1. Thought Drives Behavior
Thought drives behavior, and behavior produces results. How we treat people, handle things, and approach affairs all come from culture, and they do not leap forward just because technology advances rapidly. The Chinese nation, with its long history, has accumulated remarkably resilient intellectual wisdom. Dynasties rose and fell, regimes changed, and none of it could bring her down. Even conquest by force ultimately ends in assimilation.
Drawing on more of the wisdom of past sages and the lessons of history is worthwhile. A large time scale gives people foresight and calm; a small one gives comfort and satisfaction. We should encourage the long view while seeking flexibility in scale. “R&D is like training troops, operations is like deploying them” is one such exercise in thinking.
2. R&D Is Like Training Troops
The brilliance of training troops lies not in physical strength but in institutions.
The Qin soldiers were still the same Qin soldiers, yet after Shang Yang’s reforms their fighting power increased markedly. A crucial part of that was the establishment of a system of rewards and punishments. Battle merit went directly to the individual, while punishment fell on the group as a whole. With no other choice, they could only press forward without hesitation. Liu Bei was fortunate enough to have the Five Tiger Generals, yet even he could not win the empire.
Good employees are found by chance, not by seeking; their role is to add the finishing touch. An excellent organization should run on excellent institutions.
An institution is a set of rules for doing things or a code of conduct. In state governance, there are all kinds of laws and regulations; in corporate governance, there are all kinds of company bylaws. Down to the specifics of R&D and operations, it comes down to one behavioral norm after another. The military is a highly efficient organization; in daily life you may never have the chance to see it, but you can still catch a glimpse of it through the work of security guards. Calling out good morning on their own initiative, a ceremonial shift change, regular formation assemblies… these seemingly unnecessary gestures give them a sense of honor and responsibility. When a real emergency comes, they will step forward bravely to keep order.
In the course of running R&D, we keep practicing and standardizing employee behavior in order to reduce the human factor and strengthen the organization β and this is what forms an institution.
Too many rules and restrictions bind people’s creativity and suppress their passion. Institutions also need constant maintenance and updating; this is a process of growth and transformation.
3. Operations Is Like Deploying Troops
The brilliance of deploying troops lies not in weapons and armor but in borrowing momentum.
At the Battle of Red Cliffs, the burning of the warships gave Eastern Wu a great victory and sent Cao Cao fleeing along the Huarong Road β what was borrowed was fire. When Guan Yu flooded the seven armies, captured Yu Jin and Pang De alive, and routed Cao’s forces β what was borrowed was water. The cruelty of war is that killing a thousand of the enemy costs you eight hundred of your own, so the battles that become widely known must be those that exceed people’s expectations, trading a tiny cost for an enormous victory. Defeating many with few, overcoming the strong with the weak β both require borrowing momentum.
However strong the weapons and armor, they are no match for momentum. Momentum is a trend that accumulates, and weapons and armor are only one unit within it.
Borrowing momentum means that, while still relatively weak, you leverage some powerful external partner or some special event to raise your own influence and attack your direct competitors. It is somewhat like the strategy of “befriending the distant and attacking the near,” except that here “distant” means a large difference in domain.
Cooperation with a single objective is unreliable; doing twice the work with half the effort and creating win-win outcomes for many parties is the only standard for cooperation. Finding the point of cooperation between yourself and a strong partner outside your direct domain is the challenge in the operations process.
Going with the trend and borrowing momentum is the best operations strategy.
