For instance, every telecom carrier has a strategic department, but most of the strategies are not being well implemented despite the how good the strategists are. Under the current corporate system of telecom carriers, leaders of state-owned companies are usually unable to make long-term investment since when their cycle ends new management will come in place. Aside from that, state-run companies also have target mechanisms that are more complicated and require more thinking.

　　Secondly, the corporate culture of telecom carriers already makes it impossible for them to nurture people like Ren Zhengfei. Telecom carriers have a corporate culture that resembles to the government and that requires the companies to put stability as their priority. Even looking at their language style you can find that they just don’t have the genes to act wild and take risks.

　　In addition to that, telecom carriers’ management mechanism doesn’t nurture powerful individuals as the companies themselves and the regulators don’t want to have a dictator at a state-run enterprise. What’s worse, the reform of state-run companies is still in progress and there’s no clear directions. The salary continues to drop relatively while the cost for innovations is increasing for enterprise leaders. However, during the early days of these telecom carriers, some of their branches did have influential reformers that pulled off many innovations despite the issues.

　　Healing the company

　　At present, the reform of state enterprises is pointing the direction to corporate management. mixed ownership, professional manager import, and regulation reform are commonly accepted in the managerial level. Regulators are hoping state-run companies to undergo diversification reform and turn in to active fresh blood in the main market. But in recent years telecom carriers are slowly losing the edge in the market.

　　Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means’s The Modern Corporation and Private Property and Ronald Coase’s The Nature of the Firm that were published in 30s were a milestone that shows people are starting to realize the importance and roles of companies. Adolf Berle pointed out in his book that ownership and management are going part ways in modern companies, revealing the principal agent problem. The principal–agent problem, in political science and economics, (also known as agency dilemma or the agency problem) occurs when one person or entity (the "agent") is able to make decisions on behalf of, or that impact, another person or entity: the "principal". This dilemma exists in circumstances where agents are motivated to act in their own best interests, which are contrary to those of their principals, and is an example of moral hazard.

　　Under the market economic system, telecom carriers had rising profits, but the lack of an actual owner and the long agent chain make it difficult to nurture an appealing incentive system.

　　At last, the public is not feeling that telecom carriers have taken up social responsibility and cared for social benefit. The employees on the other hand are suffering the growing work pressure and decreasing salary.

　　Internationalization strategy

　　Do telecom carriers need to go global? To my knowledge, there hasn’t been many recent researches on telecom carrier internationalization on Baidu Academics. The newest one can date all the way back to 2011.

　　However, I did find an article that introduces how China Mobile Pakistan became the 3G and 4G telecom carrier in Pakistan in Caijing’s data base.

　　My research could be limited, but it’s undeniable that telecom carriers haven’t had any voice on overseas strategy in recent years. In contrast to that, Internet companies and equipment providers are having more and more actions, laying a foundation.

　　Let’s look at Huawei for example. According to a report in 2014, Huawei has set up 16 research centers globally in places that have the best resources, 28 joint innovation centers and over 40 professional centers. Through these research centers, joint innovation centers, and professional centers, as well as the cooperation with hundreds of global partners, Huawei has made its global value chain a global innovation platform. Huawei’s global clients can have access to news innovations around the world through this platform.

　　…………………………………

　　(Like our Facebook pageand follow us now on Twitter @tmtpostenglish, on Medium @TMTpost, on Instagram @tmtpost_englishand on Apple News@TMTpost)

　　[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Xiang Yuanzhi, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

　　Translated by Garrett Lee (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.