Yang Shaolong - The Huawei Way: Lessons from an International Tech Giant on Driving Growth by Focusing on Never-Ending Innovation

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The CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei (hereafter Ren), wrote a passionate poem about the company in 1995 that came to symbolize the companys spirit for the next two decades of high-speed growth. It talked about the dream of reinvigorating the Chinese nation, but it also talked about emulating the United States, Japan, and Germany. It dreamed of glory for generations of Chinese, but it also mentioned putting each foot down on solid ground. Meanwhile, China was to learn from American high-tech, Japanese management, and German attention to detail. The Song of Huawei encapsulated Ren Zhengfeis ambitions, ideals, and unbending determination but from a unique perspective.

Since the Opium Wars, generations of Chinese patriots have raised a similar call: serve your country by developing it. Rescue it from the ridicule of being the poor man of Asia. Awaken it. Nevertheless, for more than a century China has taken a circuitous path toward such development. Constant wars, internal strife, and external challenges have led it through detours and setbacks. Only in 1978 did a group of companies finally begin to stride out successfully into international markets, most notably Lenovo and Haier. In the telecom arena, Huawei became the symbol of Chinas high-tech.

Ren is generally acknowledged to be the most low-key of any entrepreneur who operates on a global scale. Any world-class businessman must be powerfully motivated to be successful, in addition to having his own way of handling affairs. What motivates Ren? Where does the sense of history that is expressed by his Song of Huawei come from, not to mention the sense of destiny? What has he relied on to break through and transcend the extreme limitations that this period of history in China imposed upon him, to the extent that he has indeed led Huawei onto the world stage of high-tech? What can other companies in the world and other corporate managers learn from this company and this man? These are the key issues that this book explores and seeks to explain.

From the time it was a small start-up, Huawei has regarded American companies as the model to emulate. By this, it has meant specifically such companies as IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and Cisco, global leaders in the core technologies of the information industry. These have been the companies that propelled the development of the Internetin that sense alone, they have made outstanding contributions to humankind. In addition, however, Huawei has regarded the innovative environment in the United States as critical, particularly the mechanisms by which innovations and an innovative spirit can be realized. In the United States, as long as a company or an individual has very good ideas, venture capitalists will consider trying to turn those ideas into reality. The situation in China in the 1980s was radically different. When Huawei was founded, an innovative environment and any mechanisms by which good ideas could be realized barely existed.

When Ren founded the company in 1987, he had both little capital and little background, or political backing. From almost every perspective, he lacked the innate qualities required to become a leader of a multinational company. In the short space of 20+ years, Huawei nevertheless led its forces into international telecom markets and beat out many superb opponents, including Lucent, Nortel, Alcatel, Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, and Motorola. In doing this, Huawei established an admirable model for Chinese as well as world companies to follow. Its success has depended in part on the way Ren has led Huawei employees in having an indomitable will to succeed. As chronicled below, the company cultivated an unbending determination and will to fight, but also a spirit of constant innovation. Another key part of Huaweis success has involved its sustained study of Americas best managers and entrepreneurs. Having internalized all these things, to a degree Huawei has established itself as a role model for companies around the world.

In the age of global business, if enterprises want to survive, they must constantly innovate with respect to both management and technologies. Otherwise, they will simply lose out in international competition. The successful experience that Huawei has built up over the past 27 years has been won at a cost, which has included not just money but sometimes life itself. This experience now represents a valuable distillation of lessons that can be an asset not just for Chinese companies, but also for the rest of the world. As one who participated in and witnessed this process, I have watched Huawei develop from the inside. As a long-time employee, I also have deep-seated feelings for both Huawei and Ren. In the interests of making these lessons more apparent and broadly known, I decided to summarize Huaweis experience in this book.