ByteDance, China's internet giant, has been in the spotlight in recent years. However, the company's CEO, Liang Rubo, issued a warning at the recent annual plenary meeting: the company is becoming mediocre. It may be a shocking term, especially from a CEO, but Liang's candor and courage are worth pondering.
In the past few years, ByteDance has experienced the best growth, with the number of employees increasing from more than 10,000 to more than 100,000. All this seems to be moving in the direction of success, but as Liang Rubo points out, it is also accompanied by some problems. He referred to the inefficiency, sluggishness, and declining standards of the organization, all of which point to a common problem: meocrity.
First, let's talk about inefficiencies. Liang Rubo gave an example of a simple needs assessment for an internal system that initially required 1,000 man-days, but in reality only one person needed 15 days to complete. This inefficiency not only wastes the company's resources, but also leaves employees feeling tired because even though they work hard, the end result is not as good as it could be.
Secondly, there is sluggishness. Compared to startups, ByteDance seems to be less sensitive to new opportunities. Companies only started discussing technologies such as GPT in 2023, while some startups emerged as early as 2018 and 2021. This sluggishness can cause companies to miss out on many opportunities, as the Internet industry is so competitive that the slightest hesitation can cost you a head start.
Finally, the decline in standards is also a concern. Although the company has always emphasized that the documentation is concise, accurate, and easy to understand, in reality, many documents are still lengthy and full of vernacular and abbreviations. This can lead to confusion and misunderstanding of information, affecting team collaboration and innovation.
Liang Rubo proposed a clear solution to these problems: break complacency, raise standards, and build a lean organization. This resolute attitude and determination is the key to the company's continued progress. Only by constantly challenging itself and constantly pursuing excellence can ByteDance continue to stand out from the fierce competition, escape from mediocre gravity, and achieve greater breakthroughs.
In this era of competition and change, every organization needs to look at itself and constantly improve and evolve. Liang Rubo's warning is a valuable reminder not to be complacent because of past success, to always maintain a sense of crisis, the pursuit of excellence, this is the only way to success.