I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the situation and my thought regarding recent progress and challenges of htc.
You had probably heard of our announcement of q3 outlook which is definitely disappointing. Yes, of course we are disappointed that our sales are down while smartphone market share is growing.
I think there are multiple reasons for the challenges we are facing today.
The franchised Brands are playing a major role today. Htc has not built a franchised brand until HTC One. It requires sometime to build a successful brand. HTC One is a very strong product which is well recognized. However the mass awareness was not big enough. While building HTC one franchised Brand is the right direction, we still need to continue to improve the awareness of the Brand and drive greater consumer demand and preference.
There are multiple areas we need to be improving. Traditionally htc depended on products a lot. We have leading products and they have helped us in the market to get to where we are today.
However when market changed, competitors strategies changed and when they became better the product gap became narrower. Our competitors can leverage their scale, brand awareness and big marketing budget to do things which htc could not do.
There are always room for us to be improving, e.g. products, quality, holistics readiness of product, marketing, sales, retail, etc. We have identified those areas and have plans to improve them. We have recently optimized some organization to ensure that we have new way of working on them. To ensure we can focus on making our big ideas bigger. To ensure our holistic readiness is there when we go to market.
We also need to improve our communication. Htc used to be a company where we did things quick and reacted quick. However the fast growth from the last 2 years has slowed us down. We have people in meeting and talking all the time but without decision, strategic direction or sense of urgency. Bureaucracy crept in without clear ownership. We agreed to do something but we either didn’t do it or executed it loosely.
That’s what happened to us. Market changed and we also have our own issues.
However I have strong confidence in HTC. Our origin and culture are still there. We have great people and they are still there very committed to htc. We have the best products as recognized by the One X having the industry’s best rating. In addition, our product pipeline is very strong and I am super excited about the new products we are working on for later this year and early next year. Htc’s design, innovation and technologies are one of the tops in the world. We have excellent customer relationship which is invaluable. We have reacted quick in fixing our major issues. We are coming back soon; we are one of the top three worldwide major smartphone brands with tremendous respect from the industry.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your family as well for their support to you and to htc. I want to thank you for your hard work and contribution. You are the people who make me feel very proud of HTC.
You have every reason to remain confident. Do not be influenced by noises from market and industry. We really are the strong player in the market and we are just having short term challenges. But short term challenges are fine. We are still very strong and financially healthy. The most important thing is what we do to solve the problem. Our own action matters. The way we behave matters. Please make sure that we kill bureaucracy.
Make sure we are doing the right thing quick and make it works. We communicate with clear goals and targets and make it happen. For example, after meeting we say we want to prioritize to achieve A,B,C and we want to get this done within one week. If there is concern and conflict we should immediately talk and agree upon the goals and target. We need to prevent that yeh, yeh we are looking into that, we are working on that without clear target. Of course you can say I need 2 days to confirm it and that’s fine. But make sure you confirm it within the next 2 days.
When we are working on something we need to have a clear sense of what the most important items and hero features are, and make sure we have high confidence to get those priorities done instead of everything is everything. Don’t let the processes, rules and norms to impact our important goals. Of course we have to follow certain rules and criteria but don’t let small things kill the major goals. Again make sure we have big things in mind. Stay firm with the hero innovations and make them even bigger and deliver them.
We are coming back.
You had probably heard of our announcement of q3 outlook which is definitely disappointing. Yes, of course we are disappointed that our sales are down while smartphone market share is growing.
I think there are multiple reasons for the challenges we are facing today.
The franchised Brands are playing a major role today. Htc has not built a franchised brand until HTC One. It requires sometime to build a successful brand. HTC One is a very strong product which is well recognized. However the mass awareness was not big enough. While building HTC one franchised Brand is the right direction, we still need to continue to improve the awareness of the Brand and drive greater consumer demand and preference.
There are multiple areas we need to be improving. Traditionally htc depended on products a lot. We have leading products and they have helped us in the market to get to where we are today.
However when market changed, competitors strategies changed and when they became better the product gap became narrower. Our competitors can leverage their scale, brand awareness and big marketing budget to do things which htc could not do.
There are always room for us to be improving, e.g. products, quality, holistics readiness of product, marketing, sales, retail, etc. We have identified those areas and have plans to improve them. We have recently optimized some organization to ensure that we have new way of working on them. To ensure we can focus on making our big ideas bigger. To ensure our holistic readiness is there when we go to market.
We also need to improve our communication. Htc used to be a company where we did things quick and reacted quick. However the fast growth from the last 2 years has slowed us down. We have people in meeting and talking all the time but without decision, strategic direction or sense of urgency. Bureaucracy crept in without clear ownership. We agreed to do something but we either didn’t do it or executed it loosely.
That’s what happened to us. Market changed and we also have our own issues.
However I have strong confidence in HTC. Our origin and culture are still there. We have great people and they are still there very committed to htc. We have the best products as recognized by the One X having the industry’s best rating. In addition, our product pipeline is very strong and I am super excited about the new products we are working on for later this year and early next year. Htc’s design, innovation and technologies are one of the tops in the world. We have excellent customer relationship which is invaluable. We have reacted quick in fixing our major issues. We are coming back soon; we are one of the top three worldwide major smartphone brands with tremendous respect from the industry.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your family as well for their support to you and to htc. I want to thank you for your hard work and contribution. You are the people who make me feel very proud of HTC.
You have every reason to remain confident. Do not be influenced by noises from market and industry. We really are the strong player in the market and we are just having short term challenges. But short term challenges are fine. We are still very strong and financially healthy. The most important thing is what we do to solve the problem. Our own action matters. The way we behave matters. Please make sure that we kill bureaucracy.
Make sure we are doing the right thing quick and make it works. We communicate with clear goals and targets and make it happen. For example, after meeting we say we want to prioritize to achieve A,B,C and we want to get this done within one week. If there is concern and conflict we should immediately talk and agree upon the goals and target. We need to prevent that yeh, yeh we are looking into that, we are working on that without clear target. Of course you can say I need 2 days to confirm it and that’s fine. But make sure you confirm it within the next 2 days.
When we are working on something we need to have a clear sense of what the most important items and hero features are, and make sure we have high confidence to get those priorities done instead of everything is everything. Don’t let the processes, rules and norms to impact our important goals. Of course we have to follow certain rules and criteria but don’t let small things kill the major goals. Again make sure we have big things in mind. Stay firm with the hero innovations and make them even bigger and deliver them.
We are coming back.
宏達電執行長的信
周永明：我們將重回成功之路
各位：
關於hTC最近的進展和挑戰，我想藉這個機會跟大家分享現況和我的想法。
各位或許已聽到公司宣布了必然令人失望的第三季展望。是的，在智慧型手機市場持續成長之際，本公司銷售卻下滑，我們當然失望。
我們今天面臨的這些挑戰，我認為有許多成因。
專利品牌如今扮演很重要的角色，hTC直到推出hTC One，才建立了專利品牌。要建立成功的品牌，需要一點時間。hTC
One是個外界公認很強的產品，但知名度還不夠高。儘管把hTC打造成專利品牌是正確的方向，我們仍需繼續加強品牌知名度，讓消費者對我們的需求和喜愛更
高。
我們在好些事項上，需要改進。hTC過去一向很仰仗產品本身，我們有頂尖產品，這些產品協助我們在市場上享有今天的地位。
但當市場變了，競爭者的策略變了，競爭者變得更強，產品的落差就縮小了。我們的對手可以在規模上、品牌知名度及大筆行銷預算上使力，做一些hTC做不到的事。
在產品、品質、產品全面整備度、行銷、販售、零售等方面，我們永遠有改善空間。我們已找出需要改進的地方，且已有改進計畫。我們最近把部分組織優化，確保有新的方法來努力改進，確保我們能專注於讓好點子發光發亮，並確保我們的產品上市時就已經全方位完備。
我們也需要改善公司的溝通。hTC一向是個做事迅速且反應迅速的公司，但過去兩年的快速成長已讓我們慢了下來。公司無時無刻都有人在開會、討論，卻是議而
不決、沒有策略方向或危機意識。隱然成形的官僚作風導致權責不明。我們同意要做某些事，但後來要不是沒做，就是草草了事。
這就是發生在本公司的問題。市場變了，我們也有自己的問題。
但我對hTC深具信心。我們的起源和文化都還在，我們有優秀的人才，而且依舊對hTC忠誠效力。我們有最佳產品，One
X獲業界最佳評等。此外，我們的產品線非常強，對於我們將在今年底及明年初推出的新產品，我超興奮。hTC的設計、創新及技術，在全世界都是首屈一指。我
們擁有無價的顧客關係，我們在修正重大問題上，反應迅速。我們很快就能重回成功之路；我們目前是全球智慧型手機三大品牌之一，備受業界推崇。
我要藉此機會向各位及各位的眷屬致謝，同時感謝眷屬對同仁及對hTC的支持。我要謝謝各位的辛勤工作及貢獻。因為各位，讓我以hTC為榮。
各位仍有充分的理由對hTC保持信心，不要受市場及業界的流言蜚語影響，我們真的是市場上的大腕，只是面臨一些短期的挑戰，但短期挑戰無妨。我們仍然相當
強大，且財務健全。現在最重要的是我們要如何解決問題。重要的是我們自己的行動，重要的是我們如何反應，請務必確認我們終止了官僚作風，確認我們迅速做了
正確且奏效的事。
我們以明確的目標及指標來溝通，且落實那些目標。例如，在會議之後，公司說希望能按優先順序完成A、B、C，並希望在一周內完成，如果有疑慮及分歧，我們
應該立刻講清楚，且就那些目標及指標取得一致意見。我們必須避免缺乏明確目標的「好，好，我們來研究研究」、「我們正在努力」。你當然可以說，「我需要兩
天時間來確認」，這是可以的，但請務必在接下來的兩天之內確認。
當忙著一件事時，我們得清楚知道最重要的事項、最重要特色是什麼，而且一定要很有信心完成優先事項，而不是「做了也沒啥用」的態度。不要讓程序、原則、規
範影響了我們的重要目標。當然，我們必須遵循某些原則和標準，但別讓枝微末節扼殺了主要目標。我再說一次，請務必胸懷大志，堅定創新，且擴大及落實那些創
新。
我們將重回成功之路。
