Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 58 "Do nothing without doing nothing", the invisible lethality of corporate culture
In this increasingly open commercial society, the technologies, strategies, products, and advertisements of enterprises are easily discovered and imitated by competitors.But corporate culture cannot be imitated.A strong corporate culture can ensure that a company has a strong cohesion.For an enterprise, culture is "born out of nothing" and "doing nothing without doing nothing".Corporate culture is the invisible "weapon of mass destruction" of an enterprise.This is also the enlightenment given to us by the Tao Te Ching.

Culture is the support of an enterprise, seemingly doing nothing but doing everything.

Dao often does nothing but does everything. —— "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 37
In the "Tao Te Ching", "Tao" is extremely mysterious, and it is the ultimate law and fundamental force of the world's operation.On the surface, "Tao" is inaction, because most ordinary people do not have the "wisdom eye" to "see the essence through phenomena".Only wise and wise people can realize the determinants behind the surface phenomena and perceive the "doing everything" of "Tao".

Corporate culture is similar.In the eyes of vulgar, snobbish and short-sighted managers, corporate culture is just a layer of illusory smoke that cannot generate value or create profits.In their eyes, corporate culture is just "doing nothing".However, if you are an entrepreneur who is "sophisticated", the corporate culture is another look: it does not pursue profits but can maintain the long-term prosperity of the enterprise; it does not create the value of things but can fully stimulate the value of people; Short-term benefits can bring long-term benefits, and it does not participate in management but it is the lubricant of management... In short, corporate culture is "doing everything".

Tan Zhi, the founder of Frame Media (New Frame), is a man of insight who can fully realize the invisible lethality of corporate culture.

The new framework is formed by the integration of many existing companies. After the formal establishment, the first meeting of managers and above after the merger was held in Wuling Mountain Scenic Area in Xinglong County, Hebei Province. The framers called it the "Wuling Mountain Meeting".This meeting was later called the "Zunyi Meeting" in the history of the framework, and its importance can be seen. The "Wuling Mountain Conference" lasted for a day and a half, and it took nearly a day to discuss what kind of corporate culture the company will establish in the future.Of course, this was accomplished only with Tan Zhi's suggestion and persistence.

At that time, young entrepreneurs felt that the theme of corporate culture was too "retreat".From everyone's point of view, discussing how much performance will be completed next year, how much sales each region and each sales director can make is the real business, but corporate culture is something invisible and intangible, which cannot arouse everyone's interest.Many participants secretly laughed at Tan Zhi for being too bookish.However, Tan Zhi insisted on discussing this.

After heated discussions and quarrels, they finally extracted 8 characters and identified them as the core of the new company culture: harmony, high school, persistence, and pragmatism. "Harmony" comes first, which reflects Tan Zhi's worries about the new company.He believes that the new company can only grow bigger if it is twisted into one rope, hugged into a fist, and aimed at harmony, otherwise there will be a collapse, and there will be a phenomenon of silos.

At the time, the Wuling Mountain Conference was considered too "retreat" by some people, and it was Tan Zhi's unnecessary action.However, later facts proved that the "eight-character policy" summed up at this meeting to explain the framework culture is of milestone significance for the smooth integration of the framework in the future and the impressive performance.Today, the eight words used to summarize the core of Frame's culture have become an important guiding principle for the work of Frame's employees, and even a value shared by Frame's employees.

For example, in the framework, there is a very unbelievable phenomenon to outsiders, that is, you often hear such words: "For this project, the commission belongs to you, but the performance belongs to me."We all know that in the field of sales, what salespeople care most about is income and commission.How do framework employees give up their "fat" to others?This is because for framework sales staff, performance honors are more important than sales commissions. "Performance" is a concept that transcends income and material rewards. It represents a kind of honor for one's own company and the dignity of being an outstanding employee of the framework.Therefore, when two salespeople face a customer opportunity together, the above phenomenon of "give up the commission and compete for performance" will appear.

Employees of ordinary companies often feel that they are just parts of a machine, "There are not many without me, and there are not many without me."However, the employees of Framework feel that they are "tied together" and consciously and responsibly contribute to the enterprise of Framework.This team, mainly composed of young people aged 25 to 30, is constantly improving service quality, customer satisfaction and attention, and constantly creating newer and more challenging performances out of love for the new media business and framework companies.All of this is automatic, autonomous, and conscious. It is the passion to achieve a miracle and create a piece of history, and it is the internal driving force to sprint towards a higher goal regardless of oneself.

What gave them such "magic power"?The answer is the corporate culture of "doing nothing but doing everything".Corporate culture is the core competitiveness of the framework.Tan Zhi later said: "Every time we encounter an incident, we will consider whether it is against our corporate culture and whether it can achieve harmony." A good corporate culture can create a benign, mutual-help Target competition mechanism, so as to condense small personal goals into big goals of the enterprise, so as to put an end to the bad habits of mutual comparison and internal biting.

For the growth of an enterprise, corporate culture seems to be the most important and direct factor.When people summarize the success factors of an enterprise, they often focus on decision-making, positioning, management, marketing, etc., but ignore the "silent" corporate culture behind it.As everyone knows, corporate culture is the most lasting determinant of corporate growth.

Famous companies such as Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Nestle, and General Electric owe their fame largely to their unique corporate cultures.The development experience of the world's top companies has shown that without great corporate values, entrepreneurial spirit and corporate philosophy, no matter how clever the business strategy is, it will be difficult to succeed.Just as the competition among countries is gradually shifting to the position of "soft power", the competition of enterprises in the 21st century is also turning to the competition of corporate culture.If Chinese enterprises want to dance their own style in the future "flat world", they must give full play to the power of corporate culture "do everything".

(End of this chapter)