Shi, president of ZTE Communications: familiar with foreign market game rules

ZTE CEO Shi Global telecoms is undergoing a turbulent change. On the one hand, with LTE, fiber-optic household, intelligent terminals represented by the communication technology is still maintained a continuous evolution of the momentum of innovation, emerging cloud computing, Internet technology booming, and communication technology in the integration of the constant generation of new exciting points.　　On the other hand, the communication industry after the integration of mergers and acquisitions and more intense competition, international trade protectionism, the rise of the market pattern is increasingly complex. What are the subtle changes in the needs of global operators in the new situation? How can Chinese manufacturers take a new step in size and overall strength? What are the areas where the next direction of innovation is focused?　　One afternoon in March, Shi, the president of ZTE, spoke to reporters about the future of the telecom industry and the company's overall development strategy in a calm and down-to-earth tone. 100 billion yuan contract sales, more than 10 billion U.S. dollars sales revenue, Europe and the United States and regional income growth of 50%, terminal sales reached 90 million, in the Shi known as "proud and Sentimental" in 2010, ZTE handed over to a number of global peer envy of the performance list. But Shi frankly not satisfied, "These years of technology and market accumulation, so that the company has a peak impact on the industry's strength."　　2011 we will enter a new step and altitude. " Innovation is the company's most important DNA "ZTE from the first day of stepping into the telecommunications industry, on the innovation to the first-class enterprise, in the research and development at the expense of investment, it can be said that innovation is ZTE's most important DNA." "Shi said, from the peers in Nanjing, Shanghai and other areas to establish research institute to take the lead in mobile phones, CDMA and other fields, the company has been in the forefront of innovation, it is in the direction of innovation accurate judgment and sustained efforts, so that the company's development has been in a benign state, today, CDMA products shipments have been the world's first five consecutive years, terminals also in the global market, such as forest to kill a road, shipments ranked fifth. "We are very focused on cooperation with operators in innovation.　　Shi said, for example, in the development of TD mobile phone based on CMMB, ZTE and China Mobile have carried out a lot of cooperation, and has more than 40% of the patents, "because the equipment manufacturers in the background, users, although not necessarily know us, but can enjoy the convenience of our innovative results." Today, ZTE's large number of more than 33,000 patent applications (more than 90% for invention patents), more than 6,000 international patent applications, 15 research and development centers around the world, more than 30,000 research and development personnel and the annual investment of 6 billion yuan, has created a strong "support group" for the company's innovation. Innovation brings competitiveness and gives companies more "voice" in global markets.　　Shi said that at the beginning of 2010, ZTE was awarded two "China Patent Gold Awards" jointly issued by China's state intellectual Property Office and the World Intellectual Properties Organization, which was the only company to win two gold awards in 20 years. "We are not in innovationDare to shred Slack, and focus on market demand for research and development. Shi said ZTE has established a joint Innovation center with a number of heavyweight telecom operators around the world, and has set up an in-house staff innovation risk fund to inspire the enthusiasm of staff innovation. "This is the only way to keep innovation going." "Bring value to customers" with the deepening transformation of the telecommunications industry, communication equipment manufacturers and operators more and more closely, the relationship between the two sides is no longer only to maintain the product sales, but towards the direction of strategic partners. "We are happy when we get the contract, but if we create the value after the implementation of the project, we would like to see the operator's stock price increase, the increase in the number of users and the rise in profits," he said.　　"Shi that last year, ZTE in the" Great Big T "on a continuous breakthrough, it is these years adhere to the" customer value "the idea of the results. With a large network and user base, telecom operators in the increasingly cautious investment, hope that manufacturers can provide their own targeted solutions, in the maintenance of advanced technology while reducing operational risk, maintain the smooth transition of the network. Shi said ZTE is very sensitive to the changes in the operators, and has maintained a "tight coupling" with customer demand for technology and equipment development. The soft base station, pioneered by ZTE, is a typical example. It can support 2G, 3G, LTE on the unified platform, conform to the trend of the wireless communication system integration, on the one hand, reduce the operator purchase and operation cost, on the other hand, support the smooth evolution of the wireless base station.　　2010, ZTE Soft base station global high-end market popular, as the company to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough in the European continent is an important tool. While meeting the demand of operators, ZTE has boldly put forward strategic innovation technology based on the experience of many years technology market, such as voice data dual channel network, C-ran, sign network, etc., and gained the general recognition of the top operators of the global mainstream. Especially when it comes to C-ran, Shi appears excited and confident: "This is a technology that will have a far-reaching impact on wireless network construction." C-ran with the help of cooperative radio technology, the idea of cloud is introduced, which enables the dynamic sharing of resources among multiple sites, realizes the virtualization of equipment and the ability of super dispatch, and is a kind of energy-saving, efficient, virtual and integrated wireless access architecture. Only from the point of view of energy saving, it saves air-conditioning and ancillary equipment, so as to reduce the overall energy consumption 60%~70%. "Winter selling Popsicles" The spirit of the global communications industry after the integration of mergers and acquisitions, manufacturers of products tend to homogenization, coupled with the rise of international trade protectionism, market competition is very cruel. "We want to have the spirit of selling popsicles in the winter, dare to compete, be good at competition, willing to compete, do not miss every opportunity to develop the best products, so that customers fully understand the value of cooperation with ZTE." When spring comes, we will usher in an era that is well worth looking forward to.　　"Shi said. Opportunity always belongs to those who are prepared. Last year, ZTE continued to expand its marketExhibition at the same time hard skills. Shi said, in the allocation of resources, at the beginning of the product line was integrated to reduce internal barriers, the original six product system integration into three, improve the consistency of product evolution routes, at the same time, the product management of a large number of technical business personnel to the front of marketing front-line, strengthen the first line of "big power large T" support force.　　In addition, the company attaches great importance to the collection of customer demand information, especially in Europe, the United States and the domestic market with global vane significance. When it comes to the issue of international trade protection, Shi is very calm: "We are a company listed in the mainland and Hong Kong, transparency, financial and equity information are open, and have a lot of overseas investors." ZTE believes that what is valuable will eventually be recognized by the customer. "In parts of the world last year, companies also encountered obstacles. "We have to be familiar with the rules of the market in foreign countries, not too aggressive, for example, in the Indian market last year, the company did not try to persuade the Indian government, but the local operators recognized the importance of cooperation with ZTE, is their efforts to give us the opportunity." "The terminal is the highlight of ZTE's growth last year, but Shi clearly has a higher goal:" The traditional mobile phone's gross margin is relatively low, the company this year terminal business will be transformed into smartphones, the expected smartphone accounted for the proportion of terminal business turnover will exceed 30%, terminal business gross margin will improve.　　He further pointed out that there is a "seesaw effect" between the terminal and the system, the new terminal demands the network, and the network upgrade brings the opportunity to the terminal replacement, ZTE has strong strength in both aspects, it is easier to grasp the opportunity. Why to enter cloud computing and IC in last week's annual earnings announcement, ZTE announced its strategic foray into cloud computing and IC's two major areas. Throughout the future ICT industry, terminals, pipelines and clouds will be strategic markets. ZTE has established a global market position in the top two areas, and is actively pushing terminals and pipelines towards intelligentization. Shi pointed out that the two-year cloud computing concept was hot, the company's layout of the market is prepared. In fact, cloud based business applications have long existed, and now bandwidth capabilities and cloud computing technology mature, for the development of cloud applications opened up a huge space. On the one hand, ZTE is actively promoting the "cloud" of infrastructure, while actively helping operators build app stores. Shi also stressed that the company in the cloud computing applications integrated development of continuous access to new breakthroughs, a typical application is E-trip. In the past, business staff travel, to complete the examination and approval, borrowing, booking, booking hotels, invoicing, reimbursement and a set of red tape, E-trip will be all through the network to the cloud to deal with, realize the "staff travel no money."　　Shi said that in the future the industry will continue to see ZTE in the field of cloud computing new progress, "We strive to cloud computing business in ZTE will be one of the three points in the world." For the IC field, Shi said that the chip is the core of the communication system, and now the speed of technological progress is constantlyAccelerated, manufacturers often have to be in the standard before the development of technical equipment, relying solely on the upstream chip manufacturers to ensure the progress of the supply. In addition, some devices without their own chips, the size of the cost after the great pressure. So ZTE is determined to increase its investment in chips. ZTE has been soft and research and development in the past, and many of the hard parts are based on other people's platforms, he said. We hope to be able to do more on the chip in the future. "(Source: China Information Industry Network-People's Posts and telecommunications author: Wang Bing)