Xiaomi Co-founder Lei Jun Steps Down as China President Amid Leadership Reshuffle

Mere days afterward Xiaomi's latest earnings report, which shows signs of slowing growth, the Chinese company has undergone a major leadership reshuffle. Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has stepped downward from his role as the company's Chinese president.

Xiaomi notified its employees of major leadership changes via an internal letter circulated earlier last week, as per a written report in Technode. Lei Jun's responsibilities volition exist shouldered by Lu Weibing, the brand director for Xiaomi's budget-focused spin-off brand Redmi. He will now be Xiaomi'due south China President to oversee overall operations and reignite growth in the coming months.

Lei Jun has stepped downwardly every bit the company'south Prc President only will go along to serve every bit chairman and CEO.

In the internal letter, Lin Jun states "Next twelvemonth will be an offensive yr for Xiaomi'southward 5G business organization, and it volition likewise be a key year for Xiaomi to promote mobile phone + AIoT. We need more than powerful group management support. It is [now] necessary to continue the organizational innovation vitality brought past the core rotation mechanism"

In addition, former president Lin Bin has at present been promoted to the position of Xiaomi'south vice president and CFO Zhou Capital is now the head of international business organization. Xiaomi co-founder Li Wanqiang, who led Xiaomi'due south marketing and brand strategy, resigned from the company and Senior Vice President Qi Yan too retired this year, but both the officials are said to retain advisory roles, as per the internal letter.

Did Xiaomi Need a Leadership Change?

The leadership change could primarily exist because of the company'due south back-to-back disappointing quarterly results. If you are non aware, Xiaomi's marketplace share in Mainland china has shrunk to 9% from 12% over the past six months. The visitor did witness a 5.5% twelvemonth-on-year (YoY) growth

The company is punching out new phones, which are all great value-for-money offerings, almost every calendar month. Merely, its homegrown rival Huawei has ramped up marketing over the past few months to counter the ill-effects of its international sales. The company has at present swelled to capture a 42% market share in China afterward its U.S trade ban.

Xiaomi is seeing a stiff growth trajectory in India and had ventured into Europe before concluding year but is now stepping foot into the Japanese smartphone market place on Dec 9 side by side week. It will be interesting to meet the response towards the brand, who is now also scheduled to launch an affordable 5G telephone, the Redmi K30, adjacent calendar week.