Excellent ideas or skills are called brilliant; The moral level is higher than that of ordinary people, which is called nobleness-resigning and going to sea. Some people around us are brilliant and some are noble. In the field of enterprise management, there are also many brilliant or noble figures and deeds, but I don't want to evaluate these enterprises and entrepreneurs under the banner of morality. He just talked about some "brilliant" or "noble" practices he saw in many years of human resources consulting projects, especially in the design of salary system, and the relationship between these two practices and the competitiveness and market position of enterprises. Ability and willingness to pay? Who should decide who? In the years that I have been engaged in human resources consulting, I often encounter a situation: the salary design and performance appraisal scheme submitted by the project team to the customer will always be greatly adjusted after being submitted to the customer, otherwise it will not be recognized by the customer's senior management. This adjustment is usually reflected in two aspects. First, the customer thinks that the market level of the total annual salary submitted by the project team is too high and needs to be lowered; Secondly, the proportion of performance part (that is, floating part) in employees' income is too low, which increases the fixed cost of enterprises and cannot effectively motivate employees. In fact, when designing the salary system and performance scheme for customers, the project team has fully considered the fierce competition in the customer's industry, the profitability of enterprises, the problems existing in the human resource management system and many other aspects. It should be said that the vast majority of customers are fully capable of implementing the salary design scheme submitted by the project team, and when designing the salary system and performance appraisal, we also had a lot of communication with customers, stating the advantages and disadvantages of adopting the design scheme submitted by us, so that customers can weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, the project team is not a customer after all, and it is up to the top management of the customer to decide which scheme to choose. This article does not want to discuss whether the consultant's plan is right or not, and whether the customer's opinion is right. It just wants to compare the relationship between salary management of private enterprises and their competitiveness and market position with foreign counterparts through this topic. Interestingly, after the comparison, an amazing rule is found: the market position and competitiveness of private enterprises that can and are willing to pay competitive salaries are significantly higher than those that can but are unwilling to pay competitive salaries. Having said that, many people may have such questions: Does the higher ability to pay and market position determine the willingness to pay, or does the willingness to pay determine the market position and enterprise competitiveness? Before answering this question, let's take a look at the following information: foreign companies and private enterprises have two sides: I am afraid that most job seekers will first consider foreign-funded enterprises, especially large multinational companies, when facing career choices. The reason is simple: foreign companies have high wages, good welfare, and good training and employee development mechanisms; Compared with private enterprises, the vast majority of domestic private enterprises are not as good as foreign companies in terms of salary and welfare or in terms of employee training and development. The corresponding market performance is also very clear: if purchasing power permits, brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW will be selected for buying cars, brands such as Philips, Siemens and Panasonic will be selected for buying household appliances, and brands such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung will be selected for buying mobile phones. There are many similar examples, to name a few. As a result of this phenomenon, foreign businessmen can earn a lot of money in China and enjoy various tax policies; However, many private enterprises, especially export-oriented and export-oriented enterprises, have to face the pressure of rising raw materials and labor costs on the one hand, and the pressure of RMB appreciation and reducing export tax rebates on the other. Due to the lack of overall strategy and innovation mechanism, they almost always compete for the market by reducing prices and fall into a vicious circle of development. There are many deep-seated reasons for this situation. In my personal opinion, a very important aspect is that most private enterprises in China generally lack real respect for talents, equality and the spirit of contract. Although they keep saying that they are thirsty for talents, there are always many "clever" ways to pay as little as possible when they really want to give money. Even if some private enterprises hire consulting companies to redesign the salary and performance system, few salary schemes can be passed without modification. On the other hand, foreign-funded enterprises, especially some well-known large multinational companies, such as IBM, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Volkswagen, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and so on. , regularly (usually at the end of the year) through various channels to obtain external market salary information, some from consulting companies to buy salary survey reports, some from the follow-up interviews with resigned employees to obtain salary information in the same industry. After obtaining the salary data of the external market, the salary of all positions will be dynamically adjusted at the beginning of each year to ensure that the company's salary can keep pace with or lead the external market. The reason is also very simple. It's not how noble foreign companies are. Wan Li came to China to be a living Lei Feng. Nor is it because foreign companies are strong and willing to pay their employees competitive salaries and benefits. It's just that foreign companies calculate not only the small account of salary, but also the big account of talent acquisition, market share and operating profit. On the other hand, in many private enterprises in China, among the clients I have served in salary consulting projects and salary system design training, a considerable number of clients are not concerned about how to set up a scientific and effective salary system to motivate employees to the maximum extent, but how to control labor costs as much as possible on the premise that employees can accept it. Behind these two different demands, completely different salary concepts are affecting the huge differences between foreign companies and these private enterprises in organizational management and employment methods. These two completely different salary philosophies reflect the completely different basic assumptions of foreign enterprises and private enterprises, which directly lead to different market performance and financial performance. The huge difference between foreign enterprises and private enterprises in salary and welfare can be summarized as: 1. Foreign companies regard human resources as a long-term investment, not a concept of cost; Most private enterprises regard human resources as a kind of cost and an important means to control operating costs; 2. Foreign companies encourage and affirm employees' pursuit of personal value and wealth, and are also committed to helping employees grow through perfect training and development mechanisms, because the growth of employees' ability directly promotes the improvement of the company's performance; Most private enterprises will only provide employees with investment in training and development if they have to, because they are worried that the ability of employees will be improved, which will blackmail the company to raise wages; 3. Foreign companies believe in the business philosophy of high input and high output, and invest heavily in employee input and product research and development. Excellent foreign companies believe that with excellent employees, they have talent advantages. With the talent advantage, there will be excellent and advanced products, and with excellent and advanced products, there will be considerable market share and profits. And these private entrepreneurs ask employees not to mention the conditions first, and then talk about remuneration when they are done; For R&D, don't invest if you have the ability, because it can be solved by imitation. By comparing the differences in salary and welfare concepts between foreign enterprises and private enterprises, we can see the market performance of these foreign-funded enterprises and private enterprises in their respective fields: 1. In the IT industry, IBM has an absolute advantage in hardware and services. The servers used by almost all commercial banks, insurance companies and telecom operators in China are basically IBM products, although the price of IBM products is much higher than that of similar products produced by enterprises such as Dawning, Inspur and Lenovo. Correspondingly, for employees in the same position, IBM's income is at least 1 times that of well-known enterprises such as Dawning, Inspur and Lenovo. IBM (China Company) spends1%-2% of the company's annual income on employee training every year (IBM's operating income in fiscal year 2007 was $28.9 billion), and every IBM employee will have at least 15- every year. 2. In the fast-moving consumer goods industry, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson occupy almost 80% of the domestic market; The successful model of private enterprises, Bao Si Group, once dominated, but lost to Procter & Gamble in the end and was acquired by German Beiersdorf Company. Correspondingly, P&G has a strong talent training system widely praised by the industry, and the annual investment in employee training accounts for about 2% of the company's annual income (P&G's operating income in fiscal year 2007 was $76 billion). Most of the employees who left P&G have become executives of many well-known enterprises, such as Coca-Cola, Vanke, Li Ning, etc. Therefore, P&G also has the reputation of Whampoa Military Academy in the industry and is full of talents. 3. In the pharmaceutical industry, local drug (western medicine) manufacturers almost invariably imitate and imitate imported drugs, such as antibiotics, insulin and other commonly used drugs, and there are few local pharmaceutical companies with independent research and development capabilities. Therefore, in addition to Chinese medicine, almost all local pharmaceutical companies rely on counterfeit drugs to maintain their daily operations. In recent years, a large number of pharmaceutical companies have closed down. A local genius &; Noble example: Looking back at private enterprises, there are only a handful of enterprises that occupy a leading position in their respective markets and even exclude foreign investment. One is Mengniu and the other is Huawei. These two companies occupy an absolute leading market share in their respective industries, and if the reasons for their success are compared and analyzed, there are three striking similarities with their leading counterparts in their respective industries: 1, Mengniu and Huawei can calculate small accounts, but they can calculate big accounts: except for the high-end formula milk division, which is not as good as Wyeth and Abbott, the average salary level of liquid milk division and ice cream division is higher than that of local counterparts, compared with that of foreign counterparts. In sharp contrast, in less than ten years after its establishment, Mengniu has occupied the top few dairy enterprises in China from an unknown small enterprise at a rocket-like speed; Behind its rapid growth, its high-input and high-output salary concept is strikingly similar to that of foreign-funded enterprises. Mengniu also attaches great importance to employee training. According to incomplete statistics, Mengniu spends about 2% of its operating income on employee training every year. For Huawei, an awe-inspiring local high-tech enterprise, I am afraid that what the general public hears the most and is most impressed is not its excellent products, nor the first batch of enterprises that have successfully achieved internationalization, but its enviable salary and benefits without losing foreign counterparts. Huawei was founded less than 20 years ago, starting from RMB 30,000, and by 2007, it had achieved contract sales revenue of USD 654.38+0.6 billion, and R&D investment of nearly RMB 654.38+0 billion. On the other hand, many private enterprises are unwilling to do basic job training, let alone spend huge sums of money on employee training and product research and development. Thinking about brainwashing employees through various channels all day, blindly emphasizing loyalty, and the result? Of course, the expenditure on labor costs has decreased, but the staff turnover rate remains high, leaving behind mediocre people. What is even more frightening is that the operating income and market share of enterprises have been decreasing, and enterprises have become small old trees. I really don't know whether these enterprises don't know how to settle accounts or take chances. 2. The corporate culture of Mengniu and Huawei is a typical sharing culture: I'm afraid everyone can remember Niu Gensheng's famous saying "Money gathers but people disperse". The concept of its contribution is also very simple: let employees share the fruits of enterprise growth, and Niu Gensheng has indeed done this. Unlike many enterprises, when they really want to give money, they always find more than n reasons to withhold or refuse to pay. In the high-tech field, Huawei has trained nearly a thousand millionaires and hundreds of multimillionaires in 20 years. According to Ren, it means "don't let Lei Feng suffer". Mengniu and Huawei are similar to their main competitors, and they are highly consistent with the spirit of equality, contract and sharing in Protestant ethics. 3. Mengniu and Huawei treat employees as mortals rather than saints: if it is necessary for enterprises to require employees to be dedicated and enlightened before the reform and opening up, then today, 30 years after the reform and opening up, there are still enterprises that require employees to talk about risks and enlightenment, then the boss of this enterprise is either hypocritical or ignorant. In fact, there is no distinction between good and evil in human nature, and the core of human nature is selfishness. Therefore, no matter those excellent foreign-funded enterprises or excellent private enterprises such as Huawei and Mengniu, they all know that employees are mortal, not saints, and they clearly know that employees have material and spiritual needs, so they also respect and try their best to meet the material needs and growth needs of employees, which also brings efforts and loyalty to employees. The reason is also very simple. Most people and employees are mortal, and they all have the need to pursue material, reputation and status, and they all have the need to pursue growth. On the other hand, it seems that none of those dedicated and conscious people who talk about it every day have become one of the best or even the top ten private enterprises in the industry. Presumably, this may be because the bosses of these enterprises really think that employees are saints, and every time they send money, they can find many ingenious ways to reduce wages. There are always many ways and arguments to reduce personnel expenses. Mengniu and Huawei can achieve today's status and glory, in fact, it is not that they are not petty or noble, but that Niu Gensheng and Ren really know how to see through human nature, respect and understand their business rules, and consistently set an example, so they have been cared for by their employees. Such an enterprise, with such a boss, is not successful! Postscript: This article is the one with the longest duration and the most frequent changes. The reason is simple: First, the current economic recession has affected many industries in China, and the most talked about topic in business and academic circles is how to reduce costs to survive the severe winter. During this period, the themes of various newspapers and media are layoffs and pay cuts. It is really inappropriate to write this article, but I always insist that severe winter is temporary and growth is an eternal topic. Salary and welfare is an unavoidable topic for every enterprise and entrepreneur. Secondly, academic circles, workshops and business circles have different opinions on Mr. Niu Gensheng, and writing this article is suspected of grasping the knife for others. However, I still think that no matter how to evaluate Mr. Niu Gensheng, it is an ironclad fact that an enterprise has gone from zero to tens of billions in less than ten years, and the salary and benefits of its employees are obviously higher than those of its peers. Don't criticize under the banner of moral criticism; Third, I always believe that high input to employees may not bring high output to enterprises, but low input or no input will certainly not bring high output to enterprises. The hearts of employees are the hardest to buy, if employees no longer love this enterprise; Employees' hearts are also the easiest to buy. If the boss can be more sincere and caring, he can pay more wages within his ability. Successful bosses are actually not smart, but they are more noble than failed bosses, because they know and abide by the business ethics of equality, contract and sharing; In fact, most failed bosses are very smart, but they think that the small account of employee cost can make the enterprise grow rapidly, but it is not good for the healthy growth of the enterprise. Teacher Freeman Yang's Personal Profile Freeman Yang, 34, is a graduate student in management, a human resource consultant and a training lecturer, and has six years of management consulting experience. He has served as a senior consultant, project manager and partner in many large management consulting companies in China, focusing on organizational design and human resources. Teacher Freeman Yang has provided consulting services on human resources, corporate culture and organization for many large domestic enterprises and listed companies. The industries that Teacher Freeman Yang focuses on are: equipment manufacturing, clothing industry, consumer goods and retail, real estate, energy; Teacher Freeman Yang's teaching style is systematic, logical, practical and interactive, and he is an advocate of consulting training. For management training, Mr. Yang creatively combined the characteristics of management consulting, combined with six years of management consulting experience, as well as the operational characteristics and human resource management priorities of various industries, and specially developed human resource management courses in five industries, such as consumer goods, clothing, real estate, manufacturing and electric power, which were highly targeted. Mr. Freeman Yang is also a special contributor to the review of Sales and Market magazine, and has published many articles on organizational management and general management.