China’s Coy Colossus Grows With UK Help

UNLESS mysterious acronyms such as UMTS/CDMA and CDMA2000 are your daily stock in trade, it is unlikely you may have heard of Huawei, one of China’s most successful - but low-profile - high-tech companies.

Established in 1988 and centred in Shenzhen city near Hong Kong, the company has grown seemingly by stealth to become one of the largest telecoms equipment manufacturers in the world … by making top-line goods for other manufacturers.

Experts say it would be difficult to discuss the telecoms business without mentioning Huawei, the “coy colossus” of China.

Its relatively low profile is explained by the fact that most of its products to European markets are “white label” goods that carry the operators’ brands. For example, Huawei makes one of Vodafone’s most popular 3G mobile phones, called the V710; nearly one million units have been shipped so far.

Its global headquarters in Shenzhen is more of a small town than an office building; the campus stretches to nearly a square mile (2.6 sq km) and a three-lane highway runs through the complex. More than 20,000 staff work there and 3,000 live on site in a residential area that has schools, playing fields and all the other necessities of urban living.

There is a vast research and development (R&D) department, a manufacturing complex, and a highly automated distribution centre that handles 30,000 raw materials but only employs 38 workers. And that is only the beginning.

Globally, Huawei employs more than 62,000 people, and in 2005 it had a turnover of 3.8 billion US dollars. In 2006, turnover was 8.5bn dollars; in 2007 that had almost doubled to 15bn.

It now holds more than 20,000 patents and counts most of Europe’s major telecoms companies among its customers. It has also invested heavily in the United Kingdom, setting up its European centre in Basingstoke, southern England.

Huawei was China’s biggest investment in the UK in 2005/6 and the company employs about 500 staff in the UK, up from 15 when it first landed in 2001.

In the UK, its technology will play a key role in the country’s telecoms infrastructure. One of the reasons for the company’s rapid expansion in the UK is BT’s 10bn pounds 21CN project that will create a next-generation telecoms network with unprecedented bandwidth and speed.

For Huawei, winning this contract was a bridgehead to an assault on European markets that has accelerated over the past two years, and its customers now include Vodafone, Orange and Telefonica, to name but a few.

Edward Chen, Huawei’s UK and Ireland managing director, explained: “The BT21 project cemented our credibility in Europe and gave us something tangible to build on. Vodafone, T Mobile, Telefonica … these and other tier-one customers see us as a partner because they have no concerns over our delivery capability - and that all stems from our being shortlisted for the BT contract in 2005.

“Prior to that, we had difficulty establishing ourselves in Britain. We started in 2001 with a small office in north London and the first four years were hard. We had just 15 staff and we struggled with the differences between Chinese and local issues, where running a business were concerned.

“As a global business, Huawei has recognised the importance of the south east of England as a cluster for most of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies, hence our decision to base our European HQ in the region.

“SEEDA [the South East England Development Agency, the government-funded body responsible for the economic and social development for that area] has been extremely helpful and has been instrumental in making key introductions for us in the UK,” added Mr Chen.

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that helps overseas companies to establish and expand their businesses in the UK, as well as aiding UK-based firms to expand abroad. UK Trade & Investment works in partnership with England’s regional development agencies, such as SEEDA, and with national development agencies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Staff at SEEDA worked closely with Huawei to assist it in practical terms, including introducing the company to professional service providers and helping to bridge the cultural gap during its negotiations with property agents during the expansion of the Basingstoke operation.

SEEDA chairman James Braithwaite said: “Huawei was the largest Chinese investment in the UK in 2005/6 and is of strategic importance to the UK and highlights the opportunities that Chinese companies have to develop their business in Europe.

“The investment by Huawei is of great importance to the region; it has created employment opportunities in the south-east, enhanced the cluster of world-class telecommunications companies operating in the region, offered opportunities in the local supply chain and added value to the regional economy.”

Huawei’s decision to expand its UK base has clearly benefited the company. From there, it oversees some 2,000 staff operating out of 15 offices within the European Union. In 2006, Huawei’s EU operation achieved sales of 2.05bn dollars, up 160 per cent over its sales in 2006, and it expects to see that figure grow by more than 50 per cent throughout 2008.

More than 25 per cent of its EU sales total were generated by the UK operation. It says the UK’s regulatory environment is particularly beneficent for Huawei but it is the UK’s immigration laws that give it the edge over the rest of Europe.

Edward Chen added: “A lot of our core support expertise is in China but if a customer in Europe tells us he needs that particular support, he needs it fast. The UK will issue us with visas for key personnel in just three to four days but it can take up to 20 days from when we make the request in most of Europe.”

To meet training requirements, Huawei recently opened a state-of-the-art European centre at its UK centre to enhance the firm’s ability to deliver quality training throughout the UK and Europe.

The company also established a fully functional, industry-leading technical assistance centre (TAC) at Basingstoke, allowing it to provide enhanced support services to the UK and Ireland market. The TAC is open 24 hours, all year round and is fully supported by trained product specialist engineers.

Back at Huawei’s huge exhibition hall at its Shenzhen base, the scale of the company’s ambitions becomes clear: as well as network equipment for fixed-line and mobile telecoms operators, it has a thriving terminal division that supplies devices such as mobile handsets, video-conference phones, wireless Internet routers and 3G data cards for laptops.

In total, the company shipped 27 million such devices in 2006 and almost 40 million in 2007. Its appetite for innovation seems as insatiable as that of the markets it serves. Half of its staff are dedicated to “the search for the new”; the company employs some 30,000 R&D engineers across the world.

It has such bases in Stockholm, Bangalore, Moscow, Dallas and San Diego, and 10 per cent of group revenues are spent on R&D. Although this is low in absolute terms compared with the sums spent by rivals, Huawei’s low-cost base gives it a distinct advantage.

“R&D cost is largely made up of the cost of people,” said Edward Chen. “To hire a Chinese engineer costs about a sixth of what it does to hire an engineer in America or Europe.” That applies to support staff as well, hence the frequent requests to the Foreign Office for visas.

It may have become a global colossus among telecoms giants but Huawei’s stealth in doing so seems to have been more by accident than design. Regardless, other Chinese companies may look on in envy because, in becoming as big as it has, Huawei has achieved something that has proved elusive to most other businesses in the People’s Republic.

在英国的协助下，低调的中国“电信巨人”悄然成长

如果你不了解像UMTS、CDMA 和 CDMA2000这样的事情，那么也就不可能听说过华为，它是中国相当成功的高科技企业之一，但也是一个一向低调的企业。

成立于1988年，总部位于毗邻香港的深圳，通过为其他制造商提供优质的产品……公司已经迅速成长为全球最大的电信设备制造商之一。

专家们表示，在讨论电信业的时候，就要不可避免地提到华为，因为它是中国电信业的“巨人”。

可以用这样一个事实来解释它的低调，它出口到欧洲市场的绝大部分产品都是“白标”货物，再在当地贴上运营商的品牌。举例来说，Vodafone（沃达丰）有一款非常受欢迎的3G手机V710就是华为生产的，截至到目前为止，已经有近100万部运送到国外发售。

华为的全球总部位于深圳，与其说这是一个办公楼，倒不如说它是一个小城镇。整个办公区占地约1平方英里（2.6平方千米），一条有三车道的公路从中穿过。这里共有20,000名员工，其中3,000人居住在这里的居民区，里面有学校、运动场以及其他城市生活中一切必备品。

这里有一个巨大的研发部门、一个制造区、一个高度自动化配送中心。中心要管理30,000种原材料，而员工只有38人。而这仅仅是它的一个方面而已。

在全球范围内，华为共雇佣有62,000员工。2005年，其营业额是38亿美元。而到了2006年，营业额增至85亿美元，2007年几乎比前一年翻了一番，达到了150亿美元。

华为现在拥有20,000多个专利，欧洲主要的电信公司大多数都是它的客户。而且，华为还在英国投下重资，把它在欧洲的总部建立在英格兰东南部的贝辛斯托克（Basingstoke）。

在2005到2006年度，华为是中国在英国的最大投资商，而且它在英国雇佣了约500名员工，而它在2001年刚刚进军英国时雇佣的员工仅有15名。

华为所具有的技术在英国电信业基础设施中发挥着重要作用。公司能在英国迅速发展的原因之一就是获得了英国电信（BT）价值100亿英镑的“21世纪工程”（ 21CN project），这个工程就是要创建具有空前带宽和速度的新一代电信网。

对华为来说，能够赢得这个合约，相当于攻下了进军欧洲市场的桥头堡，也加快了它在过去两年中的发展速度。公司目前的客户有Vodafone 、Orange、 Telefonica等等。

华为英国及爱尔兰地区总经理Edward Chen解释说：“承接英国电信的‘21世纪工程’为我们在欧洲赢得了信誉，也给我们带来了树立自身信誉的机会。Vodafone,、T Mobile、Telefonica ……这些客户以及其他一级客户都把我们看作他们的合作伙伴，因为他们不用担心我们的交付能力，而这一切都是因为我们成为了英国电信2005年合约的候选企业。”

“而在此之前，我们在英国的发展经历了种种困难。2001年，我们创立英国分公司的时候，仅仅在伦敦北部设立了一个小办公室，而且前4年非常的艰苦。当时我们只有15个人，要克服商业经营中涉及到的中、英两国的差异。”

“作为一家全球性的企业，华为意识到了英格兰东南部地区的重要性，因为这里聚集着一大批全球规模最大的电信公司，因此，我们决定把欧洲总部设立在这里。”

Chen又补充说：“英格兰东南经济发展署（SEEDA，这是一个政府机构，负责该地区的经济和社会发展）给我们提供了很大的帮助，在介绍我们进入英国市场方面起了很大的作用。”

英国贸易和投资总署是一个帮助海外公司在英国建立和拓展业务的国家机构，同时也协助英国公司到海外开展业务。英国贸易和投资总署与英格兰地区发展机构（如英格兰东南经济发展署）以及苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰国家发展机构合作开展工作。

英格兰东南经济发展署的工作人员和华为保持着良好的关系，对其给与实际帮助，包括：介绍公司进入专业服务供应商行列；当公司在贝辛斯托克的扩展时候，帮助其解决在和地产商协商时出现的文化差异问题。

英格兰东南经济发展署主席詹姆斯•布拉斯维特（James Braithwaite）说：“在2005到2006年度之间，华为是中国在英投资最大的企业，而且在英国的战略上具有很大重要性，同时也显示出有必要在欧洲开展业务的中国公司所具有的机遇。”

“华为的投资对于该地区来说具有重要价值，因为它在东南部地区创造了就业机会，加强了一批世界级电信公司在这里开展业务的信心，也为当地的供应链提供了机会，又给当地经济带来了价值。”

华为要扩大在英国总部规模的决定对公司无疑是有利的。立足于总部，公司的2,000名员工工作在欧盟内的15个办事处。2007年，华为欧洲销售额达到了20.5亿美元，比2006年增长160％，而公司预计这个数字在2008年将会增长50％。

在整个欧洲的销售额中，有25％以上来自英国。华为表示，英国的制度环境对公司尤其有利，同时英国的移民法律也极大地推动了公司在欧洲其他国家的发展。

Edward Chen 补充说：“我们许多核心支持都在国内，但是如果有欧洲的客户提出要求说需要特别支持的话，我们会很快地为其提供。在3到4天的时间内，英国方面就可以为我们的主要工作人员办理好签证。但如果是在欧洲其他许多国家，从我们提交签证办理时算起，大约要20天左右时间才能拿到签证。”

为了达到培训要求，华为最近在英国总部内设立了一个世界一流的欧洲中心，用以加强公司在英国和整个欧洲的交付质量培训能力。

公司还在贝辛斯托克建立一个功能齐全、以行业为引导的技术援助中心（TAC）。有了这个中心，公司就可以为英国和爱尔兰的市场提供更强有力的支持服务。技术援助中心提供全年无休24小时服务，由经过培训的专业产品工程师支持中心服务。

再回到华为深圳总部巨大展示厅，其规模显示着公司的勃勃雄心。作为固网和移动通信网络设备运营商，公司有着强大的终端部门，可以提供诸如手机、视频会议电话、无线因特网路由器、笔记本用3G数据卡之类的设备。

总的来说，公司2006年出产了2,700万这类的设备，到2007年就几乎达到了4,000万。随着公司服务市场范围的扩大，它的创新能力也在不断提高。一半的华为员工都在致力于“开发新产品”，公司在全球共聘请有30,000名研发工程师。

华为在斯德哥尔摩、班加罗尔、莫斯科、达拉斯和圣地亚哥都设有这样的研发基地，而集团也将10%的收入都用在研发上。比较来说，虽然华为的研发经费总量要低于对手公司，但是低成本研发基地也为其带来了明显的优势。

“人工费用占了研发经费的很大一部分” ， Edward Chen说，“雇用一名中国工程师所需的费用是雇用一名美国或欧洲工程师的六分之一。”这种情况也适用于支持部门的员工，因此在外交部门最常见的就是签证请求。

华为已经成为世界电信巨头中的一名，但是它的成长过程却是悄无声息的，看起来像是出于偶然而非必然。此外，国内的其他公司会对华为投以羡慕的目光，因为华为能发展到今天的规模，它所取得的某些成就，是很令他们费解的。