Huawei: Companies must deal with the uncertainties of the future

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 3, 2017]On the conference, VL Summit, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Director of the Board, Corporate SVP of Huawei, Ms. Chen Lifang, gave her perspective on how companies can cope with the uncertainty the future holds.

What competencies do we need to cope with globalization and handle the uncertain future right in front of us? This question played a central role at the Annual Danish Top Executive Summit (VL Summit) in Copenhagen June 1st 2017. Director of the Board, Corporate SVP of Huawei, Ms. Chen Lifang, outlined Huawei’s perspective on this question and highlighted essential factors we need to consider in order to cope with the future ahead of us and to step in to the intelligent world.

“The world today is full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, or VUCA for short. But with the right assumptions, we can set the right direction and the right strategy. The answer is Vision, Union, Customer-centricity and Agility, VUCA”, said Ms. Chen.

Four rules to live by

The first rule to cope with constant change and uncertainty is to have a clear vision. It is important to know what role your company is playing to achieve goals that bring all of us to a higher level of development.

“We believe that affordable ultra-broadband and ultra-low latency networks are the two building blocks of an intelligent world. They are necessary to make AI, VR, and AR possible and we want to achieve breakthroughs in these two areas. And we aim to realize our industry vision through continued investment in R&D along multiple paths in multiple waves,” said Ms. Chen.

Secondly, Huawei encourages unity to cope with the uncertainty caused by individual differences. The technology company wants to unite people no matter what background they have and motivate them to follow the same goals.

“At Huawei, we have established a value sharing system. With this system, we have managed to pull all our employees together around a common vision. We adopt a ‘Contribute and Share’ system. In other words, the more you contribute, the more rewards you get,” said Ms. Chen.

The third important factor is to remain customer-centric to cope with the uncertainty of shifts in the value chain. To Huawei, customer-centricity is about listening to customers, understanding their needs, and creating value for them. Over the past two decades, Huawei has invested heavily in R&D and gained valuable experience. This has allowed the company to remain responsive to customer needs with the best possible technology.

The fourth rule, Huawei follows is using “the certainty of agility to cope with the uncertainty of complex problems,” as Ms. Chen said in her speech. To Huawei it is all about simplifying internal operations and avoid micromanagement in order to stay agile and succeed in business.

The conclusion from Ms. Chen and her final piece of advice for ambitious companies was to set their own rules to cope with the uncertain future.

“Enterprises must set basic and clear rules, as these are necessary to manage the uncertainty of processes and results. We also need to create a culture where mistakes are tolerated and corrected. This can inspire creativity and avoid the limitations of individual mindsets,” said Ms. Chen before joining a debate on future global competencies with Matt Brittin, President EMEA, Google, and Soren W. Schroder, President & CEO Bunge, USA.

The VL Summit was held at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, on June 1st.