“The communication between superiors relies entirely on the transmission of messages from subordinates, and as a result, they end up saying beautiful things even after the project is completed.”
The reporter from China Business News learned that on May 9, Robin Lee, chairman of Baidu Group, Cui Shanshan, senior vice president of Baidu Group, and others attended the annual advanced award event “Baidu Pride”, where they commended outstanding employees and made an internal speech.
At this time, Baidu is facing a series of public opinion and controversy due to the remarks of Vice President Qu Jing. Baidu executives emphasized topics such as big company diseases and corporate values in their speeches.
“It is estimated that recently everyone has paid more or less attention to some public opinion and controversy, and some students may even experience some confusion or even momentary wavering. However, please believe that at Baidu, there is nothing more worthy of upholding and defending than simple and reliable values. The noise of public opinion will always pass, and our self-improvement will never stop.” Cui Shanshan said in her speech. Internally, Cui Shanshan serves as the Secretary General of Baidu’s Culture Committee and leads the implementation of Baidu’s OKR.
Robin Lee praised Baidu’s outstanding employees and said:
“We can’t just sing praises and not talk about problems.” In her internal speech, Cui Shanshan pointed out several major factory problems, including “dividing the territory, setting thresholds, and making it difficult to work together independently”, “coaxing upwards, intimidating downwards, and demonstrating work attitude through overtime”, “communication between superiors relies entirely on subordinates to pass on words, and as a result, they end up saying beautiful things at the end”, and so on.
Cui Shanshan said that the company has been around for almost 25 years, and it is not surprising that problems arise. It is wrong to not be able to view them clearly and rationally. Baidu has all the above problems, some of which are quite serious. It is not surprising that employees roast. The management of the company is also anxious, and they are paying attention to them and solving them.
Qu Jing, a senior Baidu executive, previously released a series of short videos on the Tiktok platform, including comments such as employees breaking up and leaving without considering family factors, which caused widespread controversy on social media and raised questions about Baidu’s corporate values.
A close source told a reporter from First Financial that as a corporate manager, the comments of executives have attracted widespread attention from the public and investors, not only because of their personal influence, but also because it may have a significant impact on Baidu’s ESG (Environment, Society and Governance) strategy and corporate reputation. Comments such as “breaking up with employees and criticizing them for resigning” involve employee relations and human resource management in the company’s governance structure; His remarks about not considering employee families also demonstrate a neglect of social responsibility and a lack of humanistic care.
The importance of ESG for listed companies is self-evident. With the increasing global attention to sustainable development and social responsibility, ESG has become a key indicator for measuring the comprehensive value and future potential of enterprises. It not only reflects the performance of enterprises in environmental protection, social responsibility, and corporate governance, but also directly affects the reputation, market competitiveness, and investor decision-making of enterprises.