Huawei expects to report growth slowdown for 2016

Huawei has revealed it expects to report a 32% revenue growth for 2016 to 520 billion yuan – a slowdown compared to the 35% growth recorded in 2015, but still a solid performance in a tight market.

In a new year message, rotating CEO Eric Xu attributed the slower growth to the “flock of black swans – both political and economic” that swept across the globe during the year.

This year is expected to bring even greater political and economic uncertainties and continued impact from the transformation of the ICT industry, he said. As a result, Huawei plans to take a series of measures to address the critical issues it could be facing.

These measures will include business transformation and organizational restructuring efforts to position Huawei to better serve carrier customers.

“Moving forward, we will work to enable carriers’ networks to support more connections; help them position video as a basic service and achieve business success; lead the transformation of their IT systems towards cloud architecture; and assist them in building digital operations that deliver a real-time, on-demand, all-online, do-it-yourself, and social (ROADS) user experience,” Xu said.

“Where we stand now, Huawei must maintain a global view and adopt a wider perspective of the industry as we help carriers to transform and thrive with more revenue streams. This is a clear strategic decision for us in this new era.”

The vendor will also strive for greater operational efficiency, develop a contingency plan to deal with financial crises and develop an oversight and accountability system for the company’s consumer business, among numerous other changes.

“We are in an era of change, and change is opportunity. We must have strategic confidence and enhance our ability to adapt. Don’t cling to what has worked or what we’ve gained previously. Past success is not a reliable indicator of the future, and a long list of accomplishments might end up nothing more than an epitaph,” Xu concluded.

“Moving forward, we need to hone our skills, step up to the plate, and aim for the stars. As long as we remain practical and stay focused, we will definitely be able to seize the opportunities before us and become an enabler of the intelligent world.”