Going from 0 to 390 billion yuan: Three images unlock the secret to Huawei's growth

Strategic Breakthrough: Breaking a Record by 0.01 Seconds

Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo-Jo") celebrating her moment of victory after a lifetime of dedication.

Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo-Jo") is a renowned sprinter. She set the women's world record for the fastest 100-meter dash at 10.49 seconds—a record that remains unbroken today. She beat the previous world record by 0.27 seconds.

The 100-meter dash only lasts for about 10 seconds. Joyner once said that runners mentally split each second into 100 units, exerting a massive amount of effort to increase their speed by one tiny unit at a time. An improvement of 0.01 seconds, although seemingly small, is a huge accomplishment.

The higher you rise in uncharted territory, the more work it takes to achieve new breakthroughs. Huawei, standing at the summit of mountainous ICT industry terrain, compares itself to a turtle chasing after a speedy new Tesla. In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, the steadfast, dedicated spirit of the turtle is what enables its success. Huawei advocates this spirit, and warns that it should never change.

"Huawei's people have persevered through decades of hard work in relentless pursuit of the technological breakthroughs that will usher in future information societies. The breakthroughs I speak of are much like winning Olympic gold medals. We are now no different than athletes competing in the Olympics," said Ren Zhengfei in a recent interview. "If we can get our job done by simply sitting in a café and relaxing, we might not be able to produce great inventions, and most of our inventions would perhaps be insignificant. We are advancing in strategic businesses, and represent all humanity in making breakthroughs. Even if we work really hard, we might not be able to produce something great. How can we make breakthroughs by just enjoying ourselves? So you can imagine how hard our work is."

Huawei's strategy is proactive, yet conservative. While it emphasizes concentrated investment and focused strength, Huawei seeks to impart a strategic sense of patience throughout. Huawei believes that perseverance doesn't necessarily lead to breakthrough; many great breakthroughs have an element of serendipity, and don't unfold according to plan. To avoid wasted effort, Huawei embraces openness and collaboration, employing a vast number of talent from different domains around the world. This creates a dynamic environment of mutual inspiration that is more conducive to producing moments of breakthrough in each field. To Huawei, breakthroughs require a focus on strategy, and patience. Many pursuits plod along for 10 or 20 years—even a lifetime—without a single breakthrough, which is tantamount to going through the same motions, but always coming in second place.

The results of Huawei's strategic patience are evident in their market performance. As of 1995, Huawei was catching up with Cisco in domains like routers, switches, and other core telecom network equipment. After the release of the Huawei 400G router 17 years later, they had completely surpassed Cisco and have been in a leading position ever since. In the chip sector, Huawei established the ASIC Design Center in 1991, which didn't achieve commercial scale until 22 years later with the Kirin 910 chip. Fast forward to December 2015: The Kirin chip has shipped out over 50 million units, and HiSilicon is now viewed as a formidable competitor to Qualcomm and MediaTek in the chip sector.

From its humble beginnings as a small, makeshift company, having struggled its way through the thorny underbrush of entrepreneurship, to surpassing industry giants, and rising to become one of the top communications companies in the world, Huawei's path to an outstanding global enterprise is reminiscent of Cisco and Ericsson's. It has now become a telecom giant, the most feared competitor of chip and device manufacturers alike. Going from 0 to 390 billion RMB in revenue is a strategic victory at Huawei, the result of focus, investment, and technological breakthrough, like a rose that's blossomed after 28 years of consistent, patient watering.

The story was originally published by National Business Daily on Jan 28, 2016.