Jonathan Calof was on a tour of Huawei Technologies’ Shenzen, China campus not long ago when he unexpectedly came across some familiar faces.
On a wall of fame for stars of the Chinese company were several former employees of Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications giant that suffered a spectacular collapse a decade ago.
“These are (now) Huawei employees associated with great technological accomplishments … and I recognized so many of them,” said Calof, a University of Ottawa business professor who was visiting the site with MBA students. “At one level you’re proud to be a Canadian, at the same time you’re upset to be a Canadian.”
The ex-Nortel engineers’ place of honour in Shenzen underscores how the two companies’ fortunes unfurled for years in striking parallel, and yet with starkly different outcomes.
They produced similar equipment, competed for the same contracts and tried to negotiate joint ventures. As one grew into a Goliath, the other crumbled to pieces. In Nortel’s waning days, Huawei reportedly backed a bid to keep it alive, only to ultimately walk away. And then snap up many of the bankrupt firm’s most-skilled staff.
As Canada nears its long-awaited decision on whether to allow Huawei a role in the coming 5G wireless networks, one part of the story particularly vexes the late-lamented Nortel’s many fans.
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See Also:
(1) China’s Government Is Like Something out of 1984
(2) More Evidence of China’s Horrific Abuses in Xinjiang
(3) Beijing’s Great Leap Backward
(4) China’s passenger car sales tumble 92% in first half of February due to virus outbreak
(5) Scientists Question China’s Decision Not to Report Symptom-Free Coronavirus Cases
