#61 - Section: Five Stages (Part 1)

Lu Haifeng said in a deep voice, "The Huaxing Laboratory established the lithography machine project last year when we entered the semiconductor project. However, many people couldn't understand it. Some even asked me why we should waste these huge sums of money instead of using it to seek cooperation with foreign companies and obtain their technology licenses."

Old Master Ren gazed at Lu Haifeng and said forcefully, "We understand, we understand best! As early as 2002, when we fought a lawsuit with Cisco, we deeply realized this problem. 2002 was definitely the most difficult year for Huawei, and the entire company almost collapsed."

The old man looked serious, with a hint of pain in his eyes: "At the beginning, the IT Internet bubble burst, and the entire technology and Internet sector was in a slump. Huawei also experienced its first negative growth in history at that time, and there were many internal conflicts within the company."

"At that time, there were some problems with our company's strategy, and we were always in a situation where we could be strangled by others, which further fueled large-scale panic within the company."

He looked at Lu Haifeng and said, "President Lu, to have thought of doing your own lithography machine project at the beginning of the company's establishment shows foresight in strategy, which is admirable."

Hearing these words, Lu Haifeng also said sincerely, "To be honest, I also saw the records of Huawei's lawsuit with Cisco in 2002, and then I read the 'Huawei's Winter' speech you gave, Old Master Ren, followed by the 'Extreme Survival Hypothesis' you proposed."

"I was also influenced by these, which is why I was able to overcome all opposition and firmly embark on the most difficult path of independent research and development."

Old Master Ren nodded with a smile. Xu Wenwei and Zhang Yu next to him were stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, they couldn't help but nod in deep agreement.

Old Master Ren took a sip and said, "To do this well, you have to be prepared to burn even more money in the future, hundreds of billions of dollars at every turn, or even more. Moreover, even if you spend more money and more time in this field, you may not necessarily achieve results. Things like drawing water with a bamboo basket often happen."

"What's more, there are international giants in front who have set up a large number of patent barriers, which are difficult to overcome."

"To take this path, you must be prepared to fight a protracted war. The road ahead is full of thorns and traps. If you are not careful, you will fall into an abyss."

Lu Haifeng thought for a while and sighed deeply, looking at Old Master Ren and saying, "Yes, this is a thorny road, but we have to take it. Buying things from foreigners is definitely worry-free and labor-saving. You only need to buy them and assemble them yourself to quickly launch products. But looking at the overall situation, extending the vision by more than 10 years, you can see it clearly."

"In the future, it will belong to the high-precision industry. Aviation and artificial intelligence are the upstream, and all these foundations require chips, and chips are inseparable from lithography machines."

"At that time, as long as the upstream suppliers suddenly cut off the supply, or those countries across the ocean introduce a series of technical restrictions, then the loss will not be tens of billions, hundreds of billions, or trillions of dollars."

"Instead, the entire market will be lost, and the company may even die directly. Therefore, now we try not to use them as much as possible. If we use them, we must find a backup like you Huawei."

As soon as these words came out, Old Master Ren was shocked and looked at Lu Haifeng with a face full of gratification.

Xu Wenwei was even more shocked in his heart. He was too familiar with these words, because his own big boss had also said similar things to them, with almost no difference.

Old Master Ren said solemnly, "At present, most of the world's underlying technologies are in the hands of foreign giant companies. We are currently in a honeymoon period with these companies because we can bring them huge profits without affecting their market size."

"But once we affect their absolute market share, they will definitely turn around and attack us. This is inevitable."

Lu Haifeng said, "Many people see this situation as worrying about the sky falling, but the perspective of looking at things depends on what height you stand at."

"Our opponents are not giants like Nuoguan, BlackBerry, or Apple. They are just electronic terminal manufacturers and vendors of the most cutting-edge technology."

"Our real opponents are those top companies in the world, standing on the top of the world across the ocean, or even those political entities themselves."

At this moment, Old Master Ren and Xu Wenwei were once again stunned and shocked. They had already thought highly enough of the young man's mind and spirit, but they didn't expect that they still underestimated him. He saw the essence.

Lu Haifeng continued, "Our company's scale is constantly expanding. Such a large company will also have a significant impact, and the competition I am talking about may happen at any time. Moreover, I think Huawei is already facing similar problems."

Old Master Ren listened very carefully and asked thoughtfully, "How do you see it?"

He was even more shocked in his heart, but he looked at Lu Haifeng with gratification in his eyes, and even more with a kind of joy of finding a companion.

Lu Haifeng didn't play coy either. He picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, and said, "Compared with the previous years, Huawei is almost a phoenix reborn, resurrected from the dead, and the company's annual profit is growing rapidly at a rate of more than 30%."

"The company's employee size exceeds 100,000, of which research personnel account for 45%, right? If my calculation is correct, Huawei will enter another stage from next year, the fifth stage."

"The theme of Huawei's first stage from 1987 to 1994 was survival."

"The theme of the second stage from 1995 to 2003 was to get out of chaos, and rebirth."

"The theme of the third stage from 2004 to 2009 was to recognize yourself and look forward to the future, because in these years, Huawei's global business scale has continued to expand, and it has undoubtedly become a diversified high-tech giant. The scale of business grows with age, so you must recognize yourself and look forward to the future."