Mentality Matters for Building Machine for International Market and It is Everyone’s Responsibility in the Company

Doing business is not simply about selling your product, however, what matters further is meeting more people from the rest of the world and hearing from their voices from different perspectives from within the industry. This is what I have learnt during the 5 years since I took over the business from my father.

For a packaging machine manufacturing business, meeting more people and hearing from their voice means knowing towards where should your R&D strategy and marketing focuses head for. Selling machine is not about growing your cash flow, it is about matching the value of people – your users – from the rests of the world.

Mentality Matters for You and This is What Sets You and ÉLITER Different from Others

Being myself a self-taught engineer of packaging automation and mechanical engineering what I though that differentiates myself is the capability of clearly addressing the technical concerns with our users when discussing a project and identifying the potential technical pros and cons of a solution rather than simply quoting a machine and talk about price. At least from my perspective, it was when each time I draw a .dwg proposing an end-of-line layout or that I proceed with an animated demo of our suggested packaging of sleeve design with product wrapped that I impress my clients with the expertise of ÉLITER. And of course, the communication skills and proficiency in language are also what set me different from the others.

It was when I had Yunjae Lee, General Manager of ILPRA Korea visiting our facility and during the lunch when we shared our personal insights about the industry that I realized there are more to highlight about what matter for a packaging machine manufacturing business for international market, not simply what you do and what you say – yet about your mindset, and mentality perceived by you and your fellows in the company.

The “Mentality” of Understanding the Value Perception of Your Client and Advocate it to Your People

Machines are not simply built for automating a production or packaging procedure, this applies the same for processing machines as well as secondary packaging equipment. Understanding the machine’s use case – from user’s perspective – supports better customer success after the machine’s deployment. Nevertheless, it is not a sole person’s responsibility to bear such a “mentality” in mind but something to be conveyed and preached throughout departments and to people in different roles in a company.

How do you value the safety concern for a packaging machine? By simply asking a question, you will spot the gaps of “mentality” between the people. A Chinese engineer who has never engaged in international business for packaging automation would say covering a fixed shield a section on the machine where potential risks of injury is present is his option to handle the safety.

Yet for different clients it is somehow not the case. How about the ease of maintenance? What about the compromised accessibility with such a fixed coverage? Does it affect the user friendliness and operational flexibility? There are more to concern after giving it a seemingly straightforward solution.

How do you transfer such a “mentality” to your fellows within your company, now that it is not your sole responsibility of manufacturing a machine but something that requires joint effort throughout proposal development, engineering, production and until application and life cycle support?

Shape Your and Your People’s Mind

Convincing client of a machine’s performance is just the step one. The steps two and three come with implementing your own “mentality” and understanding of value into the rest of people in the company who will participate in the project’s whole processes from design to delivery. It is not a challenge exclusive for sales and neither for engineering, yet a challenge for culture, value and corporate management.