Understanding the Operation Model of State-Owned Enterprises

They are not market-oriented, but rather social-responsibility-oriented.

Perhaps the company has 100,000 employees. Even frontline workers know that half of them could be let go—with only 50,000, the company could run smoothly, or even better. With fewer people, there’s less ineffective communication, less friction; folks might actually find work more comfortable.

But during times of tough employment, you just can’t lay people off. It’s not profit-driven. Get what I’m saying? It doesn’t need those extra people—in fact, it should cut its workforce by half. But it simply won’t. Each year, it keeps hiring, often hiring against the market trend. There’s no other reason for hiring except to hire, to ease societal employment pressure. That’s one of the responsibilities these kinds of companies must bear.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice these companies typically don’t have openings for lateral hires; all recruiting is focused on campus hires. What does that tell you? It tells you they don’t genuinely need people—they really don’t.

They are the complete opposite of private-sector bosses. Private bosses hate campus recruiting—they wish every new hire could start creating value on day two. Meanwhile, the other side—these large,甲方 enterprises—doesn’t lack people. Hiring against the trend, they want to offer inexperienced college grads and master’s students a decent job, or a platform.

This is the social-responsibility metric they carry.