Ten Years Witnesses Golden Dragon's Overseas Journey

The spring of 2013 failed to come on schedule. A sudden rain brought inconvenience to the Xiamen citizens, yet not to drive away customers from afar. The reporter ran into some foreign guests in Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Company. 

Mr. Lv Zhenhua, Golden Dragon"s 10-year cooperative partner from Philippines, tended to deliberate on developing local models. Some other guests from Cote d"lvoire came to visit the company.

Deputy General Manager Wu Wei in charge of overseas sales told the reporter that Golden Dragon had an increasing number of customers this year and workers had to work overtime to catch the orders. It can be seen hundreds of Golden Dragon HiAce were waiting in Xiamen Port for the shipment to Egypt.

An avalanche of orders made the booming export of Golden Dragon buses and Q1 witnessed over 40% of growth in sales volume and sales amount.

In fact, China buses are having a flourishing export as well. In the last two months, 9465 China buses have been exported to 95 countries, accounting for 15% of the total sales. All the evidences show the speeding-up of China buses in global market.

Dancing with the Wolves

In 2001, China joined the WTO and the opening-up of the country exposed domestic enterprises to internationalization.

Developing market economy by the rules of WTO was like an encounter battle for young China with ferocious global competitors. Over a year passed and China bus industry as well as other ones survived and began to accelerate in 2003, when Golden Dragon started its overseas journey which lasted 10 years.

At the beginning, Mr. Wu Wei described Golden Dragon as "tottering". Like other bus enterprises, rookie Golden Dragon sold buses aimlessly and blunders and setbacks made the company grow.

Mr. Wu told the reporter that obtaining did not mean owning. At the time of overseas expansion, control force was essential and quality and service were based on it.

The moment he took charge of overseas sales, Mr. Wu focused on how to improve the product quality and adaptability and surveyed the user habits in every country, for example, no portrait in pamphlets and scantly dressed female image in advertisements in Arab Region; passengers are used to sitting in North Europe and standing in Russia, etc.

Detailed market analysis reports spared Golden Dragon from the winding course TOYOTA had taken and meticulous investigation on local laws & regulations, customs & habits and details of service environment won Russian market for Golden Dragon.

Bottom Line

"Fight no battle unprepared" and this is the bottom line of Golden Dragon. Thanks to the advantages in scale and manufacturing, China bus industry attracted swarms of overseas customers asking for dealership these years. As time passed, Golden Dragon became prudent and set up a serial of assessment system, covering introduced products, comparative advantage, market strategy, after-sales service, reputation and plan implement, etc.

The successes in Philippines, Singapore, Peru and Egypt are attributed to local dealers, who are familiar with the markets and aware of the importance of after-sales service.

"We teach and we learn." Mr. Wu mentioned the contact with overseas dealers. For example, the Egyptian dealer, who learned from Japanese how to analyze market and make money out of after-sales service, surprised Golden Dragon sales personnel by their excellent after-sales service team and market analysis system. 

Chen Chaoyun worked in Golden Dragon on overseas sales after graduation in 2004. He spoke highly of Golden Dragon as a remarkable development platform and for the substantial supports from technology, marketing, manufacturing, safe-sales service and logistics, etc. The sincerity in Golden Dragon is the basis of mutual cooperation and co-development to overseas dealers. 

In fact, many seemingly ordinary things touch the dealers: quick response from Golden Dragon sales persons, even at night; warm prompt to reduce unnecessary equipment; optimizing logistics and saving cost, etc. Ten years witnessed the similar cases in striving Golden Dragon sales persons.

Setting Sail to Overseas Markets

Mr. Wu told the reporter that internationalization relied on control power to market. The three ways for Golden Dragon are good dealers, overseas offices and cooperation with state-owned trading enterprises.

For Golden Dragon, the way to control the market started from product output to personnel output in hot sports, besides looking for good dealers. In Russia, the company has established its own office and is preparing in other areas.

"Our target is that bus export will reach CNY 2 billion within three years." In Chinese traditional culture, ten years means transmigration, a rebirth and the tenth anniversary of 2013 will be a new start for Golden Dragon"s overseas journey.