Huawei Innovation Management: Approaches To Expand The Business

Question

Task:The purpose of assignment is develop a written report that provides evidence of an innovation management strategic approach.

Answer

Introduction
Global Innovation Management helps to examine the basic and important factors that are essential for innovation management for a modern organisation in order to expand the business operations on a global scale. The organisation can grow on an international level if it can provide innovation management capabilities along with proper skill development and encouraging continuous improvement, in order to derive competitive advantage in the highly market. The present study lays emphasis on the importance of innovation management system (IMS) and its impact on various aspects of business. The study also highlights customer perceived value of the products (CPV) with the help of proper innovation in the organisation.

Part A: Company Background and Environmental Factors
The Company: The selected organisation for the study is Huawei, which is a leading global brand that provides services related to information and communications technology. The company was founded in the year 1987 and possesses 180,000 employees, operating around 170 countries serving for more than 3 billion people. The product range of Huawei is categorizes from fixed network, mobile network, data communications, optical software, optical transport, intelligent network and other such key telecom technological products. These products are deployed in the countries that include Germany, France, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Egypt and others. The founder and CEO is Ren Zhengfei and the headquarters of the organisation is in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China (About Huawei, 2019).

Customer Perceived Value (CPV)

1. It is a widely-used concept that can help the companies like Huawei to market and brand their services across the globe. In their approach, the product and services are positioned in the market to satisfy the demands of the consumers. According to the views of Itani et al., (2019), it can be said that the respective organization develops its brands and markets their products with the help of proper research in order to help the customers to interpret and direct to marketing messages. This approach can help Huawei to gain a competitive advantage over other companies of the same industry.

2. A value proposition is a comparison of the benefits offered by the respective organisation's products and services provided to the consumers in order to give them a value to their money. A value proposition can be given to by Huawei to its consumers in two ways that are long term branding and short term branding. In order to communicate with the consumers and gain an advantage in the market the organisation can offer a low cost products and services so that the value can be enhanced. The main focus is to perceive value of the people by determining the merits of the products and justifying the prices of the products and services. This has helped the company to gain competitive advantage in the electronics industry over other companies like Samsung and Apple. The company has been able to provide smart phones with the same features but in a cost effective rates that has helped them to gain advantage over other companies of the same industry.

3. The most impactful approach to reach consumers and help them to understand the offers that are provided to them can be fulfilled with the help of Business Social Responsibility. It can help the organisation to self-regulate the business operations, in order to raise awareness in all the various aspects like economic, social and environmental factors (Rai & Robinson, 2015). Huawei has been actively conscious with their approach in the context of BSR. The organisation has initiated certain programs that can help them to build their brand image and develop the services that are customer centric. The programs are:

• Considering social welfare and prioritizing the customer perceived value products.
• Being active in the community in order to enhance the reach to more number of people
• Determining the “Connected healthcare” that is to enable technology to integrate care services like remote communication, diagnosis and monitoring the social activities for the people.

Environmental factors
a. There are several factors that can affect Huawei and the technology based industry. The modern world is on the verge of technological revolution and the trends in this sector have been choking on a regular basis along with the demands of the consumer. The most prominent changes that can influence the respective organization are as follows:

Political Element: There have been several political pressures that has affected the respective organization in the most significant manner. USA has blocked Huawei from participating in the development of nationwide safety of LTE network. Moreover, the Australian government has also banned Huawei. These political barriers have affected the services of the organisation along with their reputation and growth.

Economic Element: The world’s industrial economies have been suffering from Global Financial Crisis. There have been several economic pressures on the organisation from Europe and European Union as the countries of this area has been a key market for the company. The economic scenario has been affecting the consumer’s base of the organisation and the profit margin has also been facing some serious issues.

Technological Element: Huawei’s products are mainly in the areas of computing hardware, which has been changing and evolving dynamically on a regular basis. The computing products can be obsolete in every 18 months according to Moore’s Law. New designs, products and services are a norm of this industry and the expectations of the consumers along with the organisational practises can change on a regular basis.

b. This factor can be the most effective elements that can have an impact on the organisational operation of Huawei. In order to adapt to these scenarios the respective organisation has taken certain measures that include approaches like reorientation, re-creation, tuning and adaptation.

Re-creation: It occurs where time and resources are limited and the changes that might occur due to this approach can include broad, irreversible and desperate changes. Huawei is not afraid of taking risky transformational changes for instance Huawei introduced their first 3G network in Middle East countries where the supply of such phones with 3G networks are limited.

Tuning and adaptation: Tuning is change that can occur in anticipation of external forces and adaptation is the reaction to the external forces that may impact the business operation of the respective organization. Huawei embraces these incremental changes as surviving in the highly competitive market by grabbing the opportunities in the global market.

Re-orientation: This approach helps to anticipate the external forces that can impact the business operations by discontinuing and re arranging the operations. This includes elements like “identify, values, culture, strategy and structures”. Huawei has been focusing on the LTE technology that might help them in re-orientation proactively by “bending the frame” of their management process.

Figure 1: Approaches adapted by Huawei
(Source: Rai & Robinson, 2015)

Part B: Examining the Organisation
Leadership
a. Leadership and innovation are the two factors that are widely dependent on each other. According to Donate & de Pablo, (2015), Leaders are the one responsible in introducing new innovative changes in the organisation that can help the organization to gain competitive advantage by meeting the demands of the consumers. Huawei has been leading the aspect of innovation as their management team believes that innovation can help them to be developing more customer centric services. The innovation management strategy has been widely accepted by the organisation in the decision making.

b. The most impactful leadership style that can help the respective organization to devise innovation and manage them in a more effective manner can be Directive or Participative Leadership approach. These leadership styles are associated by positional power and characterized by the behaviours that are aimed to actively help the employees by providing them with clear directions and objectives regarding the compliance along with instructions. The leadership approaches are mostly executed in innovative projects as it can help in monitoring, controlling and instructing the various aspects of innovation in a more significant manner.

c. The primary goal of any innovation is to meet the customer’s demands and develop the products and services by keeping them in the centre.. The leaders in their innovative ideas need to understand the demands of an expectation of the consumers and employees. The primary focus however is on the people and the trends in the market. The leadership approach of Huawei need not be designed in such ways that it can satisfy the aspects of CPV in both effective and efficient manner.

d. Participative leadership style can be the most prominent leadership approach in order to reach the customer perceived value in the organisation. According to a survey 27% of the leaders who adapt to this leadership style include innovation in their organisational operations. This style of leadership can help the respective companies to develop the services and products in order to meet the demands and expectations of the customers. One of the primary challenges for leadership is to instil a valued perception in the products and services as compared to the main competitors. In order to improve the CPV in their business operation need to develop proper marketing strategies as annotation in their services that can help them to determine the expectations of the people. To impact the customer value perception marketing messages of Huawei needs to be consistent and delivered to the consumers in the right platforms and approaches.

Management
a. Along with leaders, the management of Huawei also need to be well equipped in order to help the employees to identify the aspects of innovation and improve their services in a more significant manner. The managers in order to introduce the innovation management system in a more authentic manner need not have several traits or qualities (Nambisan et al., 2017). The management needs to organize the work force by providing them proper training and development by determining the weakness and strength sold the employees. The employees of cognition can resist the innovation and changes that are introduced so it can be the prime duty of the management of help the employees by adapting less complex innovation in the business operations.

b. The management structure of the organisation needs to be hierarchical in order to help the big multinational companies like Huawei. The department needs to coordinate with each other by understanding the perspectives of each other. The hierarchical structure can help the management to develop their employees as specialist that can make them more capable in problem solving techniques. Introduction of innovation can give rise to complexities on a global level in order to deal with such issues the communication needs to be effective that can help the employees to be more readily available for the changes that have been introduced by the managers and leaders.

Figure: Hierarchical structure of Huawei
(Source: Glisson, 2015)

c. The big MNCs like Samsung and Apple who are the leading brands in technology and electronics have been implementing this management structure. The hierarchical structure is divided on the basis of departments and demographic locations. The various departments are allowed to communicate with each other that may help them to communicate in order to make sure the impact of innovation in their services are mostly positive. Facebook also has been a leading company in the context of innovation that has used the above mentioned structure in an effective manner. Therefore, Huawei can take account of such a structure in the business operation that can be most effective in terms of innovation and creativity. The department can be presided over by managers who monitor their teams and cooperate with other teams leaders who are responsible for taking regular feedback of the employees and their mindset that can provide flexibility in the services and provide an impactful decision making policies in the company (Goffin & Mitchell, 2016). The mindset of the management needs of risk aversion that can help to adapt to the innovation.

Climate and Culture
a. Climate of the organisation includes the values and norms that are existent in the company. As per the views of Glisson, (2015), the culture on the other hand is detrimental for achieving the business goals and realizing that the organisation remains in the ideal state. These two factors are the most effective aspects of Huawei that can help them to develop innovation in a more effective manner. Proper culture and climate can help managers, leaders and employees to be more risk taking and logical thinking over the situations and problems. Innovation in the business operations can help to gain competitive advantage but it requires the organisation to be culturally secure. The climate within the company needs to be democratic and must have a holistic approach.

b. It can be a very difficult task to define the organisational culture as it may vary for people in various organisations. Culture is treated as the internal subsystem of the company. Culture of Huawei is the collection of individual along with collective behaviour, images and emotions that the employees protest to each other. The positive culture with proper mindset can be the most effective aspects for the respective organization to adapt to the changes or innovation in their services (Kasemsap, 2016). There can be several dimensions that can be helpful in innovating services in organisations such as:

• Risk taking mindset
• Relationship of the employees managers and leaders
• Proper resources and tools for innovation
• Appropriate knowledge goals and rewards that can help the employees to be motivated.

c. The organisational culture of Huawei can be developed with the help of scientific management theory in order to maximize the impact of innovation inside the company. This theory was developed by F. Taylor that can help the management of any organisation to develop a culture and structure with the help of successful scientific intervention. According to Chang, (2016), this theory can help the respective organisation to determine the most efficient way to perform any specific tasks. The transformation in the operations can improve the efficiency and maximize the services of the employees if there are assigned their duties according to their capability and further helping them to improve with the help of proper training and development. The innovation in the context of products and services can be further enhanced if the employees are monitored properly and help them to determine the weak areas that need to be developed further. The above mentioned theory can help to build a culture in respective organisation that can be well capable to accepting any change in the organisation.

Figure 3: Scientific management theory
(Source: Chang, 2016)

Innovation
a. Innovation is the most important part of an organisation like Huawei, which involves technology-based products and services (Von Zedtwitz et al., 2015). The organisation needs to manage the innovation properly in order to meet the demands of employees and consumers simultaneously. Innovation management system can be the most effective approach to control innovation and adapt to them in simpler ways.

c. In order to incorporate the above-mentioned technology and many more technologies, for gaining competitive advantage, the company has established the Institute of Strategic Management that can help them to heavily invest in these activities in a more effective manner (Gilmore, 2018). The activities that are related to innovation includes areas like:

Scientific research: The respective organisation also has a huge investment in for basic research and talent cultivation that can help them to devise breakthrough innovation in their company.

Technological research: the company has a well-developed approach in order to solve the real world problem with proper application of technological services in various sectors. The company has been able to develop services in rural parts of the world in order to promote connectivity. Despite having political pressure the organisation has been able to gain some significant changes in their technological aspect.

Technological innovation: The Company has been aiming to overcome the contemporary engineering and technological issues with the help of their joint research programs.

Creativity
a. Innovation and creativity are directly proportional to each other. The more creative the idea the more successful can be the innovation in the organisation. The main focus of IMS is to measure the amount of creativity that is associated in any sort of innovation in the company. Creativity can help in innovation and the organization to gain a different position in the market. Huawei has been one of the most creative companies in the context of innovation.

b. Huawei is the company that believes that a smart world is the connected world. The company has been focused on developing various complex innovative services like artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality (Introduction to Huawei Enterprise, 2019). The focus of the company has been on augmented innovation that can help them to combine the capabilities of machines and humans in order to create amazing gains in productivity that both machines and humans cannot achieve alone. The company has also been advancing in the computer vision, natural language processing and robotics that are far reaching and has speculator application in real life.

Summary of how CPV relates to an innovation management strategy
CPV is the prime focus of the organisation that adapts to an innovation management strategy. Any innovation that is performed in Huawei is to make their products and services to improve the customer experience in a significant manner. The organization has developed the 5G network along with its implementation LTE network communication that can help to improve the internet services and people, will be able to communicate with each other in a more significant manner. The company's motto of “Better Connected World” can help the people by providing proper connectivity in order to make life better. CPV motivates the organization to introduce innovation to their products and systems, which necessitates the adoption of proper innovation management strategy, for improved performance. The organization has produced the second generation processor in their electronic accessories that they manufacture in order to introduce cost effective items for the consumers. This processor has been able to improve the performance of the phone by 37%. The respective company has been such ideas that have been forced on the people for serving better.

Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that innovative management system and customer perceived value are the two variables that are highly dependent on each other. Innovation of an organisation basically helps to serve the people better and gain a competitive advantage over other similar companies. Moreover, the study has been focused on the various approaches of innovation that has been adapted by Huawei and the methods by which the company has been able to maximize the effect of the innovation in their business operations. Huawei Innovation management assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable online assignment help service.

References
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