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Teaser: Your China factory: future digital champion
Peter Bornschein and Xiaolong Hu
"Digitization is more than opportunity to German SME´s"
Report and Teaser, Webinar 10. September 2020
In today's world, digitalization is a must. The question is how to make this journey, especially with regard to China. China is the second largest market in the world, and for many SMEs it is already central and continues to grow.
On September 10, 2020, the China team invited four experienced China managers and experts to discuss the digitalization trend in Chinese manufacturing and the importance for German SMEs, as well as success factors of digital projects.
Mr. Qiang Rong, the representative of Foshan City and Foshan Sino German Industrial Zone, presented best practices of large Chinese companies, such as Midea and Country Garden, and the digital transformation projects of these giants. Meanwhile, he pointed out that digital trends in China can lead to business opportunities for German SMEs.
Professor Herzog of Tongji University Shanghai and Jocobs University Brement, who is a world-renowned AI expert, explained that digitization efforts require necessary process improvements in advance, and he reminded companies to frame the entire business process chain when it comes to a future digital solution.
Mr. Li Feng, who is General Manager of Pixida Business Consulting China, feels German manufacturing companies are still more advanced in digitization. German high labor costs forced them to find automated and digital solutions for a long time already. But no matter Germany or China, you need to define real needs, not just follow digitization because it is a buzzword.
Moderated by Mr. Peter Bornschein, who has over 20 years experience in China as head of German IT companies and IT consulting companies, invited experts worked out major success factors in digital projects with help of active involvement of the other event participants. Some of those are:
Define good processes first, a bad process does not get better through digitization
Define your key needs, objectives and clear goals
Prioritize key areas to begin with
Have an agile mindset both for staff and management
Good digital infrastructure is necessary, internally and externally
Give your subsidiary enough room and flexibility to find own solutions where necessary
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