Two vice presidents have left Xiaomi.

Author|Wang Chi

Editor|Yang Zhou

[Cityscape] has exclusively learned that Ma Ji, vice president of Xiaomi Group, has officially resigned recently. Insiders revealed that Ma Ji's personal profile on Feishu has already shown a "resigned" status, and the same applies to another vice president, Yan Kesheng.

The resignation of the two may have been foreshadowed earlier.

The management team page on Xiaomi's official website can be regarded as a "barometer" of senior management changes. According to [Cityscape]'s observation, in September this year, the personal profiles of Ma Ji and Yan Kesheng were still on Xiaomi's official website's management directory, but now their photos and introductions have been quietly removed, leaving only a group photo of Xiaomi's senior executives taken in May this year.

Both are resignations, but the circumstances may vary slightly.

Relevant sources revealed that Yan Kesheng recently retired. According to public information, born in 1970, he is one year younger than Lei Jun and is 53 years old this year. As Xiaomi's 53rd employee, he is undoubtedly a senior member of Xiaomi. An insider previously told [Cityscape] that Wang Xuanran, general manager of Xiaomi's camera department, who is also among Xiaomi's top 100 employees, has also entered a period of leave.

Compared to the retirement of a group of older employees like Yan Kesheng, the resignation of 45-year-old Ma Ji was more surprising. According to media statistics, the average age of Xiaomi's senior management in 2021 was 48.6 years old, which means that Ma Ji belongs to the younger generation of Xiaomi's management team in terms of age.

A Xiaomi employee commented privately, "Ma Ji is a meritorious figure in the Internet department. His silent exit is surprising and doesn't seem like a graceful retirement after a successful career." Rumors of Ma Ji's resignation had been circulating within Xiaomi as early as the end of September, but most people dismissed them as nonsense.

As two key figures at Xiaomi, Ma Ji was previously responsible for the group's internet business, which was Xiaomi's main source of early profits and can be considered its "money bag." Although profits were considerable, employees had some complaints. Sources close to Xiaomi said that in 2023, Ma Ji proposed to the group that his department should forgo year-end bonuses for that year.

Yan Kesheng was previously responsible for the group's hardware business, overseeing the quality of Xiaomi products and managing Xiaomi's early and most costly endeavors. He was the first new senior executive appointed after Xiaomi's IPO in 2018, and at that time, Lei Jun issued an internal memo appointing him as the concurrent chairman of the group's quality committee, reporting directly to Lei Jun. Previously, this position was held by Lei Jun himself.

With the successive departures of the two key figures in charge of software and hardware, bidding farewell to a generation of senior executives may also mean that Xiaomi is entering a new phase. Xiaomi's third-quarter report this year shows that driven by the overall momentum of the automotive business to enhance the brand, Xiaomi is now moving towards a new stage where both software and hardware generate revenue.

Recently, this series of senior personnel changes is not only an adjustment to the corporate management structure but also a reconsideration of Xiaomi's strategic direction. It remains to be seen whether these changes can truly translate into market advantages in the future. However, it is certain that these actions send a signal: Xiaomi is proactively embracing change.