中國“電信巨人”悄然成長
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小編： 98
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.
在英國的協(xié)助下，低調(diào)的中國“電信巨人”悄然成長
如果你不了解像UMTS、CDMA 和 CDMA2000這樣的事情，那么也就不可能聽說過華為，它是中國相當成功的高科技企業(yè)之一，但也是一個一向低調(diào)的企業(yè)。
成立于1988年，總部位于毗鄰香港的深圳，通過為其他制造商提供優(yōu)質(zhì)的產(chǎn)品……公司已經(jīng)迅速成長為全球最大的電信設(shè)備制造商之一。
專家們表示，在討論電信業(yè)的時候，就要不可避免地提到華為，因為它是中國電信業(yè)的“巨人”。
可以用這樣一個事實來解釋它的低調(diào)，它出口到歐洲市場的絕大部分產(chǎn)品都是“白標”貨物，再在當?shù)刭N上運營商的品牌。舉例來說，Vodafone（沃達豐）有一款非常受歡迎的3G手機V710就是華為生產(chǎn)的，截至到目前為止，已經(jīng)有近100萬部運送到國外發(fā)售。
華為的全球總部位于深圳，與其說這是一個辦公樓，倒不如說它是一個小城鎮(zhèn)。整個辦公區(qū)占地約1平方英里（2.6平方千米），一條有三車道的公路從中穿過。這里共有20,000名員工，其中3,000人居住在這里的居民區(qū)，里面有學(xué)校、運動場以及其他城市生活中一切必備品。
這里有一個巨大的研發(fā)部門、一個制造區(qū)、一個高度自動化配送中心。中心要管理30,000種原材料，而員工只有38人。而這僅僅是它的一個方面而已。
在全球范圍內(nèi)，華為共雇傭有62,000員工。2005年，其營業(yè)額是38億美元。而到了2006年，營業(yè)額增至85億美元，2007年幾乎比前一年翻了一番，達到了150億美元。
華為現(xiàn)在擁有20,000多個專利，歐洲主要的電信公司大多數(shù)都是它的客戶。而且，華為還在英國投下重資，把它在歐洲的總部建立在英格蘭東南部的貝辛斯托克（Basingstoke）。
在2005到2006年度，華為是中國在英國的最大投資商，而且它在英國雇傭了約500名員工，而它在2001年剛剛進軍英國時雇傭的員工僅有15名。
華為所具有的技術(shù)在英國電信業(yè)基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施中發(fā)揮著重要作用。公司能在英國迅速發(fā)展的原因之一就是獲得了英國電信（BT）價值100億英鎊的“21世紀工程”（ 21CN project），這個工程就是要創(chuàng)建具有空前帶寬和速度的新一代電信網(wǎng)。
對華為來說，能夠贏得這個合約，相當于攻下了進軍歐洲市場的橋頭堡，也加快了它在過去兩年中的發(fā)展速度。公司目前的客戶有Vodafone 、Orange、 Telefonica等等。
華為英國及愛爾蘭地區(qū)總經(jīng)理Edward Chen解釋說：“承接英國電信的‘21世紀工程’為我們在歐洲贏得了信譽，也給我們帶來了樹立自身信譽的機會。Vodafone,、T Mobile、Telefonica ……這些客戶以及其他一級客戶都把我們看作他們的合作伙伴，因為他們不用擔心我們的交付能力，而這一切都是因為我們成為了英國電信2005年合約的候選企業(yè)。”
“而在此之前，我們在英國的發(fā)展經(jīng)歷了種種困難。2001年，我們創(chuàng)立英國分公司的時候，僅僅在倫敦北部設(shè)立了一個小辦公室，而且前4年非常的艱苦。當時我們只有15個人，要克服商業(yè)經(jīng)營中涉及到的中、英兩國的差異?！?/P>
“作為一家全球性的企業(yè)，華為意識到了英格蘭東南部地區(qū)的重要性，因為這里聚集著一大批全球規(guī)模最大的電信公司，因此，我們決定把歐洲總部設(shè)立在這里?！?/P>
Chen又補充說：“英格蘭東南經(jīng)濟發(fā)展署（SEEDA，這是一個政府機構(gòu)，負責該地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟和社會發(fā)展）給我們提供了很大的幫助，在介紹我們進入英國市場方面起了很大的作用?！?
英國貿(mào)易和投資總署是一個幫助海外公司在英國建立和拓展業(yè)務(wù)的國家機構(gòu)，同時也協(xié)助英國公司到海外開展業(yè)務(wù)。英國貿(mào)易和投資總署與英格蘭地區(qū)發(fā)展機構(gòu)（如英格蘭東南經(jīng)濟發(fā)展署）以及蘇格蘭、威爾士和北愛爾蘭國家發(fā)展機構(gòu)合作開展工作。
英格蘭東南經(jīng)濟發(fā)展署的工作人員和華為保持著良好的關(guān)系，對其給與實際幫助，包括：介紹公司進入專業(yè)服務(wù)供應(yīng)商行列；當公司在貝辛斯托克的擴展時候，幫助其解決在和地產(chǎn)商協(xié)商時出現(xiàn)的文化差異問題。
英格蘭東南經(jīng)濟發(fā)展署主席詹姆斯•布拉斯維特（James Braithwaite）說：“在2005到2006年度之間，華為是中國在英投資最大的企業(yè)，而且在英國的戰(zhàn)略上具有很大重要性，同時也顯示出有必要在歐洲開展業(yè)務(wù)的中國公司所具有的機遇?！?/P>
“華為的投資對于該地區(qū)來說具有重要價值，因為它在東南部地區(qū)創(chuàng)造了就業(yè)機會，加強了一批世界級電信公司在這里開展業(yè)務(wù)的信心，也為當?shù)氐墓?yīng)鏈提供了機會，又給當?shù)亟?jīng)濟帶來了價值?！?/P>
華為要擴大在英國總部規(guī)模的決定對公司無疑是有利的。立足于總部，公司的2,000名員工工作在歐盟內(nèi)的15個辦事處。2007年，華為歐洲銷售額達到了20.5億美元，比2006年增長160％，而公司預(yù)計這個數(shù)字在2008年將會增長50％。
在整個歐洲的銷售額中，有25％以上來自英國。華為表示，英國的制度環(huán)境對公司尤其有利，同時英國的移民法律也極大地推動了公司在歐洲其他國家的發(fā)展。
Edward Chen 補充說：“我們許多核心支持都在國內(nèi)，但是如果有歐洲的客戶提出要求說需要特別支持的話，我們會很快地為其提供。在3到4天的時間內(nèi)，英國方面就可以為我們的主要工作人員辦理好簽證。但如果是在歐洲其他許多國家，從我們提交簽證辦理時算起，大約要20天左右時間才能拿到簽證?！?/P>
為了達到培訓(xùn)要求，華為最近在英國總部內(nèi)設(shè)立了一個世界一流的歐洲中心，用以加強公司在英國和整個歐洲的交付質(zhì)量培訓(xùn)能力。
公司還在貝辛斯托克建立一個功能齊全、以行業(yè)為引導(dǎo)的技術(shù)援助中心（TAC）。有了這個中心，公司就可以為英國和愛爾蘭的市場提供更強有力的支持服務(wù)。技術(shù)援助中心提供全年無休24小時服務(wù)，由經(jīng)過培訓(xùn)的專業(yè)產(chǎn)品工程師支持中心服務(wù)。
再回到華為深圳總部巨大展示廳，其規(guī)模顯示著公司的勃勃雄心。作為固網(wǎng)和移動通信網(wǎng)絡(luò)設(shè)備運營商，公司有著強大的終端部門，可以提供諸如手機、視頻會議電話、無線因特網(wǎng)路由器、筆記本用3G數(shù)據(jù)卡之類的設(shè)備。
總的來說，公司2006年出產(chǎn)了2,700萬這類的設(shè)備，到2007年就幾乎達到了4,000萬。隨著公司服務(wù)市場范圍的擴大，它的創(chuàng)新能力也在不斷提高。一半的華為員工都在致力于“開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品”，公司在全球共聘請有30,000名研發(fā)工程師。
華為在斯德哥爾摩、班加羅爾、莫斯科、達拉斯和圣地亞哥都設(shè)有這樣的研發(fā)基地，而集團也將10%的收入都用在研發(fā)上。比較來說，雖然華為的研發(fā)經(jīng)費總量要低于對手公司，但是低成本研發(fā)基地也為其帶來了明顯的優(yōu)勢。
“人工費用占了研發(fā)經(jīng)費的很大一部分” ， Edward Chen說，“雇用一名中國工程師所需的費用是雇用一名美國或歐洲工程師的六分之一?！边@種情況也適用于支持部門的員工，因此在外交部門最常見的就是簽證請求。
華為已經(jīng)成為世界電信巨頭中的一名，但是它的成長過程卻是悄無聲息的，看起來像是出于偶然而非必然。此外，國內(nèi)的其他公司會對華為投以羨慕的目光，因為華為能發(fā)展到今天的規(guī)模，它所取得的某些成就，是很令他們費解的。
