The concrete manifestation of standard value in enterprises, sharing of standardized implementation from leading companies

　　To explore the layout of standardization work in well-known enterprises and the role and impact of standards on enterprise development, the magazine "China Standardization" invited Yu Xinli, Chairman of the China Association for Standardization, as the host, with guests including You Fang, Director of the Industry Standards Department of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Tian Li, Deputy Director of the Technical Planning Department of ZTE Corporation, Dai Wei, Director of the Standards Affairs Center of Tencent Group, Wang Bin, Director of Standards and Patents of Haier Group, and Tao Hongzhi, Chief Standard Officer of Lenovo Group, to hold a dialogue among standard professionals.

　　

 

Host: Yu Xinli, Chairman of China Association for Standardization

　　

 

　　Enterprises are the main body of market activities and the source of economic and social development. They are the main force of technological innovation and an important guarantee for improving people's livelihood. So what about enterprise standardization? It is the pillar and foundation of all standardization. In recent years, China's enterprise standardization work has made great progress. Regarding enterprise standard self-declaration, by the end of May 2023, a total of 420,000 enterprises had made self-declarations through the Enterprise Standard Information Public Service Platform. There are 2.8 million public standards covering 4.68 million types of products. Product quality carried by standards is improving, and this incentive system is continuously being improved.

　　In terms of participation in international standardization activities, Chinese enterprises actively participate in international standardization activities, enhancing anchoring with international economic and trade activities through standards, driving continuous growth in product exports. For example, in 2022, despite difficulties, China's annual export volume increased by 10.5% compared to the previous year.

　　From the issuance of the "Reform Plan for Deepening Standardization Work" by the State Council in 2015, to the implementation of the new "Standardization Law" in 2018, and then to the release of the "National Standardization Development Outline" in 2021, these three major events—one reform plan, one to provide legal basis for reforms, and one for future planning—have fundamentally changed the policy foundation and social environment for China's standardization development. Today, the theme arranged by "China Standardization" magazine for the standard dialogue is "The Concrete Manifestation of Standard Value in Enterprises," with four specific topics inviting well-known domestic enterprises to exchange:

　　First, introduction of the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism;

　　Second, key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion;

　　Third, quantitative or concrete manifestations of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise;

　　Fourth, difficulties or confusions in standardization work.

 

You Fang, Director of Industry Standards Department, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

　　

 

　　I. Introduction of the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism

　　Huawei attaches great importance to standardization work, with more than 600 full-time and part-time standardization personnel worldwide. Huawei's business focuses on ICT infrastructure and smart terminals, covering six business units along the loops of information distribution and interaction, information transmission, information processing and storage, information training and reasoning, and power electronics: terminals, intelligent vehicle solutions, connectivity, computing, Huawei Cloud, and digital energy. Each business unit has a dedicated standardization team, and there is also a standardization team at the group level. The two levels have division of labor, each with its focus, and work closely together. The Group's Industry Standards Department serves as the company's standardization capability center, leading the overall standardization strategy, focusing on cross-industry, forward-looking, and strategic standard directions.

　　Regarding the decision-making mechanism, Huawei's standard decision-making mechanism is layered and classified. Each business unit has a standards strategy committee covering its own business scope, and the company level also has a standards strategy committee. For cross-business unit industries, sub-standards strategy committees are established, such as for mobile communications, audio and video, etc. In execution, Huawei's standardization teams at both business unit and group levels are the executing entities, and virtual standardization working groups across business units may be established as needed for specific tasks.

　　In summary, Huawei's standardization mechanism can be summarized as layered and classified, with one real and two virtual entities. The real entity is the full-time standardization team; the two virtual entities are the standards strategy committee and the standardization working groups established as needed.

　　II. Key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion

　　Huawei's six business units determine key standardization areas based on their business strategies. By the end of 2022, Huawei participated in nearly 800 organizations including standard organizations, industry alliances, and open source communities, held more than 450 key positions, and submitted over 68,000 proposals. Huawei's key standardization areas are strongly related to its business, including connectivity industry standards such as 5G, 5.5G, core networks, IP, and optical; computing, storage, cloud; as well as terminals, intelligent vehicles, and digital energy. There is also significant investment in cross-industry general technical standards such as artificial intelligence, audio and video, green low-carbon, security and trustworthiness, and industry digitalization.

　　III. Quantitative or concrete manifestations of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise

　　Regarding the quantification and concretization of standard benefits in enterprises, I believe this has long been a problem troubling standard professionals. The benefits of standards, especially economic benefits, are difficult to quantify. I do not have an answer myself but will simply share a few viewpoints:

　　1. The value of standards should return to its original intention

　　Placing the value of standards in a broader perspective, aiming at economic and social benefits, provides a better foundation for the application of standards. We know that the WTO is an international framework for resolving political issues, with technical support provided by three major international standardization organizations. Their advocated value of standards is to facilitate international trade and technology transfer. Here, technology transfer is not just about technology itself but to promote economic and social development. Therefore, aiming at the ultimate value of standards can reduce standardization for the sake of standardization. The "National Standardization Development Outline" mentions four transformations, including shifting standardization development from quantity and scale to quality and efficiency. Returning to the original intention and starting from the ultimate goal of standardization helps align with industry needs and promotes high-quality development of standardization work.

　　2. The value of standardization is diversified, related to the enterprise development stage, the industry where the standard is applied, and the standardization object.

　　Whether to develop standards, what type of standards to develop, and how many standards to develop entirely depend on the development stage and business demands of the enterprise and industry, and should not be measured by a single indicator.

　　3. Standardization mainly has four dimensions of value

　　(1) Expanding industry space. Market space comes from customer procurement investment, especially in new industries. Standardization consolidates industry consensus, reduces procurement decision risks, and promotes commercial investment, which benefits industry development and all stakeholders;

　　(2) Reducing industry fragmentation. Industry fragmentation is unfavorable to economies of scale, making systems unable to interconnect and interoperate. This is exactly the problem standardization excels at solving. In the early stages of standardization, there may be two or more competing standard routes existing simultaneously, eventually converging to mainstream standards driven by industry and customer recognition. This reflects the value of standardization based on broad consensus, converging technical routes, preventing industry fragmentation, and promoting economies of scale.

　　(3) Setting quality thresholds. Standardization sets reasonable product quality thresholds appropriate to the industry development stage, which can prevent inferior products from driving out superior ones, guide industry competition patterns, and promote healthy and sustainable industry development.

　　(4) Promote technological innovation. The standardization platform is an excellent place for collaborative innovation. If a company sets its own corporate standards, the ceiling is limited to that company alone. On the standardization platform, stakeholders negotiate together, which is conducive to technological innovation and optimization. Additionally, the pace of technological upgrades is very important; faster is not always better. Too rapid upgrades hinder innovators from recouping investments and dampen innovation enthusiasm; too slow fails to meet customer and market demands. Standards serve as a good indicator to facilitate an appropriate industrial pace because standardization essentially acts as the gateway for new technologies to enter the market on a large scale.

　　4. Difficulties or Confusions in Standardization Work

　　The current difficulty in standardization work lies in the shortage and difficulty of cultivating standardization talents. This relates to the characteristics of standardization work: first, it requires both science and diplomacy, and talents with such a quality model are inherently limited in number. Second, standardization work is highly specialized and practical, with a long talent cultivation cycle, unlike software engineers who can be trained on a large scale in universities; third, it is difficult to directly measure the economic benefits of standardization work for enterprises. How to attract, cultivate, motivate, and retain standardization talents is a challenge faced worldwide. High-quality development of standardization depends on high-quality talent development. I believe that the standardization authorities and various standardization organizations can play a greater role together with enterprises in cultivating and building the capacity of standardization talents in China. Huawei is willing to contribute its part in this process.

 

Host's Comment: Yu Xinli, Chairperson of China Standardization Association

　　Ms. You Fang spoke very well! Regarding the system and mechanism, what impressed us deeply is the classification and layering—one real and two virtual. In key areas, the most important is the selection of key areas closely related to business. Regarding the benefits of standards, the general principle is that value must return to the original intention and focus on this ultimate goal. Regarding difficulties, talent is indeed a very, very big issue. In terms of value, the main point is to promote innovation. The application of standards actually reduces or lowers the degree of differentiation of products or services in the entire market. After reducing this degree, it actually nurtures a new round of market competition. At this time, ambitious and idealistic enterprises will break this balance and create imbalance. I think this is indeed the role of standards, playing a leading role in technological innovation.

 

Tian Li, Deputy Director of Technology Planning Department, ZTE Corporation

　　

 

　　I. Introduction of the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism

　　Our general principles for standard work are roughly six: combining standards with market demand, combining standards with product R&D, combining standards with patents, internationalizing standards, highlighting competitive advantages, and cooperating and competing with peers. Summarized in 16 characters: overall planning, systematic division of labor, expert leadership, strategy first.

　　ZTE's strategy is also layered. We mainly set up a three-level work system. The core is the company's Standard Strategy Committee, led directly by the company's CTO and CEO as the executive director. The middle level is the Technology Planning Department, responsible for the unified planning and operation of the company's overall standards, known as the headquarters' direct standard strategy team. Around this team, based on each key core business, there is a dedicated standard team under the product operation department. The leaders of these teams and some senior experts involved in frontline standard setting serve as members of the Strategy Committee to jointly formulate and optimize some major strategic directions of the company, including internal assessment, reward mechanisms, and systems, ultimately achieving coordination between planning and execution to support the company's high-quality and sustainable business development. In addition, the company also has a set of standardization processes, which essentially improve our internal R&D efficiency through standardized processes and components.

　　II. Key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion

　　Currently, the company has about 500 full-time standard personnel, participating in more than 200 global standard organizations, including some industry alliances, scientific associations, open-source communities, etc., holding more than 150 leadership positions in these organizations. From a business perspective, standard work is divided into two different levels: a practical level and a governance level.

　　The practical level involves formulating specific technical standards, clearly product-oriented. Communication is our foundation and root, such as end-to-end wireless and wired communication terminals and related products, with wireless being the most typical. Together with the entire Chinese communication industry, through years of unremitting efforts, we have transformed from industry and standard followers to leaders. Currently, China's 5G has achieved great success, and 6G forward-looking research has basically achieved full coverage. For some promising candidate technologies, we have proactively initiated industry alliances to jointly promote a globally unified 6G standard path. We are now in a wave of digital development, and it is clear that the center of this wave is China. Therefore, in recent years, the company's positioning has been further upgraded from an end-to-end network solution provider. Our CEO proposed becoming a builder of the digital economy. The ultimate customers of business products are actually extensive. For example, 5G empowers thousands of industries, each with different needs. How to adapt to these needs through standardized application templates to avoid reinventing the wheel in various industries is a key challenge we need to overcome. Digital technology standardization has some particularities. Besides traditional management norms or technical standards, there is a type called factual standards, which are open-source and involve massive data processing models, software code implementations, etc., provided in source code form in communities for iteration. Standards and open source complement and promote each other in the digital technology implementation process. On one hand, standards can promote open source by helping build interoperability of open-source software and technology and setting common norms; on the other hand, open source can promote standards through open and transparent collaborative platforms to facilitate standard development, verification, and implementation. The two work organically to drive the innovation of digitalization. Additionally, a key focus is the digitalization of standards themselves—how to improve the efficiency of standard formulation through digital technology is also a critical area of attention.

　　The governance level focuses on two aspects. One is related to corporate social responsibility. As a globally competitive enterprise, social responsibility is indispensable. There must be a grand strategy matching national and international social development needs, such as green energy saving, related to sustainable development goals. Regarding dual carbon standards, on one hand, our own products must comply with these standards; on the other hand, we also focus on the transformation of production methods and efficiency improvements brought by digital technology and digital transformation, accelerating various industries to meet sustainable development goals. The other aspect is organizational. Current digital globalization requires deep participation in major international organizations, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency under the United Nations, discussing global telecommunication rules and organizational strategic issues. Issues related to procedural rules and charters are especially important in the current complex international situation because they often determine whether technical directions are feasible and the internal vitality of the organization.

　　III. Quantitative or concrete manifestations of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise

　　It is indeed very difficult to quantify or demonstrate the specific benefits of standards. From direct and indirect aspects, the direct benefit is intellectual property. As the pinnacle of human intellectual labor, once a standard-essential patent is formed, it becomes a social barrier with a high capital cost. If there is a sufficient arsenal of standard patents, not only can fees be avoided, but fees can also be charged to others, which is a relatively direct benefit. If quantified, we found that valuable standard patents are roughly worth about 1 million RMB. More benefits are indirect and harder to quantify.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping's proposal to "assist high-tech innovation with high standards, promote high-level openness, and lead high-quality development" is very applicable to the country, industry, or enterprises.

　　(1) In terms of technological innovation, standards are essentially a weather vane, especially for the communications industry. Often, standards come first; a mature standards organization has the ability to rally broad participation from all sectors of the industry chain. Through standards, consensus is formed, and then products are implemented, which holds considerable market value. Therefore, the industry comes to standards organizations to discuss, directly determining a product's technical route and the window period for market acceptance. Standards can be a weather vane or a signpost. Often, they are the result of compromises among all parties, with participation aimed at understanding the formation process to avoid detours during actual product implementation. We often say "speed is king"; standards and R&D basically proceed simultaneously, and products are produced immediately after standards are finalized. If one can become a leader and form broad influence, control over the direction of technical products will be stronger.

　　(2) In promoting high-level openness and leading high-quality development, standards are a necessary condition for enterprises to become global and international. Standard governance and global governance, including research on technology, trade, and security, are essential actions for enterprises operating internationally. Only by thoroughly studying these aspects can the benefits, which may be difficult to describe positively and directly, be better explained from a risk mitigation or uncertainty response perspective. Deep involvement in standards work provides a way to manage risks or uncertainties, better clarifying the value of standards.

　　4. Difficulties or Confusions in Standardization Work

　　1. The current complex international situation poses significant challenges to standardization work, especially in the context of great power competition and global governance.

　　Moreover, we are now challenging the existing order as a challenger, facing great uncertainty. We can achieve some leadership in local areas within the current order. However, how to create a new order through local leadership requires us to zoom in on the standards field and redefine the rules of some standards organizations. For example, wireless communication has progressed from 3G and 4G to 5G by surpassing existing rules, many of which are based on Western values. We need to establish a new narrative logic, such as rules aligned with the values of a community with a shared future for mankind, elevating this order and ultimately forming a new order that aligns with our common interests. This is a significant challenge not only from the standards perspective but also from the entire industry and societal perspective.

　　2. The scope of standards is now very broad and needs clear boundary definitions.

　　For example, security traditionally referred to network security, which was technology-based. Now, network security is tied to national security and includes ideological elements, posing significant impacts and challenges to enterprises. A new security concept called zero trust has been proposed, which is highly technical. Traditionally, network security was relatively simple, focusing on point-to-point protection. Now, the network structure has changed drastically and is very complex. Every node must be secured, and nodes do not trust each other. If trust permissions are set too low, overall network security becomes unreliable. Zero trust makes authentication very complex, requiring thorough security between every node to achieve overall network security. There are similar aspects in global governance; for example, globalization seems to be slowing or declining, reflecting a zero-trust mindset where mutual trust decreases, slowing economic globalization and reducing efficiency. Many regional organizations, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and other multilateral and bilateral mechanisms, effectively define boundaries to ensure endogenous security within these regions, ultimately creating a stable and controllable state across the entire industrial chain. No single enterprise or even country can truly control the entire industrial chain. The vitality of standards or industries comes from transactions; if you do everything yourself, it may be controllable locally but uncontrollable globally. For example, the U.S. has implemented strict export controls but has also introduced some exemptions in standards activities because they understand that emphasizing "American first" and distancing from mainstream international organizations will ultimately backfire.

　　3. Creating standards is not difficult; the challenge is making truly useful standards, that is, improving from quantity to quality.

　　From the ICT industry perspective, there are many standards organizations. In some other industries, cultivating standards concepts requires focusing on quantity first, then quality. However, if purely KPI-driven, it leads to a clustering effect where everyone chooses the easiest areas to initiate standards, but there is less attention to whether the standards can be implemented or truly impact the industry. The government has done much work, optimizing systems and, under the guidance of the "National Standardization Development Outline" and a series of supporting policies, hopes to create standards that can truly be implemented and are valuable to industry and people's livelihoods. Enterprises, as market innovation entities, must play a key collaborative role.

　　4. Talent cultivation is a common difficulty or confusion for everyone.

　　Standards require experts with comprehensive qualities; they must understand both technology and rules and be deeply rooted in frontline standards organizations for a long time. For example, in the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), many country representatives are actually lawyers, studying law, international relations, and trade rules. It is difficult to cultivate senior experts who understand both technology and rules in universities; such talents can only be developed after leaving school. Some school-enterprise collaborations are underway to cultivate professionals with integrated technical and standards expertise. Additionally, spreading talent-related concepts has played a significant role, such as co-hosting the Youth Olympic Games. I served as a judge and was deeply impressed; I found that current high school and middle school students have great potential. They possess general skills such as understanding standards, current affairs, and language debate abilities. Therefore, we will continue to cultivate university talents and hope to have more outstanding young talents integrate standards into their daily lives through concept dissemination. Finally, in standardization education, it might be possible to form some standards or best practices to replicate or create templates for industry-wide reference.

　　5. Personally, I believe standardization is actually a journey, and a journey without an endpoint, because as long as there are main groups and transactions, there will be standards. The essence of standards is to improve production and transaction efficiency.

　　This does not mean we have reached an endpoint; it is a utopia. Standards also have a very harsh side, especially in patent competition. Moreover, standardization is not static; it involves competition and cooperation, pushing civilization forward in a spiral manner. Therefore, we must maintain hunger and agility in this environment. For enterprises, I believe there is no shortcut to making standards; we must strengthen our internal capabilities, solidly develop independent innovation and intellectual property rights. At the same time, we must be deeply rooted in frontline standards work, improve both technology and communication skills through comparison and practice, ultimately achieving an uphill overtaking, finding a glimmer of light in adversity, and helping the country and related industries shape a new order.

 

Host's Comment: Yu Xinli, Chairperson of China Standardization Association

　　Mr. Tian Li gave a very systematic introduction to the company's standardization work, especially the general principles of standardization work. From the outside, standards combine with market demand; internally, they are closely integrated with R&D. In terms of benefits, standards are closely linked with patents and coexist with international competition and cooperation. ZTE's standardization architecture includes three levels: the company's strategic committee at the top, the planning department in the middle, and core business teams at the grassroots level. The business scope is very broad, shifting from end-to-end to being a builder of the digital economy. What impressed me most in Mr. Tian Li's sharing was his reflection that standardization work has shifted from focusing on product quality itself to paying more attention to the formation process. Mr. Tian Li also shared that the biggest current difficulty is great power competition, the complex international situation, and the resulting issues, including ideological problems. His statement "standardization is a journey without an endpoint" is worth deep reflection.

 

Dai Wei, Director of the Standard Affairs Center, Tencent Group

　　

 

　　I. Introduction of the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism

　　As an internet company, Tencent's positioning and role of standards are similar to those of ZTE and Huawei, but there are also differences. Tencent's standard positioning can roughly be divided into the following directions:

　　 1. Standards combined with regulatory policies

　　These standards are commonly found in the fields of network security, data security, and personal information protection. They are national or industry standards promoted by industry authorities to support laws, departmental regulations, and administrative supervision actions; they focus on policy compliance, internet industry governance, and the standardization of internet products and services. Internet companies are characterized by rapid product updates and iterations, and the internet industry is under close regulatory scrutiny. In recent years, there has been an explosive demand for standards in areas such as data privacy, data security, critical infrastructure protection, network security, and AI algorithm compliance. This demand is necessary and presents a significant challenge for standardization practitioners. It is also a direction where we should play a role. We need to better perceive or deeply participate in the forefront exploration and formulation of these standards, forming a bridge between regulatory policies and implementation through the standard-setting process. This process also helps companies understand regulatory requirements and allows authorities to understand and grasp the industry's current situation, jointly formulating appropriate compliance measures to play a standard role in the orderly and healthy development of internet products and services.

　　2. Standards for industrial technology development

　　With the rapid development of the industrial internet and continuous innovation in digital technology, there is a huge demand for standards, especially in the integration of internet companies' digital technology with traditional industries. Therefore, we have participated in the development of many vertical field standards, such as smart buildings, smart cities, smart transportation, industrial internet, and smart finance. We combine internet digital technology with the industrial needs of vertical industries, leveraging standardization to lead in transformation and upgrading, industrial collaboration, ecosystem connection, compatibility and adaptation, business innovation, technology leadership, market promotion, and industry cultivation.

　　3. Standards-related patents

　　By combining standards and patents, we prevent and resist risks. Although Tencent's investment in hardware and network equipment is relatively small, we have deep technical research in multimedia-related fields. For risk defense of standard patents in this field, standardization practitioners need to make significant efforts, actively promoting multimedia standard development and patent pooling. Through the layout of standard patents, we maintain related industrial development and technological innovation, protecting the independent intellectual property rights of Chinese companies.

　　4. Tencent corporate standards

　　Corporate standard development actually helps meet internal needs such as technical collaboration, open source collaboration, research and production efficiency improvement, ecosystem integration, and supply chain management. Corporate standards also integrate with tools and technologies, systematically integrating into every link of the company's production and operation.

　　5. Standards related to social responsibility

　　We are also actively leading and participating in the formulation of social responsibility standards. Tencent has always advocated a culture of technology for good, actively promoting the application and dissemination of standardization work in this area. We develop more public welfare standards to give back to society, including aging-friendly and information accessibility, minor protection, carbon neutrality, etc. Through standardization, we participate in social welfare undertakings and promote the development of technology for good in society.

　　Overall, Tencent's standardization goal can be summarized in one sentence: "Promote the quality and efficiency improvement of internet products and services." Tencent carries out standardization work around this goal.

　　II. Key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion

　　Tencent advances standards around three core directions: gaming and esports, AI, and cloud computing.

　　1. Gaming and esports

　　The country currently strongly supports the gaming and esports industry, and many cities are promoting the construction of esports capitals. At the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, seven gold medals will be awarded in esports. Esports will also be officially broadcast live on mainstream media such as CCTV in conjunction with the Asian Games. Therefore, the esports industry will become a new track for promoting Chinese culture and emerging industries in the future. Esports involves many technologies that require standards to support technological innovation, including competition equipment, competition networks, event operations, and fairness in esports competitions. Standards are needed first to better promote event operations, talent cultivation in the esports industry, economic benefits, and the development of the entire industry chain. The demand for these standards is urgent, and we are working with various enterprises, institutions, research institutes, terminal companies, operators, and communication companies in the industry to promote the formulation of gaming and esports standards.

　　2. AI technology

　　Currently, various industries are increasing investment in AI technology fields such as computer vision, deep synthesis, large models, AIGC, and industrial quality inspection, focusing on technical standards and industrial application standards for AI scenarios. With the launch of Tencent's Hunyuan large model, which serves Tencent Meeting, WeChat, games, Tencent Docs, and other proprietary products, and also provides industry customers with large model capabilities through Tencent Cloud Intelligence, AI standards have always been a key focus area for Tencent.

　　3. Cloud computing

　　Cloud computing has always been a key focus for standards investment. Because some ToB/ToG scenarios require very detailed standards, including ecosystem integration, system development, system delivery, and service quality assurance, as well as new market cultivation, expansion, and the process of technology maturing to commercialization. Cloud computing is a very important foundation for ToB/ToG standards. The industry, enterprises, universities, and government all pay great attention to it. Tencent has also invested a lot of effort in this area, including from the earliest cloud computing standards to current new technology standards such as cloud-native, digital twins, and low-code, with large-scale technical and standard research investment.

　　III. Quantitative or concrete manifestations of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise

　　Standardization is a systematic work, and the value of standards is difficult to present independently. It is more about combining with relevant scenarios and associating with the broad participation of government, enterprises, academia, and research in every collaborative link, ultimately reflecting the role of standards in the overall value release process.

　　For example, in the judicial field, we have also noticed that standards have begun to appear as a basis for judicial rulings, with cases being cited by the judiciary. When there is no clear legal provision, standards can indeed serve as a reference and supplement, and their value is highlighted. However, it is important to distinguish standards here, especially guideline standards, which are not suitable as a basis for judicial rulings. Essentially, guideline standards provide guidance or suggestions, and their clauses are expressed as recommended or descriptive. Such standards are just one solution, not the only or mandatory option, and should not be understood as authorization or endorsement through the standard. If cited judicially, it would be inappropriate.

　　4. Difficulties or Confusions in Standardization Work

　　1. Difficulties or confusions in standardization work

　　For internet companies, carrying out standardization work can actually be more difficult because the product change cycle in the internet industry is very fast, while standardization is a medium to long-term process. Usually, it takes at least three to six months to implement a standard, and most often one to two years, with the value realization cycle possibly even longer. However, internet product technology iterates very quickly, and even the product layout and user needs are changing significantly every moment. Therefore, such standards often start as an idea at the project initiation stage, but during the process, due to changes in business and industry demands, the final output may not necessarily fit the real needs. This places very high demands on the insight ability of internet standard practitioners. We can accept some loss, meaning that after a standard is issued, it may deviate from the business positioning and direction, but we have a set of indicators to measure how to correct the standardization work we promote, maintaining the standard's insight into the business and foresight for the future, so as to better adapt to future products and market needs. At this point, the necessity and role of combining standards with products and markets is a relatively difficult point for internet companies.

　　2. We have also noticed that some group standards have begun to take on regulatory attributes, which was not foreseen by business entities before.

　　Previously, we mainly followed industry standards and national standards, which posed no problems from the perspective of industry governance and national requirements. However, the process for formulating group standards is shorter and faster, with less comprehensive participation, while the compliance requirements defined in the standards are higher than those of national and industry standards. This actually presents a significant challenge to industry development and compliance implementation.

　　3. Improving the productivity of standardization work requires strong and user-friendly systems and tools support.

　　Each standard project needs to consider its implementation in terms of enhancing its own business industry efficiency, integrating standards into existing tools and systematic institutionalization. In the future, it can also try to leverage AIGC technology, through model training and deep learning, to generate various commonly used standard text templates, enable AI to understand the rules and methods of standard writing, comprehend the transformation from natural language to standard language, improve AI's standard retrieval and statistical analysis capabilities, and create an intelligent standard assistant. In short, the entire standardization work requires excellent and efficient informatization tools to support standardization practitioners to keep moving forward.

 

Host's Comment: Yu Xinli, Chairperson of China Standardization Association

　　One point from Mr. Dai Wei's sharing that deeply resonated with me is that in terms of standardization benefits, standards are difficult to present as independent values. They realize overall value through related objects. It is hard to measure the value of standard texts without considering the objects of standardization.

　　

Wang Binhou, Director of Standard Patents at Haier Group

　　

 

　　I. Introduction of the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism

　　Enterprise standardization serves the enterprise strategy. As a representative of Chinese manufacturing, Haier has always focused on stabilizing key industries and actively promoting new industry leadership, committed to becoming a globally leading technology company. Haier's standardization strategy is to become the rule maker and leader of the entire home appliance industry and even the global home appliance industry, contributing Chinese rules and wisdom to the world home appliance industry together with the Chinese home appliance industry, achieving international leadership, thereby supporting Haier's overall strategy.

　　Specifically, in terms of system construction and implementation, Haier has formed an innovative model of "technology-patent-standard linkage" and global collaboration through years of mechanism innovation and business practice:

　 　1. "Technology-Patent-Standard Linkage"

　　If we only focus on standards themselves, this model cannot be created. Technological innovation is definitely the driving origin, patents are the connection in the middle, and only on this basis can standards be developed. At Haier, first, from the process organization perspective, technological innovation, standards, and patents are integrated. While planning the company's technology roadmap, standards and patent layouts are also made as inputs to the technology roadmap. During R&D implementation, technological innovation, patent layout, and standard layout proceed simultaneously. After designing the product solution, patent and standard layouts are done simultaneously. At this point, what standards to make—international, national, industry, or enterprise standards—are already determined. When the product is launched and sold, coordination is also ensured so that standards participate in product marketing. We create some product standards and promote product marketing through standard marketing methods, which greatly facilitates product sales.

　　2. Global Collaboration Model

　　When we have technological innovation, how do we make standards? Based on our experience, we have summarized a global collaboration model, relying on Haier's multiple research centers worldwide to establish a global standard resource network. These R&D centers and industrial parks participate jointly in international standardization activities such as IEC and ISO, and also actively participate in standardization activities in their respective countries and regions. When a standard proposal is put forward, the various regional R&D centers form a linkage mechanism, with different R&D centers representing their countries negotiating together to reach consensus, forming a global collaboration mechanism. This mechanism is very effective in the process of making international standards. The most important support for this model is the organization, which has three layers: the Global Standardization Committee, various R&D centers, and industries. Standard personnel from global R&D centers form the Global Standard Committee, which coordinates the R&D centers and industries to form the group's standardization work mechanism. Under the Global Standard Committee are the standard organizations of each R&D center and regional R&D centers, and below that is the industry level.

　　II. Key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion

　　Returning to the company strategy, our main battlefield and key areas, the standards we focus on promoting also support the company strategy. The company's business strategy can be summarized as "1+1." One is smart home, transforming traditional home appliances into smart homes. The other is industrial internet, composed of industrial internet, smart cities, and big health, which is the company's emerging industry. The standard layout is also arranged around this "1+1."

　　A typical example is that this year, the biggest change in the home appliance industry is the change in user interaction methods. Previously, home appliances were mostly operated by buttons; now many have switched to voice control.

　　This change leads to changes in standards, requiring the development of voice standards. Voice standards are managed by IEC/TC 59, but the original organization lacked professionals related to voice. Therefore, we newly established a working group to undertake this work, with participation from Haier's R&D centers in China, the United States, and Europe, jointly developing the standards.

　　III. Quantitative or concrete manifestations of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise

　　There are various dimensions to the value of standards, but for enterprises, we return to enterprise strategy. First, we judge whether the standards department supports the enterprise strategy, which is a qualitative assessment. Additionally, we summarize the value of standards to enterprises in three aspects:

　 　1. Market access compliance, supporting the company's globalization, which means product sales worldwide.

　　All products sold to respective markets must first comply with regulations, and the foundation of compliance assurance is standards and regulations. One of the responsibilities of our standardization department is to track the dynamic changes of standards and regulations in all sales countries, focusing on changes during the formulation process to enable products to respond in advance during R&D.

　　2. Improving enterprise operational efficiency and quality efficiency.

　　Returning to the essence of standards, the essence is unification, and the purpose of unification is to pursue the best order, which essentially means quality and efficiency. This is mainly reflected in the form of enterprise standards. At Haier, enterprise standards cover a wide range, including unification of product standards, design specifications, and material (material interface) unification. On this basis, quality improves and efficiency increases. Enterprise standards largely achieve optimal enterprise operational efficiency by unifying internal behaviors, meaning high-quality and high-efficiency operations, which is very evident in the enterprise.

　　3. The entire market competition aspect

　　The market competition of enterprises is a competition of technology and brand. The supporting role of standards for technology and brand is not only the standards themselves but also the entire carrier of technology. Through the promotion and implementation of standards, relevant innovative technologies are deeply ingrained in people's minds, becoming well-known technology brands among the public, which strongly enhances users' recognition of the Haier brand.

　　In addition, standards can promote technological innovation within enterprises and also drive innovation in the industry, allocating industry R&D resources.

　　4. Difficulties or Confusions in Standardization Work

　　Regarding this issue, I have three deep impressions, at least a few questions that we standardization personnel may need to consider.

　　1. Talent cultivation

　　There is a lack of talent cultivation and reward mechanisms for standardization, and no suitable standardization talent mechanism to guide the generation of talent. Currently, attracting and cultivating talent relies purely on salary mechanisms, which is relatively limited. I hope everyone can advocate for this at the national and industry levels.

　　2. Increasing difficulty in international standard coordination

　　One important reason is the cross-industry integration of technology. Most home appliance companies develop standards within the IEC organization. The composition of the IEC technical committees mainly consists of talents from traditional home appliance companies. However, the home appliance industry is now working on smart homes, which incorporate a large amount of internet technology that these people are not proficient in. When we propose cross-industry technology integration, their support is limited, so the difficulty of project initiation is relatively high. If we want to develop this standard, it is also difficult given the current talent reserves.

　　3. The impact of digital technology on standards

　　In the digital age, every business segment must be digitized, and we also need to pay attention to and explore this.

 

Host's Comment: Yu Xinli, Chairperson of China Standardization Association

　　Mr. Wang Binhou systematically introduced the situation of enterprise standardization. What impressed me deeply was his emphasis throughout that enterprise standardization serves the enterprise's strategy. This includes the enterprise's layout, the layout of standardization, and the selection of key areas, all chosen to serve the enterprise strategy. The value of standardization is also reflected in the degree to which it supports the enterprise strategy and the roles it plays.

 

Lenovo Group Chief Standardization Officer Tao Hongzhi

　　

 

　　I. Introduction to the enterprise's standardization system and mechanism

　　Lenovo's system and mechanism are divided into the following two aspects:

　　1. Organizational structure

　　Lenovo's main structure is a multi-level network structure. First, the headquarters' standard personnel: the standard department globally has about 80 full-time staff dedicated to standards, covering a wide range including systems and ESG, with dedicated personnel. Standards must be closely linked to the enterprise's business and products. Second, the BU (Business Unit): each BU participates in determining and formulating Lenovo's standards, so BU technical staff and quality control personnel basically participate in standardization. Third, regional (Geographic) standardization personnel, including four global regions: China, Asia-Pacific, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and special countries' standardization personnel. For example, China is very typical because of the high intensity and complexity of standardization activities; the US is also typical with strong standardization work and standards. There are also some special cases like the CIS and India with unique standards, requiring dedicated local talent support. Lenovo's working model basically aligns with the National Standardization Committee, grouping by technical fields, equivalent to a virtual technical committee (TC). Each field has a dedicated global technical leader or expert to lead the technical committee in standard tracking, drafting, guidance, or decision-making.

　　2. Mechanism

　　This can be understood as the workflow. Lenovo has a global standardization workflow, including defining the roles and responsibilities of enterprise-level, BU, and regional standardization talents and how they work. Additionally, the workflow includes implementing standards into products, improving enterprise standard quality, determining the composition of the enterprise standard set, and management methods. These tasks require IT management systems to support them, mainly including: Standardization Database Management System (e-SIS), Product Environmental Compliance Management System (PERD), and Product Compliance Approval System (PCRB), etc. Lenovo completed the construction of these systems in the early 2000s. China's informatization has advanced rapidly, and the National Standardization Committee also has many management systems. Lenovo's management systems are similar to those of the National Standardization Committee, and currently, standard work management is fully digitalized.

　　II. Key areas of enterprise standardization and key standards currently under research or promotion

　　1. Market access category

　　The most important focus area of Lenovo's standardization is market access. For example, safety, electromagnetic compatibility, wireless network access, and some mandatory environmental regulations are managed by headquarters. These are the most basic standards because changes in these standards greatly affect Lenovo, especially as Lenovo's product range grows and product updates accelerate. If products cannot be updated timely or do not meet standards with each update, the impact on business is significant.

　　2. ESG-related standards

　　Lenovo's main customers are mostly Fortune 500 large enterprises, government organizations, international organizations, and some large institutions. These major customers highly value ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). They basically all have green procurement access thresholds, and Lenovo invests heavily in this area. Therefore, energy efficiency, management of toxic and hazardous substances (RoHS), WEEE, and dual carbon fields are the second key focus areas.

　　3. Technology innovation category

　　Technology innovation standards closely related to Lenovo products, such as Bluetooth, FIDO, USB, and some emerging technologies like Matter. Because these are technologies directly related to Lenovo products, Lenovo closely tracks and participates in the upgrading versions of these technologies.

　　4. Innovation standards

　　These are basically led by business units and research institutes. Based on Lenovo's future product technology layout, they participate in innovation standards such as Big Data, AI, Smart Devices, IoT, and Clouds (abbreviated as BASIC), which are closely related to Lenovo's business. Lenovo participates from time to time, though not always closely, because many standards in these fields are not yet mature enough for standardization. Lenovo participates according to its key focus areas.

　　III. Quantitative or tangible performance of standard benefits (value) in the enterprise

　　1. Value of market access category

　　The value of market access standards is undoubtedly significant because if Lenovo cannot meet these standards, it cannot ship products, or if Lenovo's products do not keep up with the latest standard changes, they may be eliminated from the market. Lenovo's products are sold in 186 countries worldwide, and these market access standards basically become the minimum standards for Lenovo products. To this end, Lenovo has established more than 40 laboratories internally, investing hundreds of related engineers and thousands of devices for product testing and verification. This is the concrete manifestation of standards at Lenovo.

　　2. Innovation standards can help enhance competitiveness in new fields and new products

　　We recognize that top-tier companies set standards, but our understanding of the significance is somewhat different. We believe that top-tier companies setting standards is actually different from actively participating in IEC, ISO standards, and national standards today. For example, Lenovo has been in the IT industry for nearly 40 years, but compared to established IT manufacturers (such as IBM, HP), Lenovo is still a latecomer. ISO/IEC/JTC 1 (corresponding to China's Information Technology Standardization Committee) is the organization that formulates most information technology standards, and its secretariat is located at HP. HP invests heavily in this area, but in reality, HP has not gained much growth or benefit from standards. In contrast, Apple does not necessarily actively participate in standard setting but focuses on key areas. However, Apple's corporate standardization work is excellent, and its product standardization is also very good. From Apple's perspective, the best outcome is for their standards to become industry standards or at least standards within the industrial ecosystem and supply chain. Such standardization work yields the greatest benefits. If it can be integrated with the company's products and technology, it can greatly drive the overall benefits of the enterprise.

　　4. Difficulties and Confusions in Standardization Work

　　First, the overall enthusiasm of company technical staff for innovation-related standards is not high, possibly due to the following reasons:

　　1. Long standard development cycles, high investment, and complex management

　　Technical staff tend to apply for patents to fulfill innovation KPIs. Lenovo's biggest problem now is that standards and patents are handled by two different departments. Engineers and technical staff are very focused on patents because personal investment in patents is much lower than in standards. Standards require coordination among various departments, external companies, the entire industry, and even international organizations. Therefore, it is quite difficult to motivate over 10,000 technical staff to participate in standards work, which is a current challenge for us.

　　2. Innovation-related standards do not show obvious benefits or require a long time to produce benefits

　　For example, with IEEE P3128, initially, we could not find technical experts willing to serve as secretary and vice-chair until ChatGPT became famous, after which the standard gained attention. IEEE P360 has seen too many changes in experts and organizations.

　　3. Innovation-related technologies update and iterate very quickly

　　By the time a standard is completed, the technology may have already updated and iterated, making the completed standard less useful. Everyone wants to combine standards with patents for innovation-related standards, but this may consume a lot of time and resources, and the actual effect is not obvious. The benefits are hard to evaluate and may even fail to produce benefits.

　　Second, talents specialized in standards are relatively rare because comprehensive abilities are required. Lenovo once integrated personnel involved in Chinese and global standards into one department under the research institute for about five years, but the results were not good because standards cannot be developed independently of products and markets. The research institute focuses on technologies and products ten years ahead, making it difficult to support current business and market needs. Later, Lenovo placed standards under business units. Lenovo now has three types of businesses: the first is terminal business, including PCs and mobile phones; the second is information infrastructure, such as networks, data centers, and high-performance computing; the third is solutions. Previously, products were single, mostly terminal products like phones and laptops, allowing Lenovo to have a unified product group. The current problem is that Lenovo lacks a top-level corporate standardization organization comparable to departments like legal or human resources to carry out standardization work. Many foreign standardization talents are gathered in legal departments, focusing more on regulations, so these talents gradually focus only on policy-related work. Most domestic technical experts are transferred from R&D and research institutes and prefer to stay in technical teams. Lenovo places standards under quality management departments, which causes confusion for us and the entire Lenovo business units and responsibilities. This is our current reality.

 

Host's Comment: Yu Xinli, Chairperson of China Standardization Association

　　From Mr. Tao Hongzhi's introduction, we know Lenovo has its characteristics. Lenovo has established a multi-level network architecture for standardization work and carries out a series of standardization activities. Another major feature is strategic layout, with key areas chosen based on market access standards. Lenovo pays great attention to this because its products are sold in 186 countries, making these access standards the minimum standards that must be followed. This actually brings certain difficulties to the company. For example, the WTO/TBT-SPS agreement requires member countries to base their national standards on international standards (i.e., adopt standards) when formulating them, encouraging adoption. At the same time, it acknowledges the imbalance and differences in development among countries, allowing countries to formulate their own technical regulations or mandatory standards under safety themes that differ from others. On one hand, this facilitates trade; on the other hand, these mandatory standards and technical regulations also create certain trade barriers. In 2005, the number of technical regulations or mandatory standards with national characteristics notified to the WTO by countries was over 1,000; by 2022, the total number notified globally reached over 6,000. The greater the differences, the more market access standards must be followed, posing a challenge to China. I believe this is a significant challenge for Lenovo.