Huawei 2013 Annual Report Download - page 50

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Industry Trends
The history of human society and civilization
advancement is also a history of scientific
and technological development. Numerous
ICT technologies over the past half century,
culminating in various ingenious Internet
innovations, have shattered the limits of time
and space, bringing the human civilization into
an unprecedented new frontier. Today, we are
entering an era of omnipresent networking and
information. However, this is just the start of a
greater information revolution. We are at the door
to the next wave of digital society.
“Internet+” drives the integration of the
digital and physical worlds and shapes the
next wave of information revolution
Today, we are living in a time of Internet and
information omnipresence, but the digital and
physical worlds are still parallel to each other
and not closely intertwined. For all industries
and enterprises, “Internet+” will be the focus of
innovation. Traditional industries and enterprises
are in particular need to realize digital reformation
by leveraging the power of the Internet, driving
deeper integration of the physical and digital
worlds. This has become a new growth trend for
them.
■ The Internet is not just mere infrastructure,
but more a brand new mindset
The essence of the Internet is being connected
anytime, anywhere. Being an infrastructure
element just like the power grid, the Internet has
greatly boosted social productivity and reduced
cost. However, the value of the Internet is far more
than providing connectivity. Its impact is profound
and revolutionary, as it represents a brand new
mindset, with the core being “all connected at
zero distance” among people, enterprises and their
customers, and business partners.
Industry Trends
Therefore, enterprises must restructure their
mindset, business, marketing, R&D, operation,
and service models, based on the Internet rather
than simply overlaying traditional models with the
Internet as a tool. Among them, restructuring of
mindset is of paramount importance, as action
comes after that.
■ Infiltrating beyond value delivery into value
creation, the Internet is set to redefine
traditional industries
Business processes, though complicated, mainly
comprise value creation and value delivery.
Value delivery is what we usually refer to as
information flow, capital flow, and logistics flow.
All the three flows have been smoothed out
through mushrooming e-commerce platforms. In
other words, the Internet has fully infiltrated and
transformed the value delivery process. As a result,
the digital and physical worlds are integrated, and
the business chain is restructured, reducing or even
eliminating many intermediate processes.
Currently, the Internet is starting its infiltration
into value creation, especially the R&D and
manufacturing fields. This infiltration is
comprehensive. It has a technical dimension, as
we see in the case of Tesla redefining automobiles
using IT and the Internet. It also implies changes
in the R&D model, toward, for example,
user participation and crowd sourcing. The
manufacturing field is not immune to this. After
the steam engine, electricity, and IT, the Internet is
driving the fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry
4.0, enabling the integration of efficient mass
production with the diversity of individualized
manual workshops. With the infiltration of the
Internet and ICT into the value creation field, the
integration of the digital and physical worlds goes
deeper. Transformation of traditional industries
has just begun.
Riding the digitization trend into a new industrial age