Tian Tao: The secret behind Huawei's success

Is Huawei an innovative company? Not long ago, a European communications manufacturer executive said in an informal occasion: The biggest event in the global communications industry over the past 20 years was the unexpected rise of Huawei. Huawei revolutionized the communications industry with price and technological disruptive innovation. The traditional pattern, so that the vast majority of ordinary people in the world can enjoy low-cost and high-quality information services.

However, what is puzzling is that the word "innovation" is rare in Huawei's "management dictionary". In the hundreds of speeches, articles and Huawei documents of Ren Zhengfei for more than 20 years, "innovation" is rapture. To the least. Especially in the past two years, the so-called "internet thinking" is popular and the atmosphere of the entire Chinese industry is booming. Ren Zhengfei talks about the turtle's spirit in the 150,000 employees of Huawei and asks for the "rejection opportunism". With Huawei's established road, and not being disturbed by the flowers on the roadside, move forward with confidence and confidence...

Then, what kind of corporate philosophy is reflected behind all of this, as well as Huawei's innovative ideas, innovative practices, and innovative stories based on the philosophical view?

I. About innovation: following, continuous, subverting

Follow-up innovation

It is imitation. The so-called innovations of a large number of Internet companies and technology companies in China should be follow-up innovations, including Huawei's early and mid-term, and even today, many products are follow-up innovations. This has a lot to do with our culture.

The difference between Chinese education and American education is that the United States, starting from children, will let them develop a broad vision and cultivate the growth of their leadership spirit. China is focused on cultivating children's disciplined craftsmanship, behind the artisan culture is imitative thinking.

Due to the influence of history, culture, system and many other factors, the Eastern people are very wise in imitative innovations - the Japanese are particularly prominent in this regard. However, in terms of disruptive innovation, we have great shortcomings in comparison with Western countries, especially the United States, in terms of innovation. However, this is not entirely a bad thing. A few years ago, two American scholars evaluated in a relatively objective and rigorous and unbiased report that the nature of Chinese innovation is not at the level of conventional breakthroughs, but rather in the commercial operations of existing breakthroughs.

In other words, Americans believe that innovation should be a big leap, and Chinese innovation is gradually completed through a series of incremental steps. This has two meanings: one is Chinese-style follow-up innovation, and more is based on the commercial level. Second, it is an incremental breakthrough, not an explosive breakthrough. The title of this article is called "Building Connections - The Rise of China's Telecom Giants". The article is fully affirmed by the innovative practices of Chinese telecom companies, especially Huawei.

Continuous innovation

A history of human civilization is made up of one ghost, Jesus, Confucius, Sakyamuni, Muhammad, Plato, Washington, Rousseau, including Einstein, etc. They are gods and of course ghosts. Some people are more ghosts, some are more gods, but history remembers them. From different fields, politics, academics, science and technology, they have brought some explosive damage or explosive progress to the era in which they live. From a short-sighted perspective, history is full of breaks, but from a long-term perspective, one-on-one breaks make big events a mere connection point of civilization. Continuity is the normal state of civilization. That is to say, those great people -- great politicians, philosophers, scientists -- have brought explosive innovation, or subversion, in one aspect of a certain stage, but one technology, one The concept, in the end, to truly form an impact on the history of human history, requires a lot of quasi-great people, sub-excellent ordinary people -- ordinary politicians, ordinary scientists, ordinary business people -- to make explosive things Further refinement and further logic. Subversive innovation is generally rough in the early days of its emergence, and it is relatively small and far from market. When disruptive innovation is expected to achieve great changes in historical progress and business ecology, many people are needed to refine, logicalize, and commercialize different aspects.

So, what is the logic of technological progress? Explosive inventions and gestalt research based on filling gaps, as well as expanding market applications, complement each other and improve, can constitute a wide-ranging change and profound impact on human development. That is to say, we need both disruptive innovation, but the more normal thing is the application and marketization of disruptive innovation, including further improvement. Both are indispensable.

Objectively speaking, Huawei's more than 20 years is more about follow-up innovation and continuous innovation. By 2012, Huawei had more than 21,000 Chinese patents granted, and more than 8,000 foreign patents were granted. In 2013, it seems to be a little more. But in terms of core chips, operating systems, and core components, Huawei must also rely on the United States.

Subversive innovation

Including disruptive technological innovation and business model innovation. People can lift a car by exercising muscles, but there are always limits because the support of the bones is limited. Therefore, we must seek a new transcendence path, the technology is the same, and the business model is also the same. In the past 30 years, what technologies in the information industry can be called disruptive technologies? Most people believe that Windows is well deserved, Qualcomm's CDMA, European GSM, Google's Android operating system, Apple's operating system can be attributed to this category, because they have largely changed the industry standards and established new standards. In addition, how much technology can be called subversive? Full of controversy.

What kind of innovation can be called "can widely affect human life" in the Internet era? Approximately more is the innovation of business models.

After Steve Jobs's death, Time magazine published an article "Who is the sexiest in the modern era." Who is the sexiest? Those who integrate strategic resources, not technology innovators. They are wild idealists who focus on and challenge potential markets. Time magazine says: They have ideas, are good at packaging and perfecting others' ideas, are good at using and optimizing others' inventions, until these ideas and inventions become irresistible new products, thus changing the entire business model and Business ecology. They are remixed artists, conductors, and strategists. "Inventors used to be cool. They used to be excellent and romantic characters. The geniuses like Da Vinci, Benjamin, Franklin and Nikola Tesla" --- American Elon Musk The electric car, named Tesla, is used to commemorate the "rogue genius" ---" to draw lightning and steal the sacred fire of God. But now everything has changed. What happened? Why inventors Lost the sacred aura of their heads? When scientific inventions are no longer sexy...", Time magazine pointed out, "I reluctantly blame the blame on the great, lost Steve Jobs. Who is the poor bastard who invented the first electronic music, who invented the tablet, who invented the smartphone, I don't know, you don't know, they have never been on the cover of Time magazine."

100 years ago, it could be called the era of inventors, but today, it is an era of excess technology and cheap technology. In the era of the Internet, most inventions can become commercial products, enter the public life in a very short period of time, and even accelerate the jump and fall from the "diamond price to the price of radish cabbage".

Therefore, the integration of strategic resources and innovation based on business models can be said to be the foundation of innovation. Many of the emerging giants in the Internet industry that we see today are fast becoming giants. In fact, most of them rely on the integration of resources—technical resources, human resources, capital resources, and rapid and effective commercial integration of various resources. Not only is it subverted by a certain technology.

Second, Huawei's innovative practice

One of Huawei's innovative practices: technological innovation

By the end of 2012, Huawei had a research and development team of more than 70,000 people, accounting for 48% of the total number of employees. It is the company with the largest number of R&D in various organizations around the world. Since 1992, Huawei has insisted on investing at least 10% of its annual sales. R&D, everything can be discounted, but "10% of R&D can't be cast is to be beheaded" -- this is the head of Huawei's research and development. In 2013, Huawei invested 12.8% in R&D, reaching US$5.3 billion. In the past 10 years, R&D investment exceeded US$20 billion. Huawei has 16 R&D centers around the world. In 2011, it established a 2012 laboratory for basic scientific research. This can be said to be Huawei's secret weapon. In addition, mathematics has made significant contributions to Huawei's research and development.

More than 10 years ago, Ren Zhengfei had a clear understanding: Chinese people are good at mathematical logic and have strong mathematical thinking ability. This is related to Chinese philosophy. Chinese philosophy is a fuzzy philosophy--a vague philosophy based on Confucianism and Taoism. There is a lack of metaphysical speculative traditions and too much dialectics. Based on this, Huawei invests as little as possible in the field of materials science and physics, but the investment in mathematics research is huge.

Huawei's Russian Institute and the French Institute are mainly engaged in mathematics research. Russian mathematics computing power is also super strong, and has made significant contributions to Huawei's 2G and 3G research.

Huawei's success in developed markets such as Europe has benefited from two architecturally disruptive product innovations, one called distributed base stations, one called SingleRAN, which is called "very sexy technology invention" by Vodafone's technical experts. The design principle of this disruptive product refers to the realization of the fusion function of 3G, 3G and 4G three wireless communication systems in one cabinet. In theory, it can save customers 50% of construction cost and is also environmentally friendly. Huawei's competitors are also trying to imitate and innovate, but so far there has not been a substantial breakthrough, because this multi-standard technology fusion, behind the complex mathematical operations, is not a simple building block.

It is such a revolutionary and subversive product that has brought significant gains to the European and global markets in the past few years. When a chairman of a state-owned enterprise saw Ren Zhengfei, he said a word, "How do you rely on low-cost tactics to achieve such great success in the world?" Ren Zhengfei blurted out, you are wrong, we are not relying on low prices, it is by high prices. . In the European market, the highest price is Ericsson. The average price of Huawei's products is lower than 5% of Ericsson. But higher than Alcatel - Lucent, Nokia - Siemens 5% -8%.

Therefore, for two consecutive years from 2012 to 2013, when the EU trade commissioner launched a so-called anti-dumping and countervailing investigation against Huawei, Huawei’s European competitors, including Ericsson, Alan, and Nokia, all stood up to endorse Huawei, saying that Huawei There is no low price dumping. Even so, in order to obtain a balance of business ecology in Europe, Huawei finally made a compromise. Ren Zhengfei said that I want to be a surrender, and I want to raise a white flag. I raise the price the same as Ericsson, or slightly higher.

What is a surrender and a white flag?

If Huawei wants to become stronger and bigger in this world, it must establish a balanced business ecosystem instead of killing its competitors. When Huawei smashes other competitors, Huawei is Genghis Khan, Hitler, and Huawei will surely perish. This is Ren Zhengfei's point of view.

Innovation is broad, including technological innovation, product innovation, business model innovation, and should also include institutional innovation, organizational innovation, and so on.

The second innovation practice of Huawei: the institutional innovation of "workers have their shares"

This should be Huawei's biggest disruptive innovation, the root of Huawei's miracle, and Ren Zhengfei's major contribution to the study of contemporary management with a blank nature--how to educate knowledge workers in the Internet and globalization era. Management has been a weak link in management research for the past 100 years.

From a common sense, Ren Zhengfei can fully own the controlling stake of Huawei, but innovation must be counter-intuitive. 26 years ago, since the first day of Huawei's founding, Ren Zhengfei has given the wisdom of knowledge workers the pricing of these non-monetary and non-physical intangible assets, making "Knowledge Home" a core asset and becoming a shareholder of Huawei. Large and small bosses, as of today, Huawei has nearly 80,000 shareholders. The latest equity innovation program is that foreign employees will also become shareholders of the company in large quantities, thus achieving the full meaning of "workers have their shares", which is undoubtedly the largest number of employees in unlisted companies in the history of human business. Enterprises are undoubtedly a kind of pioneering work, which not only reflects the dedication of the founding leaders, but also tests the manager's ability to control: how to achieve the long-term mission and medium- and long-term strategy of the company under such a dispersed shareholding structure, to meet different shareholders The different interests of the class, the labor class, and the management class, thus achieving the internal and external balance of many different demands, are actually very challenging--there is no experience before, and there are still many challenges ahead. In this sense, this disruptive innovation has a unique specimen nature.

Huawei's third innovation practice: product micro innovation

In the early days, regardless of whether Western companies or Huawei sold equipment to operators as an agent model, Huawei changed the marketing model of the Chinese market that year, from the agent model to the direct sales model. This model is first forced out --- the product is poor, keeps going wrong, and then has to be close to the customer to serve. Huawei's old employees often say a word, called "the defensive". The bureau here refers to the post and telecommunications bureau, which is today's operator. Equipment will be in trouble at any time. Huawei's young researchers and experts, dozens of people often install a device in a remote county, township post and telecommunications bureau (station) for one month, two months, daytime equipment is running, at night I ran to the machine room to detect and maintain. It is a fluke that the equipment does not go wrong, and failure is a high probability.

This has forced Huawei's micro-innovation culture. For example, once Huawei switches sold to Hunan, many devices were short-circuited in the winter. What is the reason? Pulling a faulty device back to Shenzhen, what a bunch of people are wondering about in the dark. Finally, I found out that there is a urine on the outer shell that I don’t know is a cat or a mouse. Is it a crux to study here? Ok, give it a try, sprinkle a pee on the device, find it ok, and think hard. On the second day, someone suddenly said that it was wrong. Yesterday, whoever drank urine before drinking water, people are young, find an old colleague, don't drink water for a few hours, sprinkle a bubble and try again. Sure enough, after the urine was sprinkled, the power supply broke down. It was finally determined that the ingredients contained in the urine were the cause of the power failure. When Hunan was in the winter, the rats were everywhere in the house. The stains on the switch could definitely be rat urine. The peeing caused power outages. Huawei engineers made product modifications for this specific problem, and the problem was solved quickly.

Huawei can grow from a small company to a large enterprise and industry leader that is trusted by customers around the world. It must be acknowledged that more than 20 years of uninterrupted, large-scale micro-innovation close to customers is an important factor. An old Huawei employee estimates that there are thousands of micro-innovations in Huawei's products for more than 20 years. It is precisely because of Huawei's constant and frequent communication with customers that it is because of the big deception of Western companies, especially in the early days of the Chinese market, which made Party B a party--that time, when buying equipment, it must pay the money first, half a year later. It can be a good thing for you to make the equipment --- constitutes a major difference between Huawei and its competitors and a long-term difference between 20 years and years.

Huawei's fourth innovation practice: organizational innovation in market and R&D

Market organization innovation. "One point, two sides, three three systems" is the invention of Lin Biao more than 80 years ago. What is a bit of two sides? The sharp knife team first tore the opening in the "wall of Wall Street" (Ren Zhengfei), the troops of the two wings swarmed up, quickly pulled the mouth away from both sides, and then, "Wall Street is yours." Lin Biao is known as General Chang Sheng. "One point, two sides, three systems" is a very important tactical and tactical principle. The "three three system" of course refers to the organizational form. In the early days, Ren Zhengfei asked Huawei's cadres to write their experiences on "one point, two sides, three systems". Former vice president Fei Min, and today's managing director Li Jie, who is still at the grassroots level, have the deepest experience of "one point, two sides, three three systems". After the publication of "Huawei People", Ren Zhengfei praised him. Just promote them up. Since then, "one point, two sides, three three systems" has been widely used as a market operation method for Huawei companies and the principle of organizational construction of first-line organizations. It should be said that this is inspired by the Chinese military, and Huawei is building on the market. An imitative innovation has benefited Huawei's market success for more than 20 years and is still regarded as a classic by the commanders of the market.

Who did the Iron Triangle learn? Learned from the US military. The bee colony tactics, as well as the reloading brigade, etc., have also become the learning specimens of Huawei's management innovation.

What is a reloading brigade? After the first-line marketing personnel discovered the fighters, they were transmitted to the rear headquarters. Where is the mountain head? Where are the targets? The experts at the headquarters should evaluate. When the expert group believes that they can send heavy equipment to the past, these expert teams composed of business experts, technical experts and market solution experts will go to the front line, jointly determine the operational plan with the first-line team of the market, and even participate in the technical exchanges of customers. Business negotiations, etc.

R&D system innovation. For example, the fixed network department uses the industrial process to do research and development, and creates a modular organization—dividing a research and development product into different functional modules, on the basis of which different module organizations are established, each organization consists of 4. 5 lean experts are formed, and the technical breakthroughs are carried out separately. After each breakthrough, the module integration is carried out. First, the speed of research and development has been greatly improved. Second, the personnel of each module are composed of elites, so the error rate of each functional module is very low, and the integration rate is relatively low. The research and development of Huawei's 400G router is carried out in this way. It has been leading Cisco for more than 12 months and has been deployed and matured in many countries around the world.

In the wireless R&D department, the invention of the underlying architecture was invented to emphasize the Great Wall of the Great Wall, and the bench was to be idle for ten years; the application platform developed directly to the customer developed the SEAL mode, which formed the overall operational capability and rapid response of the entire R&D team. An effective combination of forces. This is what Ren Zhengfei said, "The Great Wall". The "Great Wall Commando" was run on the sturdy Great Wall. The "Sea Seal Commando" built the "Beacon Tower" on the "Great Wall."

The fifth innovation practice of Huawei: innovation of decision-making system

In the United States, Mercer Consulting consulted Huawei's decision-making mechanism in 2004. Let Ren Zhengfei preside over the office, Ren Zhengfei is not willing, he proposed a model called the rotating COO. The seven executive vice presidents take turns to serve as COOs, which are rotated once every six months. The rotation COO has been going on for 8 years. What is the result?

The first is that Ren Zhengfei is far from management, even away from management, and becomes a leader whose mind is more and more developed and "the limbs are shrinking." Real big business leaders must be deformed when the company enters a relatively mature stage. Their heads are extremely developed, focusing on the construction of ideas and culture, and the concept of corporate concepts; "the limbs are shrinking", and the limbs are not shrinking, they will often refer to them. With the foot, the people below will be at a loss.

Ten years ago, Ren Zhengfei was a majority of thinkers and a small half of the transactionists. Ten years later, Ren Zhengfei completely separated from the affairs level and became a Huawei-based thought leader in a complete sense. The successful practice of rotating COO prompted Huawei to implement the rotating CEO system three years ago. The EMT management team consists of 7 standing directors, responsible for the day-to-day management of the company. Three of the seven individuals are rotating presidencies, each of which is rotated for half a year. The operational effect in the past three years is remarkable, and one of the biggest achievements is the dynamic equilibrium of the decision-making system. If the presidency is too radical, then the entire company will be rumbling, but after half a year there will be a steady person to come to the helm, adjust the predecessor style, and too strong and may affect the development, then the person who comes up may not be left and Non-right, neither radical nor conservative. The prototype of this system comes from the advice of the consulting company, but Huawei has done a lot of transformation and innovation, including borrowing something from the US party rotation system and integrating it into Huawei's high-level decision-making system.

In the history of political decision-making in the United States, the Democratic Party pursued fairness. During the Democratic Party's administration, the deficit increased sharply. The government continued to increase taxes. The capitalists who pulled the carts did not work hard. The society was full of exhaustion, and the people voted for the Republican Party. The first thing the Republican Party is governing is often tax cuts, emphasizing development, emphasizing efficiency, walking along, and social equity has gone wrong. The people voted again and killed the Wealth Party and replaced it with the Fair Party. For the past 200 years, the United States has been roughly the process of taking turns in power between the Wealth Party and the Fair Party. Of course, today’s political ecology in the United States is much more complicated than our conclusion. Because the Internet and globalization have also brought great impact on the traditional American political history and culture, such as the discretionary trend of the social public mentality, party culture. Polarization phenomenon, etc. However, the traditional American political system design and operation methods have brought many important enlightenments to Huawei's high-level decision-making system innovation.

Then, what lessons can the British "virtual republican system" have on Huawei's organizational innovation?

Second, avoid the mountain problem. Ren Zhengfei believes that the rotating COO and CEO implemented by Huawei are much superior to Western companies. The Western company is "one of the emperors and one courtiers". One person is the CEO. His buddies are all following the chickens and dogs. This person is not doing well, and a group of people are being killed. This is very common in Western companies. Huawei's rotating COO and rotating CEO system have restricted the Shantou culture from the system, and have inclusive and accumulated many outstanding talents. At the same time, this innovative system has made the decision-making process of the entire company more and more scientific and democratic. Today's Huawei has evolved from a high degree of centralization in the early years to today's moderate democracy and moderate centralization of such an organizational decision-making system.

The rotating CEO system, compared with traditional management theory and practice, can be called epoch-making subversive innovation. I am afraid that there is no second case in the history of human business management. Some Chinese scholars have questioned the possibility of success of this system, but at least the 8 to 3 years of Huawei experiments have been relatively successful. What is the future? From the history of the future, we conclude that innovation means risk, which means rebellion and revision of the book, dogmatism. Any innovation of Huawei is based on active or passive adaptation. In this increasingly turbulent and changing era, the biggest danger is "the pursuit of fish."

Third, Huawei's philosophy of innovation

One of the innovation philosophies: customer needs are the foundation of innovation.

For more than 20 years, how did a second-trafficking company that bought and sold equipment resound the global communications industry? Is it dependent on the power of technology? Do you rely on the power of capital or government power? Obviously not.

The success of Huawei is first of all the success of philosophy and culture, but also the success of innovation. However, the basic idea of ​​Huawei innovation is to firmly grasp market demand and customer demand. Why are the centuries-old giants heading for decline? Technology worship plus capital is supreme. Motorola is arguably one of the most innovative companies. Motorola's founder, Old Galvin, and his son, Little Galvin, have a corporate vision many years ago. Motorola is a company that does not make money. The realization of customer dreams represents Motorola's corporate mission.

However, at the end of the last century and the IT and capital era at the beginning of the industry, Motorola went to technology worship, ignored customer needs, blindly invested 5 billion US dollars to engage in the so-called "high-end" "comet plan", and destroyed the invention of optical fiber. The disaster has since come. Due to the failure of major technology investments, the capital market voted with the feet, accelerating the collapse of Motorola. Motorola has become a "great symbol that has been forgotten."

Huawei was once a technology-oriented company. Huawei's early 10 years can be called a splendid 10 years. Those star-studded technical heroes have contributed to Huawei's extremely important products of "live" in the early days, such as C&C08 million program-controlled switches, which enabled Huawei to finally enter the "access ticket" of the communication technology industry and the Chinese market. The killer involved in the competition. However, the individual heroism in the context of technology orientation has also wasted a lot of money for the company. This is not because of their personal mistakes. At the time, Huawei’s innovation strategy was to cross the river by feeling the stones, with great blindness and randomness. Relying on the wisdom spark of a group of "genius characters", making brain-shaped research and development decisions, lack of sense of direction.

Ren Zhengfei said to Xu Zhijun, who was in charge of research and development, that you have wasted tens of billions of companies. Xu Zhijun responded with a smile. I admit that I was wasted, but I have contributed hundreds of billions. Ren Zhengfei said that because we have wasted 100 billion in the past, we have accumulated a lot of talents and experience, including consulting fees for Western companies approaching 30 billion yuan, and creating a customer-oriented direction in 15 years or so. The customer, the end is also the end-to-end process of the customer. This has fundamentally changed Huawei's technology-oriented corporate values ​​and R&D strategy.

Huawei has invested in the world's greatest strength to innovate, but Huawei opposes blind innovation and opposes innovation for innovation. Huawei promotes valuable innovation.

Twenty years ago, Ren Zhengfei said, you have to be an engineer businessman. IBM's process in the process of establishing a process to verify and solidify this orientation. A few years ago, Xu Zhijun said with confidence that in the past, we had 3,000 people in the R&D team. We all felt that we were out of control. Now we have more than 70,000 people who manage it well. You give me 70,000 people. We can still manage it very much. it is good. what reason? Based on an end-to-end R&D process, the entire R&D is based on rational decision-making, based on market demand – explicit customer needs and implicit customer needs. The turnover rate has been reduced a lot, the cost waste has been greatly reduced, and the organization's dependence on individuals has also decreased.

The second part of innovation philosophy: Open cooperation is the cornerstone of innovation.

This includes several points, one is the technical route for land for peace. This includes patent exchanges, payment of patent fees, etc. The intellectual property fees paid by Qualcomm to the company have accumulated more than 700 million US dollars. Ren Zhengfei has a metaphor. When the army reaches the top of the mountain, it is found that the mountainside and the foot of the mountain are surrounded by the basic patents of Western companies. What should I do? Only leave the road to buy money: pay the patent fee, or rely on its own patent reserve for patent swap. Don't be lucky, you can't imagine applying a set of styles of success in the Chinese market to the international market. Huawei's innovative principle is to uphold the spirit of the tortoise and resolutely oppose speculation.

Second, establish strategic partnerships with competitors, customers, etc. In the past, Huawei has established cooperative research and development organizations with many Western competitors. It has established joint laboratories with Texas Instruments, Motorola, IBM, Intel, and Lucent, and established joint ventures with Western companies such as Siemens, 3COM, and Symantec.

One of Huawei's major innovations in the R&D system is to establish 28 joint innovation centers with many global customers including Vodafone. This is not only a pioneering move, but Huawei's competitors have followed suit, but due to cost and other factors. And there is little imitation success. However, it is this kind of innovation system that has enabled Huawei to win countless opportunities and breakthroughs in the R&D field for the future and for the long-term needs of customers.

Third, Huawei's vision is to enrich human communication and life. How to achieve this grand vision? Huawei's innovation strategy is to use the wisdom of the world to serve Huawei. By the end of 2012, it has cooperated with more than 200 universities and research institutes around the world. When the British Prime Minister met with Ren Zhengfei last year, Ren Zhengfei said that the British industrialist era has cultivated strong technical strength, but in the past few decades, Britain’s finances have become too strong, and manufacturing has begun to decline and shrink. The scientific and technological capabilities of the reserve will be affected. Huawei invests 2 billion US dollars, people are yours, and your ability is yours, but I invest your ability to apply on Huawei's global platform, which is good for both the UK and Huawei. The British Prime Minister is deeply convinced.

The third piece of innovation philosophy: based on the open and learning-oriented innovation concept.

One is to learn from the West. The end-to-end R&D process change mentioned above is led by IBM. There are also supply chain changes, human resource changes, financial system changes, market system changes, etc. Huawei has spent huge sums of money to hire top consulting companies in the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany and other countries. There are more than a dozen consulting companies in Huawei. After doing different management consulting, Huawei's management innovation, organizational innovation and the improvement of the organization's management capabilities have made great progress, laying the foundation for Huawei to become a global company.

Innovation philosophy 4: Innovation based on respect for intellectual property.

Why do American societies have such a strong impulse to innovate? Why is Google willing to acquire Nokia's mobile phone system with a huge capital of 12 billion dollars?

Is Facebook silly? Why are you willing to pay $19 billion to a company with more than 50 people? The answer is: market pricing of the results created by human intelligence reflects the respect and recognition of intellectual rights, which is the fundamental premise of scientific and technological progress.

Huawei's innovation believes in Western rules and American rules. Huawei pays about $200 million in royalties to Western companies every year. It spends more than $100 million a year on some R&D funds and participates in and leads the standards organizations of many global industries. Huawei believes that in the next five to eight years, a "patent world war" will erupt, and Huawei must have a clear strategic judgment and strategic design.

The fifth of innovation philosophy: openness, tolerance, and encouragement of trial and error are the sources of innovation.

Why can't China out of Jobs? In his early years, Jobs was a drug addict. He was full of odor. After becoming the "Godfather" of Apple, he still often did not take a bath, his personality was arrogant, and he acted rebellious... American culture gave him the greatest tolerance, even appreciation, and in our cultural and social soil. Into, tolerance and tolerance are the most scarce social qualities, and it is naturally difficult to produce characters like Jobs. American culture, especially the Silicon Valley culture, is mad, and the media pursues a madman-like fanatic. The US media's evaluation of some heretical talents is: If he succeeds, human beings will succeed.

Many great scientists, artists, thinkers, and entrepreneurs have some extreme quirks. For example, not taking a bath is a common quirk. Jobs doesn't like to take a bath... Hughes, the founder of Hughes Aircraft Manufacturing Company, rarely takes a shower. Hughes is on the top. In the 1960s, it was called the "century hero" of the United States. He was a crazy adventurer and a billionaire. He also suffered from severe claustrophobia, but he lived in a wave... Many scientists were not inspired by experiments. In the room, on the toilet side, the dirt in the belly is drained, the inspiration comes out, and the bath is inspired.

So for some madmen of this type, should Huawei give tolerance? Ren Zhengfei's point of view is called "gray theory" and opposes the use of non-black and white. People with cultural cleanliness, especially those with moral integrity, can't be business leaders. Therefore, Ren Zhengfei said many times that we are not training monks, pastors, we are a commercial force, and Huawei must accommodate all kinds of aliens.

In addition, Huawei also has the Blue Army staff, the company from the top to the grassroots organizations, are consciously training the Blue Army staff. What is the function of the Blue Army staff? His task is to sing the opposites, to virtualize various kinds of confrontational sounds, and to establish a red-blue confrontation mechanism. Huawei has a group of such "celebrities", such as Bai Zhidong, the leader of the Blue Army staff, and Xu Enqi, the fixed network department. They are full of negation styles from personality to conversation. They are a group of "crow mouths", owls, at any time. Sing a "burial song" for Huawei, not a song. What people think is that if you communicate with Bai Zhidong, he can criticize Huawei for being incomprehensible, and full of "risk-sounding" prophecy for Huawei's development in the next few years, but it is not a good word for Chinese companies such as Tencent and Xiaomi; and Ren Zhengfei On the body, he often shows the two sides of the "red and blue showdown": when the situation inside and outside the company is good, he is the Blue Army. He talks about Huawei not far from death and spreads "pessimism". When the situation is not good, he is optimistic. The Red Army of the sect, in a very provocative style, gave birth to "positive energy" in the company...

Why are there few successful innovations in state-owned enterprises around the world? Ren Zhengfei said that Huawei's research and development waste of 100 billion in 20 years may be exaggerated, but it is precisely this 100 billion that builds Huawei's soft power. Huawei's world-class innovation strength is built on Huawei's numerous tuition fees. Based on the lessons learned, the experience of innovative success has been accumulated.华为一位高管这样说，"在华为，所有坐在第一排的人都犯过无数的错误，领导力创新力是用钱砸出来的……"。华为芯片研发部门曾经确定目标：一次投片成功！任正非说：一次投片成功的说法是反动的，这个世界上没有神仙。要知道，每投片一次的成本大约在几百万美金。那么，国有企业允许这样的错误尝试、敢于鼓励勇于犯错的实验精神吗？

不要说1千亿，几百亿，几个亿、1个亿投下去，可能就被追究责任，而允许试错，鼓励试错，才是创新文化的核心特质。

以上归结起来：客户与市场才是创新的源泉，市场导向是创新成败的根本。无论是模仿创新，还是连续创新，还是颠覆式创新，无不基于客户（用户）的显性或者隐性的需求，重要的在于追求市场上的成功。而开放式创新则是一切创新的哲学基础。华为从来不讲自主创新，任正非有个形象的说法，1+1是西方人发明的，难道我们还要从1+1重新开始吗？另外，资源整合基础上的商业模式的创新，代表着未来创新的主潮流。

四、华为面临的创新挑战：危机与战略

一些管理优良的大公司，突然之间就无疾而终，为什么？

原因固然很多，但以下几点大概是核心因素：

第一，对成功路径的依赖，包括商业模式、技术（开发）模式、管理模式的依赖，从而变得保守和封闭。

绝大多数的大公司普遍有对成功路径的依赖。数码相机最早是柯达发明的，为什么最后没有成为柯达面对新变化的转折点呢？就是因为这家"巨无霸"公司在自己的内部文化上形成了丛林法则，一切外来的、异类的、新生的事物都会被固有的生态秩序扼杀掉，数码相机就是这样被柯达自己干掉的。所以，任正非说专家更保守，因为专家对自己研发出来的某种产品就像对自己的孩子那样过分喜爱，对一切威胁到"自家孩子"的异类抱有戒备与警惕。恰恰是非专家们可能更开放一些。

此外，就是颠覆性创新带来的冲击。苹果手机是靠技术资源的整合和商业模式的创新，终结了摩托罗拉、诺基亚、爱立信这些手机鼻祖们的辉煌，层出不穷的、而且呈加速度出现的未来的颠覆性创新，对华为的威胁也是非常强大的。更可怕的是，大企业依赖颠覆性创新，鲜有成功的先例。颠覆性创新往往来自于中小企业。原因在于大企业固有的文化、组织、思维范式，还有大企业普遍畏惧失败的惰性等，尤其是资本导向的大企业更是如此。

第二，我们已经进入ICT时代，即互联网主导信息技术革命的时代，其突出特征就是大数据风暴。

今天的数据流量70%发生在数据中心，14%发生在企业网，仅有16%发生在华为产品的主导市场————运营商网络。人类正在进入生物界、社会界、企业界包括各类社会组织全面数据化的时代。

那么，华为怎么来应对？我们先讲讲华为的战略位势，然后再讲讲华为的应对战略。华为今天处于什么样的战略位势呢？就是在CT————通信技术领域，华为可以说与爱立信共同构筑了牢不可破的双雄霸主地位，至少在看得见的未来，这种依靠强大的技术专利优势、市场优势、管理优势形成的高壁垒，别的力量是很难取代的。

但是堡垒有可能被新的战场颠覆，这即是IT时代的到来。过去30多年，互联网终结了无数传统企业的命运，甚至消灭和将要消灭一些行业和一些职业，同时作为一种不亚于蒸汽机的颠覆性创新工具，也在不断为互联网企业和信息技术企业自身掘墓坑，最先最快倒下的往往是创新者自己，华为无疑也侧身其中。那么，在未来的时代里，华为还有多少机会？

华为的应对战略，粗线条的讲有这么几条。

一是面对未来的基础研究与应用开发同步实施的战略。

前面讲了，大企业通过颠覆性创新获得成功的鲜有先例。曾经，面对移动互联网的变化，FaceBook、Google也都有很大的危机————过往的成功阻碍着大组织的文化与商业模式的转型。

但是你发现他们无不走了另外一条路，什么路呢？叫"创新特区"————这是我对这种现象的定义。Google有很多正在研发的、处于萌芽状态、模糊状态的颠覆性技术，都不是在Google原有的组织体系里实现的，是在所谓"创新特区"实现的。其实，苹果公司在乔布斯二度复出之后的巨大成功，也是在一种与原有体系相对区隔的状态下实现的。华为2012实验室代表着华为未来的核心竞争力，有一批世界领先的前沿科学家和数千名研发人员，而且年龄普遍不大，他们正在研发一些很前端的基础科学技术。2012实验室也许就是华为的"创新特区"。

二是更加开放的研发路线。

为什么说军队是最具创新性的组织，而不是纯粹的商业机构？原因很多，但重要因素之一是，企业要考虑投入产出比，军队对创新成本的考量相对较少。军队是与死亡进行对抗的组织，所以军队也是最具危机气质的组织，危机是创新的原生动力：在生死界和成本之间做抉择，当然拯救危机是唯一优先的选择。华为虽然有了2012实验室，但在面对市场，面对客户的应用型研发方面，不但不能弱化，还要进一步加强，华为必须首先活下来，只有活到未来，才能有更大的成功。所以华为必须长期坚持高举实用主义与拿来主义的旗帜，更加开放地与客户、竞争对手、大学、供应商等建立合作关系、协同关系。

三是技术路线，叫做从外朝里打、从里朝外打的两手战略。

美国的企业界在极力推出Wi-Fi户外化的标准。美国如果真把Wi-Fi做到户外化，实现漫游，那对CT行业的制造商们的打击将是巨大的。华为有两手战略：从里朝外打，就是把Wi-Fi户外化，华为的技术储备也是很强大的；从外朝里打，这是欧洲标准，这本来就是华为的强项。

不在一棵树上吊死，华为是一个建立在市场变化基础上的"水性杨花"的公司。市场怎么变我都跟着或者引领着潮流，做几手准备。

四是压强原则。

依靠某种颠覆性创新的产品拯救大企业走出衰落的现象，苹果是个例外，一般很难做得到。华为有自身管理的独特优势，任正非的观点是，当一种颠覆性创新有迹象成为潮流的时候，华为文化的群体执行力就会发生作用，集结优势力量，千军万马朝新的领域、新的方向去聚焦，形成后发制人的超越态势。小企业具备灵活性，但实力弱小。华为这支15万人的大部队不但有强大的实力，而且依然具备小企业的快速应变力和强悍的执行力。

大并不可怕，可怕的是大了以后的封闭和自大，可怕的是整个组织自我批判精神的丧失。活力是组织之魂，大企业普遍的症状是，管理越来越优良，控制力越来越强，活力越来越弱，所以才有很多大企业貌似管理优良，但是无疾而终。

华为文化未来的变革方向在哪里？就是要在工业文化和互联网文化的结合部寻求创新性组织的生长点。

什么叫工业文化呢？现代企业深受军队组织的影响，建构于其上的工业文化与军队颇多相似之处：效率、纪律、规则、绩效导向、规范化与数字化，金字塔的组织结构等。华为更像一支准军事化的商业部队，可以说是全球大企业中执行力最强的少数企业之一。但这种准军事化的工业文化，也许是华为面对未来ICT————IT主宰未来时代的一个硬伤。华为的管理干部们都很自豪华为文化的传统特质，但一些人也担心华为身段过硬这样一种工业文化的特性，能不能适应未来的变化。

互联网文化是什么呢？反秩序、挑战规则、非连续性、多变动性、崇尚自由、火花式的、非线性的、个人至上，以及扁平化的组织结构。Google的员工可以带着很奇怪的宠物比如蜥蜴到办公室，可以带着猴子去上班。

华为内部有一种声音认为，华为如果不能从单一的工业文化中走出来，不能拥抱互联网时代，包括互联网思维所带来的文化演变，华为是没有未来的。那么，出路在哪里呢？在工业文化和互联网文化的结合部寻求华为创新文化的新的增长点。

举例说，从用人标准角度，应该形成标准化精英加非标准化小人物相兼容的一种人才体制。客观地说，华为过去20多年尤其是过去十多年的成功，更多依赖的是标准化的精英人才体制，对个人英雄、异端人才的包容是不够的，甚至排斥的。

另外，从组织体制角度讲，形成工业的组织躯干与高度灵活的组织神经末梢的结合。现代大工业组织的流程化体制是华为的竞争力所在。华为如果把这些东西抛弃掉了，那将是华为根本上的失败。未来华为必须坚持构建强大的组织动员能力和组织执行力，而组织的神经末梢要更多的鼓励犯错误，鼓励创新，鼓励基层组织生长出更活跃的细胞。

一位从事人力资源的前华为高管这样说：华为能够容的下乔布斯这样曾经吸大麻，一个浑身散发着异味，个性极端的天才吗？华为能够接受比尔·盖茨这样的大学没有读完、没有学位的偏才吗？华为的研发团队中有多少任正非所呼唤的异类人？这几个问题看似简单，但对华为传统的标准化人才体制、选人育人用人的流程，以及华为文化都是富于挑战性的。

结语：创新是寂寞的事业

关于创新，任正非有过这样一些观点，十多年前讲，"快三步是先烈，快半步是英雄"，讲的是产品创新的节奏，与企业投入产出环境的均衡；2006年讲到，"创新就是在消灭自己，不创新就会被他人消灭"，讲的是信息技术时代企业的创新困境与悖论，既反映着创新对华为的极端重要性，又表现着一种强大的危机意识。很显然，作为一家全球行业的领袖级企业，华为的创新理念已不能仅仅停留在投入产出比的考量上了，不能单纯满足于短中期的市场成功了，华为还应该朝前迈出几步，像爱立信等伟大企业一样，在波涛汹涌的彼岸竖起整个行业的信号塔，从更多的技术追随型的角色向"领航者"的角色转变，2012实验室的创立无疑代表着这一转型，2012-2013两年间，华为的研发投入分别占销售额14%、12.8%，相当部分投入到了面向未来的基础科学研究……如果说，过往20多年，华为的工程师商人文化奠定了华为的巨大成功，那么在今天，科学家与工程师正在共同构建华为作为全球领导者的未来战略格局。

近些年，任正非大声疾呼华为的高层管理者要在"一杯咖啡中吸收宇宙正能量"，近一阶段，又对华为的高端科学家们喊话，要求他们每年至少有1/3到1/2以上的时间到全世界的大学、技术论坛、学术会议上……"与全球的各类大人物们撞击思想"（咖啡是引爆人类灵感的助燃剂），并且敢于和勇于做"技术思想领袖"。

关于创新人才，任正非的观点很鲜明："华为在未来的云里面不知会冒出来多少你看不见的领袖，别打击，说不定这个人就是凡·高，就是贝多芬……我们正走在大路上，要充满信心，为什么在小路上走的人我们就不能容忍？谁说小路不能走成大路呢？你想要做霸主就要容得天下可容纳的东西。你们要容忍在核心网里面出现异类人"。

然而，2013年下半年以来，任正非关于创新的基调似乎变了，在不同场合以不同的话语告诫内部：当上上下下人人都在喊创新的时候，就是华为灭亡之日。在特斯拉电动汽车以"龙飞船"的形象大放异彩时，任正非在干部大会上倡导"乌龟精神"————不被所谓的"互联网潮动"所左右，不被路两旁的鲜花所羁绊，坚定信心地走自己的路————"进攻是最好的防御"，这就是任正非对华为的创新战略的坚定回答。

创新是寂寞的事业，容不得非黑即白、否定一切、唯我代表潮流的"红卫兵思维"，和敲锣打鼓、大干快上的"大跃进思维"，如果所谓的"互联网思维"要以一场运动的方式呈现才叫做创新的话，任正非宁可选择做"保守"的孤独主义者。硅谷是全球的创新心脏，半个世纪以来，什么时候，硅谷的创新者们成天满世界地为自己造势？为所谓的"创新革命"大张旗鼓地造神？真正的创新英雄们大多是寂寞人。

华为能够有今天的成就，也得益于任正非和华为的15万员工，在长达20多年的发展历程中对寂寞和孤独的忍耐，对持续创新的坚守，以及对内外躁动的警惕。"忍者神龟"的喻意也许体现着科学精神、创新精神，乃至于真正的商业精神的本质。