Li Xiang's Review on CCTV: Admits Having a Bad Temper, Often Dines with Lei Jun, and Offers Suggestions Even in Case of Conflicting Views
In 2006, Li Xiang participated in the CCTV program "Dialogue" as the founder of Paopao.com. Nineteen years later, Li Xiang took the stage of this program again.
Over the past 19 years, Li Xiang's hair has become shorter, and he is more at ease when talking with the host.
After more than two decades of entrepreneurship, this post - 80s serial entrepreneur has evolved from an industry rising star to the head of an enterprise with a market value of tens of billions. During the conversation, he was so relaxed that he even responded to his own popular memes and shared many little secrets about dinners among business tycoons.
For example, regarding the much - talked - about issue of "having a bad temper", even today, one can still see the short video of him saying "Let me finish speaking".
Li Xiang also said that he often has meals with Lei Jun, Li Bin, and He Xiaopeng. "Even if our views conflict, we will be honest and open with each other."
Of course, besides that, they mainly talked about how Li Auto has developed step by step to where it is today.
01 Why does he lose his temper?
Right at the beginning, Li Xiang brought up the meme about his bad temper.
At the very start of the dialogue, the program team prepared three portraits composed of various keywords for the three entrepreneurs on stage and asked them to claim their own portraits. As a result, Li Xiang immediately spotted his own portrait.
The reason was that there was a prominent keyword "bad - tempered" in this portrait.
Subsequently, Li Xiang candidly talked about the embarrassing incident of losing his temper when he participated in the entrepreneurial program "Win in China" many years ago. This incident dates back to the period when Li Xiang served as the president of Autohome. At that time, he participated in a business star public - welfare reality show, which was divided into two teams, and Lei Jun also participated.
In the program, the two teams competed in a campus recruitment fair at a university to see who could recruit more people. Li Xiang's team only prepared 100 contracts, while the other team prepared thousands. What really triggered the conflict was that most of the enterprises on - site didn't prepare contracts, and his teammate even asked him to print resumes.
Then came the well - known scene where Li Xiang lost his temper - "The contracts aren't printed yet, and now you want me to print resumes. What on earth are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" After being interrupted, Li Xiang even stuck out his neck and shouted angrily, "Let me finish speaking!" The atmosphere on - site was extremely tense.
This was Li Xiang's direct response to that incident. He admitted that he was really impatient at that time, but it was mainly because some contestants were being dishonest. However, the program team cut out the entire context, which made it easy for netizens to take things out of context.
Li Xiang said that there are mainly three reasons for his losing temper:
Expressing without any logic;
Setting the bar too low and being content with the status quo;
Acting against the company's values.
He also said that although he has a bad temper, there are still quite a few people in the team who dare to argue with him. In fact, arguing during product meetings is even the norm.
To an outsider, their meetings might seem strange. But in Li Xiang's view, such intense collisions and mutual inspiration can bring out all the ideas in people's minds. Only in this way can the team and the decision - making mechanism form a more perfect "brain". Through arguing, the real needs and values of users can surface.
This has formed a unique conflict culture within Li Auto. This way of communicating by facing conflicts head - on has made decision - making more flat.
02 Selecting talents with the "gold standard"
As the founder of three listed companies, Li Xiang also revealed his counter - intuitive time - management technique, saying that he follows the 631 principle in his daily time allocation and bluntly stated that six hours of sleep a day is enough for him.
The so - called 631 time rule means spending 60% of the time on organizational construction, such as employee training and cultural communication, which are the "soft infrastructure". 30% is allocated to product reviews. Li Xiang believes that micromanaging would only cause more trouble. And 10% is dedicated to learning new knowledge related to AI. For example, in the weekly AI learning meetings, relevant research work is shared with everyone.
He believes that entrepreneurship is not about struggling under pressure but about gradually learning how to focus on the key points. The key is to figure out "what not to do".
Li Xiang even practices "selective disconnection" through time management. He joked, "Now I can often go a whole day without my phone ringing. Pretty relaxed, right?"
He is truly a master of time management.
As for how to build a team, Li Xiang has his own "gold standard".
First, he looks at technical strength or professional ability. Second, he assesses communication skills because the person must be able to collaborate and not work alone. Third, he examines values. "I interview people based entirely on these three criteria. If a candidate fails in any one of them, we won't choose this person."
Another important aspect is to turn the different cognitions within the team into a common understanding. Li Xiang said that the differences in people's cognitions are mainly due to different perspectives. Some people view things from the perspective of desire, while others from the perspective of fear. When competitors do something, do we have to follow suit? Also, as the company grows in scale, the parochial perspective may emerge, where people only focus on their own areas.
Ultimately, all these perspectives need to be integrated into one, that is, the user perspective. Analyze what the users' problems and needs are. Of course, the process of transforming cognition into a common understanding will be filled with numerous frictions.
03 Advising Lei Jun sincerely
During the program, Li Xiang unexpectedly revealed the private gatherings of top tycoons in the new energy vehicle circle.
He said that he often has meals with Lei Jun, Li Bin, and He Xiaopeng. When the host reminded him that "knowing too much about competitors is not good for oneself", Li Xiang summed up their way of getting along in four words - being honest with each other.
"We say what we think, and the level of mutual honesty is not for public disclosure." Li Xiang said straightforwardly. This also includes giving each other very good advice, even if it might not sound pleasant to the recipient.
Before Li Xiang revealed these dinners, many people might not have imagined that these leading new - energy vehicle startups, who are also competitors, could get along so harmoniously.
Actually, even before the launch of Xiaomi's SU7, Lei Jun not only promoted his own SUV but also supported Li Auto and XPeng. This shows that the relationship among the three is quite harmonious. Of course, it can't be ruled out that Lei Jun is also an investor in the other two companies.
The program also affirmed the success of Xiaomi's cars, and it has been a continuous success. It also proves that Lei Jun really has a lot for Li Xiang to learn from in terms of hardware capabilities. Before Xiaomi entered the automotive industry, Lei Jun asked Li Xiang for advice on car - making. Li Xiang only gave one piece of advice: "If Xiaomi wants its cars to succeed, you must go all in."
Facts have proved that Lei Jun has indeed done so. He has entrusted the mobile phone business to Lu Weibing and personally takes charge of the automotive business, handling every detail.
Li Xiang also revealed that his entrepreneurial idol is Steve Jobs. He answered without hesitation and said that he wouldn't ask Jobs any questions. Instead, he just wants to be an on - looker to see how Jobs, Jonathan, Tim Cook, and his team work, how they hold meetings, and how they communicate. "This is the scenario I most want to see."
04 The methodology behind Li Auto's success
The topic inevitably turned to the reason why Li Auto has been so successful. Li Xiang's answer was: Putting users first.
When Li Auto was founded, all the new car - making startups in the market were focusing on pure - electric vehicles. But at that time, Li Auto chose to develop extended - range electric vehicles to create a truly new scenario. The biggest challenge they faced was that Li Auto was the most difficult new car - making startup to raise funds.
"All the investors told me, 'Li Xiang, you have a very successful entrepreneurial track record. As long as you make pure - electric vehicles, I'll invest in you.' At that time, I made a choice. We still put solving users' range anxiety first. We build cars for family users, not for investors. Although it was very difficult to raise funds, we still chose to develop extended - range electric vehicles."
Now, the result is obvious. This approach of identifying and precisely meeting users' needs has enabled Li Auto to succeed in the car - making business. Li Xiang even said in a somewhat boastful way, "Now many investors are buying our stocks because of the extended - range technology."
Of course, a similar situation occurred later. "When we decided to develop 5C pure - electric vehicles and build charging stations, some investors said that if we made pure - electric vehicles, they would sell all their shares in our company."
But Li Xiang still insisted on doing it. In his view, the charging problem has not been solved yet, and there are still pain points for users. As the saying goes, "A craftsman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well."
"People still hope that an electric vehicle can provide the same experience as a fuel - powered vehicle. Although everyone is promoting electric vehicles, we are the first in the world to mass - produce 5C electric vehicles. They can charge 500 kilometers in just 10 minutes. The upcoming Li i8 and Li i6 can also charge 500 kilometers in 10 minutes, and their charging experience has reached the level of fuel - powered vehicles."
05 Aiming to become a robotics enterprise
Li Auto is Li Xiang's third entrepreneurial venture. But during the program, Li Xiang revealed that Li Auto will be his last entrepreneurial project.
Because in his view, the current AI wave has arrived, and Li Auto is capable of having a long - term development cycle.
Li Xiang has also defined the ultimate form of Li Auto: "Ultimately, we will not be a standard automotive enterprise but a space robotics enterprise. My greatest expectation for myself is to launch an absolutely innovative and extremely impressive AI product in the field of AI hardware terminals, just like the iPhone in 2007."
Ten years ago, Li Xiang hoped to combine his Internet experience with his automotive experience to fundamentally change the automotive industry. But in the early days, the technological path of AI was not clear, so he could only focus on the intelligentization of cars.
As the path of AI becomes clearer, Li Xiang has defined the ultimate goal as "creating silicon - based family members".
Li Xiang believes that in the era of AI, it's all about how to create silicon - based beings and digital beings. For example, when one is sitting in an L4 - level autonomous vehicle, it's about how to create a digital driver.
"When we are straddling the industrial era, the digital era, and the AI era, we need to use digital technology to empower the industry and effectively utilize digital technology with the silicon - based employees created by AI, rather than letting AI replace digital technology."
Li Xiang said that this is a completely different era, which requires new cognition and understanding. New technologies and AI should be used to solve the most difficult problems in the physical world.
In the foreseeable future, when will Li Xiang's vision for Li Auto be realized?
This article is from the WeChat official account "SuperEV - Lab" (ID: SuperEV - Lab). Author: Wang Lei, Editor: Qin Zhangyong. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.