華為任正非終于開口了

????或許大家已經在媒體上聽說過了，華為（Huawei）創始人兼CEO任正非最近打破了不接受媒體采訪的慣例。這位低調的CEO最近在新西蘭的惠靈頓首次接受了小范圍的媒體采訪，談到了近來針對華為的網絡安全問題的顧慮以及他的黨員身份。華為的故事遠遠比媒體廣泛報道的更為復雜。

????自從華為公司創立以來，任正非已經擔任了25年的CEO了，不過他最近啟用了一個不同尋常的管理架構。在他下面，有三名“輪值CEO”對公司進行管理，每六個月輪值一次。這三名輪值CEO中很可能有人在不久的將來被“扶正”，而且他們也不像任正非那樣害怕面對媒體。實際上，這家中國電信巨頭正在發動一場魅力攻勢。比如今年，華為在巴塞羅納的全球移動大會上的風頭可謂是壓倒性的。華為的廣告無處不在，而且它設置了兩個大展臺，一個用來展示華為的消費性手持產品和平板電腦，另一個用來展示旗下的電信設備。同時它也展出了自稱為“全球最快智能手機”的Ascend P2。

????《財富》最近采訪了華為的三位輪值CEO之一的郭平，請他闡述了華為輪值CEO制度具體的實施情況【包括SAP和黑莓（BlackBerry）在內的好幾家科技公司都有兩人以上共同擔任CEO的歷史，但是由三人輪流擔任CEO的制度還是很不同尋?！?。郭平通過一名翻譯向我們解釋了每名輪值CEO如何在各自的任期內負責公司的財務業績，以及如何負責化解危機。一旦某一名輪值CEO的任期到了，他就會重返原先的業務部門負責先前的工作，不過仍然有權通過一個七人的高管團隊對公司重大決策進行發言。以下摘錄了郭平當時的一些受訪內容：

貴公司的領導結構不同尋常，它是怎樣工作的？

????首先，我來介紹一下，我們是怎樣想到實施輪值CEO制度的。我記得2004年，紐約的咨詢機構美世（Mercer）幫助我們設立了高管團隊。他們最開始的目標是希望任先生擔任這個團隊的主席，可是任先生不想那樣安排，而且他也不想擔任這樣一個主席的職位。他希望其他高管團隊成員可以輪流擔任高管團隊的主席。所以我們從2004年到去年就是這樣做的。也就是說原來是八個人輪流擔任高管團隊的主席，而到了2012年，開始由三人輪流擔任CEO。如果你是輪值CEO的話，你有兩個主要職責，第一是他必須要負責財務業績，第二是要負責處理緊急狀況和危機管理。高管團隊的其他七個人則作為一個團隊實行集體決策，比如決定晉升高層經理或改變薪資結構。在一名輪值CEO結束任期后，他就會加入到這個七人團隊，參與集體決策。

那么每一個決策都是由大家的共識推動的嗎？

????不同的事務有不同的決策機制。有些事輪值CEO可以自主決策，也有些事只要大多數高管團隊成員同意就可以通過，還有些事需要提交董事會批準。所以我們每個月都要舉行董事會全體會議。高管團隊的七個人也是董事會成員。

????You may have read that Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, has finally broken his media silence. The reclusive CEO gave his first public media briefing in -- of all places -- Wellington, New Zealand, where he addressed security concerns about his company and his involvement in China's Communist Party. There's more to the story than the headlines making the rounds today suggest.

????While Ren is the official chief executive of Huawei -- and has been since the company's founding two and a half decades ago -- he recently initiated an unusual governance structure in which three "rotating acting CEOs" work under him and shift power every six months. And those interim CEOs -- who are quite possibly being groomed to take over the company someday soon -- aren't as gun-shy around the media. In fact the Chinese titan has been on a charm offensive of sorts. Its presence, for example, at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona could be described as overwhelming. Its ads were everywhere, and the company set up two sprawling booths -- one to showcase its consumer handsets and tablets and another to display telecom equipment. It also touted its Ascend P2, which it dubbed the "world's fastest smartphone."

????Fortune recently caught up with Guo Ping, one of Huawei's rotating acting CEOs, to find out more about how the executive rotation works. (Several tech companies, including SAP (SAP) and BlackBerry (BBRY), have a history of co-CEOs, but having three chief executives taking turns at the helm is far from common.) Through an interpreter, he described how during each stint, the rotating acting CEO is responsible for the company's financial performance and is expected to take the lead in any crisis. Once their turn is up, they go back to their regular corporate duties and still have a say in the company's decisions via a seven-person executive management team. Here is some of what he said at the time:

Your leadership structure is unusual. How does it work?

????I think first of all I can introduce to you how we came to this system of rotating. I remember that in 2004 Mercer [a New York-based consulting firm] helped us establish our executive management team [EMT]. Their initial proposal was that Mr. Ren would be the chair of the EMT. However, Mr. Ren did not want to work like that and he did not want to take such a chair position. He wanted the other members to rotate and chair the EMT. So that's what we did from 2004 to last year. So in the past there used to be eight people rotating as chair of EMT, and now in 2012 three people became the rotating CEO. There are two major responsibilities if you are a rotating acting CEO. Number one is he or she is responsible for the financial results and number two is to take the lead in emergencies or crisis handling. The other seven people [on the EMT] make collective decisions as a team, for promotion of high-level managers or changes in salary structures. And after one's term as a rotating CEO, he or she will still be in this seven-person team and participate in this collective decision-making.

So is every decision consensus driven?

????For different matters there are different mechanisms to make decisions. There are some matters where the rotating active CEO can make decisions by themselves and there are some matters where if the majority agrees they can pass. And there are also some other matters that need to be submitted to the board for approval. So we have the all hands meeting for the board every month. And these seven people [from the EMT] are also members of the board.