Interview Forest Liu from Arri + Race over US fighter jet

Folklore about the Chinese market tells the tale of high-priced, self-selling German products bearing a black-red-gold sticker on their package that virtually fly into the arms of customers. The reality of marketing looks much more grueling. This is what Forest Liu tells us in today’s CEO Talk with Frank Sieren. Liu markets lenses and cameras in China for German manufacturer Arri. When the market was just starting to take off, competitors’ cameras offered superior technical specs on paper. Only through “agonizingly slow convincing” of film industry customers did Arri work its way up to become the market leader.

At times, it was tempting to offer high discounts as a sales incentive. For a while, even the company’s own sales department called for this. But Liu remained persistent. Ultimately, he succeeded in anchoring Arri’s cameras in the market as a premium product. One of the main factors of Liu’s success was that he understood both German and Chinese culture. Because in the initial phase, every sale required precisely the right arguments. He leaves the low-priced products that generate more revenue to the emerging Chinese competition, which is also constantly improving.

In technical terms, China simply wants to continue learning from the best. That is the reason why there currently is a race to find a wrecked aircraft in the waters near the Philippines. The USA has lost one of its state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets there. A stealth jet packed with weapons. Even its anti-radar plating could mean invaluable tactical insights for the People’s Liberation Army. Michael Radunski analyzes the stakes in the race to the bottom of the South China Sea. The United States is trying to find and salvage the wreckage first. However, if the Chinese navy is faster, the US military will lose critical advantages.

Today’s guest feature is by Stephen Roach. While he is first and foremost an economist, his geopolitical assessments are also worth paying attention to. As a former top Morgan Stanley executive, he’s been around. Roach considers Xi and Putin’s friendly meeting during the Olympics as a historic turning point. Admittedly, he uses the rather bulky phrase “triangulation gambit”, which refers to a triangular chess move, to describe China’s strategy. In political discourse, it simply means that one superpower plays two others off against each other. The US once did this successfully with Russia and China. Now, Xi wants to be smarter. He is using the growing risk of war in Ukraine to strengthen his own position.

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Finn Mayer-Kuckuk