Can Zhongguancun become the next Silicon Valley?
In 1999, China had happened many major events at the end of the century. From the economic level, China officially signed the WTO bilateral agreement, which is the most happy thing. Whether it is the Chinese government, the boss of industrial enterprises, or the representative of foreign business enterprises, people are not in this agreement. Business opportunities from China in the 21st century.
In China's big city, the successful 500 forums of wealth held more inspirations, confidence and dreams, and Shenzhen's high-tech industry fair allowed the information industry to become the focus of people. Maybe because I have been in Beijing, I noticed that in the last period of time, what is the most popular topics herein, is Zhongguancun from Silicon Valley? Can Zhongguancun become the next Silicon Valley?
Two different conclusions
It seems that there is two trochetically comparable conclusions with existing facts and data.
Conclusion 1: Zhongguancun has become a not far from Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley has two famous universities, Stanford University and Berkeley University, Zhongguancun has Peishang and Tsinghua;
Silicon Valley is an engineer's paradise, Zhongguancun is also an aggregation of engineers;
Silicon Valley has a group of well-known high-tech enterprises such as Intel, HP, and Zhongguancun has a famous enterprise;
Silicon Valley is in technology, especially in the information industry, and Zhongguancun is an electronic street.
Conclusion II: Zhongguancun is still a distant dream from Silicon Valley.
The market value of a group of enterprises such as HP, Intel, and Cisco, such as Silicon Valley is a large number of national grids in many countries that cannot be combined, while Lenovo, Founder's annual marketing income and pure profit and market value are not in a quantitude;
Silicon Valley is the product of the market economy of the local road, and Zhongguancun is also a government-led industrial group;
Silicon Valley has a complete set of R & D systems, venture capital homemade systems, and Zhongguancun is mainly a distributed place of information products, a trade center, sales center, market center of information products.
In my opinion, the above two conclusions are the facts, and some statements have no truth.
But we must recognize the huge differences between Zhongguancun and Silicon Valley in culture, talents, innovation, investment mechanisms, and school participation. Don't forget, even the eastern United States can learn Silicon Valley, so I want to effectively understand that Silicon Valley is not easy, and must completely understand the cultural and mechanism of Silicon Valley.
Today, the development of the network industry has brought a new opportunity to China. It makes us creating new industrial opportunities under less capital conditions. So far, the government has provided a lot of superior conditions for Zhongguancun in terms of funds, listed, etc.. In a very short time, more than 100 venture capital companies have targeted the goal of Zhongguancun and Zhongguancun, while Zhongguancun companies can also be listed in Hong Kong or US stock markets. Maybe not far, China will have a secondary market. As the famous domestic entrepreneurial section said, Zhongguancun has many favorable development conditions in this regard.
Today, I think it has become a molecule in Zhongguancun University. And in one and a half ago, I have been a member of Silicon Valley. In the typical representative apple of Silicon Valley, I worked for six years, after I worked in SGI for two years. And served as vice president of these two companies. During this time, I also tried to open START-UP, I have acquired Start-UP, and I have invested in START-UP and participated in venture capital. In two locations and work experience and feelings in different fields, I have some of my own ideas and understandings for this theme of Zhongguancun Development.
If you want to publish your point of view on this topic, you will find a conclusion. For me, just like the study, you need to compare, analyze some of the most basic things. I hope some of the ideas below can give some reference to the manager of Zhongguancun, Zhongguancun Enterprise.
Silicon Valley Culture Chasing Market
In the eyes of Silicon Valley in the eyes of the Chinese, the first is its technical advantage, so people think that if Zhongguancun has enough technology, then it can become the next Silicon Valley. In fact, the technology of Silicon Valley is very developed, which is an eye, but the biggest feature of Silicon Valley is not its technology, but the so-called "Silicon Valley Culture". The first characteristic of this culture is a culture of chasing market innovation. Today, innovation is one of the highest repetition frequencies in China's media. Silicon Valley can achieve today's achievements, of course, no innovation. But its innovation is for market demand, that is, for market innovation, not pure technological innovation. In fact, there are many successful companies that do not have a very deep technology, but also known as innovative success. Like Yahoo! It doesn't have any special technological innovation. Yang Zhiyuan is the online player. He is just a content classification for online content. Later, I hired a very commercial mind to do CEO to decide to be a portal; further entering e-commerce, I discovered its market value, thus derived a huge business (Yahoo! market value of more than 1,000 US dollars, it is twice that of technology from Compaq and DEC merger). Undoubtedly, technology innovation can produce high value. But not necessarily no high technology can't create value. The people of Silicon Valley pursue market value to the market value, pursuing market share, high-tech is only one of the means. If a business form, a method can occupy the market, they will try it brave. People in Silicon Valley recognize that it should be developed in order to develop a broader market, rather than developing the market for a research results. In the United States, there is a lot of mysterious and mysterious technology, but it is not recognized because there is no market value in the past few years. Therefore, innovation does not have to rely on high technology.
In Silicon Valley, some products have problems on the market, but the market problem. The market has been accepted, and the technology has been recognized; the market is not accepted, and the technique that is wonderful is not known. Six years ago, when Apple's Newton PDA technology had just came out, like an atomic bomb like the information industry, brought a handwritten input. However, after a year, Newton did not receive any market recognition, causing almost extinction of the entire PDA product. Until two, three years ago, Palm Pilot and Windows CE made a market-recognized product. They don't have high-tech handwritten input, but meet the email, calendar, notepad, browser, etc. needed by users. In this way, the PDA is also resurrected after meeting the market demand. The market is a test stone of all technologies. Only without market technology, there is no market that is not suitable for technology. Therefore, in Zhongguancun, sometimes people aim at a large number of technologies, but because of ignore the market, the final product is still unacceptable. Zhongguancun often complains that there is no technical content of someone else, but it is accepted by the market, and the product with high technical content can only be accepted by smaller markets and special markets. In fact, he should realize that there is no great significance at this time.
Because market innovation is important, in Silicon Valley, companies must manage by entrepreneurs who can grasp the market.
Not long ago, China's media has raised a problem on the high-level personnel changes in Zhongguancun, that is, the company is a technician company, or an entrepreneur company? In Silicon Valley, no one will think that a technician should continue to manage a company. Often, a company has taken different leaders and ways through every stage. Microsoft's Bill Gates is a technology genius, but he is also an outstanding entrepreneur. But he is an almost unique exception. In Zhongguancun, these concepts have not been accepted, and it seems that it does not emphasize technology, that is, do not pay attention to technology. So people do some blind research and development, and neglect market demand. I believe that Zhongguancun has to become the next Silicon Valley, the persistent pursuit of market and user demand is the first.
Silicon Valley: Talent and Interpersonal Net
If the goal of Silicon Valley chase is the market, then the wealth of Silicon Valley is its talents, the weapon of Silicon Valley is its interpersonal network.
In today's information society, a talented person is far more than a general person. A technician like Microsoft David Cutler, can plan, complete the world's largest software engineering: Windows2000. A sales expert like Amazon Jeff Bezos, can bring a sales form by operating a website. A market expert like the US online Steve Case can thoroughly understand the consumer's mentality and further get their loyalty. A strategist of Bird Gates, can quickly change the company's direction and fall behind the Internet product. A leader in Apple Steve Jobs can reverse the glory of the company's sluggish morale and restore the brilliance of the past. There is no doubt that these talented people are their largest treasures in their company.
Therefore, a large feature of Silicon Valley Enterprises is the owner of the company, and each employee has the company's share options, which is not more common in the US big company (Microsoft is a prominent exception). Most employees like IBM, most employees in the enterprise have no sharing, but a small company with only three people in Silicon Valley, equity concepts are very clear. Silicon Valley companies recognize the most important assets, not funds.
In addition, people of Silicon Valley have a special value. The meaning of their lives is in innovation and adventure. Jim Clark, founder of SGI, after SGI succeeded, leaving NetScape; after Netscape was successfully listed, he left and successfully founded another three companies. He is interested in managing a business in his life, far less than he creating a new business; he is far more interest in making a fortune, it is far more interest in creating wealth to the society; he is managing many employees Interest, far more than he hopes that all of him can improve the interest of human life. It is for these dreams. Many people in Silicon Valley will work hard after becoming a millionaire. Because entrepreneurship is very risky, Silicon Valley encourages failure while encouraging adventures. And an entrepreneur, each failure, new entrepreneurial value will be higher, and many companies grow up in constant failure. Such a social system is also very important.
Finally, these successful, risky, entrepreneurial people have huge "interpersonal network." This constitutes the biggest feature of "Silicon Valley Culture". Silicon Valley is the highest in the world, its open-minded consciousness, open environment, and active talent flow make people have a chance to learn more about knowledge and professional skills, and establish their own extensive interpersonal networks. It is these big and small "interpersonal network" that enables the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to quickly get the required funds, find the work of partners and establish a trusted and tacit leadership team. A professor has made a comparison on Silicon Valley and Boston, and found that the biggest difference between the two places is in these "interpersonal networks." In Boston, people are only interested in their jobs, the company is interested, do not deliberately add their own interpersonal network or knowledge. They worked in a company for more than ten years, lost the opportunities and fighters required for entrepreneurs, and lost their knowledge and strength required to manage. Risk investment company role
China's risk investment is started in 1998. In short, there have been more than 100 venture capital companies in China. However, with Silicon Valley is that China's venture capital company is a policy risk investment company, rather than a commercial venture capital company, which is different from that China's venture capital company is most important. In addition, China's venture capital companies provide funding. This is very different from Silicon Valley.
Risk Investment in Silicon Valley is called the most complete service in the world. In addition to providing funding, venture capital companies also provides enterprise policy consulting, and even consulted from employee equity to enterprise management structures. Venture Capital also helps companies recommend directors and employees (will also require replacement of the company's leadership team). A good venture capital company can use its interpersonal network to quickly help a small company build its leadership team, marketing channel, market share and its own interpersonal network.
In Silicon Valley, there is a very abundant capital, so a good small company may have dozens of venture capital companies waiting in line to invest in. For this small company, he is not the most funded or the least amount of venture capital company, but the "most complete". It can even be said that the best venture capital company uses its services and reputation to exchange a chance to return high investment.
The risk investment expert of Silicon Valley is most important to people, followed by the market. Therefore, in deciding to invest in an item, they will consider these people's capabilities, will, dedication, imagination, and personal activities. For their past failure experience, as long as people are excellent, it can be a positive learning experience and lesson. At the same time, investors have also learned all the processes of venture capital. When they succeed (as Jim Clark mentioned earlier), risk investment has also begun to form a benign cycle of investment.
From Zhongguancun, people think more about financing, often only for funds, and not considering other factors, people who operate are still technicians, no market concept, no urgent impulse. In a certain sense, this approach will bring a lot of instability, not more benefits for the innovation of the company, and it is easy to fail.
The role of universities in high-tech development
Lift Silicon Valley, people think of the University of Stanford and Berkeley, just like Peking University and Tsinghua. Many of the large entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are from Stanford University and Berkeley University, and even the professor of these two university business schools, providing the most direct management experience for MBA students. But one thing is different, there is no university office company in the United States, and Silicon Valley is no exception. The main responsibility of the university is to cultivate talents for the society, providing technology, there is absolutely no business, and it will not force scholars to become entrepreneurs.
The university of Silicon Valley encourages teachers and students to create a company. If a professor goes to start a business, he can stop paying, the company is successful, he may work down; start a business failed, he may return to the school. China's university is different, the school has opened a lot of companies, and the company has blended many branches and subsidiaries. The school must provide housing for the employees of the company, to provide a secured, transport management personnel, to apply for government indicators for the company's listing, to provide the enterprise to provide the enterprise. Enterprises make money, everyone is good, the school can also divide some; the company is not good, the school officials can worry. Even contradictions in the interior and exterior of the enterprise, the main officials of the school must become judges, mediation or arbiters. More importantly, it is that there is no entrepreneurial mentality in the school, and success will not bring wealth. Failure will not bring unemployment, because the school has to raise him, no sense of master, and urgency. Non-discipline, this is the essence of the Silicon Valley. In Silicon Valley, if the university's results are brought out by some professors, he only needs to discuss a reasonable price with the school, or to the school's share of the company to purchase intellectual property rights. The company has been developed, the school can earn some money; the company has failed, it is nothing to do with the school. In the long run, today's domestic universities have founded so many companies, calculate the school to provide the land, all kinds of resources and debts that must be undertaken, and whether the school can earn money is a question mark. Of course, China's universities are different from the United States in many ways. Maybe they do their own reasons or special truths, but I think they should focus on education and cultivate talents, and transport talents for companies. The company should be self-destroy and should not be parasitic under the assets and honor of the school.
to sum up
Many overseas talents returned to China, some people themselves study, live and work in Silicon Valley. A group of world-class universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua is a prerequisite for the development of Zhongguancun. From another meaning, Chinese people are not afraid of risks and entrepreneurship far more than Japanese, whether it is Liu Chuanzhi's 200,000 yuan to create Lenovo, or Wang Elect, the laser Chinese character typography technology occupied the global Chinese market, all of these entrepreneurs Typical story.
A friend I once told a story. He is an American Chinese who studying in the United States from mainland China and has been achieved in the United States. He has a six-year-old daughter. One day, a daughter said that the teacher and the students said that the 21st century is Chinese. Century, but I am now american, I can't change into the Chinese. Although this is just a small story, the historical trend of China's development is unmanned. We can't always put your energy in planning and oral, we have to do more practical, including a complete set of qualified talent policies, encourage more students to return to the country to participate in entrepreneurship; give more opportunities for foreign companies; encouragement Entrepreneurship; create a fair business competition environment, form fair game rules; create a strong social entrepreneurial environment. The rest of the thing is that we have all worked.
I think Zhongguancun can become the next Silicon Valley, and Zhongguancun does not have to imitate Silicon Valley everywhere. But we must understand that Silicon Valley is a miracle, and it is a unique miracle worldwide. I want to repeat the miracle, I must understand how the miracle happened. If this is done, we have confident that Zhongguancun can make Zhongguancun "Silicon Valley" with Chinese characteristics.
