Huawei's commitment in Europe brings win-win results
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, October 13, 2012
"In the first few years after entering Europe, we encountered huge obstacles in market development," recalled Xu Yuan, managing director of Huawei Germany, sitting in his office in Dusseldorf that overlooks the Rhine river.
Ten years after opening its first office in Britain, Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology solutions provider, now has 37 branches, 6 research and development centers and about 6,700 employees in Europe.
Particularly in Germany, with its advantage in providing innovative and customized products and services, the Chinese company works closely with local telecommunication operators and has achieved remarkable success, benefiting both the firm and the German society.
Recipe for success
"I worked in some other Asian companies, but I believe Huawei has the greatest potential," Huawei's local employee Lars Weisswange told Xinhua. "In Europe, we need to keep close ties with Asia, so I am very excited to work in this transnational enterprise."
More than 1,000 out of Huawei Germany's 1,500 staff are native employees. As Germany endeavors to fend off impacts of the eurozone debt crisis, Huawei helps the country boost local employment with the awareness that localization can earn it wider recognition.
"To establish a company overseas is like building a skyscraper. A solid foundation is the most important thing," Xu said, "Local employees are our foundation."
In addition to localization, Huawei's cohesive enterprise culture also motivates its local employees.
"Although Huawei is a big company, it keeps a start-up spirit, which makes me feel excited and positive," Weisswange said.
An eight-member group, which is the highest management team of Huawei Germany, is responsible for the firm's all big decisions, but only three of them are Chinese, Xu told Xinhua.
"Putting customers first" is another ingredient of Huawei's success in Germany. Both Huawei German branch and European headquarters in Dusseldorf are located just a stone's throw away from the building of Vodafone, one of Huawei's big clients.
Proximity to clients is one of the reasons for choosing Dusseldorf as the company's site, Xu said.
"We always put our clients first," he said. "What products and services do they need? How long is the delivery time? Questions like these are the priorities in developing new products."
Committed to providing innovative and customized products, Huawei now serves more than 40 of the world's top 50 operators, along with over 1 billion users worldwide.
"With Huawei, we have found a perfect partner, who will satisfy the high quality and security requirements we place on our mobile communications network", said Andrea Folgueiras with Spain's Telefonica Germany.
Growing pains
Ten years ago, the founding of Huawei's representative office in Britain marked the firm's first step into the European market. Now the company boasts branches in more than 20 European countries and its research and development, production, sales, services and training network covers the European continent.
However, it has been a long march for Huawei to root itself in Europe and become a strong partner for the local industry.
"In 2000, a French client asked my colleague 'Is there a bridge like this in China?' looking at a five-meter-long, three-meter-high bridge," Xu recalled, "my colleague was totally surprised and shocked by the ignorance of the then European society about China."
"In the first few years we almost got nowhere in some European countries as many people knew nothing about Chinese hi-tech companies and believed China could only produce cheap products like costumes," Xu said.
"We strove to overcome all those misunderstanding and mistrust over the years, seeing the European market as our strategic priority and believing that continuous investment and technological strength would finally win over clients' respect and recognition," he said.
Things have changed since 2005 when Huawei's brand began to be widely recognized and sales boosted, Xu said.
Brighter future
Huawei's celebration of its entry into the European market in 2012 is accompanied with soaring sales of its products in the region. In northeastern Europe, Huawei scored a 1.5-billion-U.S.-dollar sales revenue in 2011.
As more Chinese enterprises have followed Huawei's steps in the past few years, China phobia is losing ground because of boosted employment and their contributions to local economies.
According to a poll by the Forsa market-research company earlier this year, Germans who feel afraid of a rising China fell 10 percent to 30 percent, while 68 percent of respondents are willing to accept a growing China.
Another poll conducted among 1,000 German managers by Munich-based EAC, a management consulting firm, found that 70 percent of respondents expected China to become a global economic engine, while 67 percent of them believe there is no reason to be afraid of China's economic growth.
Meanwhile, federal and state governments also welcome Chinese investment as a force to improve their local economies. Commercial centers like Dusseldorf even have set up a special office to provide Chinese investors with consulting, registration, legal help and human resources.
Now, more than 1,300 Chinese enterprises have set up branches or representative offices in Germany, accounting for 2.8 percent of the total number of foreign investors in Europe's largest economy.
In recent years, Chinese enterprises have increasingly moved out of the traditional import and export trade and have tapped into the German market by setting up wholly-owned subsidiaries or holding subsidiaries, among other measures.
However, China's 1.73-billion-dollar investment still accounts for only 0.3 percent of total foreign investment in Germany, and less than 10 percent of total German investment in China, said Wu Hongbo, a former Chinese ambassador to Germany.
"The two-way investment is still imbalanced, leaving huge potential for Chinese enterprises to invest in Germany," Wu said.
The success stories in Germany prove that cooperation between Chinese and German enterprises can bring mutual benefit and yield win-win results, he added.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)