Dennis Wu, Senior Partner, Futu Holdings Ltd, suggests some ways in which employee equity incentives can help to build the motivation of team members and thereby avoid organisational entropy.
The term ‘entropy’ was originally derived from the second law of thermodynamics, a branch of science dealing with the transference of heat within a closed system. Energy will flow from the area with higher temperature to the part that has lower temperature. The process, called ‘entropy’, is irreversible, and in a closed system it can only increase. As time goes by, when entropy reaches its highest level, the amount of disorder or chaos in a thermodynamic system also reaches the maximum. The concept of entropy is also relevant to business management. Over time, there is often a tendency towards inefficiency, rigidity and overstaffing in a company’s management system and corporate culture. This trend is referred to as ‘organisational entropy’ and exists in both traditional and new economy enterprises. Resisting disorder and stimulating organisational vitality have therefore become one of the goals of good corporate governance. The development of digital technology has not only changed the way disorder and inefficiency is manifested in corporate governance, but has also brought new ideas and tools for entrepreneurs to solve this problem.
People as a key asset
Many great entrepreneurs and management experts have proposed ways to resist organisational entropy. For example, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has proposed maintaining the company’s agility as it was on day one, which is regarded as a standard by many entrepreneurs; and Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, often mentions the importance of resisting organisational entropy in Huawei’s various internal studies. With the advancement of science and technology, and the improvement of corporate digitalisation, governance has entered a new stage, providing new ideas for entrepreneurs to resist organisational entropy and improve corporate governance. There is no doubt that new economy enterprises are replacing traditional companies and have become a major force in the modern business environment. According to PwC’s Global Top 100 Companies March 2021 report, within the top 10 companies, 80% are consumer companies driven by technology or innovation. Emerging growth-oriented new economy enterprises have also attracted capital. From 2018 to 2020, whether in the Hong Kong stock market or the Mainland’s A share market, the amount of initial public offering financing in telecommunications, media and technology sectors has far exceeded that of other industries, such as real estate, manufacturing and energy. New economy enterprises all share one common feature – they are technology-driven. The most important asset behind technology-driven enterprises is people, that is, the company’s employees. This differs from traditional enterprises in traditional sectors, such as manufacturing and energy, where the most important assets tend to be raw materials, production and machinery etc. For new economy enterprises, the key element to resist organisational entropy is employee motivation. Professor Arthur Yeung, a well-known human resources and organisation management expert, developed the following formula for business success: business success = strategy x organisational capability. Strategy lies at the top level of corporate governance and organisational capability is the only way to make strategy a reality. Regarding organisational capabilities, Professor Yeung proposed the Yeung Triangle Theory, in which all the essential ingredients relate to employees – employee thinking, employee capabilities and employee governance. The first item in Yeung’s triangle theory is employee thinking, that is, employees’ values, behaviour and commitment, which are closely related to employee motivation. 
Talent incentives in the new economic era
In the process of corporate governance, there are many ways and tools to stimulate employee motivation, such as promoting corporate culture and building employee growth systems. Another important tool is employee equity incentives. Increasing numbers of enterprises are now implementing equity incentives to achieve the consistency of interests between the enterprise and its employees. In contrast to the equity incentives of traditional enterprises, which are mainly granted to a small number of core managers, new economy enterprises are adopting more inclusive equity incentives. For example in 2016, to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the creation of the Tencent Group, the company issued commemorative stocks to every employee. This was widely reported and discussed in social media since no Mainland company had ever issued equity incentives to employees on such a wide scale. In addition to Tencent, other large internet companies in the Mainland, including Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance, have been using equity incentives to motivate employees and compete for talent. The Mainland market has widely accepted this mechanism of equity incentives. According to PwC’s China Overseas Listed Companies Equity Incentive Trends Survey, published in 2019, 40% of Chinese overseas listed companies adopted equity incentives before listing and 52% have implemented equity incentives after listing. However, although the original intention of the company is to stimulate the motivation of employees and enhance the vitality of the organisation through equity incentives, insufficient attention to the actual employee experience during the implementation of these schemes can sometimes mean that the incentive effect not only fails, but may even produce the opposite effect.
Technology stimulates organisational vitality
Companies have never put so much emphasis on employee experience as they do now. In the era where people are seen as the core asset of a company, people born after the 1990s and 2000s are now entering job markets. They have lived in the internet age since they were born and are accustomed to mobile internet and instant messaging services. All aspects of life in the Mainland, including getting food, clothing, housing and transportation, can now be done completely online, led by internet companies such as Taobao, Meituan Dianping, Ctrip, Didi, etc. However, the efficiency of online-centric workplaces are slightly slower and employees complain about the company system from time to time. The Covid-19 pandemic has sped up the transition to tech-centric enterprises and the rate of online meetings and online document collaboration has increased a lot during the pandemic. As mentioned above, in order to stimulate employee motivation and enhance organisational vitality through equity incentives, it is essential to enhance the employee experience. Some corporate managers lack the necessary communication and visualisation tools on the employee side when adopting employee incentives, which causes employees to doubt the authenticity of the incentives and the sincerity of the company. On workplace social networks, we have also seen employees complaining that the options granted by the company are nothing but a ‘bad cheque’. The online management of equity incentives is just one way to stimulate organisational vitality. The digital transformation of enterprises will continue to happen, reducing communication costs between employees and improving operational efficiency. Online systems will allow technology to play a more important role in stimulating organisational motivation. Dennis Wu, Senior Partner Futu Holdings Ltd
抵抗组织熵增
富途控股高级合伙人邬必伟提出了一些方法避免组织熵增，如以员工股权激励帮助建立团队成员的积极性
熵增，是热力学第二定律。该定律引入了“熵”的概念，用来描述一种不可逆的过程，即热量从高温部分流向低温部分是不可逆的，孤立系统中熵的值只能增大，不能减少，随着时间推移，最终达到熵的最大状态，也就是系统最混乱无序的状态。 熵增定律无论在传统企业还是新经济企业中都存在，因此抵抗无序，激发组织活力是公司治理永远存在的命题。数字科技的发展既改变了公司治理中无序、低效等问题的表现形式，又给企业家解决熵增问题带来新思路和新工具。 熵增作为一种自然规律，在企业经营管理中也有所体现——企业的组织管理制度和企业文化建设起来之后，经历一段时间的运转，总是有一种走向效率低效、机制僵化、人浮于事的趋势，这就是所谓的组织熵增。组织熵增出现在传统企业，也出现在新经济公司，如何抵抗组织熵增与激发员工活力，变成许多企业管理层都不得不面对和思考的问题。科技的发展不仅改变了公司治理无序、低效的表现方式，也为创业者解决这一问题带来了新的思路和工具。
新经济时代企业组织能力关键：人
许多伟大的企业家和管理学大家提出了抵抗熵增的心法。例如亚马逊的贝佐斯提出了要保持Day One的状态，被许多创业者奉为圭臬；华为的创始人任正非也经常在各种组织内部学习中提到抵抗团队熵增。随着科技进步和企业数字化渗透率提升，企业商业模式和公司治理走向新的阶段，也为企业家抵抗公司治理中的墒增提供了新的思路。 毫无疑问，新经济公司已经替代传统企业，成为现代商业社会的主角：据普华永道发布的2021年全球市值百强企业报告(Global Top 100 companies - March 2021)显示，排名前十的公司80%是科技或科技驱动的消费企业。 不仅如此，新兴成长型的新经济企业还吸引了绝大部分的社会资源。近三年(2018-2020)，无论是港股市场还是A股市场，TMT行业的IPO融资额都远远超过其他行业，如地产、制造、能源等。 新经济企业都有一个共同特征，那便是技术驱动，而技术驱动的背后最重要的是人，即企业员工。这是技术驱动的新经济企业与传统企业的显着差异。如制造业、能源行业等传统行业，企业中最重要的资产是生产原材料、生产机械等，而新经济企业最重要的资产便是员工。因此对于新经济企业而言，抵抗熵增的关键要素也是员工。 知名人力资源与组织管理专家杨国安教授曾帮助腾讯完成公司的组织架构调整，他提炼出以下企业成功的公式。 战略是公司治理的顶层建设，而组织能力则是让蓝图变为现实的唯一方法。针对组织能力，杨国安教授提出了“杨三角理论”，这个理论中所有的支柱都来自员工——员工思维、员工能力、员工治理。杨三角理论中的第一条就是员工思维，即员工的价值观、行为和投入度，这与员工的积极性息息相关。 
更加普惠的股权激励
在公司治理过程中，有多种方式、工具可以激发员工积极性，例如宣导企业文化、搭建员工成长体系等，还有一种重要的工具就是员工股权激励。 越来越多企业实施股权激励，实现企业与员工的利益一致性。与传统企业的股权激励不同，传统企业的股权激励主要授予极少数核心管理层，而新经济企业正在采用更普惠的股权激励。 2016年是腾讯集团成立第18年，为了纪念“成人礼”，腾讯给每一位员工都发了纪念性股票。从未有一家企业给如此大规模的员工发放股权激励，这也引起广泛的社会讨论和媒体报道。 不仅是腾讯，阿里巴巴、百度、字节跳动等大型互联网企业也在用股权激励员工、争夺人才。 中国的人才市场已经广泛接受了股权激励这种机制。据普华永道的报告《2019中国海外上市企业股权激励趋势调研》显示，中国海外上市企业中，有40%的企业在上市前就采用了股权激励，52%的企业在上市后实施了股权激励。 但是我们也观察到，虽然公司本意 是希望通过股权激励激发员工积极性，提升组织活力，但由于实际操作中缺乏对员工体验的关照，有时候激励效果不但不能达成，还会产生反向效果。
科技激发组织活力
在以人为企业核心资产的新经济时代，企业从未像现在这样如此重视员工体验。这与90后、00后成为企业员工主要构成部分息息相关。中国的80后、90后从一出生便生活在互联网时代，习惯了移动互联网以及即时响应的服务。 中国内地居民的所有生活场景，包括衣食住行各个方面，都被淘宝、美团点评、携程网、滴滴等互联网公司彻底线上化，相比之下，工作场景的线上化的节奏稍显缓慢，因此员工抱怨企业系统不友好的情况时有发生。新冠来袭给企业的在线化转型按下快进键，在线会议、在线文档协同办公的普及率也增加了许多。 如上文所提及，希望通过股权激励达到激发员工积极性、提升组织活力的目的，提升员工体验是必不可少的。有的企业管理者在授予员工激励时，缺乏必要的沟通以及员工侧的可视化工具，会导致员工对激励的真实性、公司的诚意有怀疑。在职场社交网络上，也会看到员工抱怨公司授予的期权不过是一张“空头支票”。 企业的数字化转型还会不断深化，通过在线系统降低员工之间的沟通 成本、提升运营效率，将让技术在 激发组织积极性过程中发挥更重要的作用。 邬必伟 富途控股高级合伙人 邬必伟 富途控股高级合伙人
