Break strategic mutual doubts and rebuild strategic mutual trust deeply
In the current difficult situation, the operator’s business is our “ballast stone”. However, based on the author’s intuitive and indirect experience in recent years, we can feel from many aspects that such a strategic partnership between us and the operator has not It is not monolithic, and there is not much mutual trust even in strategy, and there is even a "trust deficit" to the point of strategic "mutual suspicion."
Strategic mutual suspicion refers to the distrust of the other party’s ultimate intentions between the two parties. In other words, both parties believe that the other party’s long-term goals are at the expense of our side’s core interests. You have to pay attention, this does not mean that the other party must have such thoughts, but if everyone is so jealous, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that will eventually lead to a full hostile state in the relationship between the two parties.
In fact, China and the United States currently have such a relationship.
Of course, it may be said that we and the operators will be completely hostile. It is estimated to be a bit exaggerated. After all, most operators are still purchasing products from equipment vendors mainly based on us. This is especially true of major domestic operators, at least in commercial partnerships. Still very reliable. But it must be said that the following phenomena have shown that at least strategic "mutual suspicion" has emerged.
First, since SDN and NFV, operators seem to be no longer satisfied with relying on equipment vendors to calculate TCO for them, nor are they immersed in the fact that we told him that the biggest cost is OpeX, not CapeX. They put more "toss". Invest in the “three-way” approach and look at the deconstruction of the control plane, the data plane and the forwarding plane, and even the “white box”;
Second, in recent years, whether it is ORAN, TIP, O-WDM, Open5G, OpenUPF, the game between the two parties to open the northbound interface of the device has intensified; of course, we have never lost the game from the past to the present, but we can only It is said that more and more "opposition" and "young strong" have accumulated, and these people may master more words and decisions within operators in the future;
Third, we have "complained" whether the telecommunications industry is not "healthy" internally, externally, or even publicly; we even expressed similar views in front of the top operators of operators; the two sides may have a consensus on "unhealthy", but to whom "Unhealthy" may all tacitly believe that the other party is the cause;
fourth, the operators currently publish some "white papers" and no longer greet us completely, and even publish them "on their own". Among them, "there is no lack" in our opinion. "The point of view is not "friendly" to a supplier like us, who has been serving them for a long time, and we are now starting to publish a "white paper" to operators.
Fifth, in private, everyone has complaints and complaints about each other, thinking that Huawei is "conservative", and we think that operators are "failing" or "changing their hearts";
Sixth, some of our marketing activities or presentations can still invite operators to attend and platforms, but the speeches are becoming more and more "unceremonious", and the views and structures we preach will not be easily "brought back" , We don’t see many opinions and terms that we talk about internally, such as "SoftCom", such as "ROADS" concepts, which are often spread within operators;
Seventh, operators themselves will publish their own concepts, such as Cube, such as ABCDE, etc.; they do not trust each other and are unwilling to adopt the concepts of manufacturers;
Eighth, a mid-level and high-level benchmarking or marketing event that was finally planned. The two parties started and ended in joy, harmony and enthusiasm, but they did not listen to the ideas that each other wanted to convey. There may be "recoil", side effects , The reverse was heard a little bit, which deepened mutual suspicion.
We can cite some more examples of this kind. I won’t list them all here. I wonder if you will see something familiar.
Listening to and understanding the voice of our customers is our magic weapon. Customer-centricity is the culture and genes engraved in our bones. We still have a strong execution customer line to face customers and serve customers well. The company also advocates continuous commitment to quality customers. Tilting resources, etc., all of which I believe will still be our fundamentals. Our business relationship with operators is still the mainstream, but it is undeniable that the signs of strategic "mutual suspicion" have emerged and are continuing to develop and ferment We cannot wait for this "self-fulfilling" prophecy to take root. We must have deeper strategic measures to reconstruct strategic mutual trust.
And this kind of mutual trust is definitely not regular customer contact. Customer visits and commercial activities can be established, and it is not a simple superficial benchmarking meeting that can be restored. Just as Einstein said, you cannot think about the problem itself. The solution will not work. There must be new industrial means to resolve strategic mutual trust. To be more blunt, there must be a new "voting certificate" to allow both parties to recognize that their cooperation is sincere and there is no way out.
And new industrial means must be established when new industrial opportunities appear. At present, the SA construction boom in the second half of 5G is coming. 5G To B is facing thousands of industries to enable and develop the ecology is a challenge for operators and equipment vendors. The common problems and challenges of the Internet and cloud vendors, and there are huge challenges in the industry inside, and strong enemies outside. It seems that operators and equipment vendors have no more choices. There must be a way to form Closer strategic partners to cope with each other and complement each other. Operators understand operations and equipment vendors understand software, but both of them do not understand applications or industries, and both have ecological shortcomings. Therefore, in this situation, if the two Family is still "mutually suspicious" and cannot build "mutual trust" in a certain way, then what will be missed will be another huge era, a huge digital era. "Mutual trust" is definitely not verbal. It can be easily constructed by written agreements. It must be constructed by an industrial collaboration method that is more in line with the law of software ecological development. The most effective and most viable industrial tool that has consensus at the moment There is no doubt that it is "open source".
Here, of course, the author is not advocating that open source is omnipotent, but just to provide a reference method for the establishment of the above-mentioned mutual trust, and it should be done in multiple ways, such as forming investment relations and marriage, but these are the lowest feasible for us. ,not realistic.
Open source at least enables dual amplifiers to collaborate in a nearly "transparent" way, using the most unambiguous software language "engineering" instead of marketing, so that the two sides can cooperate in the most detailed and most engineered way. It is clear at a glance whether it is “sincere”, whether it is “effective”, whether it is willing to “share the benefits”, and whether it is willing to “share costs and risks” at a glance. You don’t need to have a meeting, just look at the effect of the effort, just look at the “contribution” in the open source community. .
Thomas Friedman, author of "The World Is Flat" and columnist of the "New York Times", made a new point of view at the China Development High-level Forum on September 6, 2019: The world has become "deeper." You think that everything can be interconnected and can explore each other. Your phone can connect to your alarm clock, control your air conditioner, and talk to your car. Everything is getting deeper. Similarly, in the face of the "deep" world and the reconstruction of "mutual trust" with operators, we also need to use deep-seated industrial means such as open source.