Short interesting note this afternoon – Huawei, a company for whom I’m a key opinion leader, released their latest earnings this morning. (Ironically, they don’t have to, because they’re not public.)
Anyhow, all of their numbers were positive (revenue up 32% to US$75 billion), but their profits, although higher, weren’t as high as they were last year. So of course, Bloomberg’s first story had the headline “Huawei earnings barely grow as fight with Apple takes a toll.”
What’s funny to me is this: Huawei spent a ton of money on R&D – Like, a TON of money (US$11 BILLION IN 2016) – I assume because they are investing in the 5G future that I talked about last month at Mobile World Congress. But here’s the thing…
We’re all so focused on the next quarter – the next bright and shiny thing – that when a company is focused on the next quarter century, we go negative. “Oh, numbers weren’t as high, they must be failing.” What about thinking towards the future? Are we so distracted by the immediate, that we can’t appreciate a company looking towards the future?
Obviously, I have a relationship with Huawei, but I’ll say this: If I didn’t believe in them, I wouldn’t continue to support them. I think it’ll be fun to watch what happens in the future – And it would be in the best interest of Wall Street and Analysts to start seeing the long term, bigger picture.
