Huawei’s deputy chairman and rotating CEO Ken Hu said that "Innovation is not a sprint, it’s a marathon," highlighting howcompanies need to plan in the long term when it comes to research and development.
He claimed that Huawei has invested 14% of its annual sales revenue, amounting to $6.6bn, towards Research and development (R&D) efforts.
At the 14th Munich Economic Summit, Huawei deputy chairman Ken Hu emphasised upon the need towards a long-term investment program for R&D, and announced that the company has been investing at least 10% of its annual sales revenue on R&D every year since the company was formed in 1987.
Huawei has reportedly spent more than $30bn on R&D, and around 170,000 employees of the company are dedicated towards R&D work.
As a result of its R&D projects, the company received 38,825 patents last year alone, that were mostly related to inventions.
According to Hu, the innovations were a result of customers’ needs and their expectations of the company.
Hu said: "Customer needs should be the driving force and purpose of innovation." "The best reward for innovation is customer success."
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Huawei presently operates 16 research institutes and has established 31 joint innovation centers.
The company has established a joint innovation centre with European Research Institute, where research work is being conducted to develop next-generation network technologies.
