Harwin is a global supplier of connectors. Their claim to fame is that they provide quality products at unbelievable pricing. With manufacturing units in the UK, how do they manage to do that? Plus, how have they been experiencing growth in India, and what are their plans for the future? To get answers to these questions and more, the Electronics For You team spoke to Mike Tiong, General Manager, Asia-Pacific, Harwin. Here are a few excerpts.
Q. How is India doing for Harwin?
A. India is one of the most promising emerging markets for us, interestingly, we have seen growth even during the COVID-19.
Q. How much growth have you seen in the last two or three years?
A. We are seeing close to 30%, and particularly, we have a good foothold in the EV, telecom and smart-grid-meters markets.
Q. Are charging connectors the only focus for Harwin?
A. That is an attractive area for Harwin, but the most important application is the electronic control module (ECM). It is the area where we have been very successful.
Q. Would you attribute Harwin’s success in control modules to the range of products, pricing or something else?
A. The success of our product depends on our ability to produce a reliable and high-quality product for a very price-conscious territory like India. Our European and US competitors often have a hard time competing with the quality we are producing at this price bracket.
Q. How are you able to produce it at that price point?
A. During COVID, the company transformed into factory 4.0. So even before IoT became a trend, we had already embarked on this journey which gave us a competitive advantage in reducing the costing model. If you happen to visit our factory, you will find more robots and fewer people!
Q. Where are you doing the manufacturing?
A. Our manufacturing is setup in the UK, and so is our R&D hub.
Q. Despite the manufacturing base in the UK, are you able to beat your peers in pricing?
A. That is the beauty of 4.0. Our manufacturing setup in the UK is highly competitive in nature. We should credit the advanced 4.0 factory innovation, which highlights the concept of driving manufacturing with the minimum resources required, which will save costs because the material is the same everywhere in the world.
Q. Do you sell more ‘standard’ or ‘customised’ connectors?
A. We have standardised many products for customers, showcasing our promise that a standard will be met over time when we create a product for them. However, we do invite requests for customisation for highly reliable (HR) series.
Q. What is the role your partners and own team play?
A. We have two kinds of partners — the first category focuses on the global supply chain (the typical large-volume distributors), and the other category focuses on demand creation. In demand creation, our partners go and understand the customers’ problem statement. Our customers approach them (and sometimes us) with a simple block diagram of what they want, and from there, we work on how to solve the problem. In a nutshell, our team is more about solutions and customising, while the distributors are customer-facing.
Q. Are all your sales through your distributors?
A. Yes, as we just want to keep it neat and simple. We just focus on what we are good at.
Q. What are the important application segments for your products in India?
A. In India, we have a reasonable business from aerospace and defence, but the new vital market is medical. During COVID-19, we missed this market. We never really stepped foot into it despite knowing the customers. We have already witnessed success in what we are doing now but from the next quarter onwards, our focus will be on medical.
Q. What do you mean by ’focus will be on medica’?
A. Focusing on the medical market means that when we go to a client, we need to know their problem. For our standard products, we should be ready to advise the customers on the right options from our portfolio–what product can be used in their heart rate monitor or oxygen concentrator.
Q. Do you have any online platform where engineers and startups can share their problems?
A. We have an online platform called ‘Ask the Expert.’ We receive many questions every day.
Q. On a global scale, where does India rank? Is it even in the top 10?
A. No, India is not among the top ten but in terms of focus territory, it is at the top. Our Singapore strategy is focused more on India than China. China is cut-throat. The whole market is so complicated. We still have considerable business from China, but my focus is India because India gives me lucrative customer segments such as military (aerospace and defence) EV, communication and medical.
Q. Would it be correct to assume that the best person for you in the sales cycle is the R&D engineer, or does the purchase manager have an essential role to play?
A. Yes, for us, the engineering team is more important than the ‘purchase’ team because the engineer will give us the problem statement. We could go to the purchasing department but we will not get to solve a problem there. We will only present our product and decide on the contract.
Q. How much traffic comes from Indian engineers on your website vs sales?
A. You might be surprised that India is one of the biggest sources of traffic for our website. The reason is that in China, engineers would like the platform to be integrated into WeChat. If one is not on WeChat, they are not interested. That is the way they think. So that is why we have so much volume from India.
Q. Are you still looking to expand your channel partners?
A. At the moment, it is okay, but if someone can bring me ten medical customers, I would be open to that.
Q. How large has the Indian team expanded in the last few years?
A. Before COVID, the expansion rate was only 2%, and now it is 11%.
Q. What is your goal for revenue from India in the next five years?
A. Our growth target in the region is 15%. Our overall strategy is to focus on the 20% who will give us 80% of our revenues.
Q. Any advantage of following the 80:20 strategy?
A. Focusing on the deal is crucial to providing the best service as a company and leader. The 80-20 rule helps unify customers, ensuring optimal resource allocation. This mindset is essential for delivering high-quality service. Without this focus, catering to numerous customers may result in being a master of none, even if the survey quality is subpar, hindering problem-solving capabilities.
