Chinese manufacturing giant, Xiaomi, will be 10 years this year. Oh yes, do not be surprised, Xiaomi is only ten years old. However, the company has done som much within ten years and it is among the top 10 smartphone manufacturers globally. While Xiaomi has been in existence for ten years, its oldest smartphone is nine years old. The company started off as an internet/software company. Recently, Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun talked about some challenges that the company has conquered.
Lei Jun said “It has been 9 years since I made a mobile phone. When it comes to Xiaomi mobile phones, the first thing that everyone thinks about is high-cost performance. However, Xiaomi also had to deal with frequent out of stock criticism and panic buying problems. We finally understand the problem and it is now in the past.”
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According to Lei Jun, Xiaomi focuses on innovation, quality, and delivery. Its research and development fund for 2019 was 7.5 billion yuan ($1 billion). For this year (2020), it will probably exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion). For a company like Xiaomi, which has only a 10- year history, such a large scale of research and development is laudable. Its development speed has been extraordinary.
Xiaomi also has a good record with its quality. It may not be the best, but it offers a very high price-to-performance ratio. Lei Jun added, “The proudest thing I did last year was that I won the personal award (National Quality Award) which rewards me for attaching importance to and promoting quality.”
Lei Jun – we have up to 15 million units monthly
Another aspect of positive growth for Xiaomi is delivery. Lei Jun said, “We used to be out of stock for a long long time. I later figured it turns out to be insufficient supply chain capabilities. For us initially, the demand is too high. However, it is not the demand but our supply was insufficient”
However, the problem of lack of stock is no longer an issue for Xiaomi. Lei Jun declared, ” Today you rarely hear which Xiaomi phone needs a long queue because our delivery capacity can reach 15 million units a month…”