The positive image of German companies in China is getting tainted: Chinese customers attest to the strong quality awareness of German companies (97 percent). However, at the same time, one in two Chinese perceive their presence on the Chinese markets as arrogant (51 percent). The large majority of those questioned also hold the view that German manufacturers should respond more to the wishes of Chinese customers (94 percent). This is the result of a representative survey conducted by Staufen AG in the People’s Republic of China.
“The results of this survey show very clearly that German companies must not at any time rest on the laurels of past success,” warns Markus Franz, Executive Director of Staufen AG Consultancy in Shanghai. “Competition on the rapidly growing Chinese domestic market more than ever requires of German companies to identify their own weaknesses and to eliminate them without delay.” In this context, it is not just the widespread impression of the arrogance of German companies that needs to be taken seriously. 84 percent of Chinese customers also think that German providers should improve their service. Two-thirds also think that German products are too expensive. And only barely one in two thinks that German providers have a modern image. These figures should provide food for thought for German companies. At present, they still view China too much as a low-cost workbench for products for sale on the global market, but not enough as an attractive sales market. Companies are well advised to pay greater heed than until now to the requirements of Chinese customers. As an example, in mechanical engineering this means: your customers very often do not require premium products representing the best of German engineering, but machines that specifically meet their particular needs. Very often, these are modern production plants in their basic version which are slightly cheaper to purchase, but more importantly easier to operate and maintain by Chinese workers”, industrial expert Markus Franz explains. However, on the whole, the image of “Made in Germany” still remains a benchmark. Products and services by German manufacturers are ranked higher by the Chinese (8.3 out of 10) than comparable offers by US (7.7 of 10) or domestic Chinese providers (6.6 out of 10). However, 41 percent of those surveyed expected that the advantage of German products would not remain a given; they expected Chinese providers to narrow the gap in quality. Best Practice Day in Darmstadt on 04 June 2013
The topic of China will also be the focus of the Staufen AG International Lean Management Congress in Darmstadt on 04 June 2013. One of the keynote speakers is Dr Marcus Chao, President, Lean Enterprise China Inc. from Shanghai, speaking about “China’s footprint – a dynamic of change to set global standards“.
In addition, leading personalities from the German manufacturing industry will also address the congress. More Information under www.best-practice-day.com About Staufen AG
Staufen AG, which operates internationally, has established itself as a top lean management consulting company in Germany. As “partner on the path to top performance”, Staufen AG aims to effect efficient and sustained process optimisation in value creation and management and to make the innovation and product development process as effective as possible. Furthermore, the consultants develop concepts to manage crisis situations as turnaround or interim managers. Staufen AG has first-class references with prestigious small and medium-sized companies and groups such as DAIMLER or MAN. The Staufen Academy is a certified training provider in accordance with SGB II – AZWV; the main focus of its programme is on practice-oriented seminars. More than 160 employees directly supervise the clients in partnership at their locations in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland and China. The German weekly business news magazine “WirtschaftsWoche” honoured the company for this as “Best of Consultant 2011”. The recent Lünendonk® 2013 trend study on “Performance – growth strength of management and IT consultancy companies” ranks Staufen among the consulting houses with the strongest growth over the last five years.
