Huawei Technologies warns the company will face “serious challenges” in 2022, amid business uncertainty, “politicization of technology” and continued “de-globalization.” Huawei plans to streamline decision-making processes in its local offices next year, giving more autonomy to these entities.
The Chinese technology provider expects to end the year with sales of almost 88 billion euros, a decrease of 28.88% compared to the results of 2020. Its activity as a telco provider remained “stable” “and its business unit has grown,” said Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating chairman, in his New Year’s message to employees on Friday.
He added that the digital transformation of global economies has become a major engine of growth and that there are new opportunities in green and low-carbon technologies, but warned of uncertainties in the coming year. .
“Respond rationally to external forces that are beyond our control”
“An unpredictable business environment, the politicization of technology and a growing movement towards de-globalization are all serious challenges,” Guo said. “In this context, we must stick to our strategy and respond rationally to outside forces that are beyond our control.”
He said Huawei would continue to focus on infrastructure and connected devices, and would seek to respond to customer needs faster with shorter “management chains”. This means creating “integrated teams” and “domain-specific subsidiaries,” he said.
Specifically, in 2022, Huawei will seek to streamline its decision-making processes by giving more autonomy to local offices. The latter would thus be empowered to take certain decisions that previously fell under the Shenzhen headquarters. Further changes to its organizational structures could result in the integration of the activities of its local offices around the world. Huawei does business in more than 170 markets.
The primary focus of its organization-wide transformation efforts is to improve operational efficiency and service delivery to customers, Mr. Guo said.
Regarding his product development plans, he indicated that Huawei’s software offerings will revolve around EulerOS, while its device portfolio will focus on HarmonyOS. “These two ecosystems will adhere to an open source strategy, allowing all software developers to use, contribute to and benefit from them,” he said. “We will continue to build and contribute to online developer communities and brick-and-mortar innovation centers.”
He added that Huawei will increase its investments in HarmonyOS and EulerOS, but did not give details on what that involved.
EulerOS is touted as Huawei’s infrastructure platform that supports on-premise and cloud IT services. It runs on the version of Huawei’s Linux operating system. HarmonyOS currently supports more than 220 million Huawei devices, and more than 100 million devices developed by third-party vendors currently run HarmonyOS, according to Huawei.
Huawei management also highlighted the potential for growth in the auto industry. Huawei wants to become a “preferred supplier” of new components for connected vehicles. This year, the Chinese supplier will spend $ 1 billion on research and development (R&D) for intelligent automotive components.
Last month, US President Joe Biden passed a law prohibiting companies such as Huawei and ZTE from licensing network equipment in the United States. In 2020, the FCC called Huawei and ZTE national security threats, pointing to the two companies’ close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese military. Huawei previously denounced the US government’s decision to restrict semiconductor exports. The Chinese supplier had been added to the US government’s Entity List, which prohibited US companies from transferring goods to listed companies without obtaining a license from the US government.
The move prompted Huawei to increase its investment in research and development by 30 percent and invest in product reorganization, Guo said. This has led to the rewriting of some 16 million lines of software code, and the company has turned to alternative sources for many of its needs.
Trade and export bans have resulted in declining revenues in recent years, including a drop in smartphone profits and sales, as well as disruptions in Huawei’s supply chain, prompting the supplier to diversify. its products and chip suppliers.
Source: “ZDNet.com”