Founder Ren Zhengfei regularly reminds employees to always anticipate the “winter” that can come at any time. 2021 was no different from 2 years earlier when the unexpected hardship came to Huawei, and to recover strength, in 2021, what did Huawei do and what are its future plans?

A marathon of people who put the customer at the center

For more than 3 decades, Huawei has focused on information and communication technology (ICT), while providing network connectivity to more than 3 billion people in 170 countries worldwide. Huawei’s coverage is in even the most dangerous and harsh areas such as the Sahara desert, the South American rain forest, the Arctic, Everest or areas affected by natural disasters. Overcoming all difficulties with the spirit of service for the benefit of customers, Huawei team has contributed to making a world connected smoothly.

At the austere 6500m summit of Everest, Huawei’s “warrior” marched long days in the cold and overwhelming heights to successfully install the base station. As malaria raged in Africa, Huawei staff were always on hand to complete the telecom connection task. In addition to natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Japan or the tsunami in Indonesia, people see the unforgettable dedication of Huawei team when trying to fix the problem, repair the base stations to bring stable connection. Also because of the dedication to customers, Huawei has received many “sentiments” in foreign markets, thereby leading to impressive business results. The Japanese government once rated Huawei “a Japanese company” when witnessing the courageous actions of Huawei employees present immediately after the earthquake to support people’s lives.

To achieve such impressive results today, from the very first days, the founder of Banh Chinh Phi identified investment in research and product development (R&D) as “the core strength of Huawei’s value chain”. As a marathon that requires durability and determination, Huawei enters the R&D district with a long-term vision and always aims ahead.

Huawei has always planned to invest more than 10% of its revenue, about 15-20 billion USD in R&D annually and has become the top 5 companies in the world to spend heavily on R&D, according to the EU rankings. Huawei has built research and development centers in many countries, especially Huawei has 23 R&D centers across Europe. In addition, Huawei also collaborates with more than 300 universities and 900 research institutes to implement R&D projects. Huawei’s investment in research is expected to reach $100 billion over the next five years.

In 2021 alone, Huawei’s total R&D costs amounted to CNY 142.7 billion (nearly US $22.5 billion), or 22.4% of the company’s total revenue. Both figures are well above Huawei’s historic record. Over the past decade, Huawei’s total R&D investment has surpassed $132.66 billion. With 107,000 Huawei employees engaged in R&D, accounting for 54.8% of Huawei’s total workforce. Huawei’s crusade will last forever because of advances in world ICT, not only marathon but ultramarathon.

The transformation of our country by special “flags”

Huawei has faced many difficulties by external influences in nearly 3 years. To overcome these difficulties, the Chinese giant has made great strides, especially because its strategies are sharp and have reaped impressive results. Specifically, in 2021, sales reported by the audit firm reached $99.88 billion, of which total profit reached a record $17.85 billion with a growth rate of 75.9% – an increase of 69.4%.

To achieve these significant achievements, in 2021 Huawei has increased its investment in basic research on basic theories of communication, computing, AI and many other areas.

Huawei puts research and technological innovation first with a strategy that will mainly go into three areas: optimizing system architecture, improving software performance, and exploring theory, said rotating president Guo Ping. We are investing in both today and in the future. ”

“We continue to make advances in the basic theory of wireless communications, pushing our algorithms closer to Shannon limits,” Guo Ping said. Our innovations in theory have allowed us to draw Shannon limits for a fast-changing coding matrix, which greatly simplifies the design of transceivers.

Huawei’s rotating CEO also shared: “In a difficult situation of supply and access to technology, we will continue to increase our investment in R&D to create more reliable and efficient products to serve our customers better. We will continue to invest in building a more stable supply chain to ensure the continuity and competitiveness of our products. ”

Faced with the significant decrease in Huawei’s revenue due to the impact of chip supply on smartphone business, Huawei has sought solutions to ensure sustainable development in smartphone business and smart wearables with more than 30% growth in 2021.

“In 2021, Huawei Cloud successfully became the top 5 provider globally, but to be in the top 2 requires investment, developing cloud computing activities (TDM) and closing the gap with the competition,” Guo Ping said frankly. “But through Huawei’s TDM services, we have brought more value to our customers. In Asia Pacific and North America, Huawei’s TDM has the fastest growth rate. With Huawei’s strategy, everything is service (everything-as-a-services), we will deploy more Data center and network infrastructure all over the world to provide seamless experiences for users anywhere in the world. “

Huawei also said that in 2021 the company established and improved a dedicated team to accelerate decision-making and increase value. This team will meet with customers and businesses to learn about the need to find the right solution for them in the hope to help customers have a simpler solution and at the same time, reduce the complexity of Huawei’s operations.

Seeing that business customers only care about the value of the solution for them instead of the technology, Huawei has changed the specialized teams to constitute solutions to meet the needs of business customers, in solving their business problems. Huawei wants to use our diverse and rich portfolio of products and solutions to bring value to customers and when they use our solutions, it will ensure their success.

Sharing about the new strategy, Mr. Guo Ping said: “Huawei will also have some new organizations or product groups, aligning the needs of our customers in the field of digital transformation, and low carbon emissions so that we offer new solutions that serve them and create more value for our customers. Also generate greater revenue and profits for Huawei. “

In response to the media interview on Huawei’s strategy in the coming time, Mr. Gou Ping said: “We will focus on three areas: investing in talented teams, basic research, creating system architecture to survive and grow the business because it is the foundation of Huawei. Whatever the context, we continue to attract talent, especially top talent. Because, we understand that in order to survive and grow our business in the long run, we need to rely on talented employees to grow and break through. That is why we continue to recruit talented employees in the future. ”

“In the last two years, we’ve recruited 26,000 college graduates, of whom we’ve recruited about 300 of the most talented. In 2022, we will continue to recruit 10,000 more university graduates. We want to emphasize that we focus on recruiting top notch college graduates. From there, we can continue to grow our company, “Huawei’s rotating CEO stressed.

In particular, in 2021, the world-renowned mathematician Laurent Lafforgue joined Huawei in 1966. He won his first silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) at the age of 18. At the age of 35, he received the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in mathematics, for his outstanding contributions to algebra theory and algebraic geometry. In 2021, Lafforgue joined Huawei’s Paris Research Center. The topos theory he studied was a very abstract mathematical proposition that could guide the new world of communication, computing and AI. The company also founded the Lagrange Center for Mathematical and Computer Studies in Paris, France in 2020. It aims to attract top academics to Huawei’s research programs and nurture young researchers.

By Nhip song kinh te