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Huawei staff fear cuts after internal memo
HONG KONG/BARCELONA (Reuters) – Staff at China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd are bracing for possible jobs cuts after internal memos highlighted intense pressure to improve earnings and an executive said the flagship smartphone business had missed internal profit targets.
Huawei, which rose rapidly to become the world’s third largest smartphone maker, is aiming to narrow the gap with leaders Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics. But the company faces challenges after losing its top spot in China, the world’s biggest market, to new contender Oppo last year.
Huawei’s mobile unit missed an internal profit target for 2016 even though revenues exceeded targets, Richard Yu, head of its consumer business division that includes mobile device operation, told Reuters in an interview at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress this week.
“It is still profitable but the profit margin is very low,” Yu said of the unit that contributes around one third to the group’s revenue.
In an internal memo sent last Friday, Huawei Group founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei urged all employees to work hard, saying the company would otherwise “fall apart”.
“Thirty-something strong men, don’t work hard, just want to count money in bed, is that possible?,” Ren said in the memo seen by Reuters. “Huawei will not pay for those that don’t work hard.” Read more…
(By Sijia Jiang and Harro Ten Wolde)
Samsung to dismantle Corporate Strategy Office
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Samsung Group on Tuesday said it has dismantled its corporate strategy office, the nerve centre of operations for the sprawling conglomerate, following its chief’s arrest amid a graft scandal that could bring down President Park Geun-hye.
Samsung, in a statement, said top group executives including Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki had resigned and that its affiliates would manage themselves independently through cooperation between individual firms’ chief executives and the boards of directors. Read more…
(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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