华为咬定美国市场

    上周，中国华为公司（Huawei）宣布斥资60亿美元从博通（Broadcom）、高通（Qualcomm）和安华高科技（Avago Technologies）采购处理器和其他组件。这是华为向美国企业示好的最新举措。过去几年，华为一直在努力改变公司的形象，希望从一个不按规矩出牌的庞大、糟糕的网络供应商，转变成一家透明、守法和创新的科技企业。但对于这家中国公司的产品安全性，许多美国政府部门仍心存疑虑。此外，思科（Cisco）等美国竞争对手肯定会延续在海外市场的做法，想方设法阻止华为抢夺它们在美国本土市场的份额。

    华为北美研发部总经理约翰•罗斯接受采访时表示，投资于创新是华为改变公司形象的关键。同时，他还称，不论美国是否喜欢华为，他们都不会退出这个市场。笔者近期采访了罗斯，并参观了华为的硅谷研发中心，一探华为进军美国市场的决心。

《财富》杂志（Fortune）：华为与美国公司一直存在一些法律纠纷，同时也因为向伊朗和塔利班出售产品而备受谴责。那么，华为打算怎么改变这种形象？

    罗斯：人们总是从历史的角度来看待华为和我们的事业，甚至用一种歧视和无知的态度来对待我们。而现在，我们已经开始着手围绕创新来向外界传达公司的形象。一方面，人们会听到各种干扰视听“杂音”，但另一方面，也会听到关于华为创新的故事。1999年或2004年的时候，“杂音”中的一些信息或许确实存在，但在对行业运作方式和科技发展趋势有了真正了解之后，许多假设自然不攻而破。如果当初有人试图以“保护”之名阻止美国市场使用外国技术，我们今天也就不会有手机网络了。我们也根本无法建设各种基础设施，因为这些基础设施全部来自跨国公司。即便美国自己的公司也覆盖全球，它们的技术开发工作在其他国家进行，它们的产品制造可能与华为的产品一样都由同一家工厂完成。即便美国不喜欢华为，华为依然会对美国保持耐心。如果最优秀的技术和最佳创新均源自华为，到那时，美国对华为的排斥将使其失去竞争优势。我们只不过是诸多跨国企业中的一个，与公众熟知的那些跨国企业没有什么区别。只不过，你们对华为的了解还不够。而我的工作就是帮助外界了解我们是谁，我们在做什么。

    Last week, China-based Huawei unveiled its latest effort to make nice with corporate America, announcing it will spend more than $6 billion on processors and other components from Broadcom (BRCM), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Avago Technologies (AVGO). The company has spent the last few years trying to reshape its image as a big, bad network provider that doesn't play by the rules into a transparent, law abiding and innovative technology player. But many government officials are still skeptical of the security of the Chinese company's products, and you can bet U.S. competitors like Cisco (CSCO) will do anything to keep Huawei from eating their lunch here (like they do abroad).

    John Roese, general manager of Huawei's North American R&D division says investing in innovation is the key to changing the company's image. But he also says that whether America likes them or not, Huawei is here to stay. I recently caught up with Roese -- and toured Huawei's Silicon Valley R&D center -- to find out more about the company's push into the U.S. market.

Fortune: You've had legal issues with U.S. companies and have been criticized for selling to Iran and the Taliban. How are you trying to change this image?

    Roese: There is a historical perspective and maybe even a biased and uninformed perspective of who Huawei is and what we do. We're now beginning to communicate our role around innovation. You can hear all of the noise, it's loud and very disruptive, but on the other side you start to hear a story about innovation. The information on the noise side might have been true in 1999 or 2004 but today if you really understand how the industry operates and what's going on in technology, many of those assumptions do not apply. If someone were to try and protect the US market from foreign technology none of us would have a cellular network. We wouldn't be able to build these infrastructures because these infrastructures come from global companies. Even the companies that are in the US are spread out across the globe -- their technologies are developed in other countries, their manufacturing is in the same factories that our manufacturing comes from. But we're very patient in the U.S. Even if you don't like us, at some point if the best technology and the best innovation is coming from Huawei, eventually it becomes a competitive disadvantage for your country to avoid it. We are just another global entity. We are just like any of the global entities that you know of. You just don't know us that well. My job is to try and help teach who we are and what we do.