Writing / Blue Science and Technology

Since the beginning of this year, even though overseas markets are facing tremendous epidemic pressure, however,BeautifulBut unharmed, even outstanding in the industry.

Data show that in the first quarter of this year, Midea's overseas orders increased by 26% compared with the same period last year. In fact, this result is not surprising. There is only one reason. Midea's overseas business is supported by a solid supply chain, and Midea can still break through even in the face of market difficulties.

The Thirteen years of Beauty overseas

Looking back from history, the globalization of beauty can be divided into three stages:

The first stage is from 1981 to 1997, which is characterized by OEM, and the product goes out. In 1981, Midea was the first enterprise in Guangdong to have the right to import and export. At that time, the export business was called export. Fundamentally speaking, under the general environment, enterprises earn foreign exchange through export and achieve the export target by relying on scale through the way of OEM.

The second stage is from 1997 to 2007, which is characterized by the beginning of overseas press conferences and brand going out. Since 1997, Midea has realized that the product going out is only a change in scale, which is by no means the gene of the sustainable development of an enterprise. Therefore, in that year, we began to hold product conferences overseas to take the first step of going out to sea for our own brands in the form of participating in trade fairs of Southeast Asian countries.

The third stage is from 2007 to the present, which is the leap of capital going out and brand going out. In 2007, Midea established a manufacturing base in Vietnam, marking the first step in the globalization of Midea's capital. Since then, Midea's capital globalization has entered a period of acceleration. Subsequently, a production base was established in Belarus in 2008 and landed in Egypt in 2010.

In 2012, Midea put forward three strategic axes of "product leadership, efficiency drive and global operation". As the pillar of Midea, global operation continues to expand the scale of overseas mergers and acquisitions. 2016 is an important stage in Midea's global layout. Midea has successively carried out and completed four large-scale global mergers and acquisitions, including Toshiba home appliance business in Japan, CLIVET, an Italian central air conditioning company, EUREKA, a famous American vacuum cleaner company, and KUKA Group of Germany, a robot manufacturer.

Midea acquired a 95% stake in Germany's Kuka Group, one of the world's three largest robot suppliers, in January 2017, marking a new stage of its internationalization. Through the acquisition of Kuka, Midea can be transformed into an industrial automation platform and service provider, thereby improving its industrial chain and becoming a global technology group covering the fields of robotics, automation, consumer appliances and electronics.

The United States' overseas offensive and defensive balance

A global enterprise must achieve a balance between attack and defense in order to have a better ability to resist risks, and industrial development will be more sustainable.

In North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the supply chain layout of the United States develops evenly, and each region is the strategic main body. In North America and Europe, the US's overseas market revenue is about 20 per cent, while in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African markets, US market revenue is also about 20 per cent. This shows that the market is more balanced in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

All this, the source of the United States manufacturing base "17017" layout. From February to March this year, during the positive impact of the epidemic in China, national economic activities almost came to a standstill. at that time, overseas markets had not yet entered the most severe stage of epidemic prevention, and economic activities had not changed much. America's 17 overseas production bases have guaranteed supply to overseas markets.

Since late March, although overseas has begun to get stuck in the quagmire of COVID-19, the effect of domestic epidemic prevention has begun to emerge. 17 domestic production bases in the United States have fully resumed work and maintained full capacity operation, thus ensuring that the export business of the United States will not be affected. It is this "epidemic time lag" global operation that spreads risks and avoids the positive impact of the epidemic.

The production base all over the world is a necessary guarantee for the smooth flow of the global supply chain. Since the beginning of the second quarter, the global epidemic has continued to worsen, and local supply chains have been seriously affected and fluctuated. However, the delivery of Midea's overseas factories is gradually normal, and overseas orders are increasing instead of decreasing. This kind of order increase in the wrong peak precisely confirms the advantages of the US supply chain.

The second quarter was the turning point for Midea's overseas market. For three consecutive months in May, June and July, US overseas market orders were all at record highs. After effectively avoiding the risk of the epidemic, overseas orders continue to increase, which also shows that overseas markets have cast a vote of confidence in American brands and technologies.

Global R & D multi-brand operation

The most important feature of the new stage of Midea's internationalization is the coordinated development of factories, R & D, management and brands with China, including the purer localization of Midea overseas.

According to the latest data from the United States, starting from Southeast Asia, the United States has set up 17 overseas production bases, which is the same as the number of production bases in the United States. In terms of R & D, Midea has 18 R & D centers overseas, with operations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, involving more than 200 countries and regions.

Whether it is the establishment of overseas production bases, R & D centers, or the acquisition of overseas brands, Midea has implemented localized management. Midea's European R & D and Innovation Center, at the beginning of the creation of the team, more than 60% of its R & D personnel were localized. The localization of talents not only avoids the contradictions and inefficiency in operation and management caused by cultural differences in overseas markets, but also enhances the international image of Midea.

In terms of brand, Midea is shaping the soul of the product. Midea aims at middle-class people and urban families with a full range of products, COLMO aims at elite users, and the middle and high-end brand Toshiba covers a full range of household appliances. Beverly is a high-end washing machine brand.Little SwanPositioning in the high-end, covered ice washing empty three categories, Hualing focuses on e-commerce, outstanding performance-to-price ratio. There are Arctic King, Master Kitchen, Eureka and other blessings, Midea in the global brand matrix has been formed, but also has the ability to promote a brand or a combination of brands for different markets.

At present, China accounts for 60% of Midea's products shipped overseas. Global chess to the United States in the middle, overseas expansion is still accelerating. It is reported that Midea is preparing to start the construction of the "18th" overseas production base in Egypt, and is actively looking for a suitable place to build a North American production base.

After years of accumulation and layout, Midea can still adapt to the circumstances of the epidemic and seize the opportunity of the incremental market, which demonstrates the voice and strength of Midea's "Chinese intelligence."

(photo Source: Mei's official website)

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