Yesterday I opened two parcels, the contents of each had been made in China. In fact this is a pretty common situation for us all, but although the items are made in China they are rarely attributed to the Chinese. This situation is going to start to change.
Chinese companies are very capable and in a lot of cases are doing much more than just make the products that we buy with a western companies name on it. This has been an expedient way to demonstrate the quality of their manufacturing, the iPhone itself an excellent example of this, but why would these companies not want their own name on the product instead?
At this point our conceit about the necessity for “Western” input into successful products blinds us to the capabilities of Chinese companies. Along with this goes a perception of Chinese home grown products being cheap rubbish that breaks easily. After all what mobile phone would you rather carry one made by Apple or one made by Huawei?
I remember my father telling me that once upon a time Made in Japan was seen as a mark of poor quality, something you would never buy. That has significantly reversed with people seeing these products now as quality items, companies such as SONY at the forefront of this. Japan though is a relatively small country, when China makes this step and their products become revered for their quality what will happen then? Will western brands, so dependant on Chinese manufacturing, survive the deluge?
No comments:
Post a Comment