What I learned from Mr. Lin Yanqing at Huawei – Part 2
Continuing from last week, I am sharing today another lesson from my short stint at Marketing during my days at Huawei. Mr Lin Yanqing was the Head of Marketing at India when I was leading the marketing efforts for Networks Division for India.
Big Picture is more important than your own Department
Marketing team had its own global agenda and its success parameters. But Mr. Lin Yanqing also kept in mind always that he was part of the India team.
The big question then is how you define success?
Can Marketing succeed without India succeeding?
Or vice versa?
The trick is to see the big picture and make sure we are aligned in such a way that success is not achieved in Silos.
What he did was a simple but robust strategy:
- Identify key global marketing imperatives
- Identify key country imperatives
- Prioritize the efforts on the imperatives to maximize success for both.
- Align resources based on the best fit
- Promote working across departments
This particular experience is more related to the last two elements. After about 6 months into marketing, Mr. Lin Yanqing judged that I will be more suitable to lead the Network Business Unit rather than marketing and he worked with the leadership team to help me make the transition.
I stayed in the BU as the leader for next two years, helping Huawei build new businesses and grow market share. All the while working closely with the Marketing as we jointly defined and executed on the strategic plan.
Leaders mush think beyond their own departments. May you all be ready to keep aside your own agenda and look at the big picture before deciding on the priorities.
Stay tuned for more next week.