Dialogue Vision Technology Zhang lei： Zero Carbon Era, Solving Global Challenges

Text/Forbes China

Vision is the only technology enterprise in the world that can provide zero-carbon industrial chain solutions such as renewable energy, batteries and intelligent Internet of Things.

In the era of zero carbon, Vision is using global wisdom to solve global challenges.

Ordos, located in the middle of the Yellow River bend in Inner Mongolia, is rich in energy, chemicals and other resources, and is known as the "treasure house beyond the Great Wall".

Since April this year, groups of policy makers, experts and entrepreneurs have gathered in Ejinhoro Banner, Ordos. Their common purpose is to go to the world’s first zero-carbon industrial park to find out.

"By 2025, Yuanjing Erdos Zero-carbon Industrial Park will help the local area to build three hundred billion industrial clusters of new energy batteries, new energy vehicles and new energy equipment, create 100,000 green high-tech jobs, and realize the annual emission reduction target of 100 million tons of carbon dioxide", Zhang lei, CEO of Yuanjing Technology Group, said about the planning of the industrial park.

From March 2021 to April 2022, in just one year, this enterprise made an unprecedented zero-carbon industrial park land in the "coal capital", and with the support of the local government, it attracted leading enterprises from SAIC Hongyan, faw liberation, Huayou and other industries to settle in one after another. The outline of a whole industrial chain system with zero carbon as the core, covering new power systems, zero carbon digital operating systems and green new industrial clusters is gradually becoming clear.

This is not the first time that Vision has created the "first" in the industry. Looking at the development of this enterprise in the past 15 years, we can find that identifying key challenges, putting forward brand-new product concepts, and selecting the best talents around the world to innovate and realize them have become an important strategy for the rapid growth of the vision in the global market.

Focus on "solving challenges"

In 2022, Vision was selected as the Top10 Best Employers in China by Forbes. The list takes "sustainable development" and "digital responsibility" as the core insights, and selects the top 10 companies from nearly 300 registered companies from the dual perspectives of employers, enterprises and employees. But for the "best employer", Zhang lei, the founder of Vision, also has his own definition: only by solving the major challenges of this era, opening up new opportunities for this era and opening a new chapter for the sustainable development of mankind can such enterprises and platforms be called the best employers.

Since its establishment, Zhang lei has positioned the enterprise as a new generation of global enterprise, with global layout and attracting top talents. Looking back on the choice at the beginning of starting a business, Zhang lei said bluntly that it was based on his own cognition and thinking about the world.

Entrepreneurs often like to express their ideas such as fighting spirit, creativity and pioneering, but he believes that it is an entrepreneur’s basic accomplishment to explore the essence and truth of things and solve the major challenges of social development. And "solving challenges for the sustainable future of mankind" is the result of Zhang lei’s bottom thinking, and it has also become an unshakable development mission.

Faced with such a grand vision, Zhang lei focused the challenges faced by new energy development on the challenges of "energy cost", "storage cost" and "collaborative cost", and proposed three years ago to build "new coal, new oil and new power grid" to solve the above challenges, and at the same time, from 2021, it will expand into the fields of "new infrastructure" and "new industry".

In 2007, the vision entered the field of wind power. Different from the common practice of "copying drawings" by hundreds of wind turbine manufacturers in the market at that time, Vision became the first enterprise to set up a wind power R&D center overseas, recruited talents on a global scale, established the first-class product development capability in the industry, and launched the first low-speed wind turbine in the whole industry in 2009, which enabled 60% of China to achieve a breakthrough in wind power development from 0 to 1, and thus became a dark horse in the industry, competing with established enterprises such as GE and Vestas in the global market. According to the latest Global Wind Power Supply Side Report issued by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the market share of prospective energy turbines in 2021 will be 8.6%, ranking fourth in the world and the first in the new order industry. The style of playing, which pursues originality, attaches importance to technology, and gathers global wisdom to tackle difficult problems in the industry, has gradually precipitated into a gene with unique vision.

"Challenges create opportunities, so where there are challenges, there is a vision. The vision should challenge the status quo, challenge the routine and challenge the inertia. "

The "solving challenges" in the long-term mission determines that its business layout is constantly integrating new technologies such as intelligent Internet of Things, power batteries and carbon management, forming new solutions and entering new business fields. As the key to the stability and parity of new energy system, energy storage has become the next challenge of long-term focus.

In 2012, Vision gathered many engineers at home and abroad to set up laboratories and began to study energy storage technology. In 2018, Vision acquired AESC, a power battery company under Nissan Group, and established Vision Power, which combined Japanese craftsmanship with China’s innovation and speed, and officially entered the battery field. In the past three years, Vision Power has won many head customers including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Honda, Renault and Jaguar Land Rover. At the same time, it has rapidly expanded the energy storage market, deployed more than 100 smart energy storage projects in China, Thailand, Singapore and other places, and has become the only technology enterprise in the world that can provide technical solutions for the whole industry chain of green energy such as smart wind, light and storage.

In 2017, Vision Intelligence was established and headquartered in Singapore. "Vision Intelligence has created the AIoT intelligent IOT operating system EnOS to solve the challenge of energy collaboration. At present, the global assets accessed have exceeded 400GW. This product is also a model for our teams in Singapore, Europe and China to fully cooperate in development and continuous optimization. " Zhang lei said.

At present, more than 60% of Vision Intelligence’s business comes from the international market, including world-renowned enterprises such as BP, Shell of the Netherlands, Total of France, Microsoft, Intel, Nike, HSBC, EDF of France and PTT of Thailand.

In October 2018, Vision Intelligence won the bid to become a partner of Singapore Government Science and Technology Bureau, providing AIoT platform technology for its "smart country" plan, which is undoubtedly one of the achievements of Vision’s global operation.

In Zhang lei’s view, the hot carbon-neutral transformation is not only an energy revolution, but also a major change in the industrial system. "The brand-new green industrial system, in essence, is to protect the environment and make people develop synergistically with everything".

Therefore, after the layout of the new energy system and the promotion of the new energy revolution, the vision now focuses on the layout of a new zero-carbon industrial system and the establishment of the world’s first zero-carbon industrial park in Erdos, hoping to make this paradigm a new infrastructure of the global green new industrial system.

"Zero-carbon industrial park will be the key to realize the combination of renewable energy production and industrial energy consumption, and will become the infrastructure element of green industrial revolution." Zhang lei said that in the next decade, Vision plans to build 100 zero-carbon industrial parks around the world, which will reduce the carbon of the earth by 1 billion tons every year.

Today, Zhang lei’s vision for the future is an integrator of green energy system, an enabler of green new industrial system and a platform-based enterprise of green new industrial system. "Our journey is a sea of stars, and now it has just started."

Gather global "challengers"

Solve global challenges

"Ordos Industrial Park can be built quickly and become a benchmark within one year, and the key behind it is people." Zhou Hongwen, the founding team member of Vision and the executive director of Vision Energy, introduced that the zero-carbon industrial park project integrates business experts who have been deeply involved in the new energy industry for many years, Dr. Haigui from the background of international head consulting company, power battery engineers from Japan and Europe, and architectural design teams from Germany.

Yuanjing Ordos lingtan industrial park

Perhaps it is an important strategy for Vision to grow rapidly in domestic and foreign markets in recent years to form differentiated product R&D and design capabilities with international top talents and win market competition with manufacturing and supply chain capabilities created by talents.

Up to now, the company has set up R&D centers and manufacturing bases in more than 20 countries around the world, with more than 6,000 employees, accounting for 50% of international employees. In the office of Vision Intelligence Headquarters in Singapore, you can see talents from 26 countries with different ethnic and cultural beliefs working together.

Zhang lei said that in terms of staff structure, Vision is an international enterprise in essence. At the same time, from the perspective of business composition, the landscape, hydrogen energy, energy storage, power battery and other businesses in the long-term layout are closely related to solving the global climate challenge faced by mankind, and it is bound to require the cooperation of global professionals to gather the top international R&D, design and manufacturing capabilities.

"Challenger spirit" is the core of long-term corporate culture, which matches its corporate philosophy of "solving challenges".

The so-called "challenger spirit" refers to comparing every employee to a "challenger" around the company’s concept and vision, encouraging employees to fight for it, growing rapidly in constant challenges, and forming a unique "challenger culture" of the company.

There is a "challenge system" in the long-term talent management system, and the level of challenge is used to judge the degree of talent growth, not the position. This corporate culture is not only an important criterion when selecting talents, but also firmly integrates global employees through "value alignment".

In Zhou Hongwen’s view, "Challenger Culture" has played a significant role in the development of Vision for 15 years. Guided by this spirit, the vision will break through the border again and again and lead the development of the industry in the fierce market competition.

He believes that the global talent distribution is the core competitiveness of the vision, but at the same time, cross-border communication and collaboration is a long-term challenge for the vision. To this end, the company combs the corporate culture and opens up the organizational form, crosses the gap between national boundaries and cultures, and takes the corporate mission and vision as the starting point to promote communication and collaboration among employees around the world.

"In fact, we didn’t just come. It is to recruit talents at home, and where there are talents, our institutions will open. " Zhou Hongwen said, "For example, Vision Intelligence is headquartered in Singapore, with nearly 900 employees and 12 offices in Britain, French, German, Japanese, China and the United States."

Vision has established an organizational form of horizontal operations, integrating global employees. For example, the day-to-day operation of Vision Electric Formula Team integrates the cooperation between its Silverstone headquarters in the UK and the experts in Vision Energy, Intelligence and Power, providing technical support in the fields of battery technology, software algorithm and weather prediction, and forging the "key" to open the championship door for the team through global cooperation.

In terms of daily operation, Vision also promotes the coordination of globalization through joint development, training and exchange. In the past few years, more than 100 Japanese employees have come to Vision Power China Product Engineering Center in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province to fight side by side with the team of engineers from China. "The Japanese team’s craftsmanship and self-discipline are combined with the speed and innovative spirit of China, the United States and the United Kingdom. This strong comprehensive strength is rare in the lithium battery industry." Zhou Hongwen said.

It can be said that its long-term mission, values, culture and international communication and management methods make it at the forefront of China in gathering world-class talents.

The next generation of great enterprises

It is likely to be born from the ESG field

Carbon neutrality has become one of the common challenges facing mankind at present. In such an era of increasing uncertainty, carbon neutral transformation, as one of the few "certainties", has become the consensus and strategic goal of all countries in the world.

While more and more countries and enterprises put forward the goal of carbon neutrality, the importance of enterprise ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) is increasing. Zhang lei believes that ESG is an unavoidable responsibility and a business opportunity that an enterprise should actively embrace.

Vision In the 2021 Carbon Neutralization Action Report, it is clearly stated that it will achieve operational carbon neutrality by the end of 2022 and carbon neutrality in the whole value chain by the end of 2028, which is undoubtedly a very challenging goal. "Vision To become a’ zero-carbon technology partner’ of global enterprises, governments and institutions, we must first set an example and introspect every day: How can we achieve our own carbon neutrality?" Zhang lei said.

In Zhang lei’s view, enterprises should start from the right mind, mindfulness and serious business, tap the opportunities in ESG, be brave in developing new technologies, and take this as their core competitiveness to solve environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. "Many enterprises only regard ESG as compliance, not as responsibility, and not as opportunity. The next generation of great enterprises is likely to be born from the ESG field. "

At present, Vision has established an ESG Committee, formulated relevant risk management systems and rules, covering various ESG factors such as carbon emissions, business ethics, corporate governance, waste management, product life cycle management, sustainable supply chain, safety, etc., and incorporated them into the sustainable risk process.

Not only that, Vision will also publicize the goal of sustainable development in the talent system, and advocate all vision people to think about the definition of sustainability, start from the small things around them, and actively improve many current problems. For example, the company has set up a "green dot plan" to encourage employees to reduce carbon emissions to get green dots, exchange gifts and rewards.

In addition to accelerating the company’s own green transformation, Zhang lei also hopes that Vision will become a "zero-carbon technology partner" for global enterprises and governments. The Company’s Carbon Neutralization Action Report in 2022 shows that up to now, Cambridge University, Starbucks, Singapore International Port Group (PSA), Deutsche Telekom and Luxshare are all accelerating their zero-carbon transformation through long-term software and hardware solutions.

In March, 2021, Vision cooperated with Sequoia China to set up a carbon neutral technology fund with a total scale of 10 billion RMB, to invest and cultivate leading scientific and technological enterprises in the global carbon neutral field, and to promote the development of innovative low-carbon technologies and solutions.

"Great companies should be companies that can truly achieve society, solve major social challenges, create major social development opportunities, and promote major social processes." Zhang lei believes that at the moment when we are in the green industrial revolution, a large number of outstanding talents who are keen to pursue innovation and dare to break through need a platform to achieve carbon neutrality and lead mankind to a sustainable future through technological innovation, which is the most magnificent mission of a generation born at the right time.

"The goal of the vision is to become such a platform to help more outstanding talents realize their dreams and ambitions." He said.