In a message to all of its employees, Huawei’s rotating chairman Eric Xu said that “survival” is the company’s priority after 2019 sales projection fell short than initially thought.
Huawei – which was put on US Entity List last year – is battling a ban that costs millions of dollars for the company. The ban also restricted the company from using American technologies which was ubiquitous in most of the company’s products.
The expected 2019 sales revenue will reach 850 billion yuan for 2019 (US$121 billion) – up 18 per cent from the previous year, but much lower than initially projected.
Huawei’s woes are expected to linger to the near future. While the company has felt the pressure from the US last year, more countries including the UK and Japan are expected to block Huawei from building vital networks – including 5G, which the company has long dominated.
2020 will put pressure on Huawei’s sales, with January revenue expected at US$125 billion.
In response, Xu said that the company must go all-out to “ensure that we can keep selling our smartphones in overseas markets”. Its efforts to build an alternative to Google apps remain its biggest bet in offsetting the ban.
The company is also imposing stricter measures to its employees and managers. “We will remove mediocre managers more quickly,” Xu said. On the other hand, well-performing managers will be promoted quickly.
Xu’s message ended with a rallying cry for the embattled company and its employees. “We are the bamboo stalk that stands tall and proud against wind from all directions, whether north or south, east or west,” Xu said.
(Photo source: http://huawei.com)
