What I learned from Mr. He Ming at Huawei

Continuing from last week, I will now be capturing some of the lessons I learned from Mr. He Ming, who was the global head for Network Solutions and my Boss in the Headquarters. He was my functional Head, while I reported to Solutions Head in India Mr. A. Sethuraman. I am today sharing first of the few lessons I learned from Mr. He Ming.

A leader’s vision must be influenced by possibilities

I just got assigned my first sales target and it was a stretch from what I had proposed. I thought taking up this target will be an injustice for my whole team as we may have little chance to get any bonuses. I took up the case with Mr. He Ming. I raised my concerns and explained the logic of my proposal. He listened to everything and then asked me a few questions.

Mr. He Ming: “Do you know what is the population of China?”

Me: “ Approximately 1.3 Billion”

Mr. He Ming: “Do you know what is the population of India?”

Me: “Approximately 1.2 Billion”

Mr. He Ming: “Do you know much Business the Network Division does in China?”…….

Then he explained to me that India business will eventually grow closer to these levels, as infrastructure gets built. He said that the vision he has for India is influenced by these possibilities while the target assigned today is tempered by current reality of the infrastructure growth. He proposed to work with me and my team in India to make sure we get all the support to capture the right market share. We continued to discuss long time and agreed on some plans with a possibility of review mid-year.

I hope all of you would keep the possibilities in mind when you define your vision. And that you temper the targets with the current reality. Not the other way around. As long as you extend the required support to the teams, this will surely take you on the path of faster growth.

Stay tuned for more next week.