“We’ll have to get used to it China to learn,” the esteemed information technology researcher Andreas Boes (64) recently quoted a manager in the German automotive industry. After years of first gradual, then sudden transformation of China from the most important sales market to a fierce competitor, technology driver and systemic competitor, the time has apparently come for a realization. Whether it takes the long-overdue right steps depends largely on what exactly German companies mean by “learning from China”, what they can and want to learn, and which of the many defining factors they see as crucial to Chinese success.
This particularly applies to the automotive industry. It forms the backbone of German economic success and prosperity. The question of their future viability is therefore important and closely linked to the future viability of the country. And so what she learns is definitely systemically relevant.
Chinese manufacturers certainly gain a significant advantage from being embedded in an authoritarian system that limits the success of its electrified automotive industry just as authoritarian. Not much that can be implemented can be derived from this. In this country, we have decided differently on fundamental system and value issues, from working hours to environmental protection.
The success of Chinese companies, including the emerging global ones, depends – driven by government support – on electromobility
. The relevance and competitive intensity of the Chinese electrical market has long been recognized; The first manufacturers, especially VW and Audi, have formed new alliances in China to catch up. At the moment, however, it seems as if the main thing is not to lose your footing in a booming market. That alone doesn’t make it any less likely that many German drivers’ first electric car will be a BYD or Nio.
Recently, Cui Dongshu (55), secretary general of the Chinese industry association, interpreted European manufacturers’ investments in China as a sign of their “recognition of China’s smart EV technologies and the opportunities of a huge market.” Where some people primarily hear “huge market”, “intelligent” is easily lost. Because when German managers talk about the Auto show in Shanghai running
and murmur “I want that too”, then this “that” is above all the success of software-based value creation in a hitherto hardware-driven industry. And that’s something that not only the automotive industry in this country is still unfamiliar with.
Let’s just take Cariad, the Volkswagen Group’s “We have understood” organization. Even corporate partner Porsche turned away from its own software early on and turned to its own alliances. The new Cariad boss Peter Bosch (49) announced in October that he would restructure the organization. 2,000 of a good 6,000 jobs are to be cut
and despite promising approaches in Bosch’s plan, I’m not sure whether “instead of 1 percent of our employees worldwide, 0.7 percent will take care of software in the future” is the right signal.
What worries me more, however, is the explanatory text with which VW announces that it is converting Cariad into a “competitive and reliable software partner” for the group brands. Anyone in the world of tomorrow – oh, today – who so casually reduces software development in such a large company to the role of a supplier will not be able to teach China anything quickly. After “digitalization” and “big data,” he will now also incorporate “China” into his essentially unchanged processes.
However, “China”, as it seems worth learning for industry today, is the output of organizations that are at least as much software as hardware organizations at their core. Beyond the processes, this is also something completely different in terms of self-image.
China didn’t invent this, it just implemented it consistently. The system has learned it. Anyone who wants to learn from China must finally learn to learn.