On October 12, 2016, the National Public Entrepreneurial Venture Innovation Week (referred to as “Double Creation Weekâ€) and the 2nd Shenzhen International Makers Week kicked off in Shenzhen Bay Venture Square. As an important part of the Double Innovation Week, the “Chinese and foreign Maker Leaders Symposium †invited dozens of top honored guests in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world, 32 representatives of China’s top events, and 250 entrepreneurial representatives to participate in the symposium.
(From the left: Ma Huateng, Tim Cook, Wang Hao, Ma Yun, and Guo Taiming)
As top guests in the field of dual-creation, Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Apple CEO Tim Cook, DJI Innovation CEO Wang Hao, and Foxconn Gou Ming-Ming also attended this symposium and delivered speeches. At the symposium, Wang Hao shared his experiences and views on innovation and entrepreneurship. Wang Hao said that Shenzhen’s industrial environment has made it possible for the entrepreneurial slogan “Dare to be the best in the worldâ€. At the same time, in the process of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs need to be vigilant to “catch the wind, speculation, and opportunism†because these practices cannot bring real innovation, which is both a misreading of the spirit of innovation and a disruption of the entrepreneurial environment. . The following is a speech recorded by Wang Hao:
Honorable Premier, Leaders, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Hello everyone!
I am very honored to be able to participate in this forum. As an entrepreneur in the field of science and technology, I will talk about some experiences and opinions about innovation and entrepreneurship.
I. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Should "Side the Narrow Door"
There is a saying in the West that “the entrance to the narrow gate†leads to the failure of the gate. It is wide, and there are many people who enter. The gate leading to success is narrow and there are few people to find.
In 2006, when I started a business in a private house in Shenzhen, nobody believed that Chinese companies could produce world-class products. Because many domestic companies are still accustomed to imitators and followers, there are few technological products that can move the world. In 2016, Dajiang occupied more than 80% of the consumer-grade drone industry, making foreign consumers rush towards Chinese products. The U.S. Time magazine said that this is one of the 50 most influential technological products ever.
Looking back at the ten years of DJI’s ventures, I feel that the things we do are very simple, that is, we must work hard and make great efforts to create outstanding products and create social values ​​in a down-to-earth manner. This practice is relatively hard, and it must be tolerant to loneliness. Many people feel that they are "narrow doors" and are unwilling to leave. From our experience, this approach is correct.
On the contrary, many entrepreneurs like to catch the brilliance, speculation, and opportunism. Although these approaches are wide and their roads are large, they cannot bring real innovation. They are both misunderstandings of the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurial environments. The destruction.
In my opinion, "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" is to encourage everyone to display their own "going in a narrow door" and not to rush out of the woods. The technologies that have not yet been broken, the designs that have not yet emerged, and the markets that still need to be nurtured are the shortcuts for entrepreneurship.
Second, dare to be the first
Shenzhen has a city concept called "Dare to be the first in the world." After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, our generation has really gotten in a position to clamour.
In the 12 years when we first introduced consumer-grade drones to the market, many people did not believe that DJI was a Chinese company. On the aircraft, the U.S. has accumulated global technology; on the camera, Japan’s technology has been far ahead. Logically, the "flying camera" was either produced by a U.S. company or was produced by a Japanese company. Why let a Chinese company take the lead?
The answer is Shenzhen's industrial environment. Here we have the best intelligent hardware industry chain in the world today, and we have the courage to catch up with the western counterparts and grow up rapidly through ten years of struggle.
Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, our country has established a sound industrial chain, integrated into the global consumer market, and cultivated a large number of scientific and technological talents. Especially in recent years, these advantages have gradually accumulated and have undergone qualitative changes in some areas. A large number of outstanding companies have taken the lead in international competition and even become leaders.
I believe that in the upsurge of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," Chinese science and technology companies have the ability to lead the industry as long as they make full use of the advantages of the domestic environment and dare to target cutting-edge technologies to take the lead in making breakthroughs and build superior products, not just cheap goods. development of.
Third, cultivate innovative talents
On the surface of economic globalization, commodities, capital, information, etc., are widely flowing around the world. However, the power that dominates such flows is essentially talent and technological innovation. Whether we can fully develop in the field of technological innovation depends on the level of talent concentration in the society.
It is now difficult to judge whether the talent is first-rate or not through the exam results. Technological innovation requires excellent innovative talents with insights. They should be able to see the essence of things and find breakthroughs in creative work. And our education, our culture, is not enough to cover this wisdom. We need to enrich it in constant practice.
At present, the country advocates such concepts as “mass entrepreneurship, innovation†and “Made in China 2025â€, which can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the public. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is a booster of social progress. Through this melting pot, outstanding thoughts and enterprises can stand out in the survival of the fittest. By solving one challenge and another difficult problem, the wisdom of the times can be precipitated in the rough sea.
In fact, it is easy for us to ignore this wisdom gained through practice. If our education is far from social practice, judging only by the amount of knowledge, it is difficult to cultivate high-quality innovative and entrepreneurial talents. This is also why, even those who have achieved excellent results in first-class universities, have to go through the process of reshuffling as they move toward the society, leading to new and innovative activities that need to continue to repeat low-level, false-spurious and genuine processes, resulting in great waste.
In my opinion, only by exploring in practice can we master the most dynamic innovative ideas, effective thinking methods, keen insights, and methodologies that reflect on the essence. If this wisdom can be efficiently and quickly fed back into education, the formation of a closed loop between practice and education will greatly accelerate the pace of social progress. By allowing the public to learn more wisdom of contemporary significance through education, our innovation drive will become very strong.
Judging from Dajiang’s practical experience in the field of engineering technology, we found that the correlation between talents' ability to work and test scores is relatively small, and the merits of talents should be judged by interest and project experience. In the current science and engineering education, not only has the students not been given enough training, but it has also continued to rely mainly on the examination results to select and assess students. Dajiang has always hoped to make up for the shortcomings of some engineering and technical education through its own efforts. In the past two years, with the support of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, we have created a college robot contest called RoboMasters. Through the establishment of a college student intercollegiate athletic competition league, we will create a wonderfully exciting and highly appreciated robot competition and build a stage where inventors and engineers can become stars, attracting a large number of young people to join.
This year, 228 teams and more than 7,000 university students signed up for the competition and attracted millions of viewers. With the development and promotion of the competition, some overseas universities are actively registering and want to compete with Chinese college students on the same stage. Next year's game will be further promoted to internationalization and have global influence.
Through the platform of the competition, we encourage university students to participate in the robot practice, let them gain practical experience and quickly feedback to the study, and accelerate the speed of personnel training. According to our statistics, the entrepreneurial rate of students who participated in RoboMasters is much higher than the average of college students, and there are many cases in which entrepreneurial success has been achieved.
If this attempt can be fully promoted in colleges and universities, a group of outstanding talents that will be cultivated can be a good complement to the deficiencies of the existing education system. I also hope that more companies can directly participate in the cultivation of such innovative talents, truly promote innovation in education, and greatly increase the concentration of technological talents and management talents in China. For the "mass entrepreneurship, innovation" added.
thank you all!