Muscat: Chinese telecommunications company Huawei was recently named one of the 50 Smartest Companies by the MIT Technology Review, which was released by the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Since 2010, the MIT Technology Review, a globally influential technology media outlet, has annually published a list of the 50 companies that best combine innovative technology with an effective business model around the world.
MIT Technology Review picks the 50 smartest companies based on what the companies did over the last year, what methods they used, and what achievements they made. They evaluate the companies’ core competence with emerging technologies and any breakthroughs and innovation the companies have achieved for themselves, their industries, or even the world. Huawei was included in the list this year for its outstanding capabilities in innovation.
William Xu, Huawei’s Director of the Board and President of the Institute of Strategic Research, spoke about the company’s innovation strategy at the 50 Smartest Companies 2019 China Summit.
“Over the past 30 years, Huawei mainly made technical and engineering innovations as well as innovations in solutions based on customer needs,” he stated. “We call that Innovation 1.0. In the future, Huawei will pursue Innovation 2.0, which refers to theoretical breakthroughs and inventions driven by vision. The company sticks to open innovation and inclusive development.”
“Open innovation means innovating together with global experts,” added Xu. “In this process, resources and capabilities are shared. Inclusive development means the fruits of any innovation should be shared and used by all humanity and industries. This can lighten the future of the world.”
Xu added that academia is a source for theoretical breakthroughs and inventions, while industries drive progress through raising challenges, addressing customer needs, and funding the research conducted by universities. Huawei will continue to support the research of universities and institutions and is committed to exploring and identifying future-proof technologies along the whole information process, from information generation, storage, computing, transmission, and presentation, to information consumption.
The MIT Technology Review celebrated the 50 Smartest Companies for the first time in China this year, with the list containing entries for Chinese companies and international companies that operate there.
As a leading technology company, Huawei invests a significant amount of its annual sales revenue to research and development efforts and has established 14 research centres around the world. Among these facilities is the Huawei Aesthetics Research Centre in Paris.
Huawei’s newest R&D centre is the Max Berek Innovation Lab in Wetzler, Germany, where Huawei and Leica are jointly researching technologies to improve mobile device camera and image quality.