8 questions with Nice Machine's GM

Dongguan Nice Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd's General Manager Mr Wenfu Li talks to International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) how the company started, keys to success and plans for the future.

Dongguan Nice Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd's General Manager Mr Wenfu Li

IMNA: How did you start your company, and what previous experience did you have that made you confident you could succeed in this field?

Wenfu Li: I was working in a stateowned enterprise before as a technical administrator. It was the first listed company in Dongguan, which means its benefits were quite good. My job was not that busy, so gradually I had an impulse for starting an undertaking. Then I bought several machine tools and opened a processing shop while I was still working in the company. During this time, I had some experience and met some friends. One of them is Mr. Lee, which is now the general manager of Nice. He owned a trading corporation at that time. We got along well so we decided to combine processing with trading and set up a company. Mr. Lee told me that I could not work in two companies.

So I quit my job and established NICE with Mr. Lee in 2004. At the beginning, we did not have fixed products. We then realised that the  business and benefits were limited so we searched for new products and made a lot of trials. Finally, we chose spotting machine because our technical director once talked about it and Mr. Lee was interested in it, considering it as a potential product. So we decided to work on this and the result turned out great.

IMNA: How has Nice Machine Manufacturing own technology and expertise influenced and impacted the metalworking industry in China?

Wenfu Li: Spotting machine is popular in the moulding industry. It has brought a revolutionary change for the whole metal industry in China. Back then, we produce models artificially. Spotting machine is completely different from efficiency, safety and accuracy. Before, it takes five or six people a month to produce a model. Now, it takes only one or two people to do it in one week using spotting machine. So this is a quite big change. Nice's technology is leading locally. And it is not bad as well when compared to foreign counterparts.

IMNA: What steps are you taking then, from a management point of view to stay competitive and progressive?

Wenfu Li: First of all, we always put people first in order to maintain a good relationship with our employees. We treat our employees as family. During the time when our company was still starting we had some problems with our cash flow. At the beginning, our company was small and it was unrealistic to try to detail employees with high salary. Sometimes, we could not even give out salary on time because of cash flow problem. But most of our employees, chose to stay with the company and struggle together. That is because we are like a family. So after managing to get through with those difficulties, everything came right. We started to give bonuses to our employees based on the company's profit.

Second is to stay competitive is that our team is always prepared.  Sometimes our clients need their products delivered in a short time. In this case, we usually draw up a proposal in three days and deliver products in a week. The third way is to provide exceptional after-sales service. Every staff in our office can provide customer service with our clients. No one says: "This is not my job, you should call someone else." We promise our clients that every service will exceed their expectations. Our after-sales service is the best in this industry.

IMNA: How do you keep up with the public exposure, do you attend local international shows and stay out front in the media?

Wenfu Li: We have good marketing awareness. We have been doing online promotion and participating shows since the beginning. We emphasize the brand awareness in the public. We keep improving our online promotion, hopefully to raise our company in foreign countries.

IMNA: Where do you sell all your products? What markets are you targeting?

Wenfu Li: Currently our products are mainly sold to domestic market. The farthest in North East we have Changchun, Heilongjiang; in North West we have Shanxi; in South West, Guangxi and in East we have Wuhan. Our target market is all over the world. Right now we export our products to about ten countries. The farthest is Argentina, Brazil and White Russia. The latest is South East Asia.

IMNA: In what areas, or departments, will you continue to invest?

Wenfu Li: Right now the domestic market has approached the point of saturation. The foreign market has great potential for us. So we want to export our products to foreign countries.

IMNA: Do you currently have any joint ventures from and R&D or marketing perspective with foreign companies? Would you entertain this idea if you don't at present?

Wenfu Li: No, we do not have any joint ventures with foreign companies. However, we do consider about this issue and we really want to have joint ventures with foreign companies to establish our foreign markets. There was a Germany company who came to talk about cooperation. However, it did not succeed due to many reasons.

IMNA: To sum up, what would you say were the keys to Nice Machine Manufacturing's ongoing success story?

Wenfu Li: Firstly, great team work spirit. We work hard and together for a same purpose. We stick with each other even we meet lots of difficulties. Second, good management and staff. Our staffs accept the management and agree with the company's goal and value, growing up with the company. Third, great market opportunity. Fourth, we have not made a big mistake in decision making. Fifth, the support of media. Last but not the least, our clients. Our clients are responsible for our success and most of them support us from the beginning up until now. They are our teachers as well as our parents.