Li Yang, CIO of the world's top 500 companies: digital transformation is a matter of people, and decision makers should always focus on "Chai"

Li Yang, Chairman of Guangdong CIO Alliance, Vice Chairman of CIO Branch of China Software Industry Association, Member of Metaverse Expert Committee of Beijing Information Industry Association, CIO of a Fortune 500 Group.
He graduated from the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a Ph.D. and is currently the CIO/CDO of a Fortune 500 group. He has long been engaged in the work of network information and has served China Mobile, China International Capital Corporation, Haier Group, Alibaba, Ping An Group and many other Fortune 500 groups and top famous enterprises, and served as CIO, CDO, CSO and other senior technology executives. He has nearly 20 years of experience in leading large group companies and financial, manufacturing, Internet and other industries to carry out informatization construction, digital transformation, technological innovation and technology company management. Pioneeringly proposed the "technology, security, ecology" technological innovation and development concept oriented to industrial development, led the team to practice the concept of technological innovation, ecological construction and achievement incubation, and proposed "Li Yang's Twelve Items for Industrial Digital Transformation" and "Fintech Security". 3.0", "AI native security" and other theories.

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Tsinghua University in the military has experienced a strong physique + steel belief in Li Yang's career and life, and has always stood proudly at the forefront of the tide of network informatization and digitalization. During his master's degree at the "Military Tsinghua University" National Defense Science and Technology University, he served as the leading and backbone force in national projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National 863 High-Tech Program. During his doctorate at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was under the tutelage of Chinese cybersecurity leader Fang Binxing. He has made great achievements in cutting-edge scientific theoretical research, engineering design and implementation. His papers on computer network communication and information security have been published in the world's top academic conferences, journals and China such as ACM SigCOMM, ACM WWW, ACM AsiaCCS, IEEE DSN, RAID, etc. In the first-level academic journals, many national science and technology and security-related projects that he presides over and participates in research and development have also been applied in the country. Li Yang attributed his academic achievements to the ingenious professional basic courses of the National Defense Science and Technology Department. Looking at the very simple cover, the content is very solid".
Academic achievements and practical experience are valuable, but what is even more commendable is that the experience of studying at National Defense Science and Technology University in his youth helped Li Yang to build two core elements in the underlying system of life: the belief to win and a strong physique . There are too many unknowns in the field of science and technology, and many achievements come from firm beliefs; most technology practitioners neglect to exercise their bodies, and this is a career that consumes extreme energy and requires physical support. Under the tempering of the second zipper, Li Yang has gained a good body that has benefited him so far, and he can still recall the playground of the National Defense Science and Technology University every night at night, "The playground under Hua Qianyue is a place for dating, our playground is really. for exercise".
From the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the China Mobile Research Institute, Li Yang has accumulated impressive achievements in the academic field. Like many scientific research practitioners, the young and vigorous Li Yang is eager to confirm his research results in specific implementation scenarios.
In 2010, a powerful invitation was placed in front of Li Yang, "If network information technology is a weapon, the business environment is the real battlefield. Only in the battlefield can we determine how well we are doing." That agent man's dream", he decided to join CICC.

Joining CICC, a high starting point corresponds to a high cognitive technology team must learn to establish an authority CICC (China International Capital Corporation), the first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank in mainland China, has established the "New York (New York)" since its inception. ) London (London) Singapore (Singapore) (Hong Kong) Hong Kong” globalization layout. Diversified culture, strong professional accumulation, and global vision pattern helped Li Yang quickly realize the transformation from scientific research thinking to business thinking. To this day, he is still grateful to the senior CICC executives who helped him back then, "They are top-notch people in terms of life experience and professional ability, but their affinity, low-keyness, and patience and help to team members have given me a lot. The inspiration directly helped me to successfully complete the first 'airborne' in my life."
Li Yang's job requirements are to use technology and soft skills to solve business pain points. In his past experience, he was either to solve the tasks assigned by the state, or to play at will in an insufficiently competitive environment, and he lacked the experience of landing practice in a high-pressure competitive environment. In CICC, he had to face the direct pressure from the business side, and he also had to devote part of his energy to adapt to the complexity of CICC's diversification challenges.
For personal growth, the greatest significance of a high starting point is not high salary and high connections, but high cognition. Under the guidance of his predecessors, Li Yang realized early that to establish an equal cooperative relationship with the business side, it is not only necessary to learn business thinking and master the method of empathy, but also to effectively establish authority.
Tips · Some ways for technical decision makers to establish authority 
Actively create a sense of ceremony in the details. Under the guidance of the boss, we have formulated strict specifications including "binding angle, document font, and text punctuation". Most of the technical people are not concerned about the details, but the details that the technicians don't care about are often understood by the business side and the partner. This is the best battlefield for both sides to establish recognition, not only should we not give up, we should also make good use of it and quickly output an authoritative and reliable impression.”
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Respect each other's cognition and use each other's mind. The taller the person is, the bigger the cognitive pattern is. Some of your professional information must be within his cognitive scope, and some of the information must be within his professional scope. This will make it easier for both parties to establish each other. 's approval.
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Build industry influence. In the Internet era, the influence of public domain information can also have a direct impact on the inside of an enterprise. Your popularity and authority in the industry can effectively eliminate some unnecessary doubts and noises. The so-called foreign monks recite the scriptures, the essence is that the authority of the internal functional positions of the enterprise is easily diluted by the ownership of resources, so it is necessary to make good use of public domain information to establish a wider range of authority.
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Leading Haier's data migration to the cloud as a vanguard and a propaganda team
In 2013, in order to get in touch with more diversified business scenarios, Li Yang was invited to join Haier Group, which is in the stage of Internet transformation, and is mainly responsible for Haier Group's network security and informatization construction.
After joining Haier, the first thing Li Yang did was to promote the implementation of Haier's cloud strategy. The difficulty of this work is self-evident: Haier Group has more than tens of thousands of terminals connected to the cloud, how to manage cloud data? How is the cloud key distributed? How to ensure the personal privacy of cloud tenants?
At that time, cloud computing was at an embarrassing stage of fresh concepts, mature theories, and lack of mature practical experience, but Li Yang realized the special project of data migration to the cloud in only one year: by connecting the terminal to the cloud with a distributed architecture, the data is stored centrally. With centralized sharing and full life cycle data access audit support, Haier has become a milestone benchmark for the implementation of the manufacturing cloud strategy.
It is the so-called digital transformation that lies not in technology but in people's hearts. Li Yang experienced this 10 years ago. In one year, Li Yang has crossed the ditch, worshipped the mountain gate, and consumed countless tongues. The significance of data migration to the cloud is of great significance. In today's words, it is the first step in the realization of data assets and the management of the full life cycle of data. What should I do on a business trip? Why change user behavior? ...there are rational doubts, and there are deliberate difficulties.
The key points for the smooth progress of the review, in the opinion of Li Yang, who was born in the military academy and has strong roots, is the most important thing to use Chairman Mao's words: the Long March is a propaganda team, the Long March is a seeder, "To complete a In order to solve this difficult overall improvement, we must do two things well: publicity and pilot.” Li Yang shouted the slogan "Be a pioneer, be a propaganda team" within the IT team, and took the lead in promoting the cloud strategic reform in the IT system, and at the same time used all propaganda positions to carry out the ideological enlightenment work of "data on the cloud", "For example, we develop There will be some lively and vivid pictures on the APP of the company and the homepage of the company, to promote the strategic policy and key decisions of Chief Zhang (Zhang Ruimin's name in Haier), and help everyone in the group realize the importance of this work."
In addition, user experience is also a key point that is often overlooked when enterprises are undergoing informatization and digital transformation. "The user experience of CICC must be different from that of Haier. Trying not to change user behavior is something worth thinking about, such as everyone in the manufacturing industry. We are accustomed to using drive letters, we cater to this habit and design a safe drive, and the user experience has hardly changed.”
Li Yang helped Haier implement its cloud strategy, which not only won unanimous praise from the group and won the Outstanding Project Award, but also helped Haier's computer product line provide a series of value-added services of cloud services, which has become a value-added element for product acquisition.
"The first half of the year was mainly used for communication. I talked to the heads of all departments in the group. I wanted to give up several times, but I still persevered. This experience made me understand the complexity and difficulty of enterprise transformation, but also It has strengthened the belief that if you are right, you must win.”

Ping An Group implements FinTech 3.0
Before joining Ping An Group, Li Yang went to Ali briefly to experience the atmosphere of an Internet company.
The success in Haier has made Li Yang famous in the industry, and leading companies such as Huawei, Ali, and Ping An Group have thrown olive branches. Out of curiosity about the Internet industry, Ali has become his priority. Originally, I had expectations for the open and free atmosphere of Internet companies, but the gap in reality is not small. At the same time, the sincere invitation of Ping An Group has never been interrupted.
In the end, Li Yang made great achievements in Ping An Group: he built the group's information security and financial technology innovation team from 0 to 1, improved Ping An Group's business security capabilities, and promoted the promotion of Ping An Group's technology and security brands and external Expansion has opened up a new idea of "government, production, learning, research, finance, introduction, and use"; through group safety and group technological innovation as the starting point, it has changed the loose management and service model of group technology for various industrial companies in the past. Established the strategic control and operation control mode of the diversified top 500 group technology for the various industrial companies of the group, and achieved good control effects; A financial security and technological innovation institution - Ping An Academy of Financial Security (PAAFS) has effectively integrated and stimulated the business development and development of industrial companies including Lufax, OneConnect, etc. The enabling effect of external technology brands, such as the successful listing of OneConnect and the successful transformation of Lufax.
"Business-oriented is the fundamental foothold of digital transformation." In 2022, this sentence is already politically correct, but in the real implementation process, how to face the business, how to gain the trust of the business side, and how to build a common position with the business side , but still difficult.
Tips. Five magic weapons for building consensus in the process of digital transformation
Stepping stone: Li Yang's first battle in Ping An Group was to successfully build Ping An Cloud. He accurately established Ping An Cloud's differentiated advantages over Alibaba Cloud and Baidu Cloud: regulatory compliance and financial attributes with high security benchmarks. In order to quickly establish a differentiated advantage, Li Yang led the team to obtain more than a dozen certifications within half a year. These certifications have become a stepping stone for Ping An Cloud to quickly establish a unique awareness and form a differentiated advantage.
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What to do: Before Li Yang joined, Ping An's security work focused on compliance and supervision, and lacked operational ideas and capabilities. Li Yang hoped that the security team should stand on the front line with operations, so he established the group's security operation team and digital expert services in a timely manner. The team "targets the group's strategic development and dares to take risks". This team not only helps the group solve potential development obstacles, but also generates direct revenue through external empowerment.
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Abacus: In the face of relatively large internal resistance, it is necessary to accurately calculate the account, "If there is a problem with the insurance policy, it will easily cost millions of dollars; if there is a problem with the brand, the market reputation will be damaged. Through accurate and reasonable risk assessment, help the other party understand the change and reach a consensus.”
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Whether it is chicken feathers or arrows is not important, the other party's KPIs are the most important: During internal communication, Li Yang's most common sentence is "don't use chicken feathers as an arrow". It doesn't matter whether it is the arrow or the arrow, the other party's KPI is what the other party cares about the most. By explaining the benefit mechanism brought by the change to the other party's KPI, the other party's concerns can be dispelled as quickly as possible.
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Honor: We take the risk, and the honor belongs to the business. Don't worry that the boss will not see it if you don't start. The boss who can support the change must know your credit.
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In the future, the technology system based on the management perspective will empower enterprises to innovate
Kechuangren: Could you please share the principles and methodology of the entry point selection of digital transformation in an abstract way?
Li Yang: In the long history of the development of human society, any work, any improvement, and any change we do are based on the reality of the past and the present, so that we can have a tomorrow, and the same is true for digital transformation. For the survival and development of the enterprise, it is necessary to carefully view and analyze the corporate culture, organization, personnel, legacy systems, legacy problems/risks, compliance factors, long-term planning, legacy problems countermeasures, strategies, tactics, and alliances during the digital transformation stage. / Ecological and other issues, from the comprehensive perspective of business operations and digital technology to judge whether these historical survival problems need to be solved, what is the priority of solving, what is the cost of solving and what are the expected benefits, etc., from these aspects can be found Lots of entry points.
For example, for the financial industry, banking, insurance, securities, and consumer finance all face difficulties in acquiring customers through traditional channels, low quality of sinking customers, expansion of digital marketing channels, the need to upgrade intelligent risk control systems, personal privacy and data High security risk issues, these issues can be used as an entry point for transformation.
Kechuangren: You have achieved a lot in the field of information transformation and digital transformation. What is your ultimate ideal?
Li Yang: In fact, it is not complicated, it is to continue to create value, how to combine technology with business needs to create more value.
It is said that sharpening knives is not the same as chopping firewood. Most of my friends with technical background are more willing to pay attention to knives, and I am very concerned about where the firewood is from the beginning to the end. Chai is different in each era, and now is a time of great change. I will also think more about the changes in the pattern and continue to optimize my outlook on development.