Huawei Technologies wasn’t known for being a smartphone manufacturer when the company first started out. Instead, it started out by producing phone switches and later on manufactured telecom equipment. Now, the Chinese company is known for being the global leader in manufacturing telecom equipment, and it has also made a rapid ascent to becoming the number one manufacturer of smartphones in China and is currently the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, behind the likes of Apple and Samsung. Huawei’s success has been attributed to the willingness of its staff to put the company ahead of themselves.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Huawei has doubled its revenue to $60 billion in the past five years, surprising its rivals, and its success is partly due to the willingness of its employees. Huawei employees are willing to sacrifice much for the company, including giving up paid vacation, and overtime pay, all for the sake of the company to succeed. While the company is already enjoying success on the world stage, Huawei doesn’t plan to stop there. Instead, it wants to become the number two manufacturer of smartphones in two years time, and the number one manufacturer of smartphones in five years time. The company which currently employs over 170,000 workers worldwide, is led by the co-founder of the company, Ren Zhengfei, though he is looking to retire in the near future. Huawei has three senior executives who take on a rotation, each acting as the CEO for 6 months at a time and the successor of Ren’s position may come from the trio. It has also been noted by Ren that the new leader of the company will not be a relative of Ren’s. Huawei’s finance chief may be Ren’s daughter and his son leads a subsidiary, but the leader doesn’t want either of his children to lead Huawei.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that a year into their employment with Huawei, workers are given a “dedicated employee agreement”, which some sign. Once doing so, the said workers will have to give up pay for overtime and will also lose paid vacations. However, if a worker chooses to sign the agreement, the worker will be compensated with shares in the company over the years. Huawei is owned by its executives and employees and the company is also not publicly traded.