NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 22 – Global technology firm Huawei has embarked on a bold product and services review and enhancement programme as part of its business growth strategy to facilitate a fully connected, intelligent world.
The programme is geared at enhancing the firm’s digital technologies delivery capacity in the face of the global business challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, among other geopolitical and economic challenges.
Speaking when he addressed the Huawei 18th Global Analyst Summit following the recent release of the firm’s 2020 Annual report, Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu said the firm’s 2021 growth strategy is anchored on five strategic initiatives.
The initiatives are geared at optimising the firm’s existing products and services portfolio to boost business resilience. As part of the efforts, Huawei will strengthen its software capabilities and invest more in businesses that are less reliant on advanced process techniques and components for intelligent vehicles.
The firm, Xu, said will maximise the value of 5G technologies while moving to define 5.5G tech with industry peers to drive the evolution of mobile communications. The five-point strategy will also focus on providing a seamless, user-centric, and intelligent experience across all user scenarios, Innovating to reduce energy consumption for a low-carbon world and addressing supply continuity challenges.
This year, the three-day event hosted under the theme “Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World” featured more than 400 delegates, including technology industry and financial analysts, key opinion leaders, and media representatives.
“As always, Huawei will keep creating value for its customers through quality products and services,” he said, adding that “Moving forward, we will continue to find ourselves in a complex and volatile global environment. The resurgence of COVID-19 and geopolitical uncertainty will present ongoing challenges for every organisation, business, and country. We believe deeply in the power of digital technology to provide fresh solutions to the problems we all face. So we will keep innovating and driving digital transformation forward with our customers and partners to bring digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world,” Mr Xu said.
While 2020 had its fair share of challenges, it also came with opportunity. The pandemic ended up greatly expediting the digital transformation of organisations around the world. Mr Xu noted that businesses are moving to the cloud one to three years ahead of schedule. As new technologies like AI continue to mature, efforts to go digital will expand beyond the office and into production systems, bringing industries into a new intelligent upgrade phase.
Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. Huawei is committed to facilitating digital penetration, bringing digital services and solutions to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.
Last year, among other business highlights, Huawei, in Kenya, through joint innovations with its business partners, provided NCBA Bank with a new core digital service system. This system provides inclusive financial services to users in Kenya and other East African countries, enabling NCBA to empower the real economy and promote sustainable social development.
As part of the business growth strategy, the firm, he explained, will focus on developing open ecosystems for shared success. Said Xu: “We believe that open collaboration is the only way forward. This is especially true in the ICT industry, where open collaboration and innovation across the entire global value chain are crucial to building greater resilience and promoting sustainable development for both businesses and society as a whole.”
Huawei recently released its 2020 Annual Report indicating that its total sales revenues topped Chinese Yen 891.4 billion (US$136 billion), representing a 3.8% year-on-year growth. The firm’s net profit grew to Chinese Yen 64.6 billion (US$ 9 billion), representing a 3.2% year-on-year growth.
The firm attributed the growth to attributable to positive performance from its enterprise business which maintained steady growth thanks to the digital transformations in multiple industries. Focus on increased investment in future-oriented research and innovation, branding, and ecosystem building; the firms total operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased slightly.
