Huawei is an industrial giant, but your brand is still not very well known in France. What does Huawei do?

We are a telecoms equipment manufacturer and we offer all end-to-end telecom solutions to our customers, who are mainly leading operators in the world. Today we serve more than 35 of the top 50 leading operators in the world like France Telecom, Telefonica, Vodafone, and British Telecom.
Huawei has about 87,000 employees worldwide, with more than US $23 billion in sales in 2008, so we can already claim to be quite a big company. Our main research centers are located in India, Russia, and the United States. In Europe we have centers in Sweden and in France. We put our R&D centers wherever the telecom expertise is.

What made Huawei come to France?

Our key value, today, is our innovation ability. And the French market is very dynamic, very innovative: it requires very strong technologies and quality. If you want to be a leading player in the telecom industry, you cannot ignore France. For us, France is the really top strategic country for all Western Europe. 

A few years ago, we opened an R&D center in Sweden, but it was only to test and improve solutions, we didn’t have any sales offices there. Then, we decided to settle in France, where we thought it was very convenient to do both business and research. We were willing to invest here, in order to acquire a wider scope of expertise, not only in the field of wireless technology but also in chipset, optics and many other areas. We knew that in France, we would find a lot of telecom organizations as well as many vendors and leading operators.

Competition here is also very strong, so it can help Huawei to grow with a unique value, to keep the leading position in the world. Competition is an asset, in fact.

You created a Research Center in the Ile-de-France region. You are the first Chinese company to be investing in an advanced R&D Center in France. Is France the right place for R&D?

In the telecom industry, yes definitely. In Europe, France is one of the countries that has the most talented people in the field of research and development, they are very competent and the supply of human resources is very satisfactory, because France has a long telecom industry history.

At the very beginning, as a Chinese company, Huawei was unknown and needed to put itself in the world, in the market, to show that it was a credible vendor. Luckily, we found some people with very senior expertise, who helped us through this key period. 

We have now three premises in France: Cergy Pontoise, Issy-les-Moulineaux — with commercial business activities as well as R&D activities — and Lannion in Brittany with mainly R&D activities. From the R&D department point of view, our centers are organized as “open platforms” where in future we will be able to implement different targets and new projects. We plan to develop such centers in France. We know we can find people who can develop products, follow up the technologies, and who can look forward to the future. As a subsidiary, we work with engineers who can deploy and maintain the solutions we sell in France. 

What is it like doing business with the French?

It’s very challenging, because the market is very demanding. But once you’re really in, you can show the whole industry around the world that you are qualified and you are really a leading vendor, just because you are successful in France – as well as in Europe. Huawei grew up in France by adapting itself to the social, legal and economical environment. We follow the rules very strictly. Now, we are targeting a leading position in France.

France has many assets to attract Chinese investors: the market, the image of France in the world, all the mature "business ecosystems", a very healthy industry, and a lot of facilities, including good quality transport networks. France is like a hub with links to the UK, Germany, the center of Europe, ports to North Africa and Latin America. France’s location at the heart of Europe is very convenient.

Are you aware of French initiatives which could be interesting for your company and facilitate your business, like the research tax credit?

We're aware of that and we have a department who follow up those questions. Actually, we have several exchanges with different organizations like the IFA. They give us a lot of information about new policies, how the French government encourages foreign companies to invest, especially in R&D. New financial policies and reforms such as the research tax credit contributed to our high motivation for choosing France.

Let’s say our number one criteria for choosing France was expertise and our second one was financial considerations. 
 

Were you pleasantly surprised by anything when you came to France?

We had many, many surprises! First, French food is even better than I thought! But the big surprise, in particular, is the openness of the market. We thought that it was a very high-end market which would be extremely difficult to enter and that French people might be prejudiced against Chinese companies in general and Huawei in particular. But we now think that it’s a very open market. Once you’ve found the way to prove yourself, demonstrate your credible high-quality technology, then the market opens up for you very easily. That’s the really positive surprise we had.

On another hand, we need to improve and stimulate the communication between the French and the Chinese business world, to invest in each other’s countries. Both countries will then discover many more opportunities to work together and be able to generate a lot of business.

More information on Huawei