Chapter 2320 Political Correctness in the Company

As soon as Boss Zhou took action, his momentum was overwhelming.

Not only was Yang Zhiyuan shocked, he returned to the company to report the good news. The executives all felt the efficiency and decisiveness from the big boss.

That's not all, Zhou Buqi is going to take a trip with Kurian next, heading north to Vancouver to buy Shopify, a cross-border e-commerce platform that provides SaaS services!

This won't cost you too much money.

From the current point of view, cross-border e-commerce is only a relatively niche area in the e-commerce industry. It is very popular, but in fact it is not large in scale and cannot be compared with the group buying trend in previous years.

After all, cross-border e-commerce itself has extremely high operating thresholds, and it is not easy to actually do it.

Shopify has been around for seven or eight years, and it was very inconspicuous in its early days.

In the past two years, the C-side business of cross-border e-commerce has gradually improved, and Shopify has emerged and attracted the attention of the capital market. In 2010, the valuation reached US$28 million and US$7 million in financing was raised.

In October last year, the valuation reached US$90 million and another US$15 million was raised.

The current market valuation is estimated to be around US$150 million.

It won't exceed $200 million.

However, before heading north to Vancouver, Zhou Buqi first called Xu Liangjie and did not discuss Yahoo. Xu Liangjie's president of Yahoo is part-time, and his more important position is the chief human resources officer of Ziweixing International.

He is in charge of people.

The two were not in the company, but went to a coffee shop outside to have a secret chat.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's going on in the company? Everyone has opinions on Kurian?"

"Huh?" Xu Liangjie glanced at him, "Which aspect?"

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Don't be vague. Tang Binchen told me last time that many Chinese executives criticized Kurian. It seems that it is my fault that I value him."

Xu Liangjie didn't take it seriously, "It's okay! Some people are just petty!"

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "This is the United States. The culture is so diverse, and there are so many different races and skin colors. This is not the same as in China. There are some things that you think are okay, but others may not."

Xu Liangjie was surprised and said: "No way? Tang Binchen has already complained?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Of course he won't, he is just talking for others. Those Chinese executives seem to have some opinions."

Xu Liangjie nodded, "To be precise, they are Asians. Among the 23 core executives of Ziweixing International, 5 are Chinese, 1 is Korean, and 3 are from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. These add up to a total of There are 9 people, which can be regarded as a relatively integrated Asian group. Others, there are 8 white people, 1 black person, 1 Arab person, and 4 Indian people. This is basically the distribution."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia are actually similar. They are all Confucian cultural circles."

Xu Liangjie said: "This is Silicon Valley, and racial prejudice generally does not occur, unlike on Wall Street."

"Then what happened to Kurian?"

"It should not be directed at him as a person, but at some of his employment styles."

"Um?"

"He seems to be a bit nepotistic when it comes to hiring people." Xu Liangjie also felt helpless. "I also talked to Kurian about this matter. But he also has reasons. After all, the performance of the cloud business group is there, so what? These are real achievements. He said he was employing people on merit, but he couldn’t find any fault."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why are you using people for nepotism?"

Xu Liangjie said: "When an executive hires people, he must strike a proper balance and not go too far. For example, if a white executive appoints white people to all his core positions, he will be easily criticized. Asia The same goes for people of Chinese descent. Just like me, it is impossible for all the heads of several departments in the human resources department to be Chinese. It would be too easy to cause racial disputes. On the basis of meritocracy, there must be an appropriate balance. Better relations among all races.”

Zhou Buqi twitched his lips and said, "It's politically correct."

Xu Liangjie said calmly: "Political correctness is not a derogatory term. It is the best solution left after the market choice of survival of the fittest. In the business society, this should be the most efficient management strategy in the current society. Especially in the United States, where there are many In a nation of racially and culturally diverse immigrants.”

Putting himself in his shoes, it was related to his own interests. After Zhou Buqi thought about it, it seemed that this was really the case.

Just like Xu Liangjie said.

If the department directors in his human resources department all select some Chinese compatriots... even if these Chinese compatriots are extremely capable and far better than others, they will be prone to big troubles.

This seems to be a form of exclusion!

That’s nepotism!

Even racial discrimination!

Employees of other ethnic groups took a look and thought, since you Chinese executives like to play like this, then you might as well stop fighting. No matter how hard you try, you can't get promoted because of your racial differences, so why bother working hard? You can lie down!

This will lead to a slack working atmosphere within the company.

Many people may even angrily make trouble and protest, leading to collective resignations.

In order to handle such disputes between diverse races, political correctness is the best solution.

Some department directors in the human resources department cannot select people based solely on ability.

We need to take some positions and appoint people from other ethnic groups to form this politically correct compromise. In other words, disadvantaged ethnic groups can obtain some preferential treatment by virtue of their skin color.

In Ziweixing International, Asians and whites are the strong ethnic groups, and all other ethnic groups are disadvantaged. The strong ethnic groups have to slightly tilt their resources towards the disadvantaged ethnic groups.

Even if their abilities are not the strongest, they must be promoted and reused. Only in this way can the company's atmosphere be better and the internal work enthusiasm be stronger.

This is a completely different employment concept from that in China.

Domestic Ziweixing really employs people based on merit.

This is not the case in the United States. On the basis of meritocracy, there must be certain politically correct skin color considerations. Ziweixing International is just one company, which is probably a microcosm of the entire American society.

Zhou Buqi sighed, "So, the efficiency of overseas business can never exceed that of domestic business. Only punching has power. If you separate the five fingers and then use the palm, the strength will definitely be greatly reduced. ."

Xu Liangjie said with a smile: "There is no cultural identity here in the United States, so it is difficult for everyone to get together. Relying on politically correct strategies, it would be good to be able to take control."

Zhou Buqi said: "The loss of this power will be huge."

Xu Liangjie said: "Fortunately, there are many talents here. The world's elites are running here, and the environment is attractive. A giant's punch will always be more powerful than a child's punch."

Zhou Buqi nodded, feeling that what he said made sense, "The United States is definitely the most wasteful country in the world, not only in terms of capital, minerals, energy, and food, but also in talent."

"As for Kurian..." Xu Liangjie was helpless. Fortunately, Boss Zhou was one of his own and could tell the truth without scruples. "In the company, many people said that Kurian was nepotism, but this was just in name." On. I talked to Kurian. In fact...if you ask me, he is the purest meritocracy in our company."

Zhou Buqi understood what was going on here. "In the cloud business group, Kurian hired a large number of Indians?"

"Yes." Xu Liangjie defended again, "But there is absolutely no problem with hiring people. Everyone is excellent. They are all top-notch Internet elites who rushed across the single-plank bridge with thousands of troops."

In fact, this point does not need to be questioned too much.

For an Indian to study and study all the way from a country like India, where there are layers of exploitation and oppression, to come to the United States for further study and work, the difficulty is as high as heaven.

It is much more difficult than studying at Tsinghua University and Peking University in China and then studying in the United States.

Indians who have gone through so many hurdles and found a job in Silicon Valley are definitely among the best.

In the past, the level of Chinese and Indian Americans in Silicon Valley was about the same, and even higher for Chinese Americans.

But that hasn’t been the case in recent years.

It is getting easier and easier to travel domestically and abroad.

Once it becomes easier to go abroad, many ordinary people in China will also be able to study in the United States and then find jobs in Silicon Valley.

The appearance of so many ordinary people has greatly lowered the average level of Chinese Americans in Silicon Valley. Unlike in the 1980s and 1990s, almost every Chinese who went to study abroad from home was a top-notch talent.

It is difficult for Indians to go abroad, but they can always maintain the high-density talent advantage of such Indian ethnic groups. Picking any one will not be too bad.

Zhou Buqi said: "Perhaps it is both nepotism and meritocracy."

"Absolutely." Xu Liangjie smiled, and then sighed, "But political correctness is the golden mean. Whether it is hiring people on the basis of cronyism or meritocracy, it does not meet this standard."

Zhou Buqi thought it was unacceptable, "There are too many criticisms, which is not good."

Xu Liangjie said: "Yes, many executives have complaints, but they are actually aimed at this point. In other business groups, everyone must consider political correctness and make appropriate adjustments in the selection of personnel. Only Kurian's Cloud The Computing Business Group is a bit paranoid about hiring people, and he is a bit...a bit too performance-driven."

"I go!"

Zhou Buqi really didn't know what to say.

Is it wrong to pursue performance too much and lead Ziwei Cloud to defeat Amazon Cloud wholeheartedly?

This weird concept is also found in the United States.

Regardless of whether Kurian employs people based on merit or nepotism, it actually makes sense. Only when you are virtuous can you be capable; only when you are close can you be more cohesive and work more reliably.

Zhou Buqi's appointment of Xu Liangjie also has the element of "nepotism".

But the problem is that if Kurian does this, it will easily cause controversy. The significance of making money exceeds ideology, and it will easily cause confusion at the larger ideological level.

Management is really not an easy task.