Senior Vice President Amy’s Lin’s story of her 22 years at Huawei whets my appetite to learn more about the people who are carrying out the company’s vision around the world. It’s one thing to articulate strategies in the boardroom, but how on earth do they instill such passion and loyalty in their workers? I found that out when I interviewed Lucy (who asked to be anonymous).

“I have worked at Huawei ever since university, and I have no experience working at other companies — but I’m very grateful to Huawei for giving young people such opportunities.”

Ironically, when Lucy was a senior in university in 2005, she did not even attend the Huawei job fair. A Fortune 500 Chinese company had her sign a contract before she’d landed her double major in Spanish and Western economics. Her family was delighted that she’d chosen to work for a secure state-owned company, and she was delighted that she’d finally be able to use her language skills on an overseas assignment. She was not happy, though, when she was told she’d need to receive a few years training before receiving an assignment in Venezuela. “Frankly, I think they just wanted to make sure I fit their culture.”

Meanwhile, virtually everyone in her class had attended a Huawei job fair and her friends shared how Huawei recruiters had given such a detailed overview of the company’s culture and processes, and spent so much time getting to know the potential recruits. But in the end, Huawei did not accept even one of them as a recruit!

Lucy was intrigued by Huawei’s thoroughness, as well as its very high standards. She had an interview and, to her delight, Huawei offered to give her immediate training and send her off to Argentina as soon as they could get her visa.

“As a foreign language student,” Lucy said. “I wanted to go abroad and experience the world, whether it helped my career or not. The state-owned company had wanted me in China for a while but Huawei wanted me abroad as soon as possible! I spent four years in Argentina, and then a few years in Beijing before moving to the Shenzhen campus.”

What most impressed Lucy about Huawei was its youthfulness. “We only had a dozen people in Argentina back then; today we have about 1,200. And most were young — including our country CEO, who was only in his 30s. Given how young and inexperienced we were, I was surprised at the trust and opportunities that Huawei gave us.”

“And how did the young inexperienced people do?” I asked her.

Lucy shrugged. “Well, I later saw that Huawei paid a great price for our mistakes. We were young, inexperienced and sometimes impulsive. And youth can be aggressive, and are prone to make costly errors.”

“What did Huawei do to those youths who made such mistakes?”

“Actually, Huawei did not seriously punish or criticize those employees or even their country office,” Lucy said, “and this is because part of Huawei’s culture is to give young people opportunities. I think companies like Huawei are very rare. The extremely high recruiting standards help Huawei bring in only the most talented youths, and then they give them ample opportunities and are willing to pay for their mistakes because that is part of learning. I was shocked, and slowly learned that I did indeed have many more opportunities than my peers who went to other companies. And I was proud of the trust that Huawei showed in me.”

But life was challenging for a young Chinese in South America. “Argentina sounds like a romantic or exotic place, but except for Buenos Aires, real life there is not as good as the Chinese countryside! Most of the Huawei people were very young, like me, and full of energy, we were very focused on our work. We would work together every day, and on weekends we cooked together and watched movies together — just like back when we were in college.”

“When working on a project, we would talk until we were exhausted and then just lie down on a table or in a chair in the meeting room, sleeping for a few hours, and then keep going. It was actually very difficult and stressful, but we were determined because of the way we were helping Argentina — especially its remote areas.”

“Fully one third of Argentina’s 45 million people are concentrated in Buenos Aires,” Lucy explained. “Their economy relied mainly on the export of primary agricultural products, and most of the land was unpopulated ranchland. While Brazil was willing to invest heavily in telecommunications for densely populated areas, they could not justify a big investment in the vast, sparsely populated areas like Argentina. But we at Huawei were not happy that two thirds of the population in the country lacked network coverage, and we worked very hard to design a unique solution that covered technology, personnel, network deployment and other aspects.”

“But the roads were bad there, and we’d have to drive for hours to reach a site. We’d be exhausted, and have nowhere to sleep except in the car or on the ground. We all suffered a lot to complete the projects, but we were proud of the part we played in helping Huawei serve one third of the world’s population in over 180 countries and regions around the world. The Argentine government was very grateful because no other company was ever willing to consider such a project”

“Why do you think other companies won’t even try?” I asked.

“Actually, they do have their reasons,” Lucy said. “Although many countries and companies are not really committed to solve such problems, some simply don’t have the budget, or their shareholders will not allow them to spend money on such a project with little or no immediate return. They must be profit-oriented in everything. Huawei also must consider profits, of course, but our situation is very different. We have an ESOP plan and no external shareholders, we don’t have to make commitments to external capital, or make shareholders profitable — or juggle the annual report to make the data look good. So, we have much greater freedom to focus on corporate social responsibility, which is rooted in our company’s culture. And our country CEOs have great autonomy, if we see something that needs to be done, we can do it right after filing a report. There is no complicated mechanism to require what input-output ratio must be achieved. We can do pretty much everything as long as we feel it should be done.”

Lucy’s excitement and pride in Huawei’s contributions to the world was palpable. “Huawei is from China,” she said. “But it is truly a global company. I only bought iPhones very recently because I didn’t want to be criticized as Chongyang Meiwai (崇洋媚外), as some Chinese people say. Chinese used to think imported technology was better than domestic products — and in the past they were usually right. But Huawei has invested so much in R&D that we have leapfrogged from being a chaser to being a global leader. Now, many of my European friends and customers tell me, ‘Huawei’s mobile phones are really good, and much easier to use than iPhones.’ And I agree — which is why for the past five years I’ve only bought Huawei phones. Huawei itself does not care what phones we use. They don’t give us any discounts on our phones. Mr. Ren Zhengfei said in an interview that even his own daughter uses an iPhone. But I’m proud that, today, Huawei phones are in fact the best.”

“I admire how you helped provide services for low-populated areas in Argentina, but how about here in remote areas of China?”

“Huawei has built base stations in Tibet, on peaks that are over 6,000-meters high,” Lucy said.

“That’s hard to imagine!” I said. “When I drove into Tibet in 1994, the 5,200-meter Tangula Pass was above the 5,000-meter Death Zone, and I really felt it. I can’t imagine working at 6,000 meter!”

“It was very difficult,” Lucy admitted. “The Chinese government helped fund it, but Huawei was the only company with both the technology and the determination to provide coverage for very small populations in extremely remote areas. And no one but Huawei people would probably carry such heavy equipment on their backs in such conditions. And that is why remote Tibetan villages can now make WeChat video calls or buy and sell on Taobao.”

“China has changed so much,” I said. “In the 1990s, I paid US$450 and waited three years to get my first phone, and now even Tibetans have phones and the Internet.”

Lucy laughed, “I was in sixth grade when we got our family’s first phone. We only had to wait three months but it cost RMB500 to RMB600 — which was a year’s salary for my mom. But Huawei helped bring the change and drove prices down in China and in other countries as well, which drove some of our Western competitors to lower prices and improve their services. In addition, Huawei helped push the rapid evolution from 3 to 4G and 5G.”

“But how does Huawei get its people like you to work so hard in such difficult conditions?” I asked.

“Huawei’s compensation package is very good,” Lucy said. “Linkedin shows it is one of the best. Huawei believes we can focus on work better when we worry less about life. And since many of us hold stock, our performance affects our incomes. Quite simply, if the company does well, we do well. If the company suffers, so do we. It’s a great mechanism because we all share the same simple and consistent goals.”

“What about Huawei’s customer strategy?” I asked. “Senior Vice President Amy Lin shared about how loyal customers are to Huawei.”

“Huawei’s culture has always been customer-centric,” Lucy said. “Huawei’s top priority is meeting customer needs, and this has helped drive the entire industry. Companies like Ericsson were very slow in resolving customer problems, but competition with Huawei forced them to improve.”

Lucy shared with me how Huawei learned many of its advanced management from the US, at one point hiring 200 to 300 highly paid IBM consultants. “We learned many of our management concepts from the US. Prior to the recent messes, Mr. Ren trusted and admired American corporate management and studied IBM management from beginning to end, and we were all told to either adapt to the new procedures and methods or to leave. I doubt many companies have such determination as this.”

Another of Huawei’s advantages over competitors is its extremely broad R&D. “Other companies’ R&D is restricted to application level,” Lucy said. “But Huawei focuses on solving fundamental problems. We invest a lot into pre-research, and basics such as mathematics, materials science, mobile phone imaging, etc. Samsung had a problem with exploding batteries as they tried to extend battery life by very simplistically rearranging components closer and closer together, until they exploded. Huawei would never pursue problems in this way. We focus on the material itself. If we wanted to improve the battery life, we would improve the battery itself, which is more efficient and safer.”

“Huawei does make mistakes! A few years ago, the D2 phone was a great phone in all respects, except that it got so hot that we joked it should be used to treat back pain or warm baby formula. Huawei quickly got rid of it.”

Huawei is also very focused on its long-term goals, Lucy explained. “Huawei is more responsible because we do not stress short-term benefits and profits. Although we too have high pressure to turn a profit, we do not do it at the expense of long-term development. For example, PHS tech was highly profitable for a short time, but it had no long-term future, so Huawei refused to invest in it, and put all of its resources in 3G. At that time, 3G had no practical applications, and we spent without a return — but we persisted, and it eventually paid off not just for Huawei but for the entire industry.”

As I wrapped up my time with Lucy, I was struck by how similar her feelings were about Huawei to those of Senior Vice President Amy—though they came from very different backgrounds and levels within the company. What was obvious from both of them, however, is that Huawei does instill loyalty in both its employees and customers—and this is because of its unique corporate culture.

“To this day, Huawei’s culture is inseparable from the ideas of Mr. Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and now the CEO,” Lucy said. “But he rarely attends to day-to-day issues, leaving daily operations to the operating CEO and decision-making committees. Although our culture continues to fall within Mr. Ren’s shadow, he is a very broad-minded person who likes to delegate power to us and give us latitude to grow.”