The Management Transformation of Huawei
From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership

Reveals how Huawei has developed the ability to continually transform as a company by developing dynamic capabilities and change-supporting values.

Xiaobo Wu (Author), Johann Peter Murmann (Author), Can Huang (Author), Bin Guo (Author)

9781108426435, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 April 2020

502 pages, 47 b/w illus. 15 tables
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.9 cm, 0.79 kg

'The authors of this book examine how the Chinese telecommunications equipment company Huawei managed to grow from a small Shenzhen-based startup … to a giant company with over 188,000 employees and $105 billion in revenues in 2018 … Their most significant contribution is their detailed documentation … of the process of sequentially building administrative capabilities in multiple critical functional areas to support the company's extraordinary growth trajectory … In doing so the authors offer … a fascinating perspective on the poetry of strategic leadership.' Robert A. Burgelman, Administrative Science Quarterly

Huawei has become China's most prominent multinational company and a leader in the ICT sector. Given unprecedented access to the company, the authors of this book examine the management transformation of Huawei from its inception in 1987 until 2019, observing in detail not only the creation of its organizational routines but also the breaking of routines across most major functional areas: Management, Product Development, HR, Supply Chain, Finance, R&D, Intellectual Property, and International Business. 'Dynamic capabilities' are central to theories of competitive advantage and this book highlights Huawei as an ideal case study for the successful implementation of change routines and change-supporting values. The chapters cover all the major change initiatives the firm has undertaken since 1996 to import best practices from the West, with the help of consultants. The insights presented in the book will be particularly interesting for academics in the field of strategy, management, and business history.

Preface Xiaobo Wu
1. The management transformation of Huawei: an overview Johann Peter Murmann with commentary by Arie Lewin, Liisa Valikangas and Ying Zhang
2. Executive management team and organizational change: a routinized transformation perspective Ziyi Zhao, Bin Guo, Xiaobo Wu with commentary by Jean Chen
3. Transforming product development at Huawei: the IPD initiative Zihan Zhang, Johann Peter Murmann with commentary by Jaeyong Song
4. Huawei's transformation of supply chain management Ying Li, Can Huang, Yongyi Shou with commentary by Yongjiang Shi
5. Financial management transformation in Huawei Can Huang, Xiao Chen with commentary by Ram Mudambi
6. The transformation of Huawei's HR system Hongqi Xu, Johann Peter Murmann with commentary by Catherine Xin
7. Huawei's international journey Wen Li, Xiaoran Chang, Bin Guo with commentary by Carl Fey
8. R&D transformation of Huawei Lanhua Li, Bin Guo, Johann Peter Murmann, Dong Wu with commentary by Frans Greidamus
9. Huawei's intellectual property management transformation Johann Peter Murmann, Can Huang and Haoyu Zhang
10. The management transformation of Huawei: concluding thoughts from a comparative perspective Johann Peter Murmann
Appendix A. Number of employees and sales, 1987–2018
Appendix B. List of presentations at Ruihua Institute of Innovation Management, Zhejiang University
Appendix C. Interviews conducted for the book
Appendix D. The Huawei Basic Law (1998).

Subject Areas: Management: leadership & motivation [KJMB], International business [KJK], Business strategy [KJC]