Know yourself and the Enemy, and Work Together for a Common Goal can Succeed

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Sept 9, 2022, Long Weiquan, director of the Standards Office, shared a case of a strategic customer's prototype problems. Mr. Wang took this as an introduction to expound on knowing yourself and the enemy, people who work together to achieve a common goal can succeed.

This week, a strategic customer reported that the prototype we sent to the customer has more than a dozen problems. Ouhai is a mature enterprise with a sound quality system, a sound business process, and a strong R&D team. Why are there so many problems with the prototype? This shows that the Ouhai team has not done enough in the following three aspects. One is that we have not been able to know ourselves and our enemies, that is, we have insufficient awareness of the needs of customers; the second is the failure to work together to achieve a common goal; the third is the lack of planning ability.

Know yourself and the enemy, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" says: "Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Knowledge is the premise and foundation of warfare, and we cannot fight in confusion without knowing the enemy's situation. "Know the enemy and know yourself", in a narrow sense, includes knowing our army and knowing the enemy's situation. In a broad sense, it should include all war-related information, such as the strength of the enemy and us, astronomical weather, geographical environment, etc. To know the enemy is to understand the customer. We must not only know the full, but also the detailed needs of the customer. From a series of problems that occurred in the prototype of a strategic customer, reflect on ourselves, can we know the enemy? In order to let our team understand the customer, the company requires the salesman to have a deep understanding of the customer's needs and input the customer information into the system in detail. The content of market positioning, delivery date, quality, etc. should be made into training courseware, and the training of relevant personnel involved in design, development, production, delivery management and quality management should be organized, so that the executives of each module can understand the needs and standards of customers . Only by understanding customers, can we truly serve customers well, can we "make people amazed by service", and "build a service-oriented manufacturing enterprise". In addition to understanding our customers, we should also understand our competitors so that we can know our strengths and weaknesses and create a competitive advantage. The ancients said: "Those who know others are wise, and those who know themselves are enlightened". Self-knowledge is to have a clear understanding of oneself, not blind self-confidence or arrogance. Many times success makes you invisible to the problem, success makes you invisible to yourself, and success makes you ignore your opponent. In today's increasingly fierce competition, we can't "walk our own way and let others say it", because we live in a competitive market environment, everyone lives in a group, and no behavior can exist independently of the organization. "Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles" not only clarifies the relationship between knowledge and action, knowledge and practice in war activities, but also clarifies the way to overcome the enemy in business competition. Only by knowing ourselves and knowing the enemy can we be invincible in a hundred battles on the battlefield or in the market.

People who work together to achieve a common goal can succeed.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" says: There are five aspects to determine whether an army can win. Those who can accurately judge whether a battle can or cannot be fought will usually win; those who know how to allocate troops according to the actual situation of the enemy and both sides will often win; those who have a solid military heart and the whole army will often win; when two sides go to war, one is well-prepared, the other is not well-prepared, and the well-prepared will often win; the generals are smart, talented, proficient in military affairs, skilled in contingency, and at the same time the monarch boldly delegates power and does not interfere with the generals will often win. How does an army win a war? Relying on the same desire from top to bottom, there is a common ideal and pursuit. For an enterprise, a common desire can range from a common mission, vision, goals and values to a specific project; we should all have a common understanding and be able to resonate with the same frequency. For example, a pair of spectacles frames, from accessories to finished product packaging, can range from dozens of processes to more than 100 processes. When performing the first article confirmation, not only the accessories, welding, and printing should be confirmed for the first article, but each process should strictly implement the company's first article confirmation process and requirements. In order to manufacture a qualified product, the operators of each process are very important, and they must do things according to the requirements, according to the rules, and according to the standards. Personnel in each position should have quality awareness and attention to detail, so as not to manufacture defective products and not to transmit defective products, so as to ensure the quality of products and practice the quality policy of "sophisticated manufacturing". If team members have different cognitions, inconsistent goals, and no belief in winning, it will lead to the dispersion of organizational strength. And only by building a disciplined military culture, unifying thoughts and values, and pursuing common ideals and goals, can we be invincible.

The more you count, the more you win, the less you count, the less you win.

“Sun Tzu's Art of War” says: “In the "temple calculation", it is determined that oneself can win because after comparison and analysis, it is believed that one's own side has a better chance of winning. In the "temple calculation", it is judged that one's own side cannot win because after analysis and calculation, one thinks that one's own side has too little chance of winning. Those who think they have more chances to win often win, those who think they have less chances to win are more likely to fail, not to mention those who have no chance of winning at all? Therefore, as long as we follow the conclusions of the "temple calculation", we can roughly determine the outcome of a war.” It means that if you plan carefully before the battle, if you have many victory conditions, you may win the enemy; If you count more, you will win more, if you count less, you will win less, not invincible. In war, we pay attention to arranging troops, using Tao, heaven, earth, generals, and law to plan. When implementing each project, we should logically sort out the process, and deduce the problems that may be encountered during the implementation process. When the simulated scenario of the matter is repeated in our minds, the error rate may be lower, and the successful rate may be higher. For example, the customer in this case has gone through the following planning process before mass production: such as 2D drawing → 3D drawing → RP → QA→ CS→ FAS, etc. When planning a process or every node, we must plan carefully and deduce it carefully. For the daily business activities of the company, it is also necessary to do pre-planning, resource preparation and emergency plans. Only by doing a good preliminary planning, can we plan strategies; only by preparing resources, we can be flexible and change; only by making a plan can we survive the crisis. In the “temple calculation” stage, we must concentrate key resources in the most critical places, concentrate superior forces to capture the most important strategic highlands, and even consciously cede certain positions to competitors. Only in this way can we make the most effective and efficient use of our resources. When local interests conflict with overall interests, individual interest conflict with collective interests, we must follow the principle that organizational interests are higher than individual interests, and overall interests are higher than local interests.

To know the enemy, for us, is to understand the customer. We must not only know the full, but also the detailed needs of the customer. In addition to understanding our customers, we should also understand our competitors so that we can know our strengths and weaknesses and create a competitive advantage. To be a confidant means to have a clear understanding of oneself, and not to be blindly confident or arrogant. Only by knowing ourselves and knowing our enemies can we be victorious in a hundred battles on the battlefield or in the market. Those who have the same desire to win is to create a disciplined military culture, unify thoughts and values, pursue common ideals and goals, and achieve resonance at the same frequency, so as to achieve invincibility. For the daily business activities of the company, it is also necessary to do pre-planning, resource preparation and emergency plans. Only by doing a good preliminary planning, can we plan strategies; only by preparing resources, we can be flexible and change; only by making a plan can we survive the crisis. At the same time, we must follow the principle that organizational interests are higher than individual interests, and overall interests are higher than local interests.