Huawei - Teaching Note: A Silent Chinese Telecom Multinational

Huawei is the world¿s fourth-largest maker of network equipment ranked by sales, after Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Alcatel-Lucent. Furthermore, it was ranked as the second in optical networking and third in mobile-network gear in 2008. It is one of the leading global telecommunications solution providers with a revenue of $ US 18.33 billion in 2008 and a net income of $US 1.15 billion. Contrary to the typical image of Chinese companies that tend to base their competitive advantage on low labour costs, Huawei¿s principal growth strategy focuses on Research and Development (R&D). Its 14 global R&D centres are located around the world in the Silicon Valley and Dallas in the United States, Stockholm in Sweden, Moscow in Russia and Bangalore in India, as well as principal cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The case delves into the history and background of this IT giant in China in order to analyse the firm, its culture, its management system, cost competitiveness and customer relationships. There are some critical questions pending answer such as whether or not the firm will outlive its founder (Zhengfei Ren) when he retires or relinquishes his controlling power.