Appointed CEO of ZTE Telecom India Limited this January, Cui Liangjun, is only a few weeks into the job, but he will undoubtedly tap into his extensive experience in the telecom industry – over 15 years – to take on the challenge of growing the company’s presence and driving innovative offerings for its customers.

“The key challenges for me in my new role,” Liangjun told tele.net, “are to lead my cross-functional and cross-cultural team to succeed in the fiercely competitive telecom market, focus on creating more value for our customers by understanding their requirements closely and drive ZTE’s research and development (R&D) efforts to meet these requirements.”

An information engineering graduate from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Liangjun has replaced Huang Dabin who will continue working with ZTE at its Shenzen headquarters in China.

Prior to his new role, Liangjun was the vice general manager and chief technology officer (CTO) of ZTE Telecom India. He joined ZTE in 1998 and initially intended to become an expert and a leader of telecommunication product R&D.

“But when ZTE started increasing its focus on international markets, I shifted from R&D to marketing. Now my focus is on contributing to market achievements and helping ZTE to become a leading international company,” he says.

Some of his earlier positions included working as general manager of the development division of ZTE’s Nanjing R&D centre and as vice-president of the Centre R&D Institute, which is responsible for the R&D of mobile core networks and the corresponding R&D process management improvements.

In 2008, he joined ZTE Telecom India as vice general manager and CTO, and was responsible for the company’s market management and technical sales functions. Since his association with ZTE India, Liangjun has focused on understanding the requirements of the Indian telecom market and meeting customer demands through innovations in technology and service.

“With a proven track record of success and dedication to ZTE, Liangjun brings with him strong leadership skills combined with knowledge and expertise in the telecommunications industry. We are confident of his ability to enhance ZTE India’s position as a leading solutions provider for Indian telecom operators,” said Fan Qingfeng, executive vice-president, ZTE Corporation, while announcing Liangjun’s appointment.

A leading global provider of telecom equipment and network solutions, ZTE – China’s only listed telecom manufacturer – has a comprehensive product range covering virtually every sector of the wireline, wireless, service and terminals markets. It sells products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries.

ZTE entered the Indian market in 1999 and has played an important role in ushering in cutting-edge technology at affordable prices for Indian customers. This has not only enabled operators to field excellent networks and solutions at tariffs that are among the lowest in the world but has also helped to increase telecom penetration by taking affordable telecom services to the ordinary Indian.

Liangjun is proud of the reputation that ZTE has established and which he plans to build on. He says the company is known not only for its rapid growth but also for its “honest and transparent” management style, and for the smooth relations it has established with private and state-owned operators.

ZTE’s 2009 revenue led the industry with a 36 per cent increase to $8,820.7 million. It is a policy at ZTE to commit 10 per cent of its revenue to R&D, a commitment that explains why it plays a leading role in a wide range of international bodies responsible for developing emerging telecommunications standards.

The company employs 3,000 people (of which 90 per cent are Indian) and its work with over 80 main local suppliers and subcontractors, in turn, creates more than 7,000 indirect jobs.

Since ZTE’s entry into the Indian market, the number of telecom subscribers has increased from 30.8 million to 750 million, and telecom network construction costs and personal charges have dropped significantly.

“For example, the GSM product price has dropped to $65 per line from $1,200, and India has become one of the countries with the lowest telecom rates in the world,” says Liangjun. “We have contributed more than $42 million as taxes since 2005 on our onshore business.”

He will be concentrating on further deepening the company’s understanding of Indian culture, continuing with the policy of localising human resources, business and technology, and seeking partners with experience and knowledge of the market.

“I am also determined to extend our existing cooperation and sustain the good relations we have established over the years among customers, suppliers, the government, the wider community and also the media. We want to build on the tremendous progress we have made,” he says.

On future trends, Liangjun has a good understanding of what is likely to happen in the industry given his over 10 years of experience in R&D. He foresees voice services continuing to increase but says that the revenue increase from data services and value-added services (VAS) will exceed voice and contribute more in percentage terms to the total revenue.

With the development of 3G and fixed broadband service, he expects migration from TDM to IP of the transport network to speed up.

As for the telecom network, the internet and TV networks, he predicts that these will converge, especially with the development of different kinds of intelligent terminals.

“The whole industry will pay more attention to the TCO and will focus on the total solution to decrease the total cost of ownership (TCO), not only on the network element level but on the whole network level,” he observes.

Asked to spell out ZTE’s key strengths, Liangjun outlines them thus: offering advanced technology and mature products, which the company has developed independently in accordance with international standards; competitive costs and prices that are the result of stringent cost controls and an emphasis on scale first and profit second; and an agile and fast response to customers’ changing needs.

In fact, ZTE’s fixed network product, NGN, occupies the number one position in India, while it occupies 50 per cent and 30 per cent of the Indian market in the DWDM and DSL broadband products space.

“In the wireless network arena, our CDMA products are number one in India while our GSM products have been chosen by Reliance, Tata, Idea and Aircel, amongst others,” he says. “We have also done extremely well in the handset space, having achieved breakthrough sales of almost 30 million handsets in India.”

Liangjun calls the current moment in the industry an “era of innovation” for both technology and enterprise management. With the internationalisation of ZTE, he says the company needs lots of innovation in the management to face the challenges of managing a cross-cultural team.