Insight
At this year’s Huawei Connect summit held in Paris, Huawei hosted an Innovation Day, with the theme of SME Innovation: Unlocking Europe’s Economic Future’. Innovators from across the globe gathered to discuss how to best allow SMEs to grow and thrive in Europe
At the event, Huawei announced the opening and launch and opening of its Paris Innovation Center which is set to serve as a platform for deepened collaboration between Huawei and its partners, whether it is an established organization or an SME. Vicky Zhang, Vice President of Corporate Affairs said that, “only by working together can we build the healthy ecosystem to enable Europe’s economy to thrive.”
The centre will receive an annual investment of €2 million from Huawei, designed for the encouragement of knowledge sharing and innovation, and providing resources for integration & verification and go-to-market support. Huawei, founded in 1987, was once a small company itself, and can therefore resonate with the issues that SMEs in Europe face today.
The Innovation Centere will be an upgrade from Huawei’s Paris OpenLab, which has served over 200 partners since 2018, as it has end-to-end support systems in place for partners.
In Europe, SMEs are the backbone of the economy, employing 58% of the European economy. Out of the 25 million companies in Europe, just 0.1% are large companies, and a huge 60% are one person companies. As 7/10 job in Europe are in SMEs, The CEOs of these companies feel they need to digitalise, but they need they often need assistance with where to start, which is what the Innovation Centre will help with.
The discussion at the event focused heavily on the benefits of SMEs in Europe going digital. “The advantage of SMEs and startups are their ground-breaking ideas and innovative approach to business and technology, but at the same time, in order to stay competitive, they need to improve their own business structures, internal processes, cyber resilience, and more. The only way to do that is to achieve full digitalisation and to adjust to the fast-changing European market. Here is where we can help them grow and support them,” said Horst Heitz, Chair of the SME Connect Steering Committee.
This opinion was concurred by Julia Devos, Head of New Champions at the World Economic Forum. “SMEs are the backbone of the economy and key to a sustainable future. Together we can create a support system to help them to be prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the future and make them thrive.”
François Mercier-Tigrine, Co-founder and Scientific Director of HD Rain, echoed the sentiment by emphasising the vital role of SMEs, particularly those involved in deep tech, in bridging the gap between technology research and industrialisation, “It is in this phase that new technologies need support in financing and access to markets, for example via partnerships with institutions and big companies. Huawei’s Digital InPulse program is a good example of one way that big companies can help SMEs find new opportunities in markets where they are still little known”.
The announcement of the innovation centre comes as in line with the wider Huawei Connect event, the confirms its commitment to Europe. The region is one of Huawei’s most important regions for strategic global operations. “Huawei will continue to stay customer-centric, create value for customers and partners, strengthen innovative collaboration with European partners, help cultivate local digital and green talent, and further grow our R&D investment in Europe. We look forward to doing our part to accelerate Europe’s green and digital transition,” said Jim Lu, the Senior Vice President and President of the European Region.
