Huawei founder says it’s ‘all hands on deck’ to fight on after US market snub
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has built a company renowned for its ‘wolf culture’ of bloodthirstiness, tenacity and teamwork. A week after failing to land a US telecoms carrier as a distribution partner, Ren tells employees to “venture bravely on the broad avenue of revolution.”
Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies, has called on the company’s 180,000 employees to pick themselves up and steel for a fight, a week after its plan to enter the US market was dealt a severe blow.
Huawei faced a setback earlier this month after AT&T, the No. 2 US telecommunications carrier, dropped out of talks to distribute its flagship Mate 10 phone, reportedly under pressure from US lawmakers concerned about the Shenzhen-based company’s ties to the Chinese government. The deal was an important plank of Huawei’s US expansion strategy because more than 90 percent of smartphones are sold through bundled deals by carriers.
With 5G roll-out looming, getting US consumers familiar and comfortable with the Huawei brand is also an important preparatory step for the company to make inroads into the US network infrastructure market.
“Falling down counts for nothing, we should get up and fight again,” Ren said in comments posted on Huawei’s official online forum. “We will reach Mount Everest.”
While Ren did not refer to AT&T or US expansion plans by name, he made similar comments in 2011 when the company lost a deal with Sprint Nextel to upgrade its network due reportedly to pressure from the US commerce department. Huawei is well-known in China for promoting a “wolf culture” of blood-thirstiness, tenacity and teamwork.
