem is that when professional managers share the cake, they can't just care about themselves. Other talents, mainly innovators, should be allowed to get rich first. Although innovation is inseparable from specialized research, a large number of innovations seize the opportunity from the process of labor, and should advocate labor creation and achieve glorious dreams. Although we can't let all workers get rich first, at least we can't make the income gap between honest labor and those who get rich first too large; Otherwise, innovation will be lack of the nourishment of honest labor and lack of follow-up, and lose the sustainability of development. When gou realized the urgency of the two-way transformation from OEM to technology and from export to domestic demand, Foxconn also reflected on its shortcomings such as inadequate implementation of talent policies and lack of fairness; However, this is only limited to core employees, and does not seem to involve front-line workers, which may be an important reason for the little effect.
