Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 757 Targeted Therapy
This open letter was like a thunderbolt, causing a violent upheaval within Baidu.

Some people are terrified, as if they see the precipice of their careers, because what they see is business closures and layoffs.

Many others, however, are celebrating, which explains why the post on the internal forum that directly pointed out Alibaba's weaknesses was not deleted but instead pinned to the top.

No wonder the comments people are making on the intranet forums lately have been so outrageous, yet we haven't seen any action from the administrators.

Everything that seemed abnormal now had the most reasonable explanation.

This internal letter quickly garnered support from 80% of the employees, becoming the most popular post in the history of the intranet.

True corporate change always requires both top-down decisiveness and bottom-up responsiveness to succeed.

But the pain came sooner than expected.

The media keenly picked up on the bombshell news from this letter, and as the news broke, Baidu's stock price plummeted by 7%.

Subsequently, Li Yanhong's phone was bombarded with calls from all sides.

While discussing strategic cooperation with Chen Mo at the Bi'an Science and Technology Park, he chose to turn off his phone instead of answering it or hanging up.

The following day's Baidu board meeting was filled with an unusual atmosphere.

What made this meeting special was its initiation method; it was not initiated by the chairman.

This special meeting, initiated by more than half of the board members, unusually brought together heavyweight members who have lived abroad for many years:
Greg Penner, a representative of the Walmart family and former chairman of the board;

Uber and former Google executive Brent Callinicos;

Janet Li, former head of JPMorgan Chase Asia;

Ding Jian, co-founder of AsiaInfo;
These are all independent directors. Although they do not interfere with the specific operations of the company, they have the responsibility of supervision, checks and balances, strategic decision-making, and risk control.

President Zhang Yaqin's deliberately late arrival added a touch of subtlety.

There should have been another director, but he is no longer serving as a director due to his divorce troubles.

Everyone is now waiting for that man to appear.

At one point, when the conference room door was finally pushed open, all the directors who were about to launch an attack fell silent the moment they saw Robin Li.

Those bloodshot eyes burned with a do-or-die determination, reminding everyone of the declaration in that internal letter to "bet everything on reputation."

The letter, with its brief opening and closing sentences, was like a sharp sword piercing everyone's heart.

"Something came up and I was delayed." Without offering any further explanation or apology, Li Yanhong casually sat in the head chair, relaxed his body, leaned back slightly, and crossed his legs on the edge of the table.

At this moment, he was like a gambler who had gone all in and bet everything, and without saying a word, he had stabbed himself twice in the back.

Seeing this, no one wanted to be the one to stick their neck out.

When they remained silent, Li Yanhong had something to say.

"I've barely slept during this period. Please bear with me if I do anything out of line."

Seeing everyone's silence, Robin Li tossed a stack of documents from his briefcase: "This is a draft of a cooperation agreement with the other side."

When the board members saw the deeply intertwined clauses such as "technology sharing," "data interoperability," and "joint research and development," a series of gasps filled the meeting room.

A few minutes later, I guessed that these people had finished reading.

Li Yanhong said calmly, "Does anyone have any objections to this cooperation?"

No wonder Robin Li acted so uncharacteristically and with such confidence; it turns out he has found a new partner, and the other side is Robin Li's trump card.

At this moment, anyone who has an opinion means becoming an enemy of Li Yanhong and Chen Mo.

The board members looked at each other, none of them daring to voice their opinions.

Silence is spreading.
"Very good, approved." Li Yanhong typed on the keyboard, and the projection screen was instantly covered with a red list.

"Next, we'll move on to the second proposal. There was a sentence in yesterday's internal letter that you might have noticed: 'We're going to eliminate some departments and lay off some incompetent people. Your people are on the list. Out of respect, let me give you a heads-up first.'"

Li Yanhong looked at them one by one, surveying the entire room. Apart from Zhang Yaqin, no one dared to meet his gaze, and the latter's cold smile vanished in an instant.

The directors present were all shrewd individuals. They knew very well that if anyone dared to raise an objection at this moment, Li Yanhong, who was in a frenzied state, would immediately deal with that person.

Li Yanhong may not have had this ability before, but his announcement of cooperation with the other side just now was a warning shot, an open message that someone was withdrawing, and the other side was waiting outside the door.

Unless all board members agree, which is easier said than done, especially since Zhang Yaqin is one of their people.

The atmosphere in the room was unpredictable and turbulent.
"Very good, it seems everyone agrees. I am satisfied with your support and wisdom. Does anyone have any questions?"

Although some people showed signs of struggle and hesitation, they ultimately remained silent.

"Then, meeting adjourned!"

23 minutes!

This shortest board meeting in Baidu's history ended so efficiently.

But everyone who left the meeting room knew full well that Baidu was undergoing its most thorough restructuring since its founding. In the days that followed, everyone from senior executives to frontline employees could feel the impending storm looming overhead.

The "Collection of Explanations of the Seventy-Two Seasonal Phenomena" states: "When the eagle offers sacrifices to birds, heaven and earth begin to be solemn, and the crops ripen."

August 23rd, the Beginning of Autumn.

At Baidu's headquarters, a "surgery" concerning the company's survival is quietly underway.

Li Yanhong stood by the office window, watching the employees hurrying by downstairs.

He knew perfectly well that the company today was like a cancer patient who needed a thorough treatment.

If someone gets cancer, as long as it's not in its late stages, the standard procedure is to surgically remove the lesions, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Normally, there shouldn't be any major problems.

The company's treatment methods are similar.

The surgery is now complete, and the next step is the post-operative treatment process.

However, Li Yanhong does not plan to use large-scale radiotherapy and chemotherapy because this treatment method is an indiscriminate attack. While killing cancer cells, it will also severely damage healthy cells, treating everyone equally and killing everyone indiscriminately.

Even if all the harmful groups are eventually eliminated, the company will not be far from its demise.

Another effective treatment option available to him is "targeted therapy".

This is like a precision missile on the battlefield, capable of hitting the target accurately without harming the "innocent civilians" around it.

How do we screen out the target points?

This necessitates a scientific and rigorous 'genetic testing'. He turned and walked to his desk, where neatly arranged documents marked in red were laid out. These 404 emails and past issues provided the most precise target location for this 'operation'.

On this day, Li Yanhong, who was in charge of personnel and finance, launched the long-prepared "precision-guided missiles" one after another, flying towards the predetermined target points, and then they exploded with a loud bang.

The personnel system's notifications sounded like air raid sirens in every department.

Many employees took out their phones to witness a 'war' unfolding, even though an explosion might be nearby, and some even clapped and cheered.

They had long harbored deep resentment towards their incompetent colleagues and the work style of certain departments.

Baidu's internal network instantly erupted in excitement.

One after another, reports and whistleblower posts seeking to set things right emerged like mushrooms after rain, putting the human resources department in a dilemma: on the one hand, they had to process a large number of resignations, and on the other hand, they had to verify these reports and leads.

In the entire Baidu building, apart from the human resources department, the busiest place is the chairman's office.

In the past two days, many senior executives have been summoned by Li Yanhong. Some went in nervously and left pale-faced; others went in calmly but came out excited.

The last person to be summoned was Hailong, who immediately sought out Li Yanhong to pledge his loyalty after the internal letter was sent.

Unfortunately, this time, no one was spared.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, Hailong had no choice but to refrain from causing trouble, complete the handover properly, and leave dejectedly.
More than ten senior executives, including Senior Vice President & President of the Search Company Xiang Hailong, Executive Vice President Shen Dou, Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Services Business Group Li Mingyuan, Vice President & General Manager of Baidu's Big Market System Wang Zhan, General Manager of Tieba Business Unit Hu Yue, General Manager of Map Business Unit Li Dongmin, and Vice President Li Jing (born in the 90s), almost unanimously claimed that they chose to leave voluntarily due to "personal development reasons".

Zeng Liang, the vice president and general manager of Nuomi, and several other senior executives are facing severe legal punishment for accepting bribes and other economic issues.

The announcement from the internal human resources department caused great turmoil within the company.

Li Yanhong, like a tactical mastermind, swiftly and decisively caused a group of senior business executives to 'voluntarily resign'.

On the other hand, he also offered incentives, vigorously promoting and giving important positions to technical talents such as Chief Scientist Andrew Ng, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Autonomous Driving Business Unit Wang Jin, IDL Vice President Yu Kai, "Young Leader" Gu Jiawei, IDL Chief Architect Huang Chang, and former head of the autonomous vehicle team Ni Kai.

This was followed by a series of adjustments to departments and operations.

First, the healthcare division: shut down, but medical search will be retained and shifted towards AI-powered healthcare;

The Baidu Tieba business unit has been restructured: it has been downgraded to a community product, the commercialized Tieba has been discontinued, and it is returning to its original purpose to start anew.

Map department: Transforming from an O2O portal to "AI + geographic information services".

Game division elimination: The game business was sold off as a package, and the team was disbanded.

Financial sector: orderly shutting down its products, spinning off Du Xiaoman, and retaining only investment business.

The mobile business group was restructured, and the international business unit was partially shut down, with operations in markets such as Japan and Brazil being closed, while AI-related overseas footprints were retained.

The company's future focus will be on: search and information flow (business) + ABC strategy (technology).

What is ABC? It stands for AI (Artificial Intelligence) + Big Data + Cloud (Cloud Computing).

Going forward, the company will focus on developing Baidu Brain, an underlying AI technology platform that encompasses core technologies such as algorithms, computing power, and big data.

Finally, regarding the employees, those affected will receive N+2 if they sign on the same day, otherwise they will receive N+1.

This change came quickly and drastically.

In just a few days, under Li Yanhong's personal management, the framework was rebuilt in the shortest possible time and substantial progress was made.

Baidu paid a heavy price: a quarter of its senior management team left, and its staff size was reduced by one-fifth.

(End of this chapter)