How to conquer China’s markets? German medium-sized companies face new challenges in further expanding into the fast-growing Chinese sales market. Market presence and customer engagement in the Middle Kingdom frequently remain under-developed: For example, 84 per cent of Chinese require better service performance from German suppliers in future – one in two customers is critical of their ‘latent arrogance’. Leading lights from the manufacturing sector in China, Germany and the USA will be discussing how German firms can succeed with this process of adaptation at the ‘BestPractice Day 2013’ hosted by Staufen AG on 4 and 5 June 2013 in Darmstadt. “We are seeing how China is swiftly developing from being a sub-contractor for large foreign industrial companies into a sophisticated consumer market in its own right,” says Wilhelm Goschy, Executive Director of Staufen AG. “Thus the results of our latest representative customer survey in China suggest the need for German firms to undergo a change of course in sensitive areas.” In spite of the generally excellent image of products ‘Made in Germany’, a large majority (94 per cent) of customers would like German companies to be more responsive to specifically Chinese requirements. In the case of mechanical engineering a more individual response would mean, for example, taking greater account of the actual work environment on the ground. Here Chinese customers often do not need premium products manufactured to the highest levels of German engineering expertise, but instead basic modern machines which are somewhat less expensive to purchase and in particular easier for Chinese employees to operate and maintain. As proven experts from science and industry will illustrate at the BestPractice Day, strategic adaptation is accompanied by great opportunities. Dr. Marcus Chao, President of Lean Enterprise China and a keynote speaker at this leading European lean management congress, comments: “German managers should redouble efforts to develop an appropriate lean culture in collaboration with their Chinese colleagues, since future success in China will depend on how well quality standards already established are transferred to the Chinese market.” But China is not the only topic at the Staufen AG BestPractice Day, which this year carries the title “Condemned to Top Performance”. Besides Dr. Marcus Chao another keynote speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Liker, author and Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Further speakers will include leading lights from the manufacturing sector in Germany. This event, which is held every two years, also provides opportunities for benchmarking and exchanging thoughts and ideas.
For more information on Europe’s leading lean management congress, on 4 and 5 June in Darmstadt, please visit: http://www.best-practice-day.com
