Made in China against the wind and waves

Content source

Content source: On June 9, 2021, the "CTIS2021 Technology Trends Summit" was created by leading business management media CEConlines and CTIS Consumer Technology and Innovation Exhibition. ”, Dr. Gao Jingxin, Director of the Executive Education Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University Antai College of Economics and Management and the expert representative of the 2021 Made in China Hidden Champion evaluation expert, had a dialogue with three representatives of the 2021 Made in China Hidden Champion list companies in the “Hidden Champion Manufacturing Road” session.

The following is the content of the summit dialogue, edited and edited by the CEConline:

Moderator Gao Jingxin: Professor Simon mentioned in the book Hidden Champion that the Hidden Champion has a characteristic It is very obvious that the company is well known in the industry, but the public awareness outside the industry is not so high. The listed companies here have achieved a very prominent position in market share and brand influence in a very segmented field. Under the circumstances of the new economic development pattern and even under the influence of the epidemic, how did the three invisible champion companies present here respond to these challenges and re-establish their global layout? Please share with you?

Aidu Technology Sales Director Chai Xiaohui: Aidu Technology has been focusing on overseas markets since 2014. The arrival of this epidemic has made us think more. Because when it comes to the globalized market, everyone pays more attention to popular overseas markets such as Europe and North America. However, after the outbreak of the epidemic, we suddenly found that the Indian market and the Southeast Asian market have emerged, which broke our tradition of consumers in this region. cognition. As in the previous traditional concept, everyone believed that the Indian market likes products with high cost performance, so they did not pay much attention to the Indian market before. But since last year, we found that the order volume in India has soared, and the growth has exceeded that of North America and Europe. It is not only an increase in sales volume, but also broke our previous understanding of price. In the past, it was thought that in the Indian market, the price of the product was three or five dollars, but now, the price of the product sold in India is the highest. Therefore, if you want to deepen the globalization layout in the future, you can try to go to some markets with great growth and unlimited market prospects.

Fu Jianyong, Sales Director of Qiaowei Power Brand Department: Qiaowei mainly produces power supplies, Bluetooth, wireless chargers, and digital 3C products. The main markets are Europe, America, Germany, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. We pay attention to quality, so the price will be slightly higher. We are cooperating with the top ten brands of Amazon, and the four major brands in Shenzhen are also cooperating. I think a company is in innovation, not in price competition. If it is price competition, it will definitely die. Qiaowei was a commercial power supply in 2004, seized this node, and later made Bluetooth and wireless charging. We have seized every emerging product in the market. But during the epidemic, we did not follow the trend to make masks. Like thermometers and masks, we did make money, but we would not invest, because if we invested in this, we would be divided. Qiaowei only focused on the vertical field of 3C digital accessories and worked hard to make To the extreme, the development of an enterprise still lies in focus, innovation, and down-to-earth.

Liu Ya, general manager of Heyman Technology: Heyman has been focusing on smart home and smart fire protection for 16 years. In the market, the global market has been adjusted in the past two years. In the past, Hyman's core market was basically in Europe, which was very narrow. We had some good progress last year in Southeast Asia and even in Africa. Originally, we never thought that the African market would be able to sell, but last year, we have reached cooperation with several large retailers in Africa, and the order volume is still very good. On the other hand, according to the market changes under the epidemic situation, people's new demand points, new products have been launched. Europe and Southeast Asia are basically working from home during the epidemic, and they have new requirements for the environmental protection of home air. As a manufacturer of smart sensors, we have launched some products to detect carbon dioxide and air quality according to the needs of our customers. The export of these products is still very good this year. The company's sales in the past two years have been very good in the case of environmental reverse. good growth.

Host Gao Jingxin: Next, I would like to ask the three guests another question, which is everyone's investment in research and development. I remember that Professor Simon also mentioned when he went to the meeting room in Shenzhen's Greater Bay Area, especially the companies with hidden champions. Their capital investment, capital investment and resource investment in research and development are 1-2 times that of many large enterprises. , and the number of patents owned by thousands of people is also 5-6 times that of large enterprises. Of course, the implementation of our patents is an issue to be discussed in the next stage. In this process, what is the attitude and situation of each enterprise regarding R&D investment, and how do you view R&D?

Liu Ya, General Manager of Hyman Technology: Hyman's reputation is From R&D innovation and excellent product quality, Heyman invests 8% of total sales in R&D every year, which is very high in the entire industry. In recent years, due to the upgrade of Internet of Things technology, Hyman's investment in the entire R&D has been increasing, such as talent introduction, equipment upgrade, and site upgrade, all of which have invested a very large amount. In the later stage, Hyman is also doing some things, such as what he is doing now, applying for the three major laboratories of the country, and then cooperating with colleges and universities to subvert some new technologies in the industry in intelligent sensing. For example, smart home, why is it not popularized to every user now? Its intelligence depends on the update of smart sensing technology, so we hope to have a greater breakthrough in smart sensing technology in the future, so the investment in research and development is every year. are gradually increasing.

Fu Jianyong, Sales Director of Qiaowei Power Brand Department: Overall, Qiaowei's annual capital investment accounts for about 10%, mainly in three aspects, one. Equipment. A car costs 2 million yuan, and ten devices are worth 20 million yuan. There are also Bluetooth devices. A random device costs between 500,000 and 1 million, and there are also seven or eight. 2. Talent. For example, the annual salary of an audio engineer is in the millions. He may come once a month or once every two months, but he will be paid one million a year. There are also senior audio engineers, who we specially hire outside. Qiaowei made nearly 1 billion last year, and the talent investment may be close to 100 million. 3. Supporting services. European customers are very demanding and must have supporting services to keep up. So if you make 1 billion, you need to invest at least 50 million to 80 million in supporting costs to support customers, such as product ID, production, and quality control.

Chai Xiaohui, Sales Director of Aidu Technology: Making Chinese production in China is easy and simple, and difficult or difficult, depending on how the company positions itself. Aidu Technology is to be intelligent, because China is very powerful in all aspects of manufacturing resources, and its ability to integrate resources is very strong. Aidu was thinking, how to take a different path from others? Do we make products with high cost performance? Or do we make a variety of products to meet the market and customers? The founder of Aidu has a Consensus, we take our own different path, this path is based on research and development. R&D needs to endure loneliness, because your R&D will not be effective immediately, or the things you develop can be iterated on a technology immediately, and you need to constantly upgrade and optimize. The same is true of love, which is continuous every year, not to say that one R&D investment is stopped in the second year after one year. Every year, 10% of sales are required to be used as scientific research expenses.

Then we divide scientific research into two modules, one is called R&D and the other is called research. Research and development needs to serve the needs of the current business, market and customers, but research may be pre-research and iteration of technology in the next two or three years. Pre-research and iteration do not need to be immediately converted into existing products, bringing a certain amount of cash. flow. There is a consensus in the company for this, and it is being done unremittingly. From 2014 to the present, Aidu has maintained the investment of scientific research expenses every year. Aidu's company in Shenzhen also has a special research institute, which is dedicated to the iteration of technology or the introduction of new resources to upgrade and transform for the next three to five years.

Moderator Gao Jingxin: I will do a little bit of sorting, and becoming an invisible champion contains the following keywords: One keyword is courage, which includes our determination to make strategic decisions and our perseverance. The second key word is focus, focusing on the core capabilities of our company, rather than the original business scenario. The third key word is innovation and pre-judgment. This innovation and pre-judgment are more based on our ability to focus on iterating more scenarios and responding to needs. I believe that on the one hand, we discussed the business development model of invisible champions in this forum, and on the other hand, we discussed specific practices. I hope that the talk can have some precipitation for the audience here, and I wish our invisible champion representative companies and participating companies can go better, more stable and more sustainable in the future development process.