Add up the revenues of TCS, Wipro and Infosys—that’s the size of Huawei Technologies. With revenues of $11 billion, the company generated nearly two-thirds of its revenue from outside China in 2006 and is planning to aggressively increase its worldwide market share.

Huawei’s journey from an importer of telecom equipment to a global telecom gear maker started 19 summers ago, though its international foray happened only in 1996. In the process, it has established itself as a credible, research-led company focused on next generation telecom technologies.

In its dream to be a global power, Huawei is pushing development of new products at a dozen research centers in countries including India, Sweden, Russia, the U.S. and the company’s home country, China. Huawei has been investing big in R&D, with 10 percent of its revenues and nearly half of its 65,000 workforce dedicated to this area.

For Huawei, global aggression meant building world-class management systems, changing organizational structure and bringing in cultural diversity. Yet, what really brought in the transformation is its ‘customer centricity’ culture. There is a conscious drive to provide customers with the finest global technology tailored perfectly to their local needs. There is an emphasis on being as close as possible to customers thereby placing a great importance on localization. Strong customer alignment has been a key factor in the rise of Huawei as a global telecom company.

As we march into 2008, let us as companies or individuals take a renewed look at our customer-centric strategy, for that’s going to determine our success in the new era.