华为轮值CEO郭平详解公司治理结构

    在今年的巴塞罗那移动通信世界大会（Mobile World Congress）上，华为（Huawei）以浩大阵势出席，令人难以忽视。每位与会者一下飞机，映入眼帘的就是这个中国电信巨头的电子广告。到了会场，华为的大型展台不是一个，而是两个——其中一个展示面向消费者的华为手机和平板电脑，另一个展示面向各运营商的华为电信设备。华为还在加大力气宣传一款新设备——Ascend P2，宣称它是“全球速度最快的智能手机”。

    但在这样庞大的声势之外，许多人仍在质疑华为能否吸引消费者，能否和苹果（Apple）以及三星（Samsung）等业界重量级选手展开有效竞争，能否突破美国政府设下的障碍，将通信网络基础设施产品出售给美国电信运营商，特别是在北美市场。同时，虽然华为以开放和透明自称，但它的组织结构对外界来说依然是雾里看花（创始人任正非从不和媒体打交道，三名轮值CEO每半年轮换一次）。在本次大会上，华为轮值CEO郭平罕见地接受了《财富》杂志（Fortune）的采访，介绍了这家公司最近推出的产品，与众不同的管理制度，以及华为宏大的美国及全球市场计划。本次采访由翻译协助完成，部分内容摘录如下：

华为的管理结构与众不同。它是如何运作的？

    我想可以先向你介绍一下这个轮值制度是怎么建立起来的。那是在2004年，美世（Mercer，纽约一家咨询公司）帮我们组建了高级管理团队。他们最初建议由任正非先生担任董事长。但任先生不希望这样安排，也不想成为这样的董事长。他希望这个职位由各位高管轮流担任。2004-2012年期间，他也是这么做的。也就是说，以前有8个人轮流执掌大权。后来到了2012年，有3个人成为轮值CEO。这个管理角色主要有两项责任，第一是为财务业绩负责，第二是负责处理紧急事件和化解危机。其他7名高管作为一个团队共同决策，比如提升高层管理人员或调整薪酬结构。任期结束的轮值CEO会回到这个7人团队中参与集体决策。

那么每个决策都是由集体共识驱动的吗？

    不同的问题有不同的决策机制。一些问题可以由轮值CEO自行处理，一些问题要获得多数人同意，还有一些问题需要提交董事会审批。所以我们每个月都要召开董事会全体会议。另外7名高管也是董事会成员。

谁负责制定公司的愿景？是任先生吗？

    任先生会出席每个月的董事会会议。他也是董事，但不是7人高管决策团队的成员。因此，我们的2013年经营目标和业务计划需要得到董事会批准。也就是说，董事会、7人高管决策团队和轮值CEO各有各的责任和权力。

    Huawei's massive presence at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona couldn't be missed. Conference-goers were greeted with the Chinese telecom giant's electronic ads as soon as they stepped off the plane in the Spanish city. The company set up not one but two sprawling booths at the show -- the first to showcase its line of consumer handsets and tablets, and the other to display its telecom equipment products for carrier customers. The company also made a big splash with a new device, the Ascend P2, which it touted as the "world's fastest smartphone."

    But for all of the noise Huawei made at this year's mobile confab, many -- particularly in the North American market -- remain skeptical about the company's ability to hook consumers, effectively compete with heavyweights like Apple (AAPL) and Samsung, and get past the U.S. government's efforts to block it from selling network infrastructure equipment to local carriers. And, despite its claims of openness and transparency, Huawei's corporate structure remains obscure. (The company's founder, Ren Zhengfei, never talks to the media; its three "rotating CEOs" shift power every six months.) In a rare interview, Huawei's acting CEO Guo Ping sat down with Fortune at Mobile World Congress to discuss the company's recent product launches, its unusual leadership arrangement, and its global ambitions -- U.S. market included. Here is an excerpt of the conversation, which was conducted with the help of an interpreter:

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.

Whose responsibility is it to set the vision of the company? Is that Mr. Ren's role?

    Mr. Ren will be present in every month's board meeting. He is a member of the board. But he's not among the seven-person decision-making team. So when we had the business objectives and business plan for 2013, they needed to be approved by the board. So there are different obligations and authority for the board, for the seven-person decision-making team and also for the rotating CEO.