Day 11 - June 1st Friday (Delphi, DuPont)

Delphi – Clifford Kang, Country Manager, China

Delphi is another MNC that we had a chance to visit. Delphi prides itself on innovation and technology. It has been facing severe competition from global and local competitors primarily on cost and technology. It is also facing IP issues from local companies and thus technological innovation plays an important role in the growth of such a company. Delphi, like other Chinese companies, is also faced with a problem of attracting talent and retaining them. I guess this is a growing problem in many developing countries. India is facing similar talent crunch and high turnover rates. I wonder if these impede the overall growth of the economy.

DuPont – Jason Yu and Eric Carlson

On our way to DuPont I noticed that, DuPont was located in the Free Trade Zone in a newly developed area which had several Biotech, Pharmaceutical, and IT companies. It almost seems that they chose the location strategically based on the tax sops given by the government and more importantly locating closer to their customers.

DuPont is facing several challenges for its operations in China. It is facing severe competition from local, regional, national and global players in all the industries that it has its business units. On the other hand, its broad range of customers is allowing DuPont to create a niche in certain markets. It has local, regional, and global customers for the products that are manufactured in China. However there is confusion about the quality, standards and the specifications for the Chinese market. I have observed a similar concern in the Indian markets as well. Indian manufacturers seem to produce a lower grade and lower quality for the local market, while exporting the higher grade product which will get them higher margins. Although this trend continued for a long period of time, the Indian consumer is now getting more quality conscious and would not want to compromise on quality, standard and specification of the desired product.

Even after the presentations I have a few more questions. How is Du Pont able to manage the vast number of products? Is their marketing strategy in China different from the one in the USA?