As the head of Bridgestone China, the timing of taking office at Takeda Bunjun is not very good. After learning his economic background and working abroad for many years, Takeda has developed a habit of keeping an eye on market dynamics. In mid-July of 2008, he discovered that the coal demand in Shanxi has been greatly reduced. Most of these coal are exported and exported. The main destination is Japan.
“These developed countries were already hit by the financial crisis and the trend of industrial production cuts. In China, some people think that the stimulation and influence of other factors have led to the reduction of coal exports, but the important reason is that the global financial crisis has made a certain start in China.†On February 26, Takeda Taketsu told reporters during an exclusive interview.
Today, this beginning has become a huge force that affects the market. However, although it is admitted that the financial turmoil has a great impact on his work, in the Bridgestone annual development plan listed by Takeda, his goal of setting a tire store growth rate is still up to 20%.
At the end of 2008, the Bridgestone Family Network (Wingstone Bridgestone Tire Shop) was close to 1,000, and Takeda hopes to expand to more than 1,200 by the end of 2009. Among them, the Wings Network will exceed 200, and by the end of 2008, This figure is about 160. As to whether this goal is also an annual sales growth plan, he said with a smile to Tai Chi: "We also hope to achieve it, but it will indeed encounter difficulties."
In the past six years, Takeda was the third general manager of Bridgestone China. The Japanese company likes to use the rotation method to train its staff. Taking Takeda as an example, he has worked at Bridgestone for 28 years. In these 28 years, Takeda has changed six foreign countries, from Africa to the Middle East, and in the rest of the time he is responsible for overseas business in Japan. China is his sixth outpost destination.
The difference is that this time, the potential size of the Chinese auto market may be larger than the sum of the other five countries that Takeda has worked on. Takeda believes that it is not easy to say how much sales the Chinese auto market can achieve this year, but in 2010, it believes that it can exceed 10 million units, and it is already approaching the low sales of the North American auto market.
Takeda understands China in the simplest and most direct way. He has read more than 50 books on China and has a wide range of contents. At the same time, he arranged 25 business visits in the first few months of his appointment. The visit included factories, branches, agents and terminal retail stores. He said: "For a strange market, you must grasp the first-line first-hand information, you must quickly understand the way. Simply sitting in the office through reading some documents, and hope to understand the market, is actually a very dangerous thing."
Therefore, when Takeda took office for eight months to sit in an office for an interview, he can confidently analyze the reporter: “It is estimated that by the end of 2010, China’s auto market will return to normal.â€
It was Takeda’s Chinese that progressed together. Bridgestone will arrange 30 hours of local language training for each expatriate staff in advance. Now, Takeda will learn one hour of Chinese every day. This helped him to skillfully speak the name of the brand in Chinese at Bridgestone's launch of the comfort brand "Tairan" brand.
Takeda feels that although English is a relatively easy language for communication in the world, it is not always English for each region. From his experience, in Egypt, it is still necessary to understand Arabic, because in the office you can communicate in English, but if you visit customers, you have to learn Arabic. In Turkey, local customers speak Turkish and if you do not understand it, it is difficult to communicate. He is very proud that he has been able to independently read the local newspaper after working in Turkey for two years.
Today, his goal is Chinese and the Chinese market.
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Reporter: If you go to the factory or dealer, how would you start?
Takeda Bunton: The factory's words, first of all, from the outside, is not very well organized, green, environmental protection are doing well, it is to see whether employees are willing to work in such an environment. After entering the factory, because the factory has a series of processes, not only the production process, but also the initial raw material storage, as well as the final finished product delivery. General factory managers like to bring people to the production line, but my experience is to go to the first and last two links.
For example, whether the raw material storage management is very strict and orderly, and there is no foreign matter mixed in. When the library is out, whether the goods are very clean and beautiful, and whether the packaging is neat and tidy, that is, when users get this product, they will realize that Like and willing to accept.
When looking at a store, we used to look at the bathroom first. Now that this has been included in the routine inspections, we now focus on whether the store's display and display can give customers some solutions and different life experiences, Lifestyle, in different seasons. , It can make customers who come into the shop realize that I can also experience such a way of life. This way can be extended to my own life. Such as 4X4 SUVs in the mountain simulation, simulation of the sea, hiking simulation of travel cars and other scenes. In the sports tire sales area, some modified vehicles or interior decorations can be placed.
We have noticed that there are more and more individualized demands for retrofits, and we also provide such personalized services in some stores. However, the number of such shops will not be much. Now 70% of the wings of Bridgestone can provide professional audio and modification services.
Reporter: What are your product plans for customers of different consumer classes?
Takeda Bunton: The purchasing power of the Chinese market is very large, and customer needs are increasingly diversified. We are not targeting a certain area, but we are launching Bridgestone products in various fields to meet market demand.
In addition to positioning the mid-to-high-end "Siren", for the general consumer group, we have introduced the economical environment-friendly tire B250. Its performance in all aspects is well-balanced, priced under the patrons, and the price/performance ratio is high, and because With the introduction of low rolling resistance technology, this tire is also very advantageous in terms of saving fuel costs.
In 2008, we introduced B250 tires, from 13 inches to 16 inches, with 12 to 13 sizes. In 2009, we plan to add 6 specifications in 15 and 16 inches of B250 tires to the Chinese market.
Reporter: Why started promoting green tires in China from small tires instead of big ones?
Takeda Bunton: If you look at the truck user, you will find that in different positions, the customer installs a different brand of truck tires, which accounts for more than 90% of the market. What does this mean? Explaining that big-tire customers may have such needs, such as fuel costs are more economical, more environmentally friendly, etc., but when he buys tires, it will be affected by many other factors.
At present, we are also testing Bridgestone's low rolling-resistance technical card passenger car tires and collecting data on all aspects. According to feedback from various parties, we have found that the customer's requirements are first of all wear-resistant, very strong, and the second is durability. It can run more. Distance, based on meeting these conditions, will increase fuel economy.
We haven’t put in a big tire because we haven’t completed a complete testing process yet. In general, a small child needs two actual tests to go public. For example, if you put 1,000 tires for the first time, see how they are used, collect opinions, and modify the products before doing a similar test. The durability of small tires is not a big problem. Our own technology is enough to ensure that the purpose of the test is to see if the tire user has obtained the value that we hope to achieve when we originally designed the tire.
Bigger tires are more difficult to test because the conditions of use of large tires are beyond control and predictability. Those cars that travel strictly according to the requirements of load, driving speed, etc. may be less than 1%. Therefore, we must ensure that products can be brought into the market after they have met most of the market's usage.
According to our internal estimates, from the design, testing, and sales, a big tire product takes almost five years. This design refers to the start of product planning from market research. We will recover about 5,000 defective tires from the Chinese market each year, including products from other competitors. These tires come from different provinces, and we will study them to see what the local needs are and what are the factors that satisfy their basic needs. We must refine and integrate these basic properties before we begin the next step of product development.
In the next 2-3 years, new products will enter China every year. In 2010, we will launch passenger car tires that will further reduce the environmental load. This will become one of the best products in the Chinese market. In terms of large tires, a trial sale of tires will be made in the second half of 2009. If the results are in line with our original expectations, they will also be available for sale in 2010.
Reporter: Will this market strategy be too cautious?
Takeda Bunton: Bridgestone's rule is that if a product is not recognized by the highest responsible person of its design, that is, if it is not said that this product has completely complied with the requirements that I originally designed and developed, then it cannot be put on the market. This is for all tires. We also hope that having such reliable products will also make our sales staff more confident.
For the big-tire customers, what he is most worried about is that the car is halfway open and the tire is broken. On the one hand, it is prone to accidents. The second one also affects his business. Therefore, for us, it is to grasp his conditions of use and use requirements as far as possible, and to develop products in a targeted manner.
As a company fundamentally, we are the company that manufactures products, and like Bridgestone's corporate mission statement, we contribute to society with the highest quality. This phrase was proposed by the founder at the beginning of the establishment of Bridgestone Corporation. Our company also followed this idea step by step. It can be said that the mission we have pursued has also been recognized by society.
Reporter: Most tire companies choose security, environmental protection, etc. as the focus of publicity, then how do you highlight their brand differentiation in China?
Takeda Bunton: Not only the tire industry, the entire automotive industry regards these factors as its own core brand appeals and product content demands. This is also the core demand of society and consumers. However, when it comes to safety and environmental protection, how do you achieve this goal? The degree to which each manufacturer is doing is not the same. Such as tires, if you want to be safe, we must ensure and test it in any condition of the road, can safely spend. Need to do a lot of very detailed tests and analysis in order to achieve the level of security.
Nowadays, all walks of life promote safety, and it seems that security has become widespread and hollow. However, in reality, it is time for customers to choose safety, not just the era when we promote security. We have entered the era of the buyer's market. Consumers value their actual experience rather than accepting your advocacy. He needs to experience it personally. The degree of satisfaction comes from his own evaluation. Our propaganda for the products actually depends on the consumer to make the final conclusions for you.
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