風蕭蕭_Frank
以文會友
華為我們不知道的一麵
2023 年 9 月 11 日
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/side-huawei-we-don%E2%80%99t-know-206789?page=0%2C1
盡管經常受到西方政策製定者和專家的譴責和懷疑，但該公司的起源和獨特的治理體係卻鮮為人知。
通過錢德蘭·奈爾
中國在短短三十年的時間裏迅速崛起，成為世界第二大經濟體和全球強國，這是二十一世紀迄今為止最重大的故事。 不幸的是，與此同時，令人恐懼的西方國家也產生了極大的擔憂，西方國家與全球主流媒體一起，為這個國家驚人的發展速度描繪了一幅醜陋的圖畫。
這一進步最明顯的體現之一是華為，一家中國公司，現在是全球最大的電信設備製造商。 然而，該公司的發展卻伴隨著西方尤其是美國的恐懼和不信任，美國認為該公司對美國國家安全構成潛在威脅。
華為所謂的惡名很大程度上可以歸結為兩件事。 首先，該公司實際上運營良好且極具創新性，這一事實令西方人深信自己的技術優勢以及技術創新與特定政治/文化價值觀之間的關係，並感到不安。 第二種觀點認為，因為它是一家中國科技公司，而且其創始人是軍人，也是中共黨員，所以它一定是由中國政府控製的。 後一種觀點表明人們對現代中國，尤其是中國商業生態係統與國家之間的關係了解甚少。
由於對華為的起源、方法論以及與中國股份的關係缺乏了解，使其成為反複出現的目標。 華盛頓有必要更多地了解這家公司以及它是如何成為第一的。
華為的起源
對於那些不了解 1949 年中華人民共和國成立後中國國內鬥爭的人來說，值得記住的是，即使在 20 世紀 70 年代和 80 年代，中國的部分地區饑荒也並不罕見。 江蘇省就是這樣的地區之一，那裏的人們被迫在森林中尋找漿果、堅果和任何他們能找到的食物來生存。 請記住，這也是鄰國香港（以及新加坡）看到麥當勞和肯德基等快餐變得無處不在的時期。 中國這段時期持續的貧困和苦難是由於持續不斷的內部鬥爭和未能支持國家的考慮不周的政策造成的。
這個時期成長起來的一個人就是任正非。 由於家裏很窮，他放棄了一些微薄的口糧給兄弟姐妹吃，而是用米糠拌著吃，以維持自己的生活。 他常常去森林裏采摘任何可以供家人生存的食物。
早年的奮鬥生活促使他作為一個年輕人踏上了一段最非凡的旅程。 任正非在學習建築和工程學後加入了中國軍隊。 在為社會做出貢獻的願望的推動下，他最終帶著更大的創業計劃離開了軍隊。 他自學了計算機和其他新興數字技術的工作原理。 在幾次創業失敗後，1987年，43歲的他最後一次擲骰子，創立了華為，意為“致力於中國，有所作為”，旨在銷售程控交換機。
從很多方麵來說，該公司現在都是世界上最受認可的品牌之一——部分原因是其創新和市值，部分原因是卷入了西方和中國之間的地緣政治鬥爭。
任正非的貧困和絕望故事與當今科技巨頭許多創始人的故事形成鮮明對比。 它還應該提供有關公司的彈性、其充滿的積極性以及計劃如何承受當前外部壓力的線索。 華為新智能手機的推出，展現了華為成功突破美國製裁、自主創新的能力，引發廣泛關注。 同樣，盡管沒有成為全球頭條新聞，該公司最近也宣布推出自己的企業資源規劃軟件，結束了對甲骨文軟件的依賴。 預計會有更多的創新，這證明了古老的格言：需要是發明之母。
華為為何如此創新？ 要理解這一點，需要了解該公司的三個方麵及其運營方式，這為觀察者提供了見解。
華為的治理和所有權體係
人們常常錯誤地認為華為是中共的商業延伸，其運作方式也類似，其創始人任正非擁有絕對權力，密切監督著一個自上而下的等級製度。
現實卻截然不同。 這家私營公司是 100% 員工持股的公司，任正非持有公司 0.7% 的股份。 這種治理結構是華為獨有的，借鑒了對世界各地最佳實踐的廣泛研究，並根據其需求進行了定製。
公司實行集體領導、多重製衡的運作模式，股東代表和決策機構成員均由民主選舉產生。 股東大會是公司的最高決策機構，決定公司增資、利潤分配、選舉董事會、監事會成員等重大事項。 職工代表由工會委員會組成，職工代表委員會是工會履行股東責任、行使股東權利的職工載體。 有投票權的持股員工以每股一票的方式選舉委員會，委員會隨後以一人一票的方式選舉公司董事會和監事會。 這些活動是透明的，甚至對所有員工進行直播。
作為華為的創始人，任正非的影響力和權威來自於他的成就所獲得的尊重——這是一種中國特有的組織和諧與秩序的方法，植根於尊重長輩和領導的文化。 雖然任正非對董事會決策擁有否決權，但有記錄表明，他隻行使過幾次這項權利，而且通常是在技術和業務方向上，這在世界上大多數私營公司中都很常見。 他在內部被描述為一個更喜歡通過全公司範圍的演講分享他的願景和想法的人，這些演講作為方向製定的指導。
建立這樣的治理結構的主要動機是確保公司的長壽並使其實現可持續增長。 作為一家私營公司，華為能夠設計長期結構並設定目標，能夠專注於其核心願景和使命——包括客戶和員工。
雖然近期製裁對華為智能手機業務和短期利潤造成影響（2022年淨利潤同比下降69%），但華為持續進行戰略投資，投入更多資金用於研發（研發） ）。 2022年，他們將收入的25%投入研發，相當於1615億元人民幣，絕對值超過美國以外的世界上任何一家公司，占收入的比例也超過科技巨頭。 相比之下，全球最大的研發支出亞馬遜和 Alphabet 同年將其收入的 14% 左右投資於研發。
盡管無法在全球範圍內推出高端5G手機，但智能手機業務部門並未裁員。 這也是一種經常被誤解和不被重視的文化差異，員工被視為家庭的一部分。 所以，當困難來臨的時候，大家都會忍著，進入“生存”模式。 新款Mate 60、Mate 60 Pro、Mate 60 Pro+以及新版可折疊手機Mate X5的推出，證明了這一策略的智慧。
華為的治理結構使其能夠對公司、設施、研發和員工進行再投資，即使在業務低迷和外部壓力時期也是如此。
向世界學習和全球開放的文化
華為基於孔子集體韌性的傳統，強調艱苦奮鬥，這使其能夠吸引那些堅信自己能夠克服障礙並創造解決方案的人才，以最好地實現公司“以客戶為中心，為客戶創造價值”的官方目標。 ” 員工不僅受到所提供的經濟獎勵的驅動，還受到使命感和致力於尋找問題解決方案的需要的驅動。 該公司的吸引力使其能夠吸引中國最優秀的人才。
在製定公司目前的公司治理模式時，值得注意的是，華為領導層花了大量時間研究世界各地成功、持久的公司的治理模式，包括日本家族企業以及法國、德國和日本的企業。 美國。 他們積極思考不同模式的優缺點，吸取成功和失敗的教訓，將這些想法為華為量身定製。
華為監事會的設計就是一個很好的例子。 它從德國公司治理結構和 Fredmund Malik 製定的治理原則中汲取靈感。 不過，華為的架構與德國企業不同，股東代表坐在最高層。 此外，監事會不僅對董事會進行監督，而且在公司不同層級的領導梯隊建設和製定公司運作規範方麵發揮著積極作用。
盡管經常受到西方政策製定者和專家的譴責和懷疑，但該公司的起源和獨特的治理體係卻鮮為人知。
通過錢德蘭·奈爾
員工的參與也是獨一無二的。 監事會和董事會成員全部為華為員工。 董事會提名的股東代表還必須對公司做出貢獻並表現出必要的領導技能。
五年前，類似的學習不同模式的思維被運用到繼任者計劃和輪值聯席主席製度的建立中。 華為非常重視培養公司內部的領導者。 為了實現它想要的係統，它研究了采用類似方法的老牌公司的不同領導結構，包括家族創辦的公司。
該公司相信，通過留住頂尖人才，它可以克服任何一個人的局限性，並提供製衡。 華為目前有三名輪值聯合主席。 當聯席主席下班時，他們會訪問其他國家，會見員工，了解業務，最重要的是，有思考的空間和時間，這是非常重視的。
華為開放的世界觀和對其他文化的欣賞在其位於東莞市的研發園區中得到了最淋漓盡致的體現。東莞市被稱為“歐洲城市”，該園區有 30,000 名員工在仿照 9 個不同歐洲國家的 12 個不同“村莊”工作。 修剪整齊的花園環繞著歐洲最著名的城市和建築的真人大小複製品，包括凡爾賽宮、海德堡城堡、阿姆斯特丹和維羅納。 村莊裏星羅棋布的餐館和咖啡館，體現了任誌強對咖啡文化的推崇。 還有電動火車服務，因此無需在校園內開車。 該園區的概念是設計競賽的一部分，並因其獨特性而被選中，使其有別於通常的科技公司或中國風格的設計。
該組織及其員工顯然仍然熱衷於促進全球文化交流和學習非中國的成功模式。 著名觀察家已經注意到了這一點。
致力於社會義務並做出改變
許多人可能會驚訝地發現華為將可持續發展視為其業務重點的一個組成部分。 它有四項可持續發展戰略，所有這些戰略都與其願景和使命相一致：數字包容、安全可信、環境保護以及健康和諧的生態係統。 每項戰略都與公司的業務和產品開發相結合。 例如，華為的產品和解決方案越來越多地旨在幫助企業及其客戶減少能源消耗和二氧化碳排放。
雖然該公司確實發布了年度可持續發展報告，但這些報告並不符合典型的西方 ESG（環境、社會和公司治理）或 CSR（企業社會責任）報告。 同樣，該公司也不太重視慈善事業，也沒有設立基金會或慈善機構。 相反，它利用其技術投資開發具有成本效益和可持續的解決方案，並與當地和多邊合作夥伴合作，以在需求最迫切的國家實現其目標。
以 TECH4ALL 為例，這是該公司的長期數字包容性計劃，致力於開發創新技術和解決方案，以實現包容性和可持續發展的世界。 他們應用人工智能和雲來學習瀕危動物、雨林和濕地的聲音，遠程監控和防止非法狩獵和伐木。 該應用程序已在拉丁美洲和歐洲的許多國家使用，並且具有在其他領域部署的潛力。
另一個例子是鄉村之星。 作為其對農村發展和彌合數字鴻溝以促進偏遠地區發展的承諾的一部分，華為投資創新更簡單、更小型的數據傳輸技術。 RuralStar 解決方案允許在簡單的杆上而不是專用塔上建造基站，具有低功耗功能，可以使用六個太陽能電池板供電。 RuralStar 被廣泛認為是偏遠和農村社區最環保、最具成本效益的解決方案之一。 值得注意的是，與傳統上僅關注高密度城市地區相比，為農村地區提供服務的商業決策導致利潤率估計下降 30%。 在全球範圍內，該技術為擁有數千名居民的小村莊提供服務，與傳統解決方案相比，成本降低了 70%。 繼2017年在加納首次試點後，已有60多個國家實施了RuralStar，超過5000萬農村地區人口受益。 以此類項目融資為例，2020年在加納，交通部和加納電子通信投資局與中國進出口銀行簽署融資協議，華為將為加納部署2000多個RuralStar站點，為加納提供2000多個RuralStar站點。 為超過 340 萬人提供語音和數據服務。
在推動數字化的目標下，華為還持續投資綠色轉型。 除了在自身運營中顯著增加可再生能源的使用（比 2020 年增加 42.3%）之外，產品能源效率的提高也是其創新過程中的一個重要指標。 一家公司報告稱，自 2019 年以來，其主要產品的能源效率提高了 1.9 倍，這反過來又幫助其客戶和行業合作夥伴減少碳足跡。
更廣泛地說，華為的數字電力技術正在全球許多太陽能發電場部署和使用。 這個想法是用比特來管理瓦特，以幫助更好地生產清潔能源並減少排放。 截至2021年底，華為數字電力已幫助客戶發電4829億千瓦時，節省電量約142億千瓦時。 這些努力已減少近2.3億噸二氧化碳排放，相當於種植了3.2億棵樹。
選擇履行社會承諾並采取具體步驟實現使命宣言之外的企業願景的能力對於華為來說是相對獨特的。 當企業努力實現 ESG 目標並克服短期優先事項與可持續增長投資之間的根本緊張關係時，華為通過將其產品和服務視為可持續發展的關鍵推動者，致力於克服這些挑戰。 它致力於開發信息和通信技術，以減少碳排放，推廣可再生能源，並為循環經濟做出貢獻。 華為在自身運營中努力推動節能減排，更多使用可再生能源。 這是可能實現的，因為領導團隊內部達成了共識，做出了與其可持續發展議程相一致的戰略選擇，投資於長期目標的願望，以及創新新產品以實現可持續發展目標的能力。
一家不會消失的公司
華為在全球舞台上的成功基於卓越的創新能力，這表明中國有很多值得世界其他國家學習的地方。 然而，這一成功是通過開放策略和向他人學習的意願實現的。 該公司的批評者正忙於回應最近的事態發展，應該引起注意。
錢德蘭·奈爾 (Chandran Nair) 是全球明日研究所 (GIFT) 的創始人兼首席執行官。 他是《廢除全球白人特權：後西方世界的公平》一書的作者。
The Side of Huawei We Don't Know
September 11, 2023
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/side-huawei-we-don%E2%80%99t-know-206789?page=0%2C1
Though often condemned and suspected by Western policymakers and experts, the company’s origins and unique governance system are poorly understood.
China’s meteoric rise in the short space of thirty years to become the second-largest economy in the world and a global power has been by far the biggest story of the twenty-first century. It has also unfortunately been accompanied by a great deal of worry by a fearful West, which together with the global mainstream media, has painted an ugly picture of the country’s remarkable pace of development.
One of the most visible manifestations of this progress is Huawei, a Chinese company and now the world’s largest maker of telecoms gear. Yet the company’s growth has been accompanied by fear and mistrust from the West—particularly from the United States, which regards the firm as a potential threat to U.S. national security.
A great part of Huawei’s supposed infamy can be boiled down to two things. The first is that the company is actually very well-run and extremely innovative—a fact that Westerners, convinced of their own technical superiority and the relationship between technological innovation and a particular set of political/cultural values, find unnerving. The second is the view that because it is a Chinese tech firm, and its founder was in the military as well as a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it must be controlled by the Chinese government. This latter view demonstrates how little is understood of modern China, especially the relationship between China’s commercial ecosystem and the state.
This lack of knowledge relating to Huawei’s origins, methodology, and relationship with the Chinese stake makes it a recurring target. It would behoove Washington to know more about the company and how it came to be first.
Huawei’s Origins
For those unaware of the struggles within China after the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it is worth remembering that even in the 1970s and 1980s there were parts of China where famine was not unusual. One such region was Jiangsu province, where people were forced to forage in the forest for berries, nuts, and anything edible they could get hold of to survive. Bear in mind that this was also a time during which neighboring Hong Kong (and Singapore, too) saw fast food like McDonald’s and KFC become ubiquitous. This period of persistent poverty and suffering in China was a result of ongoing internal struggles and ill-considered policies that failed to support the country.
One man who grew up during this period was Ren Zhengfei. His family was so poor that he would forgo some of his meager rations so that his siblings could eat, and would instead mix his meals with rice bran to sustain himself. He used to go into the forest to pick anything edible for the family to survive.
An early life of struggle motivated him as a young man to embark on a most remarkable journey. Ren joined the Chinese military after studying architecture and engineering. He eventually left the army with bigger entrepreneurial plans, driven by a desire to contribute to society. He taught himself the workings of computers and other nascent digital technologies. After several failed forays into business, and in a last roll of the dice in 1987 at age 43, he formed Huawei, meaning “committed to China and making a difference,” with the intention of selling program-controlled switches.
The company is now, in many ways, one of the most recognized brands in the world—partly due to its innovations and market capitalization, and partly for being caught in the geopolitical struggle between the West and China.
Ren’s story of deprivation and desperation stands in stark contrast to that of many of the founders of today’s tech giants. It should also provide a clue into the resilience of the company, the sense of positivity that it is imbued with, and how it plans to withstand current external pressures. The launch of a new smartphone, demonstrating that Huawei has managed to overcome U.S. sanctions and can innovate by itself, has drawn rapt attention. Similarly, although it did not make the global headlines, the company also recently announced the introduction of its own Enterprise Resource Planning software, which ends its reliance on Oracle’s software. Many more innovations are expected, proving the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention.
What makes Huawei so innovative? Understanding this requires looking at three aspects of the company and how it is run, which provide insights for observers.
Huawei’s Governance and Ownership System
It is often wrongly assumed that Huawei operates as a commercial extension of the CCP, and is run similarly, where the founder Ren Zhengfei holds absolute authority, closely overseeing a very top-down, hierarchical system.
The reality appears rather differently. The privately-held company is 100 percent, employee-owned with Ren holding 0.7 percent of the company’s shares. This governance structure is unique to Huawei and draws from extensive studies of best practices from across the world, customized to suit its needs.
The company operates under a collective leadership model with numerous checks and balances, where shareholder representatives and those sitting in decisionmaking bodies are democratically elected. The shareholders’ meeting, the company’s premier decisionmaking forum, decides on the company’s major matters such as capital increases, profit distribution, and election of the members of the board of directors and supervisory board. Employees are represented by the Trade Union Committee, and the Representatives’ Commission is the employee vehicle through which the Union fulfills shareholder responsibilities and exercises shareholder rights. The shareholding employees with voting rights elect the Commission on a one-vote-per-share basis, after which the Commission elects the company’s board of directors and supervisory board on a one-vote-per-person basis. These events are transparent and even live-streamed to all employees.
As the founder of Huawei, Ren’s influence and authority comes from the respect he has gained for his achievements—a particularly Chinese approach towards organizational harmony and order, rooted in a culture of respect for elders and leaders. While Ren carries veto rights on board decisions, it is a matter of record that he has exercised this right only a few times and typically on technology and business direction, as is common in most privately held firms anywhere in the world. He is depicted internally as one who prefers to share his vision and ideas through company-wide addresses that serve as guidance on directionmaking.
The main motivation for setting up such a governance structure is to ensure the company's longevity and to enable it to achieve sustainable growth. Being a privately held company has allowed Huawei to design structures and set targets for the long-term, able to focus on its core vision and mission—inclusive of customers and employees.
While recent sanctions have impacted Huawei’s smartphone business and short-term profits (there was a 69 percent year-on-year decline in net profit in 2022), Huawei has continued to make strategic investments and devoted even more capital to research and development (R&D). In 2022, they invested 25 percent of their revenue in R&D, equivalent to 161.5 billion yuan, more than any company in the world outside America in absolute terms, and more than the tech giants as a percentage of revenue. For comparison, Amazon, the world’s biggest spender on R&D, and Alphabet invested around 14 percent of their revenue on R&D in the same year.
Despite not being able to launch high-end 5G phones globally, the smartphone business units have not laid off any staff. This is also a cultural difference that is often misunderstood and unappreciated, where the employee is seen as being part of the family. This is such that, when hard times arrive, everyone bears with it and goes into “survival” mode. The launch of the new Mate 60, Mate 60 Pro, Mate 60 Pro+, and Mate X5 which is a new version of its foldable phones, is a testament to the wisdom of this strategy.
Huawei’s governance structure is what allows it to reinvest in the company, its facilities, R&D, and its employees, even during times of business downturn and external pressures.
A Culture of Learning from the World and Global Openness
Huawei’s emphasis on hard work, based on the Confucious tradition of collective resilience, has enabled it to attract talent who firmly believe they can overcome obstacles and create solutions that best achieve the company’s official goal of “Staying customer-centric and creating value for customers.” Employees are not driven only by the financial rewards on offer, but also by a sense of purpose and the need to be engaged in finding solutions to problems. The company’s appeal has enabled it to attract the best talent China has to offer.
In coming up with the company’s current corporate governance model, what is noteworthy is that Huawei’s leadership spent time studying the governance models of successful, long-lasting companies from around the world, including Japanese family-owned companies and corporations from France, Germany, and the United States. They actively considered the merits and weaknesses of different models, learning from lessons of success and failure, taking these ideas and customizing them for Huawei.
The design of Huawei’s supervisory board is a good example. It drew inspiration from German corporate governance structures and the governance principles developed by Fredmund Malik. However, Huawei’s structure is different from German companies in that the representatives of shareholders sit at the top. In addition, the supervisory board does not only supervise the board of directors but plays an active role in developing the leadership pipeline at different levels of the company and setting regulations for how the company operates.
Though often condemned and suspected by Western policymakers and experts, the company’s origins and unique governance system are poorly understood.
The participation of employees is also unique. All members of the supervisory board and board of directors are Huawei employees. It is also a requirement that shareholder representatives nominated to the board have contributed to the company and demonstrated the requisite leadership skills.
A similar mindset of learning from different models was applied to succession planning and the establishment of its rotating co-chair system five years ago. Huawei places an emphasis on developing leaders within the company. To achieve the system it wanted, it studied different leadership structures from established companies with similar approaches, including family-founded companies.
By retaining top talent, the company believes it can overcome the limitations of any one individual and provide checks and balances. Huawei presently has three rotating co-chairs. When co-chairs are off duty, they visit other countries, meet employees, learn about the business, and, importantly, have space and time to think, which is given a lot of emphasis.
Huawei’s open worldview and its appreciation for other cultures are most dramatically reflected in its R&D campus in the city of Dongguan, nicknamed the “European city,” where 30,000 staff work in twelve different “villages” modeled after nine different European countries. Manicured gardens surround life-size replicas of the most famous cities and architecture in Europe, including the Palace of Versailles, Heidelberg Castle, Amsterdam, and Verona. Dotted across the villages are numerous restaurants and cafes, a reflection of Ren’s advocacy of coffee culture. There is also an electric train service so that no one needs to drive within the campus. The concept for the campus was conceived as part of a design competition and was selected for its uniqueness, setting it apart from the usual tech company or Chinese-inspired designs.
The organization and its employees clearly continue to have an appreciation for promoting global culture exchanges and learning from non-Chinese models of success. Prominent observers have taken notice of this.
A Commitment to Social Obligations and Making a Difference
Many might be surprised to learn that Huawei considers sustainability to be an integral part of its business priorities. It has four sustainability strategies, all of which are aligned with its vision and mission: Digital Inclusion, Security and Trustworthiness, Environmental Protection, and Healthy and Harmonious Ecosystem. Each of these strategies is integrated with the company’s business and product development. For example, Huawei’s products and solutions are increasingly designed to help the business and their clients reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
While the company does release annual sustainability reports, these do not adhere to the typical Western ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) or CSR (corporate social responsibility) reporting. Similarly, the company does not place too much of an emphasis on philanthropy and has not set up a foundation or philanthropic arm. Instead, it invests in developing cost-effective and sustainable solutions using its technology and working with local and multilateral partners to achieve its objectives in countries where the needs are most critical.
Consider TECH4ALL, the company’s long-term digital inclusion initiative, dedicated to producing innovative technologies and solutions that enable an inclusive and sustainable world. They have applied AI and cloud to learn the sound of endangered animals, rainforests, and wetlands, to remotely monitor and prevent illegal hunting and logging. This application has been used in many countries in Latin America and Europe and has the potential to be deployed in other fields.
Another example is RuralStar. As part of its commitment to rural development and bridging the digital divide to boost development in remote areas, Huawei invested in innovating simpler and smaller technology for data transmission. The RuralStar solution allows a base station to be constructed on a simple pole instead of a dedicated tower, with low-power features that can be powered using six solar panels. RuralStar is widely recognized as one of the greenest and most cost-effective solutions available for remote and rural communities. Notably, the business decision to service rural areas comes at an estimated 30 percent reduction in profit margins compared with the traditional focus on high-density urban areas only. Globally, this technology services small villages of several thousand residents at a 70 percent cost reduction compared to traditional solutions. Following its first pilot in Ghana in 2017, over sixty countries have implemented RuralStar and over 50 million people in rural areas have benefited. As an example of how such projects are funded, in 2020 in Ghana, the Ministry of Communications and the Ghana Investment for Electronic Communications signed a financing agreement with Export-Import Bank of China for Huawei to deploy more than 2,000 RuralStar sites for Ghana to provide voice and data services for over 3.4 million people.
Within its goal to drive digitalization, Huawei has also been consistently investing in green transformation. Beyond a significant increase in the use of renewable energy within their own operations (a 42.3 percent increase from 2020), an increased energy efficiency of their products is also an important metric in their innovation process. A company reports a 1.9 times increase in energy efficiency in their main products since 2019, which in turn helps their customers and industry partners reduce their carbon footprint.
More broadly, Huawei’s digital power technology is being deployed and used in many solar farms globally. The idea is to manage watts with bits to help better produce clean energy and cut emissions. By the end of 2021, Huawei Digital Power had helped customers generate 482.9 billion kWh of green power and save about 14.2 billion kWh of electricity. These efforts have resulted in a reduction of nearly 230 million tons in CO2 emissions, equivalent to planting 320 million trees.
The ability to choose to meet its social commitments and to take concrete steps towards realizing its corporate vision beyond the mission statements is relatively unique to Huawei. At a time when companies are striving to meet ESG goals and overcome the fundamental tension between short-term priorities and investments for sustainable growth, Huawei works to overcome such challenges by seeing its products and services as key enablers of sustainable development. It is committed to developing information and communications technologies for reducing carbon emissions, promoting renewable energy, and contributing to the circular economy. Huawei strives to promote energy conservation and emission reduction in its own operations and to use more renewable energy. This is possible to achieve due to internal consensus across the leadership team to make strategic choices aligned with their sustainability agenda, the desire to invest in long-term ambitions, and the capacity to innovate new products that allow them to achieve their sustainability goals.
A Company That Isn’t Going Away
Huawei’s success on the global stage, based upon excellence in delivering new innovations, demonstrates that China has much to teach the rest of the world. Yet this success came about via a strategy of openness and a willingness to learn from others. The company’s critics, scrambling to respond to recent developments, ought to take note.
Chandran Nair is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT). He is the author of Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World.
Image: Shutterstock.
