Liu Qiangdong also resigned as CEO. In recent years, the first founders of major Internet companies have been slowly retiring, either playing behind the scenes, or Move to other fields, or simply stop playing.
In fact, these people are not very old. Liu Qiangdong was 48 years old in 74 years, Zhang Yiming was 39 years old in 83 years, Huang Zheng was 42 years old in 80 years, and Shu Hua was 40 years old in 82 years. When Jack Ma officially retired in 2018, he was only 54 years old. You see, these people are in their prime. So why did they all quit?
Fuyao Glass’s Cao Dewang is 76 this year and is still playing, Wahaha Zong Qinghou is 77, and he is still not satisfied with his old age and has not completely handed over to his daughter. A few years ago Nongfu Spring, the richest man, is also 68, and he doesn’t seem to have any plans to retire. The most respectable one is that Mr. Ren Zhengfei, who turned 78 this year, is still sending out various speeches that can be seen all over the world. What is the biggest possibility?
In fact, most of the CEOs of the big Internet companies retire and never retire. They retire but their power is not. They still control the overall situation on the board of directors, especially the company’s strategy. The direction and major personnel, the people, but, I really can’t move my heart, I’m too tired, look at these people above, all of them are platform-type companies, who climbed out of the dead pile of mass graves, which one is not mentally exhausted , growth and growth, in the past ten years of the Internet’s demographic dividend, these people have hardly had a happy birthday and licked blood on the knife edge every day.
The past golden decade has been a decade in which the Internet giants sacrificed their lives to run wild, and it is also a decade in which the so-called disorderly expansion of capital has occurred. The Internet industry is theoretically an industry without borders. Once it becomes an oligarch on a certain track, its growth nature will immediately turn around and develop horizontally or vertically. Think carefully about whether this is the case. Tencent, Ali, Meituan, Baidu, and JD.com have never fought with each other. Don’t think that only China is like this, and Silicon Valley is like this. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, face Books, if you go to the history of their development, it is also a wonderful palace fighting drama.
When Steve Jobs was alive, he fell in love with Bill Gates and killed him many times. So why is it that everyone is so close at ten o’clock? Because growth is over, the feast of growth is over. Going forward, everyone will violate the boundary, and everyone will reach the fuzzy zone of monopoly or non-monopoly. If you are still obsessed with killing your opponent, then sorry, you will really be alone. Going further, it is highly dangerous. Even in the United States, Microsoft has faced the risk of being dismembered several times, so he had to cultivate a few opponents.
Now it is good for everyone to maintain the status quo, and each company has a little market share, so the Internet industry has entered the Spring and Autumn Period of mutual checks and balances. At this time, everyone thinks, has the first founder’s company mission ended? At this stage, many of the company’s problems are no longer commercial problems, but many non-commercial things. For example, dealing with the official, such as the refined management of the stock market, who is best at these things? Of course professional managers. Many people have dismissed the bosses of big Internet companies, and deliberately interpret it as various conspiracy theories. I don’t think it is necessary. As for technology companies, they have always been the emperor and the courtier, and they have been leading the way for decades. This game is more labor-intensive than traditional companies. If it is too big, there will be problems because there are almost no boundaries. If it is too small, it will be even more problematic because it will be pinched to death by an elephant. If it is done too slowly, it will not work, because it will soon be eliminated. It’s not good to do it too fast, because it’s easy to become cannon fodder.
So the deeper you study business, the more you will understand how classic Buffett’s logic is from an investment perspective. Though his routines are boring and sexy, and often unimaginative. But from the perspective of sustainable management, he is Beta OK. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the founders of tech companies retire, maybe there are more possibilities waiting for them to create.
So, still have to be optimistic, looking back, lying flat is never the right way to face the future. do you say yes? Let’s talk here today.