China Entrepreneur’s interview with Xiang Wenbo, rotating Chairman of SANY Group
“We want to make disruptive changes. At present, we are facing unprecedented opportunities from two dimensions. One is the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; the other is the emergence of cutting-edge technologies during the fourth industrial revolution alongside the third energy revolution,” said Xiang Wenbo, rotating chairman of SANY Group in an exclusive interview by China Entrepreneur.
Therefore, entrepreneurs must have a strong crisis consciousness, seize the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, and promote their digital intelligence transformation in an all-around way. In this regard, Mr. Xiang believed that there are more chances than difficulties. Recently, Mr. Xiang put forward a proposal to accelerate the development of new energy commercial vehicles.
The 30 years of development history of SANY Heavy Industry shows a typical course of the rise of the manufacturing industry of China. In the key stage of industry transformation and upgrading, SANY has upgraded intelligently all of its plants in China and completed the construction of its first intelligent plant outside China. "In the future, SANY will build itself into a platform-based and ecology-oriented enterprise based on the in-depth integration of Internet, big data, and AI technology,” said Mr. Xiang. In his view, an entrepreneur should seek opportunities, but more importantly, should learn to embrace changes actively.
New quality productivity: new opportunities for traditional industries
Mr. Xiang: The concept of the new quality productivity is very important. "High efficiency" and "high quality", as we often mentioned in the past, belong to the basic characteristics of new quality productivity.
However, it should be noted that the formation of new quality productivity never means to ignore traditional industries but to create new development opportunities for them. For us, the last things to miss are opportunities brought by the era. For instance, the production of excavators is our typical traditional business, and what does it have to do with the development of new quality productivity?
Our excavators produced in the future will definitely be different. They should be green, energy-saving, and intelligent excavators; Otherwise, they may not be acceptable in the market. From this perspective, traditional businesses like excavator production still have development potential in the future.
Innovation: a primary factor for the high-quality development of enterprises
Mr. Xiang: To seek high-quality development, our top priority is innovation. Especially in the current era of technological revolution, if we do not pursue innovations, we will soon be eliminated by the market. Therefore, how to create a unique competitive advantage through innovation is an enterprise’s top concern to achieve sustainable operation.
Improving internal organizational efficiency is also critical for the development of an enterprise. In the current global competitive environment, we must consider how to improve organizational efficiency, how to reduce our operating costs, how to make our business operate soundly, and how to undertake more social responsibilities.
Furthermore, it is also significant to manufacture competitive products. The competitiveness of products is the basis of our business operation. If a company has no excellent products, everything will be in vain.
Artificial intelligence: a force to drive disruptive changes
Mr. Xiang: Our team focuses on the traditional mechanical manufacturing industry and our digital intelligence ability is weak. Therefore, we organize all our staff to learn digitalization and try to promote our digitalization transformation in all aspects, including intelligent products, intelligent manufacturing, and smart operation. Even in terms of organizational form and decision-making, we have introduced AI in a comprehensive way to realize unmanned machine decision-making. These are what we call disruptive changes.
In SANY, all BDs have set up electrification divisions, and we hope that all the products we produce in the future will serve as data-intelligent terminals. We will increase investment and accelerate product upgrading to further improve the level of our intelligent manufacturing.
In the future, SANY will strive to enter the new energy industry, including wind power, hydrogen energy, photovoltaic power, and energy storage, and vigorously promote the electrification of existing products. We hope we will take a leading position in electrification development.
Going aboard: no high-end products, no foothold
Mr. Xiang: Now global economy is in a transformation stage, and the industry life cycle is evolving. Next year, the global market is likely to bottom out and we will see more chances since the industry cycle adjustment may come to a new stage. Therefore, Chinese products still have a large space in the international market which harbors great opportunities.
With more diversified target markets for overseas expansion, Chinese construction machinery manufacturers should also transform their internationalization strategy, modes, and positioning to target high-end markets as soon as possible. In fact, in terms of the external circulation market, we mainly focused on developed areas like Europe and the United States. If we don't export our products into these high-end markets, we will lose our ground on the main battlefield of globalization.
Last year, 40% of our total revenue came from the overseas market. Based on that, it is even more important for us to strengthen our understanding of customer needs. For example, we designed and developed products in China in the past, but we should redefine our products in the future to meet the needs of customers from different countries and regions.
When advancing globalization, we should adapt our processes, systems, and culture to our globalization strategy. For example, as labor laws vary in different countries, we must adjust our human resource policies accordingly. That means our corporate culture will be more diversified.
