Twenty-five years into its existence and Huawei has established itself in 140 countries, is showing steady growth of 10% year-on-year and reached revenue of $35.4 billion, and $2.5 billion net profit in 2012, says the company's VP of international media affairs, Roland Sladek.
Speaking at the Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China yesterday, Sladek said Huawei is stronger than ever and predicts increasing growth in the next three to five years. "We have 150 000 employees worldwide, 14 regional headquarters, 28 joint innovation centres, 16 research and development centres and 45 training centres."
The company is divided into three business groups: carrier, enterprise and consumer. Carrier brings in 73% of the company's annual revenue, while consumer garners 22%. Huawei's revenue comes largely from the EMEA region (35.1%), followed by China (33.4%), Asia Pacific (17%), and the American continent (14.5%).
Sladek firmly believes Huawei's continuous growth can be attributed to its significant investment in research and development. Over 46% of Huawei's 150 000 employees are involved in R&D, and the company has invested $19 billion in this aspect in the last 10 years. Other contributors include its process management transformation, its commitment to being an innovative social contributor, and its employee stock ownership programme, he says.
Sladek explains that Huawei employees become eligible for the stock ownership programme after working for the company for two years, and stock is only granted to high-performing employees. "In December 2012, we had more than 74 000 shareholding employees. This programme attracts and retains talent, and the private holding status allows Huawei investment flexibility to address customers' needs."
He also mentions the company's rotating CEO programme, where three key executives rotate to serve as CEO for six months at a time. Eric Xu is serving as CEO until the end of March 2014. The programme aims to reach a consensus-style of leadership, where decisions are made in agreement with the other two acting CEOs, explains Sladek. "It is a new programme [and] was only launched two years ago. We did not really know how it would work at the time, but we decided to try it and so far it is working quite well."
According to Sladek, Huawei prides itself on innovation and as a result of this, receives $300 million in patent royalties every year. The company holds 20% of the world's LTE patents, and is already investing heavily in 5G development, expected to be available from 2020.
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