The global mobile phone market is becoming saturated, especially in developed economies where phone makers are competing for market share in an increasingly ‘red ocean’. In contrast, the African market for mobile phones has huge growth potential given a fast-expanding population and high proportion of young people, yet relatively low rate of mobile phone penetration.

Jean-Marc Frangos, Managing Director of Products & Services Research and Open Innovation at BT Group is looking to optimize the London-based telcom company’s external innovation process – scouting for new technologies from Silicon Valley, Israel and Asia.

The case sets China’s Huawei Technologies in the context of the evolving global smartphone industry, notably its positioning and the links between its competitive strategy and its corporate (global) strategy.

The case first describes the evolution of Cisco Systems of San Jose, California, from a narrowly-focused routing and switching equipment vendor, with a highly effective competitive strategy, into a diversified networking and IT giant.