Page 21 - MS Perspectives 2014 YIR

Implications
It is beyond the scope of this article to fully describe and capture the culture of
Huawei. What is the bottom line? The major implication is that the founder of
Huawei, who has built an extraordinary successful organization by any standard,
has a profound understanding of the importance of corporate culture as a strategic
asset. I think that what is also implicit in the statement that is the title of this
article is that culture is the ultimate weapon or asset because it cannot be copied
by competition! Other assets are fungible, but not culture. All cultures are unique.
What are the action implications of the Huawei case? The most significant action is
for the leader of a company or the senior leadership group to ensure that there is a
sold understanding of corporate culture and the processes by which it can be
created and managed.2 The success of companies such as Starbucks, Google, and
Huawei, which all emphasize culture and culture management, serve a worthy
models to emulate. Recognizing this, a number of our clients have made serious
initiatives to enhance their culture management capability with great success and a
positive return on investment3.

Exhibit 14
Huawei Core Values

2 Culture Management Tools
3 Eric Flamholtz, Corporate Culture and the Bottom line, European Management Journal, 2001, (19),
N0. 3, pp. 268-275.
4 Huawei website

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