One book doing the rounds in the media for quite some time now is A Year without “Made in China”: One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy.
The rave reviews on the unprecedented work of the US-based business journalist Sara Bongiorni truly adds yet another interesting slice to the debate on China, the threat perception on Chinese goods in every market – and surely not excluding IT channels in India.
The book, revolving round Bongiorni’s family (consisting of herself, her husband, and 2 young children), portrays what life would be like if one were to buy things not made in China for 1 full calendar year.
A googlie, isn’t it?
Not surprisingly, even the book claims that this is quite a hard feat to accomplish.
Now, to the point: it’s high time that we be strategizing how to tackle the threats, posed by Chinese products, which are bothering channel partners in the sub-continent.
On the other hand, can we really wish away the wide range of Chinese products – given our price sensitivity and being ok with quality play second fiddle?
Hitherto, BPO companies were the only ones facing the maximum brunt of China’s robust IT growth. Now, several studies reveal that IT vendors across the board think of China as a viable alternative to India in terms of both cost benefits as well as risk management strategies.
But for the channels, the threat is more from the fact that now Chinese products are slowly being pumped in – luring end customers as well as the resellers’ community away from anything non-Chinese.
For all practical purposes, the offer is too juicy to shun! And partners in some quarters already admit of indulging in trade with Chinese products.
My channel friends say that the threat looms large in a few specific product lines.
As a point in case, these days it’s impossible to find DVD players, printer cartridges, inverters, PCs, and UPSes that don’t come from China.
NPK Krishnan of Chennai-based Consul Consolidated, a local manufacturer of UPSes, rightly says that the pricing issue predetermines market behavior pan India.
This is precisely why we find Chinese UPSes and other products flooding markets in not only Chennai or Mumbai but also all across small towns – and more crucially, upcoming IT markets from Gorakhpur to Guwahati.
A Raipur-based partner readily concurs with Krishnan and even justifies his dealing in Chinese products. “Chinese products are cheap, and at times we have no choice but to supply these products for fear of not displeasing customers,” said he.
Chinese UPSes, cartridges, etc. have been garnering good business even in cities like Bhopal, Bhavnagar, Jalgaon, and Nagpur, say partners. So the challenge is here for sure!
Coming back to Bongiorni’s book, the fact of the matter is she didn’t boycott Chinese products for any political or idealistic reason; she was just curious to see if it was possible or practical, to do without them. Well, if we’re to believe the book, it’s possible. But just barely possible – because almost everything is increasingly coming in from China alone.
“So what?” would be the usual refrain from the market. A few probing ones would perhaps ask how we could tackle this.
Verily, a journo like me doesn’t have a magical rod to wave and offer you a solution. The solutions ought to come from market itself.
One thing is certain: channel preparedness on this is the need of the hour, lest you end up just counting commissions and in the process give away the lion’s share of the cake (read market share) to products – which are priced half or even less but are substandard in quality. It’s not without good reason that the bogey of safety of Chinese products is on the top of all major diplomatic international meets these days.
For long, our desi partners have been either busy banning vendors or confronting bigwigs like Microsoft on anti-piracy raids. But this time around, it’s time to gear up to bell the cat coming from across “the great wall” of China.