Product and Service Innovation: A Case Study of Huawei Technologies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Huawei Technologies' innovation strategies, focusing on product and service innovation. The student's report examines various innovation models, including process, brand, channel, and product performance, and how Huawei employs them to gain a co...Read More

Managing Product and
Service Innovation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Executive Summary
The paper shows the various kinds of innovation model that are
available in the market scenario and the organisation need to choose
its preferable innovation model to survive the market.
Accordingly Huawei has strived for a combination of the innovation
model in terms of process, brand, and channel and product
performance to have a competitive edge for itself.
Each of the innovation model has a distinct role to play in the business
scope of Huawei and prominent amongst them is the branding
innovation which the company has showcased by installing exclusive
stores for its targeted customers. It is also seen that in the innovation
process certain gaps like poor performance of the product has been
stated which needs to be addressed instantly.
The key areas like R&D to develop the product, market research to
understand the customer requirements and staff training, customer
forum to deal with customer dissatisfaction are required to be focussed
in this scenario.

Company Chosen
The report would be based on the Shenzhen based
Chinese multinational telecommunication and
electronics manufacturer, Huawei Technologies
Company Limited. The organisation has an effective
research and development wing across 21 facilities
globally expending worth $13.8 billion for the purpose
(huawei, 2019).
Huawei Technologies has to its accreditation providing
the services of fixed and mobile broadband networks,
multimedia technology, smartphones, dongles and
tablets. The company offer its services across 170
counties globally and being associated with 45 off the 50
biggest telecom companies on the global platform.

Innovation Selected
Huawei has been operating at a competitive
market along with a host of competitors, so to
gain advantage in the market it is required to
have a combination of the innovation models.
Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis, & Seuring
(2014), points out that it would be suitable for
Huawei to take into consideration multiple
innovation strategies simultaneously to create
a positive impression in the market.

Innovation Analysis
First and foremost Huawei need to seek a process model for
innovating a unique supply chain design for the manufacturer by
means of green-sourcing. It would stand to be a sustainable
sourcing methodology to reduce the environmental impact owing
to the manufacturing of the smartphone and other communication
devices as much as possible (Terwiesch & Cachon, 2012).
The green stance on part of Huawei would lead to an effective
impression on its corporate sustainability process. This aspect
could be rightly utilised to promote the brand ‘Huawei’ as a
sustainable electronic devise strengthening its branding (Radjou,
2016). The phenomenon would pave way for a brand innovation
model being environmentally responsible and tend the users to be
the same as well. In this context it would be quite effective for
Huawei to come up with its exclusive store across its operating
markets in terms of channel innovations.

Innovation Analysis
The exclusive store would offer latest mobile with updated
features, add-on services along with a range of accessories like
headphones, mobile sticks at an exclusive price (Varadarajan,
2009).
 In this scenario the product performance model for innovation
would be quite effective in bringing the hosts of customer to the
exclusive stores.
The innovation aspect would lead to an effective performance of
the handsets promoted by the company at its exclusive stores
showcasing its strong product features making it acceptable to
the targeted mass (Reid & Sanders, 2015).
The aspect of innovation to enrich the performance of the Huawei
products would be attained by means of a strong research and
development initiatives undertaken by the company

Innovation Analysis
The multiple innovation model has been considered in this
case taking considerations of the elements of process, brand,
and channel and product performance.
It is estimated that the aforesaid innovative aspects would
strive to deliver a strong message to the targeted
mass(Nicholas & Steyn, 2017).
But it seems that there are certain gaps in the innovation
model that needs to be properly taken care of to present a
suitable platform for the products offered by Huawei.
In this regard the gap analysis need to be considered which
shows a striving variation in business performance against the
expected performance off the product (Tsai, Hsu, & Chou,
2011). The gap analysis on the context of Huawei strive to find
out the prevailing gap existing in the business scenario

Gap Analysis
The gap analysis on the perceived innovation
model of Huawei shows that the product say
the smartphone devise designed by the
manufacturer is not efficient enough to serve
the purpose of the customers.
The operating system of the product is
getting slower leading to a poor performance
and utter dissatisfaction of the customers
(Chatterjee, Adhikary, Sen, & Kar, 2018).

Recommendations for Addressing
Weaknesses
Research and development –
Huawei Technologies has an extensive research
infrastructure and spends billions of dollar to have
an efficient technology.
So it would be quite suitable for the company to give
due focus on the aspect of R&D innovation and
undergo suitable tests before introducing the
product in the market (Paulrajan & Rajkumar, 2011).
It is because an effective R&D aspect would lead to
an efficient product enhancing its performance and
bringing down the number of customer complaints.

Recommendations for Addressing
Weaknesses
Market research – Huawei before introducing
a particular product, say a smartphone in the
market are required to conduct a thorough
analysis of the market (Chen, Chiang, &
Storey, P a g e | 11 2012).
 It would be quite suitable to understand the
customer expectations and the product
development team of the organisation could
co-ordinate with the R&D team for the
market requirement.

Recommendations for Addressing
Weaknesses
Staff training – The staff at the exclusive
store of the company are the representatives
of Huawei, so they need to be very efficient in
handling the customer complaints.
Accordingly a training could be arranged by
Huawei to provide after-sales service and
listen to the customer complaints patiently as
sometimes an active listening and empathy
could resolve the matter instantly (Coccia &
Cadario, 2014).

Recommendations for Addressing
Weaknesses
Customer forum – Huawei has a digital
platform wherein it has the scope to interact
with the customers with regards to the kind
of products they expect and feedback on the
product and services offered to them.
In this way the company by understanding
the customer psyche could avert the ranging
issues of poor product performance of the
smartphone devices containing ire of the
customers.

Conclusion
The report shows that the aspect of innovation is quite necessary for
the success of the organisation in the competitive market and so does
hold truth for Huawei as it needs to survive the intensely competitive
global market.
So Huawei to have a competitive edge has chosen to be innovative
but keeping stride of the current level of competition in the market, it
has opted for a combination of innovative factors in the market foray.
Accordingly Huawei has taken consideration of the innovative aspects
of process, brand, and channel and product performance to come up
with something different for its customers. It has come up with
exclusive stores for the customers to showcase its new products in
terms of laying down a strong branding proposition. In the process it
might happen that the product face issues like poor performance
which needs to be addressed by conducting a gap analysis to resolve
the matter suitably.