Chapter 14 Huawei: An enterprise living in winter

In the next few years, Cisco will have only one competitor, and that is Huawei! The rise of Huawei is a disaster for foreign multinational companies. For Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huawei"), a strong competitor in the global telecommunications market, 2004 was another year worth celebrating: the company's revenue increased by 42% year-on-year to US$3.827 billion; , Huawei was identified by British Telecom as one of the eight equipment suppliers for the "21st Century Network". The project is expected to invest 10 billion pounds in the next five years;

However, the company's CEO doesn't think these are things to be proud of.Ren Zhengfei, CEO of a company widely considered China's most internationally competitive, is known for his calm, vision, ambition and sense of crisis.In a widely circulated speech, he said: Huawei's crisis, shrinkage, and bankruptcy are bound to come.It may be spring now, but winter is not far away.The Titanic also went out of the sea amidst cheers. Founded in 1988, Huawei is currently one of the world's leading suppliers of network and communication equipment. Its customers worldwide exceed 300 telecom operators, 22 of which are among the top 50 global telecom operators.Huawei's products have entered more than 90 countries.As of June 2005, Huawei had more than 30,000 employees worldwide.Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, is as modern and grand as it is for a top-tier multinational.Huawei has become the pride of the local area, so much so that the government opened an exit for Huawei on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway.

Huawei's products include wireless products (such as UMTS, CDMA2000, GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WiMAX), network products (such as NGN, xDSL, optical network, data communication), and value-added services (such as intelligent network, CDN/SAN, wireless data) , as well as mobile and fixed terminals.At present, many of Huawei's products are in a leading position in the world, becoming a strong challenger to Cisco. Huawei's matrix organizational structure includes business divisions and regional companies.Divisions and regional companies are profit centers.Huawei's decision-making body consists of three parts: the company's executive committee, high-level management committee, and company functional departments. Among them, the high-level management committee includes a strategic planning committee, a human resources committee, and a financial management committee.At present, Huawei's shares are all owned by employees.

In 1978, Ren Zhengfei, who was already a regiment-level cadre, retired from the army and changed jobs.A few years later, in his 40s, he came to Shenzhen, the earliest special economic zone in China, and founded Huawei in 1988 after working for two years.At the beginning of its establishment, the company mainly acted as an agent of HAX switches in Hong Kong.At that time, China's telephone network basically used foreign equipment.The high profits of the switch quickly attracted a large number of new competitors, and more than 100 agency companies appeared in Shenzhen alone.By the late 1980s, there were more than 200 state-owned switch manufacturers in China, but the scale was small and the technology was backward.Although the price is very low, it can only be sold to small customers such as hotels, factories and mines.

Huawei is determined to develop its own products and has emphasized the importance of technology from the very beginning. In the early 1990s, domestic switches were mainly for the rural market. The capacity of 2,000 switches was sufficient, but Huawei was not satisfied. The company decided to develop 10,000 switches to enter the urban market.For this reason, Huawei has invested all the resources of the company, even at a high interest rate of 20%.After spending hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and repeated failures, Huawei finally successfully developed the large-scale switch C&C08 in 1994.This persistence reflects the "principle of pressure" in Huawei's Basic Law: on the key elements of success and selected strategic growth points, allocate resources with a strength that exceeds that of competitors.Either don’t do it, if you want to do it, you must concentrate manpower, material and financial resources to achieve key breakthroughs.

The narrowband telephone network includes four major blocks: telephone network, signaling network, synchronization network and management network, among which the signaling network at the commanding height is very important.Initially, Nortel Networks and Alcatel's STP equipment was commonly used in China.Huawei is determined to challenge the difficulties again. At the end of 1996, Huawei's first STP was successfully put into operation in Yinchuan. The Ministry of Information Industry held an on-site meeting, and the management of the provincial telecommunications bureaus were present.Soon, in addition to the national backbone network, all provinces adopted Huawei's STP equipment.With this, Huawei has become one of the few manufacturers in the world that can produce STP equipment. In 1997, the Mobile Communications Bureau of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications invited bids to build its own signaling network. In the end, Huawei and Alcatel each won 1/2 of the bids.

In the early days of Huawei's business, it followed Mao Zedong's strategy of "encircling cities from the countryside" and chose counties that multinational companies had no time to take care of as breakthrough points.For example, Ericsson only has 3-4 people responsible for monitoring the local network in Heilongjiang, but Huawei has sent more than 200 people to station all year round.The sales staff worked from the grassroots level, and used various methods to encourage the leaders of the grassroots telecommunications departments to try Huawei's products, impressing customers with their performance, and gradually opening up the market. Article 22 of the "Huawei Basic Law" summarizes the company's business model as follows:

Seize the opportunity, rely on high investment in research and development to obtain leading advantages in product technology and performance-price ratio, and form a virtuous circle of positive feedback in the shortest time through large-scale sweeping marketing to fully obtain excess profits in the window of opportunity.Continuously optimize mature products, control the price competition in the market, expand and consolidate the dominant position in the strategic market. Chinese companies generally lack core technologies, but Huawei is an exception. Now Huawei applies for an average of 3 patents every day, becoming the Chinese company with the largest number of patents.This is largely due to the foresight of management.Ren Zhengfei said: The most important market tool in the world is IPR, and the future market competition will be the battle for IPR.

In 1995, Huawei Beijing Research Institute was established, responsible for data communication business; in 1997, Huawei Shanghai Research Institute was established, responsible for mobile communication business.The company believes that only by putting all its eggs in one basket can it achieve breakthroughs, and has written "at least 10% of its revenue into technology research and development every year" into the "Huawei Basic Law".In 2002, the worst year in the telecommunications industry, the proportion reached 17%.The cooperation with multinational companies has also greatly enhanced the company's research and development capabilities.As of June 2005, Huawei has established 10 joint R&D laboratories, and its partners include Texas Instruments, Motorola, IBM, Intel, Angere Systems, Sun Microsystems, Altera, Qualcomm, Infineon, and Microsoft.In the article "How long can Huawei's red flag last", Ren Zhengfei said:

We are aiming at the best in the industry. Now the best in the industry are Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia, Lucent, Bell Labs... Our products and planning management must be close to them, and we must follow them and surpass them. Since Huawei is a small-scale private enterprise, customers do not believe that Huawei's equipment can be used.Huawei believes that customers can be moved. In 1999, Huawei held the first Huawei mobile switch (GSM) opening and on-site observation order meeting in Inner Mongolia.In order to allow potential customers to visit the site, Huawei rented a helicopter from the United States at a huge cost to transport the customer to Inner Mongolia, and urgently airlifted a batch of hairy crabs and senior chefs from Shanghai to the site.Soon, large orders poured in.

Huawei is a highly customer-oriented company, and the company's slogan is "Serving customers is the only reason for Huawei's existence."The company regards customer satisfaction as an important assessment indicator from the president to cadres at all levels, and entrusts Gallup to conduct a customer satisfaction survey.Ren Zhengfei said: Customer demand orientation is included in all aspects of employee recruitment, selection, training and assessment.We teach the case of "Who Killed the Contract" to every new employee training.We pay attention to the selection of talents, but the top few students from prestigious universities are not considered, because we do not recruit self-centered students, it is difficult for them to be customer-centered.Huawei culture is a culture of serving customers wholeheartedly. Some personnel one-sidedly pursue technological progress, and the products they develop are seriously out of market demand.To this end, Huawei has launched an anti-childish campaign.Ren Zhengfei distributed all the bad boards as "bonuses" to those who made design mistakes, and asked them to put them in the living room at home, always reminding themselves of the losses they brought to the company.In order to prevent R&D personnel from blindly pursuing technological advancement, the company stipulates that at least 5% of R&D personnel must be transferred to the market each year, and a certain proportion of market personnel must be transferred to R&D.Huawei's high-level office environment is quite simple, and only Ren Zhengfei has a separate office.However, the company's investment in marketing and research and development is not stingy.For example, Huawei's Shanghai Research Institute rents the most advanced Jinmao Tower.All of these are to win the trust of customers.One of Huawei's controversial moves is the establishment of 27 joint ventures with provincial telecommunications bureaus and governments, and these local post and telecommunications departments are Huawei's main customers. Huawei has stipulated that cadres at the vice president level must meet with customers every week.Several deputy mayors of Shenzhen visited Huawei successively, but Ren Zhengfei never met them in person. This is in stark contrast to most entrepreneurs who are keen to make friends with government officials.Another time, Stephen Roach, chief economist of Morgan Stanley, led a team of investors to visit, and Ren Zhengfei only sent a vice president to receive him.Roach said afterwards: What he rejected was a $3 trillion team!But when it comes to meeting customers, Ren Zhengfei never spares time.Ren Zhengfei has a very popular saying: What is core competitiveness? (Customer) Choosing me instead of you is the core competitiveness! Huawei attaches great importance to talents.Huawei is known as a three-high enterprise: high efficiency, high pressure, and high wages.Huawei's early employees even had a blanket under their desks to cope with overtime at any time.To encourage employees to work overtime, the company provides free dinner at 9 pm every night.Huawei has always implemented a five-and-a-half-day working system in China, which has long implemented a five-day working system.Recently, the company started implementing a 5.25-day work week.Huawei's treatment is considered to be the highest in Shenzhen.Ren Zhengfei told employees: The only thing Huawei can rely on is people. We must buy a house with a large balcony in the future, so that if the money gets moldy, we can put the money on it to dry. Since 1998, Huawei has launched a large-scale talent recruitment plan. In 1998, 800 graduates were recruited from across the country at one time, 2,000 in 1999, 4,000 in 2000, and more than 5,000 in 2001.In order to retain talents, HAY Group designed an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) for Huawei. Before 2002, Huawei did not issue bonuses at the end of the year, but equity.Huawei has a strong family-style culture, and the company is very tolerant of executives who leave Huawei to start their own business. A considerable number of companies founded by employees rely on serving Huawei to survive. In 2001, Huawei formulated a policy: the company will give free Huawei products worth 80% of its Huawei stock to resigned employees.A Motorola source commented: It is very difficult for Motorola to poach people from Huawei, but it is much easier for Huawei to poach our people. Eastern cultures usually place a lot of emphasis on seniority, but Huawei despises this practice. In 1994, Li Yinan, who graduated from the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China, was promoted to engineer on the second day of work, and was promoted to chief engineer after ten days. After half a year, he was appointed as the deputy general manager of the Central Research Department. Li Yinan, who was only 23 years old, became the vice president of the company.There are many legends like this one. In order to create a distinctive corporate culture, new employees must receive up to 5 months of devil-style training, including military training, corporate culture, workshop practice, technical training and market exercises.Ren Zhengfei maintained his military style in management, and he hired retired instructors from the Central Guard Corps to train employees.Therefore, Huawei people are highly disciplined.For example, in Huawei, the secretary can never say no and must complete the leader's tasks on time.In order to cultivate employees' sense of competition, the company stipulates a certain elimination rate in the training.The most challenging was the 3-month market exercise.Employees are required to sell small products such as fruit knives on the street, and are prohibited from identifying themselves as Huawei employees.Ren Zhengfei said: Companies will never promote someone with no grassroots experience to a senior leadership job. The fighting spirit and ability of Huawei employees have won the recognition of the market, and some companies even hire Huawei employees as long as they are Huawei employees.After Huawei Electric was sold, the United States only sent a chief financial officer, and the rest were all from Huawei's original team, which fully demonstrated its trust in Huawei's employees. In 1995, Huawei launched a big discussion on "The Rise and Fall of Huawei, My Responsibility". Ren Zhengfei found that his ideas were often different from those of most employees.He felt that the employees were as stupid as pigs, and the employees felt that the boss was speaking "bird language". In 1996, Ren Zhengfei decided to hire several professors from Renmin University of China to design a "Huawei Basic Law" as a common language system for Huawei people. It mainly explained three issues: what was the key to Huawei's past success; in the new competitive environment, What challenges does Huawei face; which past success factors are outdated and which can continue to be effective; what will the company's future success depend on.The Basic Law is positioned as Huawei's value system and management policy system.After the first draft of the Basic Law was completed, Huawei mobilized all employees to participate in the discussion. In 1998, the Basic Law was finally finalized and made public.Article 1 of the Basic Law stipulates: In order to make Huawei a world-class equipment supplier, we will never enter the information service industry. Huawei's Basic Law also stipulates that it will not engage in any non-related diversified operations that disperse company resources and senior management energy.As a result, companies have resisted the repeated temptations of real estate, the stock market, and the Internet. The Basic Law also states: Huawei guarantees that during the economic boom and the good stage of career development, the per capita annual income of employees is higher than the corresponding highest level in the regional industry. When the company is in an economic downturn, or when its business growth is temporarily frustrated, or according to the needs of business development, the company will start an automatic salary reduction system to avoid excessive layoffs and brain drain, and ensure that the company can tide over the difficulties. With the expansion of the scale of the enterprise, Ren Zhengfei began to pay attention to how to establish an effective management system.The person in charge of the company said: In 1997, IBM made a comprehensive diagnosis of Huawei's management status at that time: lack of accurate and forward-looking attention to customer needs; repeated useless efforts, wasting resources, resulting in high costs; no cross-departmental structured processes, each department has processes, but Departmental processes are connected manually, and the operation process is fragmented; there are departmentalism and departmental walls in the organization, and they work independently, causing internal friction; lack of professional skills, irregular operations, and rely on heroes whose success is difficult to replicate; project plans are invalid, and projects Chaos implementation, no change control, version flood. Based on this, the company decided to hire IBM to design product development (IPD) and supply chain management systems for Huawei. In 1997, the company hired HAY GROUP to design the company's human resources system, and established a performance appraisal and skill certification system.Since 1998, HAY has assessed Huawei's human resource management every year, identified existing problems, and handed them over to Huawei for solutions. Since 2005, HAY began to cultivate leadership for Huawei to adapt to globalization.In addition, PWC designed the financial management system for Huawei, Germany's Fraunhofer Gesellschaft designed the production and quality management system for the company, and Huawei also introduced Oracle's ERP system.Ren Zhengfei said: Our continuous management reform is to establish a series of management systems that focus on customers and take survival as the bottom line, so as to get rid of the dependence of enterprises on individuals. The Huawei Basic Law emphasizes the importance of continuous management change: We do not simply pursue the expansion of scale, but to make ourselves better.Therefore, high-level leaders must be alert to the fragility and hidden shortcomings that may be caused by long-term rapid growth, and must manage growth effectively. While promoting the company to quickly become a large-scale enterprise, it is necessary to use greater management efforts. Make companies more flexible and efficient. Huawei has a very interesting slogan, "Big suggestions are only encouraged, small suggestions are big rewards".This means that employees must first do their jobs conscientiously, and innovation must focus on actual results.A new employee once wrote a ten-thousand-word letter to Ren Zhengfei on Huawei's business strategy.Ren replied: If this person has a mental illness, it is recommended to be sent to the hospital for treatment; if he is not ill, it is recommended to be fired. Ren Zhengfei warned employees that Huawei's winter will come sooner or later, and internationalization will be necessary for Huawei to survive the winter.Ren said in 2000: If we cannot build an international team within 3 to 5 years, then once the Chinese market is saturated, we will sit still! Huawei began to enter the international market in 1996, and chose Hong Kong as its first stop.Subsequently, the company set its sights on Russia, Yugoslavia, Brazil, South Africa, Ethiopia and other markets.Although Huawei has sent delegations to Russia and established joint ventures, the Russians look down on Huawei from the bottom of their hearts.The company did not give up, but formed a local marketing team, which was sent to various parts of Russia after training, and continuously submitted Huawei's bidding documents to customers, gradually cultivating customers' trust in Huawei.In order to change foreign customers' impression of China, Huawei has formulated the "New Silk Road" plan, inviting customers to enter the country from Beijing, and then to Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong to gain a deeper understanding of China and Huawei's strength and eliminate exclusion.Huawei stipulates that the company must participate in all international communication exhibitions, and invests more than 100 million yuan in exhibitions every year. It was not until August 1999 that Huawei's internationalization achieved zero breakthroughs, and the company won bids in Yemen and Laos at the same time. In 2001, Huawei won a GSM equipment supply contract worth tens of millions of dollars from the Russian National Telecommunications Department. After 2001, Huawei began to focus on the European and American markets. In 2002 and 2003, the company entered the German and French markets respectively.For the largest telecommunications market in the United States, Huawei has been planning for a long time. In 1993, Huawei established a chip research institute in Silicon Valley; in 1999, a research institute dedicated to developing products for the US market was established in the communication corridor Dallas; in 2002, Huawei established a wholly-owned subsidiary FutureWei in Texas. In February 2004, the organizer of the Athens Olympic Games directly called Huawei without passing the bidding, asking the latter to provide a complete set of GSM equipment systems for the Olympic Games, and immediately paid a deposit of 9 million US dollars, which fully demonstrated its trust in Huawei.Due to the advantages of China's labor resources, the quotations of Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers are usually more than 25% lower than those of European and American manufacturers, and Huawei has begun to show extraordinary competitiveness.Now, the company has established a sales and service network all over the world, and the international revenue accounts for more than 40% of the company's revenue. On January 24, 2003, Cisco filed a lawsuit against Huawei and its subsidiaries in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that the latter infringed its intellectual property rights in four aspects: stealing IOS source code, stealing Cisco technical documents, stealing command line interface and patent infringement.Three-quarters of Cisco's routers are sold in Asia, and Huawei continues to erode Cisco's market share with its price advantage.Cisco CEO Chambers once said: In the next few years, Cisco will have only one competitor, and that is Huawei! At the heart of the case are so-called proprietary agreements (proprietary agreements), ie de facto standards not endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization.Since Cisco accounts for more than 80% of network products, its proprietary protocol has become the de facto standard.This kind of private agreement is protected by law in the United States, but not in China, Japan, South Korea and most European countries.In addition, Cisco's private agreement does not authorize external parties, so Huawei's approach is a helpless choice. In June 2003, the court announced that Huawei was temporarily prohibited from selling Cisco-related software and user manuals or allowing employees familiar with these software to develop similar products. In October 2003, Huawei announced that it had reached an agreement with Cisco and terminated the lawsuit in the US court.Huawei will continue to comply with the terms of the preliminary injunction and voluntarily make modifications to certain router and switch products.Cisco admitted that Huawei did not infringe. After reaching a lawsuit settlement with Cisco Systems, Huawei has stepped up cooperation with multinational companies. In 2003, Huawei and 3Com established a joint venture company to produce enterprise data network equipment. Huawei invested 51% of the shares in low-end digital communication technology, and 3COM invested US$165 million to transfer the R&D center to China. In 2004, Huawei and Siemens established A joint venture to develop TD-SCDMA technology for the Chinese market; in 2005, Huawei signed an agreement with the British company Marconi, and the two companies sold some of each other's products to each other. Like most Chinese companies, Huawei has a very strong leader.Ren Zhengfei controls Huawei with idealism and a soldier-like iron bowl.Although the conditions for starting a business were extremely difficult, Ren still had great ambitions and named the company with the meaning of "promise in China".Ren Zhengfei has a bad temper, and even scolds senior management at every turn.Ren is also a very emotional person, and he would even burst into tears when he heard majestic revolutionary songs.Ren is very disciplined about himself, and his shareholding in Huawei is only about 5%. In 2000, Li Yinan, the executive vice president, resigned. Ren Zhengfei blamed himself very much and took the initiative to lower his salary from grade A to grade C.Ren Zhengfei's daughter and sister both work for Huawei, but they have changed their names so as not to affect their work due to their special status. Ren Zhengfei was deeply influenced by Mao Zedong, and many of his business strategies came from Mao's revolutionary theory.For example, the market strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside and gradually occupying them" and the pressure principle of "concentrating forces and defeating them individually" and so on.Ren Zhengfei refers to his employees as "comrades", his managers as "cadres", and Huawei's offices as the front lines.In addition, Ren imitated Mao's approach in launching mass movements (pre-war mobilization and revolutionary song chorus) and ideological and political education among employees. In 1998, the content of Huawei's year-end chorus song was: Across the Pacific with high spirits, went to Europe and entered the Americas to fight in Africa, the sons and daughters of Huawei worked hard and hard, and the spirit of equality and sincerity revitalized the world! In 2000, the Internet stock bubble burst and the global telecommunications industry was hit hard. In 2001, Huawei significantly lowered its annual business target. In 2002, the company's revenue grew negatively for the first time. In May 2001, Huawei sold its subsidiary AVANSYS to Emerson Electric for US$750 million.At the same time, the company laid off about 10% of its staff.As Ren Zhengfei said, the funds obtained from the sale of Ansheng Electric prepared a cotton coat for Huawei to survive the severe winter of the telecommunications industry. After 2003, Huawei's performance returned to rapid growth.However, compared with Cisco's revenue of US$22 billion in 2004, Huawei's revenue is still only 17% of the former. What has made a company successful in the past can also become a constraint on the future.If Huawei wants to become a truly world-class enterprise, the company still needs to cross many thresholds: as the company is increasingly internationalized (foreign employees account for about 1/10), how can the corporate culture adapt to the challenges of globalization and diversity?After Ren Zhengfei handed over power to his successor, can Huawei maintain its unique culture and competitiveness?The company's IPO plan will also impact the company's closed culture and management to some extent.One reviewer noted: It is impossible for a good company to achieve rapid growth without a good entrepreneur, but it is impossible for a good company to achieve sustainable development through entrepreneurship. There is no doubt that Huawei is a respectable company.I have studied Huawei systematically, and because of various reasons, I know many Huawei employees, whether they are resigned or currently working at Huawei, from vice presidents to ordinary sales employees. When talking about Huawei, no one scolds them. Yes, and most of the expression and tone showed respect and even gratitude.The most mentioned is what I have learned from Huawei and what I have gained.It's not that there are very few complaints, but there have never been complaints. Only for this one, few companies in China can do it. The reason why Huawei is praised by others, and why it can stand out from the crowd, in my opinion, mainly stems from three aspects: research and development, management and internationalization. R&D: In the course of Huawei's growth, one of the decisions that has the most profound impact on today is also the most impressive story I have heard, which is "Zheng Bao used crying to remonstrate".It is said that when Huawei was in full swing as an agent of foreign switches, Zheng Baoyong, the technical director, suggested that Ren Zhengfei invest funds for independent research and development, and Ren Zhengfei immediately vetoed it.Discussions and debates followed, and finally Zheng Bao burst into tears and insisted on his own opinion.After a month of painful consideration, Ren Zhengfei decided to adopt Zheng's suggestion.Since then, 10% of sales revenue has been invested in research and development every year and has continued to this day. Independent research and development has brought Huawei's product market competitiveness to the forefront of the world. The first one.Coincidentally, there is another equally famous story in China, which is the well-known Lenovo "Controversy between Liu and Ni".It was also founded in the 1980s, and it also started as an agent of foreign products. It also faced a market environment with low profit margins and fierce competition. Almost at the same time, they were faced with an important choice between R&D-driven or trade-driven. Perhaps the only The difference is that Lenovo's controlling shareholder, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also has China's leading strong technical force, while Huawei is an ordinary private enterprise.Ni Guangnan's crying remonstrance to Liu Chuanzhi stopped the debate because Ni Guangnan was out and "Trade, Industry and Technology" won all round.Huawei and Lenovo faced very similar internal and external business environments at the time, but the results of crying and remonstrance were quite different.Lenovo is already one of the most respected companies in China, let alone others? Today, Lenovo's profit is still meager, almost on the verge of loss, while Huawei's net profit in 2005 was close to 5 billion.Such a huge contrast was actually decided as early as when they dealt with different choices of "crying and admonishing". This is an important reason why Huawei can have what it is today and why it is so outstanding. Management: Before Huawei officially opened up the international market, it began to systematically integrate all aspects of its management with world-class enterprises.Including hiring American Hay to design the human resource performance evaluation system; hiring German FHG production process and quality control system; hiring American Mercer to restructure the core business process; hiring IBM consulting company to solve product development process IPD; hiring KPMG and PWC to internationalize the financial system , to realize the unification of financial system and accounts, unification of code, unification of process and unification of monitoring; it provides an important guarantee for the establishment of a centralized, unified and highly decentralized global operating system.So much so that a senior executive of a multinational company said with emotion that Huawei's performance evaluation system is the best performance evaluation system he has ever seen, and Huawei's product development process is the best IPD process he has ever seen.Internationalization is first of all the internationalization of its own management. All that Huawei has done in management has laid a solid foundation for it to conquer the global market. Internationalization: At present, it has become a craze for Chinese enterprises to go global. The most famous ones are Haier, Huawei, Lenovo, TCL and Changhong. successful. In 2005, Huawei's overseas business revenue exceeded 60% of its total revenue, and it beat Ericsson and Motorola in the mainstream European countries where 3G originated, and won consecutive big orders, which shows that Huawei has truly occupied an important position in the global market.In summary, the success of Huawei's internationalization is the success of ten years, step by step exploration and trial, and steady and steady implementation, so it is extraordinarily solid. After studying more than 280 battles, the famous British military strategist Hart came to a conclusion: most battles in history were won by using indirect routes, with only 6 exceptions.Thus, he formed his own "indirect route" attack theory.His book "Indirect Route Strategy" mentioned: In strategy, the longest detour is often the shortest way to achieve the goal.Huawei's internationalization strategy is actually the success of an indirect strategy.On the contrary, Lenovo, TCL, Changhong, and Haier, which took shortcuts, all encountered huge difficulties and challenges.Either they expect to open up the international market quickly through a big merger, or through a big brand promotion, or through a large-scale price reduction distribution, but in the end they all fall into the swamp. The case of Huawei tells us that there is no shortcut to internationalization, only to practice the basic skills honestly; at the same time, internationalization is not only the internationalization of market development, but also means the improvement of its own management system, corporate culture, organizational structure, All-round internationalization of the talent team. In short, the excellence in R&D, management and internationalization is the core reason why Huawei has surpassed many domestic companies. If you analyze it from a micro perspective, every company has many problems and needs to be improved, and Huawei is certainly no exception.There are three aspects that are most hotly debated and criticized by the outside world: militarized management, personal authority of managers, and the issue of successors. But if you analyze it carefully, these are not big problems for Huawei.Militarized management is actually a cultural issue. Culture has always served strategy. There is no best culture, only the most suitable culture.As long as such a culture is conducive to the maximum efficiency and benefit of the enterprise, it is the best culture for this enterprise.Huawei's excellent performance proves that militarized management is effective for it.As for the issue of Ren Zhengfei's personal authority, I have learned that the facts are just the opposite. Ren Zhengfei's authority was gradually established in the process of leading Huawei to create outstanding performance, not deliberately creating a personality cult. Institutionalization shows that Ren Zhengfei is actually deliberately downplaying personal authority.He has also been looking for a suitable successor. He believes that with the comprehensive formation of Huawei's international corporate culture, team and management system, a professional management team with a truly global vision and cross-border will gradually replace Ren Zhengfei. I'm not defending Huawei. I really think there are not too many companies like Huawei in China, but too few. It's always easy to criticize others, but if you really have to do it yourself, it's really hard to make a company like Huawei. It is rare.I don't think it's really good to say more, but I should call on Chinese companies to conduct comprehensive and systematic research and learn from Huawei. If we go back to the source, and then seriously seek what has led to Huawei's extensive success in R&D, management, and internationalization?Undoubtedly, it should be Huawei's spiritual core, which is what we usually call corporate DNA. So what is Huawei's corporate DNA?In my opinion, in general, it should include these five points: lofty ideals, focus and persistence, market orientation, learning and improvement, and sense of urgency.From the very beginning, Huawei has great ambitions to grow into a truly world-class enterprise. At the same time, it has strictly limited its own strategic direction, concentrated all resources on the communication equipment manufacturing industry, and insisted on a market-oriented culture that must be customer-centric. In 20 years In the course of its development, it always has a sense of urgency, learns extensively from the world's first-class, and constantly transforms its own management system.It is these spiritual cores that drive Huawei's never-ending pursuit of excellence! Huawei, which possesses these spiritual cores, will inevitably solve the many challenges it is currently facing. Therefore, the cross-cultural management, IPO conflicts, and even successor issues mentioned in the case will not be a problem for a Huawei with the pursuit of excellence. I believe that Huawei people led by Xin Zhengfei will have a way to resolve the fundamental problems faced during growth. Thirty years ago, when China's economic strength was weak, no one valued you; when China's economy has made great progress, anti-dumping and China threat were heard everywhere.When China in the eyes of Indians means "threat" and China in the eyes of Japanese means "cheap and good quality", you can't expect Chinese companies to succeed quickly in India and Japan.The so-called Chinese companies need to downplay their Chinese color if they want to grow into global companies, which is a good proof.Just imagine, will an American company dilute its national color when it is fighting in the international market?No, on the contrary he will emphasize that he is from America! Therefore, when Huawei leaps onto the world stage today, the challenges it faces are more like the challenges China faces globally.Huawei has to bear all kinds of doubts about the China threat theory and low-price dumping theory, as well as artificial resistance from governments of various countries.At the same time, since China has never had a truly global business organization in history, Huawei not only lacks a strong national brand to support it, but also lacks a complete set of international methodologies and lacks In the established international talent market, everything must be cultivated by oneself.In this sense, Huawei is a lonely hero.Alone, relying on our own strength, we are winning honors for China, creating a strong national brand for China, cultivating international talents for China, and exploring systematic methodologies for Chinese companies to enter the international market. Looking forward to the next ten years, Huawei's growth into a truly global enterprise is unstoppable.Some people even say that the decline of the communication giant Lucent is due to the emergence of Huawei. At the same time, it has posed a severe challenge to Cisco, Nokia and other world communication giants. So what about ten years from now? 华为面临的最大挑战在我看来只有一个，那就是怎样、何时、由谁带领华为从一个全球的跟随者转变为全球的行业领袖。现在华为更多的是复制、学习和跟随业界巨头，当前面没有领路者时，怎样制定自己的全球化战略？如何通过大量的原创性发明来影响和改变世界格局？如何让自己的商业实践成为全球同行竞相模仿的样板？ 跟随和引领需要不同的思维方式、管理系统甚至企业文化，这对华为是一个十分巨大的挑战。10年后，华为能否嬗变成为象IBM、微软、Intel、Nokia、GE一样影响世界的全球领袖企业？ 我们充满期待！ 华为公司从1988年成立至今，已走过了18个年头。华为公司从一个名不见经传的小公司，一越成为全球领先的网络及通讯设备供应商之一，并被广泛认为是中国最具国际竞争力的企业，其成长速度之快，业绩之辉煌，不得不令世人刮目相看。 一、华为的发展与中国经济的发展和快速增长的通讯市场密不可分： 华为主要从事通信产品的研究、开发、生产与销售。华为研究开发的产品涵盖了交换、接入、传输、移动通信、智能网、支撑网、接入服务器、路由器、以太网交换机、会议电视等主要通信领域。作为中国最大的民营高新技术产品企业之一，华为2005年合同销售额达到667亿元人民币（约合83亿美元），其中国际合同销售额达48亿美元，其各类产品进入100多个国家和地区。 华为技术有限公司的发展，首先是找到了一个快速增长的大市场：通信产业。中国通信业每年上千亿、数千亿元的固定资产投入市场，必然造就大的企业。虽然国内企业面对的是实力雄厚的跨国公司，但它们不可能通吃市场，国家在政策上也一直向本土企业大大倾斜。华为老总任正非曾经感慨地说过：“华为一诞生就在自家门口碰上了国际竞争，竞争对手是拥有数百亿美元资产的世界著名公司。要是没有国家的政策保护，华为是很容易被摧毁的。” 同时，在这近20年的时间内，中国经济保持了近两位数的持续增长，而固定资产投资又是带动中国增长的重要因素。这为华为的发展提供了一个良好的经济环境。 考察华为公司的发展历程，还可以清晰地看出，华为在关键的时期，关键的事件中，政府对其的扶持和影响至关重要。1995年，在华为试图实现产品转型和扩大生产规模的时候，华为遇到了前所未有的资金困难，银行不愿贷款，股东（员工个人股份）的红利转投入数额有限，战略投资缺乏，以至因资金瓶颈引发华为自创业以来最大的生存危机。而恰在此时，国家领导人到华为参观，并针对华为的技术创新和产业化发展做出了相关建议。正因为有了政府高层的支持，转瞬之间，银行贷款难，地方政府支持力度弱的问题迎刃而解。此后，政府的引导和帮助是华为在海外市场获得成功的重要推动力量。通过随同与国家领导人出访，华为打开了俄罗斯、埃及等国家市场，在国家给予发展中国家的优惠贷款项目中，商务部、进出口银行、中国信保公司及中国驻外使馆、经商处不遗余力地推介华为产品，如华为在柬埔寨、土库曼斯坦、突尼斯等地的项目，都是在国家的积极支持下获得的。 不可否认，华为的发展同中国整体经济的发展和全球快速发展的通讯市场是密不可分的。 二、华为独特的文化是华为成功的重要因素之一： 一个注册资金24000元的民间企业，能够发展成为今天的华为，内因必然起着决定性的作用。华为的成功，不是渐进的自然竞争的结果，而是通过革命性的战略竞争，在竞争中激起巨变的结果。而其独特的企业文化为其成功提供的强有力的保障，其中企业的定位和执行力是非常有代表力的两个方面； 1.华为在起步之初，选择了小型交换机这一特定的产品和中国二三级城市这一特定的市场，任正非曾经说过：“我们把代理销售取得的点滴利润几乎全部集中到研究小型交换机上，利用压强原理形成局部突破，逐渐取得技术的领先和利润空间的扩大，技术的领先带来了机会和利润，我们再将积累的利润投入到交换机的升级换代产品的研究开发中，如此周而复始，不断地改进和创新。尽管今天华为的实力大大地增强了，但仍然坚持压强原理，只在自己最擅长的领域做到业界最佳。” 1988年华为创建的时候，当时固话刚刚兴起，城市中的通信设备全由国外制造，华为提供了低于思科产品50%的价格，用农村包围城市的战术，提供二三级城市交换设备，一点一点地夺回了国内的市场。 同时，任正非通过其著名的“不穿红舞鞋”理论，敢于把所有的鸡蛋放在一个篮子理，不受其他领域丰厚利润的诱惑，不要穿红舞鞋，要做老老实实的“庄稼汉”。 2.“华为基本法”是华为文化的另一个鲜明的代表，也许“基本法”这个形式，甚至它的内容都不是最重要，最关键的是通过这个方式，华为的企业执行力得到了空前的提高。 华为的企业文化反映最深刻的就是任正非军人雷厉风行的性格和军事化的作风。在华为的发展历程中，任正非对危机感特别警觉，时刻提醒华为人将时时面临“严寒的冬天”，在管理理念中也略带“血腥”，认为做企业就是要发展一批狼。例如，华为贯彻“高层重大决策从贤不从众，真理往往掌握在少数人手里”的“贤人治理”原则，实际上仍可追溯到军队的管理制度上，华为的“真理”就是任正非的决策。 这种“土狼文化”和军事化的管理以及独裁的作风在华为的创业期间确实是功不可没的。因为当时面对的是跨国巨头的激烈竞争，任正非本身并不是专业出身，也不拥有核心技术，但眼前却展现出一片广阔的市场，任正非别无选择：“我们是一群饿狼，只有让狼性爆发才能生存”。这在华为的创业初期，确保了华为的成功。 三、华为离冬天还远吗？ 随着华为的壮大与国内外通讯市场的逐步饱和，华为最初发展的环境已经发生很大的改变，曾经“不穿红舞鞋”和军事化管理理论也给华为带来了一定的负面影响。例如在对待无线市话技术和3G技术上，华为似乎都错失了一些机会。而军事化的制度也可能抹杀了员工的个性，同时，虽然华为通过专注于通讯设备市场取得了相当成功，但不可否认，华为在技术层面和市场销售等方面与国际大公司相比还有很大的差距，华为一直行之有效的“价格优势”还能保持多久？而且，华为还需要用时间来回答一个基本问题：为什么大部分世界优秀公司能够长盛不衰，而太多的中国著名企业却昙花一现？华为靠一个优秀的企业家取得了良好的开端，但一个好的公司不可能通过企业家个人能力获得持续发展，企业持续发展的动力源在于制度与文化，华为的制度和文化建设是否已经具备了真正成为一家国际性跨国大企业的“底蕴”？ 这些对华为的进一步发展似乎都隐藏了进入“冬天”的内外部因素。 华为的“基本法”实施快近十年了，建议华为应站在更高的起点上，即围绕如何将华为造就成为国际性跨国公司的目标重新全面修订“基本法”，从而为华为下一步的发展奠定坚实的基础。