Wolf Pack Tactics: How Huawei Tore Through the Giants' Iron Curtain by 'Encircling the Cities from the Countryside'

Prologue: The Ant at the Elephant's Feet

In 1993, the successful development of Huawei's C&C08 10,000-line digital program-controlled switch should have been a moment for celebration, but Ren Zhengfei's brow was furrowed deeper than ever.

The product was made. But how could they sell it?

At the time, China's urban telecommunications market was an impenetrable fortress. Multinational giants like Lucent, Nortel, and Siemens had established deep-rooted relationships with the telecom bureaus in major cities through their powerful brands, advanced technology, and vast capital. They were like a herd of elephants, firmly occupying the most fertile grasslands.

And Huawei? It had no brand, no reputation, no connections, and the stability of its product was yet to be tested by the market. In front of these elephants, Huawei was an ant that could be crushed at any moment.

During an internal strategy meeting, the atmosphere was suffocating. A sales director said dejectedly, "Mr. Ren, we can't squeeze in. Forget selling equipment, we can't even get past the door of a section chief at the telecom bureau. The moment they hear 'Huawei,' they can't be bothered to talk to you."

Pessimism spread quickly. Someone suggested cutting prices to launch a price war. But Ren Zhengfei immediately shot it down: "A price war is the lowest form of combat. With our meager resources, we can't compete with them. And once we get stuck in low-price competition, we'll never recover."

The meeting reached a stalemate. Ren Zhengfei walked over to a large map of the country, his gaze lingering on the vast, neglected blank spaces outside the red dots marking the major cities—China's countryside.

After a long pause, he turned around, pointed at the blank areas on the map, and said, word by word, "The cities are theirs, but the countryside is ours. If we can't win on the main battlefield, we'll go to the enemy's rear, to the places they look down on and can't reach! We will 'encircle the cities from the countryside'!"

This strategy, derived from Mao Zedong's military thought, sounded somewhat unorthodox, even a bit "crude" at the time. But at that moment, for the cornered people of Huawei, it pointed to the only path forward—a path fraught with thorns, yet leading to victory.

Act I: Not Selling Equipment, but "Making Friends"

The strategy was set, but its execution was harder than anyone imagined.

The rural market meant remote, scattered, harsh conditions and meager profits. Huawei assembled a sales team known as the "field army" and dispatched them to impoverished areas across the country.

These were not people in sharp suits staying in star-rated hotels. They often carried dozens of kilos of sample equipment, squeezed onto slow "green-skin" trains, took long-distance buses, and even rode ox-carts or tractors just to reach a remote county or town.

Their opponents were not just the harsh natural environment, but also the deeply entrenched conservative mindset of the local telecom bureaus. In those small counties, the head of the telecom bureau was a "local emperor" who only recognized foreign brands and was deeply distrustful of an unheard-of domestic brand like Huawei.

What could they do? Huawei's salespeople used the stupidest, yet most effective method: persistence.

They essentially "moved" their office into the client's workplace. During the day, they helped the telecom bureau's technicians with odd jobs—sweeping, wiping tables, carrying equipment, doing whatever was needed. At night, they drank, chatted, and played cards with the bureau chiefs and section heads. From work issues to family trifles, they turned themselves into the client's most trusted confidants.

In one classic case, in a remote northern county, a Huawei sales representative, in order to build a relationship with the local telecom bureau chief, played cards with him on his heated brick bed for a week straight. During the games, he deliberately lost money, making the chief ecstatic with his winnings every day. After a week, he had not only lost all the money he had brought but was also in debt. But ultimately, he won the chief's trust and secured the first order in that county.

This "unconventional" public relations approach may seem hard to understand today, but in the market environment of the time, it was the only way to get a foot in the door and build trust. Huawei's salespeople were no longer just selling equipment, but an attitude, a sincerity that said, "I am willing to do anything for you."

Act II: Taking Service to an "Insane" Level

If "making friends" was the foot in the door, then Huawei's "insane" level of service was its nuclear weapon for conquering territory.

The products of the multinational giants were advanced, but their service was incredibly arrogant. When equipment failed, you had to file a report and go through the procedures. It would take at least a month or two for spare parts to arrive from abroad.

Huawei, on the other hand, took service to the extreme.

They promised that if any equipment failed, no matter where, an engineer would be on-site within 24 hours. To fulfill this promise, Huawei established a dense network of offices and spare parts centers across the country.

Once, the communication equipment at a remote border post in Tibet malfunctioned. It was during a heavy snowstorm that had completely blocked the roads. To repair the equipment as quickly as possible, a Huawei engineer rode a yak for three days and three nights through the snow to reach the post. When he appeared before the soldiers, covered in snow and with a frostbitten face, everyone was stunned.

In another famous story, a Huawei engineer, while helping a client debug equipment, noticed that the server room was very dirty and overrun with rats that often chewed through the lines. Without a second thought, the engineer led a team to clean the entire room with the client until it was spotless, and even helped them establish a set of pest control regulations.

This kind of meticulous service, which went far beyond the scope of any contract, completely won over the clients. They realized that buying Huawei equipment meant getting not just a machine, but a partner who was always responsive and trustworthy. Word of mouth spread like a virus from town to town, county to county.

Epilogue: From Countryside to City, from Guerrillas to a Regular Army

While the multinational giants were still enjoying their fat profits in the big cities, they were shocked to find that their own "backyard" was on fire.

Through the capital, technology, and reputation accumulated in the rural market, Huawei had completed its transformation from a "guerrilla force" to a "regular army." Their products had been tempered in tens of thousands of rural networks, and their stability and reliability had even surpassed those of the "foreign brands."

The time was ripe. In 1995, Huawei sounded the horn for its "march into the cities."

This time, they were no longer the ant that could be crushed at will. They held the C&C08 switch, a product that was highly cost-effective and had been rigorously tested by the market, and they were backed by a "base area" composed of countless loyal rural customers.

When they knocked on the doors of the urban telecom bureaus again, they were met not with cold stares and rejection, but with curiosity and respect. By the time the giants realized what was happening and tried to fight back, it was too late. Huawei's "wolf pack" had already rushed onto the grassland and begun to compete with the "elephants" for the most succulent grass.

The "encircling the cities from the countryside" strategy was not only the key to Huawei's early rise but also became a classic case of the weak defeating the strong in Chinese business history. It profoundly illustrates a truth: in the battlefield of business, there are no permanent强者, only the most cunning hunters. And the most cunning hunters can always find the secret path to their prey's heart in places others cannot see.

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Key Takeaways

1. Avoid the Giants' Strengths, Find Structural Opportunities: Huawei's success lay in not fighting a war of attrition with the giants in their core markets. Instead, it found a "structural opportunity" in the rural market that the giants had overlooked, thereby gaining precious room to grow.
2. Extreme Service is a Small Company's Moat: When at a disadvantage in both product and brand, Huawei took service to an "insane" level, building deep, emotional connections and trust with its clients. This soft power is often more lethal than hard technology.
3. From the Periphery to the Center, Accumulate Small Wins: The essence of the "encircling the cities from the countryside" strategy is to continuously accumulate small victories (capital, experience, reputation) in marginal markets to eventually build enough momentum to overturn the core market. It is a process that requires great patience and perseverance, but it is also an effective path for latecomers to achieve transcendence.