Breaking through the siege of hundreds of billions under the covetous eyes, how deep is the talent pool of DJI?

Among all Chinese technology companies, DJI is a unique presence. It keeps a low profile but defines industry standards in multiple fields.

In recent years, a phenomenon has been repeatedly mentioned: Former DJI employees frequently appear on the lists of startup companies, at investors' dinners, and on headhunters' top recommendation lists.

There is even a saying in the headhunting circle: "People who leave DJI are hard currency." Over time, this saying has been subtly distorted in market communication into another misinterpretation - DJI can't retain its people.

However, if we carefully examine the gap between this judgment and the facts, we can discover a truth that we haven't known before.

First, look at the business level: In 2025, market rumors said that DJI's revenue was approaching 80 billion yuan. In an internal letter that leaked, the founder, Frank Wang, clearly mentioned that the company expects to stably exceed 100 billion yuan in revenue in 2026.

Meanwhile, DJI is no longer just "the drone company": In the action camera field, its global market share has long been stable at over 60%; in the panoramic camera market, it has captured nearly half of the market with a single product, the Osmo 360.

The product rhythm is still accelerating, and new tracks are being explored. All this silently responds to the narrative of "brain drain": If DJI's core innovation ability is continuously strengthening and its organizational resilience is still being continuously consolidated, then the essence of the problem may not be the issue of "retaining people" at all.

What's more worth asking is, under the goal of hitting a 100-billion-yuan business territory, how exactly does DJI build a more resilient growth mode with a more diverse talent structure?

This is not only the key to understanding DJI's current state but may also become a typical sample for observing Chinese technology companies entering the high-quality development stage.

Behind the Misinterpreted "Brain Drain"

Normally, when "brain drain" is repeatedly discussed in many companies, it often means another signal: the attractiveness is declining, excellent people are starting to leave, and the organization's upward expectation is starting to slow down. But DJI doesn't show the typical characteristics of such companies.

The core reason why the outside world has the impression that "DJI has a serious brain drain" is not that it really can't retain people, but that the people who leave DJI are too easy to be "seen." DJI's former employees often enter the market with a strong technical aura: They start businesses, develop products, and meet investors, and are naturally more likely to become market gossip. So, what the public sees is "people going out," and what they don't see is "people flowing in"; what they see are the lively stories of leaving, and what they don't see is the continuous "living water" of talent.

This is a typical cognitive bias: The market is more likely to remember the dramatic flow and ignore the stable overall situation.

In fact, if a technology organization has really been "emptied," the most intuitive standard is the change in its capabilities. The product line will shrink, the iteration rhythm will slow down, and cross-track expansion will become difficult. But DJI's performance in recent years is just the opposite: It hasn't stayed at the single point of drones but has continued to develop and innovate in directions such as handheld imaging, spatial intelligence, and low-altitude economy.

More accurately, what DJI is currently experiencing is not a passive "brain drain" but an active "upgrade of a more diverse and open talent structure."

As the company moves from the billion-yuan level to the ten-billion-yuan level, the business complexity has increased exponentially. The early model of relying on "genius individuals" to conquer the world is difficult to support the stable operation of a large system. The organization needs more composite talents with systematic thinking, cross-departmental collaboration ability, and in-depth management skills.

In this process, some employees with the early style may choose to leave or switch because their skill sets no longer fully match the company's needs in the new stage. This kind of flow is essentially a structural metabolism for the organization to adapt to higher-level competition.

The outside world only sees "some people leaving" but ignores that DJI is massively recruiting more experienced senior experts and organizational managers. What really determines the company's state has never been the outflow but the net optimization degree of the talent structure. DJI's growth curve in recent years proves that this replacement has not weakened the organization but has made its foundation deeper.

The Inevitable Path from "Herbaceous" to "Woody"

To understand DJI's current talent strategy, an important clue is the internal letter from DJI's founder, Frank Wang, that has been circulating in the technology circle recently.

In the New Year message to internal employees at the end of the year, Frank Wang used a very vivid metaphor: Early DJI was more like a "herbaceous plant" - it grew fast and had strong vitality, but its organizational structure was thin; as the company has developed to the present, it must evolve from a herbaceous plant to a "woody plant," which not only has lush leaves but also has strong enough trunks and branches.

This metaphor accurately presents the underlying logic of DJI's talent iteration.

In the early days of entrepreneurship, the core proposition of a technology company is "from 0 to 1." The organization often needs "genius" engineers, those who can charge forward, do things, and develop products. At that time, the organization pursued innovation, and those who could produce results and solve problems were the most important. At this stage, the company's values naturally tend to respect the "leaves," that is, those innovators at the forefront who are responsible for photosynthesis. This is an era driven by "chlorophyll" (talent and passion).

However, when the company enters the deep water area, the dimension of challenges has changed fundamentally.

The company no longer only needs a group of people driven by interest and passion but also needs "trunk-type" talents who can help the company build systems, lead teams, and do collaboration. The focus of the company's development is shifting from simply pursuing the concentration of "chlorophyll" to building the density of "cellulose" - that is, those silent but crucial backbone forces that can support the stable operation of the system.

This is also why headhunters can sense that the "popularity of DJI" is rising. It's not because it's simply expanding recruitment, but because it's carrying out a deeper restructuring of the talent structure. In the past, the industry's impression of DJI was more of "high density of geeks"; now, what DJI is supplementing is the talent that can support the sustainable operation of a system.

This process and challenges have been encountered by many global technology companies, but DJI is using a more philosophical reflection to find its own solution.

For a company to grow from a billion to ten billion, the most difficult thing is often not to find a few more smart people, but to upgrade an organization with "many smart people" to an organization where "a complex system can operate stably." The former relies on the density of talent, and the latter relies on the density of structure. The former can win beautiful battles, and the latter can fight long-lasting battles.

So, the most notable change in DJI at present is not whether people are leaving but that it is actively upgrading a group of "talented doers" into an "organization that can grow continuously."

This is also why the outside world has an illusion: On the surface, there are continuous news of departures; in fact, the organization is being quietly strengthened. What you see is the flow on the water surface, and what you don't see is the structural reshaping under the water surface.

Respect the Law of "Flow" and the "Long-Termism" of Talent

What is a more advanced ability than "retaining everyone"?

It's not control, not binding, but forming a stable talent gravitational field: People can leave, but they still maintain respect and recognition for this company, and even continue to benefit from the "wealth" from this company after leaving.

This is exactly the point that is most easily overlooked in the various interpretations of DJI by the outside world.

In some fragments of DJI's internal speeches that can be glimpsed, the "pursuit of truth" written into the company's values is also reflected in the respect for objective laws - "Talent is the common wealth of the enterprise and society, and the flow of talent itself is a natural process of industry progress and value release." DJI is willing to obtain talent from society and is also willing to cultivate more people with innovative spirit and practical ability for society.

This sentence sounds very simple, but in fact, it's very difficult. Because the first reaction of most companies to talent is to possess; while a truly mature organization understands and respects the flow and completes rapid growth and iteration to the next stage in the flow.

This respect is also reflected in some emotional details.

For example, the "departure gift box" incident that went viral before the Spring Festival. The recipients of the gift boxes were not current employees but a group of former employees who had left years ago. The contents of the gift boxes were basically the same as those for current employees, including Spring Festival couplets, red envelopes, badges, tea sets, and pens, all in a complete set. Some people sighed in the comment section that they only realized how good DJI was after leaving; even though they complained a lot when they were there, who wouldn't be proud of having worked here after leaving.

The reason why this incident went viral on the Internet at a time when talent conflicts are prominent is that it sends a signal: This company doesn't regard employees as disposable resources. Leaving doesn't mean being deleted; remembering is the confident tolerance of an enterprise.

In today's increasingly fierce talent competition, this way of handling relationships will instead form a new attraction. Because top talents usually care not only about salary and position but also about respect, growth, and organizational temperament. A company that only emphasizes loyalty and doesn't understand the flow is difficult to truly win the best people; on the contrary, an organization that is open to the flow and maintains respect and warmth for former employees is more likely to form a "siphon" effect on talent.

From a broader industrial perspective, DJI is undergoing an identity change: It is no longer just a company that manufactures popular products, nor is it just a place that outputs hard-tech entrepreneurs. It is more like a self-iterating and upgraded system. People will leave this system, and people will also enter; it will overflow outward and also absorb inward. If the outside world only focuses on "how many people have left," it will misjudge its real state.

In fact, the best standard to judge whether a technology company has become weaker has never been "whether there are departures" but three things: whether it can still attract top talents, whether it can still develop new things, and whether it can continue to grow in a more complex stage. At least for now, DJI is still on an upward trajectory in these three aspects.

So, what is really worth remembering about DJI may not be "who has left" but that DJI today is a "living reservoir" of talent, constantly moving and full of vitality. In the process of people coming and going, what remains is always the "essence" with the highest density.