Page 15 - MS Perspectives 2014 YIR

Development facilities. Our group also did a tour of Huawei's marketing facility,
which not only lays out its historical development but also presents its vision,
strategy, patents, and products.

Granted that we had only a limited exposure to Huawei, but based on this visit it is
clear that Huawei is a very impressive organization. I have visited China about 25
times since 2009, lecturing, consulting, and learning about the company and its
businesses. Without a doubt, Huawei is the most impressive company I have been
exposed to in China. Its achievements place it the par with several of the great
Western companies like IBM, CISCO, and Apple.

The highlight of the visit (at least for me) was a very surprising presentation by a
man named Mr. Zhu Shiyao, who is the Deputy Party Secretary of Huawei. When I
heard that we were going to hear a presentation form a "Deputy Party Secretary"
my suspicion was that this was going to some sort of propaganda session. It was
not. Rather, it was a lucid presentation about the history and development of
Huawei, led by its enigmatic but clearly brilliant and visionary founder, Ren
Zhengfei.

"Corporate Culture is the 'Nuclear Bomb' of Huawei"

There are many aspects of Huawei that would or should be of interest to
management theorists and leaders of actual organizations. But I have selected the
one that for me was most intriguing. This is the statement concerning corporate
culture above and in the title of this article: "Corporate Culture is the 'Nuclear
Bomb' of Huawei"?

What does this mean? The "nuclear bomb" is the ultimate weapon in any war.
Huawei views itself as being in a battle or war with all of its competitors. It is a
"continuous battle for survival." In that battle the ultimate weapon is corporate
culture. This notion is consistent with the title of the book on corporate culture
written by myself and Yvonne Randle, and titled: Corporate Culture: The Ultimate
Strategic Asset3, which we have cited previously in our series of monthly articles.

What is it about Huawei's culture that give it is competitive advantage and has
facilitated its growth and competitive success? That will be the subject of part 2 of
this article in next month's MS News and Perspectives. In the meantime, you might
find some insights in either our book (cited above) or at Culture Management Tools.
You might also look at Huawei web site where its "core values" are the first items
listed under "Corporate Information."

Huawei's core values are shown graphically in Exhibit 1. They are explained in
Exhibit 2. On their face these values seem relatively common to many companies;
but it is what is below the surface and not discussed that make them very powerful.
As noted above, this will be the subject of next month's article.

3 Eric and Yvonne Randle, Corporate Culture: The Ultimate Strategic Asset, Stanford University Press,
2011.

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