This article is excerpted from "three views", an internal employee book produced by Tencent Culture. In this article, the author restores the deepest cultural genes of Tencent through an interview with Tencent's two main founders, Tony (Zhang Zhidong) and Charles (Chen Yidan).

On the eve of Tencent's 21st anniversary celebration, we interviewed Tencent's main founders Tony and Charles in Tencent's Hong Kong office. Like a pair of old friends who have been concerned about the growth of Tencent, they can't shut up the chatterbox when they talk about Tencent's culture. "Don't set an outline, we have a lot to say. "

In the course of the conversation, the two unconsciously incarnated the interview with their own "product manager": they corrected the pronunciation of "Tech for Good" each other, interrupted the interview from time to time, and then turned into a discussion, "wouldn't it be better to say that?" "

The interview time originally scheduled for 45 minutes has been changed to two hours. The content of the conversation ranges from the upgrading of Tencent culture to the initial ambition of starting a business. When it comes to opportunity, when it comes to persistence, their look is the same as in the old photos of the entrepreneurial period; when it comes to problems, they are outspoken, with sincerity and expectation in their eyes.
Looking at these two middle-aged Q brothers in T-shirts, you may suddenly have a clearer impression of "Tencent people": in the face of an increasingly complex world, they are always pure, sincere, concerned about nature and caring about people.

1 the "why" of cultural upgrading

Question: the company changed its organization in 2018, and Si Qingri released version 3.0 of Tencent culture in 2019. What do you two think of the reasons behind this organizational change and cultural upgrade?

Tony:The organizational change in 2018 is closely related to the development trend of technology in the past 20 years. From the earliest PC era to the mobile Internet era, to the current cloud era. Tencent's original organizational structure, the original mode of production has lagged behind. Now that I finally see the changes in Tencent, I believe this is the right direction.

Charles:In the first two organizational changes, we directly promoted and experienced the whole process, and we felt that it was more and more difficult each time, but on the whole, it was easy to reach a consensus to adapt to the development of the general environment. But the third organizational change will be more difficult than the first two; but from another point of view, Tencent people are no stranger to change. In the face of all kinds of new changes, on the one hand, we should realize that change cannot be achieved in one step, and that it needs to be iterated every year, just like technology, with new and continuous changes. At the same time, as a creative Internet company, change requires not only organizational adjustment, but also cultural orientation.

The mission, vision and values contained in this cultural orientation need to be integrated into the decision-making of managers. The changes of corporate culture and organizational structure complement each other.

2 Tencent people should be "responsible and approachable"

Question: the company takes "Value for Users, Tech for Good" as its new mission vision. Could you two share your views on this?

Charles:The company's new mission vision, simply these eight words: Value for Users, Tech for Good. What does it condense? First of all, the values of Tencent people are passed on, based on user values and Value for Users.

From the beginning of Tencent's start-up, we have been thinking about what to do around "users"; we will quickly improve our products according to users' feedback in order to create value. After listing, we have to balance all kinds of relationships, including those with users, employees and shareholders. But at that time we had clearly put the user first. On this point, employees agree, shareholders agree, and partners agree. Because in the Internet era, as an industry leader, you provide value to users, and the future benefits and long-term development are better.

So today, should we continue to adhere to this idea? My answer is to keep going. In our current era, the impact of many technologies is transformative and subversive, and its impact is very far-reaching. Tencent's growth benefits from scientific and technological progress, so we should do something in the big ecology and direct the power of science and technology to "good".

This "good" is not only limited to doing public welfare itself, but also a concept of "choice". On the one hand, it is persistence, on the other hand, it is input. Stick to, that is, to damage the value of users, or bad things for this society, we should resolutely abandon in the decision-making; and the value of users should always be adhered to, which itself is a kind of Tech for Good. The second is investment, not for a while, but for the long-term and healthy development of the whole ecology, which is also a kind of Tech for Good.

The vision of the new mission is actually put forward in the hope that we Tencent people will look at Tencent's future with more sense of mission and responsibility, which is a necessary responsibility.

Tony:I personally appreciate the words "Value for Users, Tech for Good".

Value for Users, my personal understanding is "approachable". If I used one word to describe Tencent's earliest founding team, I would say "approachable". We will be very keen and spend a lot of time observing users, listening to their voices, and listening to the voices of our colleagues.

This is the style of a "small workshop" founded by Tencent from the first few people. But now that Tencent is already a large enterprise with 50,000 or 60,000 people, can this style continue to be maintained? I believe the challenge is also very great. If the scale of the enterprise is large and the achievements are more, it will be easy to neglect to be "approachable". I still hope that Tencent will not move towards an overly hierarchical system, and that the goose factory will still be able to maintain its "approachable" ability.

With regard to Tech for Good, my personal understanding is that the double-edged sword effect of science and technology on society is beginning to emerge. In addition to the good aspects, it will also give rise to a lot of things that have a negative impact on society. When society is in pain and we give enough will and efforts to respond, our interaction with society will be healthier, rather than fighting for the maximization of one-day interests.

For a large technology company, this not only means how much market share, turnover growth, profit, but also that we can give greater play to everyone's wisdom, to change the problems and harm caused by technology. This is a very attractive career, and I believe there will be more talented and visionary people willing to join the Tech for Good Initiative.

Back to our specific business, I believe that in reality, we will have countless ups and downs, KPI pressure, monthly performance, and so on. I hope that more intelligent and glowing leaders can emerge in the company, who can do a good job and think about the good dimension at the same time. Our colleagues are young and energetic. I also believe that you are the people who are most capable of perceiving problems and finding creative solutions.

To take a small example, I am a heavy user of two game products that entertain each other, one is happy fighting landlords, the other is chess every day. In fact, most of their users are middle-aged uncles like me. The two teams made an anti-addictive product experience for the middle-aged uncle. In the middle of the night in the middle of the night, the middle-aged uncle will keep reminding me that it is time to rest and let go when he plays for a certain time. A small "goodwill" integration of them has improved the lives of a large number of middle-aged uncle's chess friends.

This is a small example of "Tech for Good", products are not just to meet laws and regulations. The product team observed the situation of the middle-aged uncle, these improvements will not increase the revenue of the product, nor will it increase the duration of user use, which has nothing to do with KPI, but chess players can feel that Tencent does regard these users as friends and will be more willing to build a long-term trust.

Some such examples can be found in Tencent, but the number is still relatively small. Many products do not take into account this level. I hope that there will be more and more such examples. Look forward to more and more product owners in the goose factory, who will have the wisdom and ability to integrate the concept and practice of the "Tech for Good" into the team's culture and products, and regard it as a product opportunity. The mission, vision and values contained in this cultural orientation need to be integrated into the decision-making of managers. The changes of corporate culture and organizational structure complement each other.

3 collaborative creation is more exciting than competition

Question: in the new cultural version, we notice that "collaboration" and "creation" have become our new values. How do you understand the meaning of these two words?

Tony:See that there are two new words "collaboration" and "creation" in the new values. Personally, I feel that both words are good, but both are "difficult".

Let's start with "collaboration". My understanding is that this is a change of the times. In the era of cloud and AI, "collaboration" may be a more vital way of organization that is more in line with the direction of social development. Tencent also began organizational change last year-the third organizational change for the cloud era, and the company's technical team is working hard to promote open source collaborative change, and there may be more difficult and deeper holes to fill in in the future, such as data center, collaboration center and so on.

These holes are very deep, and it is estimated that they will be very difficult and will touch many problems in the organizational structure and buttocks of the company. The organizational change of 930 feels like the first step of organizational change in the cloud era. I hope that Tencent's management team will have continuous second and third steps of change, and look forward to the organizational culture of Goose Factory. To be able to constantly evolve and adapt to this cloud era for collaboration. This is my understanding of collaboration.

Let me talk a little bit more about creativity. From a technical point of view, the term is proposed because we are facing a historic opportunity for the mobile Internet to move towards the cloud era, and we should no longer be limited to fighting with competitors in the Red Sea, but should look for a new possibility:

As a technology company connected to services in big data, Tencent is committed to building better "underlying facilities" for industry and social livelihood, and supporting industrial partners to carry out better innovation, so as to improve social efficiency and industrial efficiency. This is not only a great challenge, but also a great opportunity.

I think the process of creation must be hard, but I feel that the word "create" is more exciting than "competition".

Charles:As an example of "collaboration", I found that Tencent's public welfare platform is a good example of collaboration within Tencent. Not only is the foundation doing one thing, but a public welfare platform with Tencent as a whole is working together, with the technical department, brand department, product department and design department all involved. "99 commonweal Day" is a collaborative way for various departments to work hard for a common goal. In the end, the effect is very good. If this spirit of cooperation is brought to the ecology, it will also have a very good effect. Take Tencent public welfare platform as an example, it is a basic platform, but all NGO (non-governmental organizations) can list its public welfare projects on it, thus connecting beneficiaries and donors. I am confident that the company will develop a collaborative culture.

Tony:Here may also mention a little expectation, I feel that in the past two or three years, we have continued some of the dividends of the mobile Internet, but our big creation, in fact, is not too much. We Tencent people are expected to have more ambitions, in addition to business survival and development, but also to create more "infrastructure" that belongs to the industrial ecology.

Charles:I am also full of expectations, because we have this foundation. We can see that the company has made a lot of investment and layout in the technology, team and industry in the future. Although there is a time difference in output, there is a chance to see the future only if there is a willingness and input direction.

(4) the root of integrity is to pay attention to the essence and people.

Question: there used to be a point of view on Le Q: as the company gets bigger, the company's corporate culture is constantly diluted, and in some places there are even trust problems that need to be repaired. What do you two think of this view? How should we maintain Tencent's culture?

Charles:To answer this question, we still have to go back to the roots of our values. So in addition to some upgrades and changes in Tencent culture, I also want to talk about why integrity has always been our persistence and bottom line.

There is no doubt that integrity is the most recognized part of Tencent, whether it is the culture among employees or the culture we embody in the market and products, and it lays the foundation for trust between people. Integrity in Tencent's culture, not only does it mean that we should not touch the high-voltage line, I think that is the bottom line. More importantly, we should pay attention to the nature of things and care about people.

First of all, our adherence to the essence is very important. When we make any decisions, we should proceed from the nature of things and follow the laws of things. Whether the rules are respected or not, the results of the final market test will give the true answer. Although there will be ups and downs in terms of product development or business development, I always believe that Tencent is a rational company, and its trajectory will eventually return to the laws of things themselves. What is the power behind this "rationality"? Or based on us Tencent people, we should pursue the nature of things and be willing to insist and pay.

When we return to management, we should invest more time to care about "people". When we see the feedback from our colleagues on various things in KM, as responsible colleagues, do you really face the problem, or do you just say nice things to deal with it? Everyone has a sense of this. In the process of communication, every step we take may not have an immediate effect, but it is very important that we are willing to take the first step to move forward and to express and solve problems with them.

Tony:Here I would like to talk about "trust".

Why are people willing to work for Tencent at the beginning of Tencent's business? Except because Tencent is in an emerging industry, it is because this group of people have the same temperament, this group of people are a group of people who want to make good products and services. Because of their common pursuit and good trust, they can feel the simplicity and pleasure of trust when they work.

When the company was small, why did it give people more trust? It may be because the manager is willing to trust others in addition to being enterprising in business, and he is also willing to be trusted by others, and he is willing to spend time and energy on this aspect. But when the enterprise is large, many managers can't do it well. He gives the impression that he only cares about performance, his status, and his team's market position next year, and that trust will be undermined.

As a leader, there is more need for "approachability". In the past, when we saw that a colleague was in a mood and saw any bug, we would quickly chat with this colleague and have dinner, and then we would quickly find a way. Of course, as the enterprise becomes bigger, it will become more difficult to be approachable. At this time, we can make better use of the technology of the mobile Internet, make good use of the platform of KM, and create all kinds of opportunities to get in touch with everyone, but in essence, do you have such a will? Are you willing to stand up and let people see you, let others write to you, and you trust others?

As a leader, it is not enough to make a good performance and complete the KPI. Can we encourage and protect the sense of trust in the team? Can we continue this culture of Tencent? Managers of these questions should often ask themselves whether you deserve the trust of others and whether you are helping the team build "trust".

Charles:This aura of trust is something we very much hope to protect. At the beginning, we set up a "high-voltage line" in order to maintain this kind of aura. "high voltage line" is not a severe law, a stick to hit everyone, but an important means to maintain Tencent culture, this initial intention should be very clear.

What is conveyed behind the high-voltage line is actually a guide to integrity. When you see that some phenomena have hurt Tencent culture, you must express it in time. Timely expression and participation will give employees confidence and guidance, do not underestimate this.
Cases of violation of high-voltage lines are dealt with with zero tolerance, which is the protection of all Tencent people. This protection is not only the protection of everyone's interests, but also the love of culture.

Integrity also has a point, whether it is any product, any service or any decision, as a manager, you have the responsibility to guard the goal, this responsibility is that as long as you miss the ball, you will miss the ball, this sense of responsibility is also a kind of integrity. I believe that positive energy can still infect each other. I hope that each of our colleagues will influence each other in a positive corporate culture. This sense of responsibility will drive us to grow up gradually.

5 look forward to the emergence of a large number of talented people in the team and work hard for the beliefs of all Tencent people

Question: what are your expectations for the development of corporate culture and Tencent people?

Charles:It is expected that in the process of business development, we are not only for market share. At this time, corporate culture will play a very important role, helping us to see a whole picture (panoramic view), let people know what our direction is, what our vision is, what our mission is, rather than simply for the current market share. While fighting, we have to look at the future at the same time. Don't lose your overall direction just because you are caught in the trench in front of you.

In the process of product and business development, it is expected that the team will be able to emerge in large numbers, and leaders who identify with and continue Tencent culture will continue to emerge. With the ups and downs of business development, success or failure is inevitable, but don't forget our mission and vision in the process. Culture does not naturally develop in this direction where a slogan is put. Culture requires each of us to fight for it and work hard for it. I would like to express this very much. Products and business require a lot of effort, wisdom and commitment; the same cultural construction also needs to pay and have the courage to undertake. The process of commitment will also repeatedly involve changes in organizational structure, changes in mechanisms and processes, and there will be all kinds of conflicts, contradictions and evolution, which is an evolutionary process that complements each other. In this process, decision makers and managers, absolutely not lazy, in the corporate culture must be more willing to pay.

There may be some managers who spend more time on a specific major, and some spend more time communicating with people, and there is nothing wrong with these styles themselves. But in the process of management, whether Tencent's culture is integrated or not is very important.

From the start-up to today, no matter how the products and services change and how the technology changes, I hope that Tencent's culture will continue to pay attention to the essence and care about people. In an era when technology is changing society, what can we do? As a company, what is our responsibility? In fact, only by talking with the times in this way can we better understand the nature of corporate culture and find our motivation and sense of mission to do things.