Sixth Anniversary Message from AIMS

Dear colleagues:

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the company's development over the past six years.

The greatest achievement in these six years is not the breakthroughs in individual products or projects, nor the fact that we have become one of the fastest-growing enterprises in the local and domestic markets. Instead, it is the gathering of a group of people who truly care about doing things, and together we have built a ship that can sail through the waves in the future.

Like the river flowing away! Six years have passed in an instant. We are proud of our achievements, but at the same time, we are also anxious about how we can achieve greater breakthroughs. However, I also remind myself that we need the spirit of unwavering struggle, but we cannot be eager for success. "When dealing with major matters, one must have composure." Only when pursuing short-term goals can one be eager for success. When your goals are long-term, your heart can settle down. Perhaps, when our company's development truly achieves some success in 10, 15, or even 20 years, looking back, we will realize that entrepreneurship is a tough and long process.

Entrepreneurship can make us more successful, but it is not the shortcut to success. Entrepreneurship gives us greater freedom of action, but it does not change the original logic of things. Everything requires accumulation. The more you want to build a tall building, the more you need to calm down and pour the foundation. The shortcut is often the farthest detour.
We did achieve some results in these six years, but if we think this is success or close to success, and even have the idea of "dividing the fruits", it is very naive and very dangerous. The company is already considering implementing long-term incentive measures such as equity incentives for some key employees who have made outstanding historical contributions, but it must not be like the "division of fruits" approach. At present, any management methods should revolve around building the greater momentum for the company's next stage, and the incentive policies should be oriented towards encouraging everyone to make greater value contributions, encouraging everyone to move higher, rather than allowing some people to lie on their achievements and some to start to slack off. Because what we pursue is not the success of a few individuals, but the collective success of the entire group. Only in this way can more people succeed, and we can also do more valuable things, benefiting more people because of what we have done.

How can we achieve collective success? I summed up a formula: enterprise success = strategy & times; Mr. Ren Zhengfei said, "Even if we form a thousand troops, we can only barely reach the rear of the times." The strength of an individual is too limited. We must integrate into the organization and use the organization as a lever to amplify our own value.

To build a powerful organization, the first thing needed is a unified goal and will, with efforts directed towards one point. Personal strength has strengths and weaknesses, and contributions are of different sizes, but they can all become valuable parts of the organization. The key lies in whether one is sincere and whether one's personal strength is gathered towards a common direction. We say sincerity means truly identifying with the company's vision and mission, truly identifying with the company's value concepts, and putting them into practical actions. They are the forces we can truly rely on in the development process. At the same time, we need to unite all those who can form synergy with us, and fight resolutely against behaviors that harm or tear apart the organization.

It is not that we do not allow different ideas to exist. On the contrary, a healthy organization must have diverse perspectives to gather the wisdom of everyone and avoid going down the wrong path. This requires the space to accommodate different opinions and the establishment of a diverse and inclusive culture. Of course, there is a prerequisite here, that everyone's starting point is the same and the direction is the same. No matter what opinions or expressions, they are all for realizing our common vision and serving the company's mission.

The company's mission is known to all: to lead industry development and promote industrial progress. Put more abstractly, it is about creating value. However, it is also very specific. It is about doing practical things that are valuable to society and customers. This is the fundamental basis for the company's survival and development. When starting a business, one should seize opportunities, but one must not be opportunistic. Due to seeing the opportunities of intelligent technology in industrial applications, the company established AIMS. Because it is not opportunistic, it can persist. Nothing that can be sustained is easy to achieve. It is always easy to spot an opportunity, but it is not easy to realize it. Winning in market competition is even more difficult. To seize the opportunity, we can only focus on one opportunity and keep working hard. We need concepts to help us find directions, but we should adhere to a value-oriented approach rather than a concept-oriented one. Facts have proved that whether it is artificial intelligence or industrial Internet, the hottest concepts are the greatest opportunities, but they are often also the biggest pitfalls. Because when the concepts are proposed, it is either too late or too early. Concepts that are too late are opportunities for others, while those that are too early are illusory opportunities. Chasing concepts will eventually be overwhelmed by the huge waves of concepts. Only the enterprises that have truly created value can survive in the waves of the times.

Discovering the unmet needs in the market, organizing various resources effectively to meet the needs of customers and deliver value is the basic function of any enterprise. As long as it is what the market needs and customers are willing to pay for, it is valuable; conversely, anything that has no customers willing to pay for seems beautiful but is not valuable. From this perspective, there is no distinction of value between various industries. Companies like Meituan have value because it is not because it is high-tech, but because it effectively organizes social resources. In fact, the e-commerce industry wrapped in high-tech also has this essence. Therefore, we must accept the test of the market and take whether the market accepts as the sole criterion for the value of our products or services.

But we should not be satisfied with this. As a technology innovation-oriented company, we also need to create incremental value through technological innovation to gain differentiated competitive advantages and pursue a greater meaning of leading industry development. Innovation is the fundamental means to achieve the above goals. Within the scope of what we can do, continuously investing in technological research and development and achieving a leading position in core technologies is the fundamental way to gain competitive advantages. We have achieved new breakthroughs in online process optimization by introducing artificial intelligence technology, opening up a new territory in energy conservation and consumption reduction for the company, and the next-generation logistics system we are developing are all manifestations of this value concept.

Of course, we are an enterprise and cannot live in the world of ideals. Pure idealism is also unworkable. The world is complex. To achieve valuable goals, we need necessary methods and means, which means we need to tolerate a certain degree of grayness, balance and moderation. But we must remember that when you rely too much on skills and means, skills and means will in turn devour you. Because of the complexity of the real world, we need to uphold inner sincerity. We believe in positive value, believe in the conscience in human nature, and believe that the power from the heart can be relied upon. When the complex and diverse real world leaves us at a loss, I still believe that we can make judgments by examining our own hearts.

Finally, I would like to say one more thing: We cherish this company so much because we do not regard the company as a tool for shareholders to achieve economic benefits. Shareholders, as important resource providers of the company, are one of the most important stakeholders. We must respect and consider them, but customers, employees, and partners are also the stakeholders of the company, and their demands also need to be given due attention. More importantly, the development of an enterprise ultimately serves the people because it loses its value without them. This is why we emphasize employee development. Viewing employees merely as tools and resources may lead to development in certain circumstances, but this deviates from our original intention and is not sustainable. For sustainable development and to go further, employee development and enterprise development must be unified, and they should be so. We need to establish a long-term mechanism to achieve this unity.
Colleagues, as everyone can sense and see, we have entered a new stage of development. Market competition is becoming more intense, and we need to continue to deepen our focus on scenarios and industries, improve our products, and further increase the research and breakthrough of core technologies to provide differentiated value-added services for customers.

At the same time, we need to strengthen organizational construction and build a powerful organization. We should focus on talent recruitment and training, cultural construction, and mechanism building, creating an organizational atmosphere that is both united and efficient, open and diverse, and full of innovative vitality, so that AIMS becomes a melting pot that attracts people, unites people, perfects people, and develops people.

Dear colleagues, I always believe that only by building a great organization can we talk about pursuing a great cause. I also believe that the cause of AIMS has just begun. Thank you all for your companionship throughout the journey. I look forward to becoming closer partners on the new journey. Thank you all! 

Chairman and General Manager, Zhong Zhimin