Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Dr. Zhao has more than twenty years experience in telecommunications and IT industries. He currently acts as Vice President of Huawei Technologies (USA). During his career in Huawei (USA), Dr. Zhao has been in charge of company's operation, research and development, sales and marketing, as well as the company's public and industry relations. Currently Dr. Zhao is in charge of company's industry standards.

Editor's note: On May 22, 2007, Bill Owens, CEO and Chairman of AEA Holdings Asia and former Nortel CEO, was at Huawei University giving a speech on leadership. As former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America, Mr. Owens discussed, by sharing his own experiences, the qualities of good leadership. The speech set many high-ranking managers of Huawei thinking about leadership, who have since written many articles about it. Below is one such writing that presents an insight into the subject: Not having similar life experiences as Mr. Owens, my insights into what makes a good leader falls far short of Owens' own experiences. His speech was so passionate and sensible that I had some difficulty fully comprehending his meaning. Fortunately, what I did comprehend was his expressed "love" of his work and for his fellow man. Mr. Owens says love is one of the most important traits of a great leader. In this we have something in common. In my heart, I know immediately that this has to be true. If "management" is a tool for achieving high efficiency and effectiveness in business operations, then "leadership" must recognize that people are inherently different and that these differences in traits should be considered when leading them. I propose that good leadership be used not only as a tool for pursuing organizational goals, but as a way of establishing a well-organized, growing organization where human beings' differences (traits) are figured into the formula for business growth. What is the best environment for humans to work under that contributes to a company's success? Before I turned thirty, I understood it to be "freedom." Since turning forty, I have understood it as "freedom without asking about the rules." The "rules" include the laws of nature in the physical world and the laws of human nature in society.