Many companies, when promoting their products in the marketing, will use all kinds of means, such as, home marketing, holding order meetings, celebrity endorsements, etc., spending lots of money on advertising in the media. In fact, what stands the test of the market for a long time is the user’s word of mouth - that is, the quality of the product.
Product quality is something easier said than done. It takes enormous efforts of numerous managers and employees to make really good products, first-class products, build a brand of the company, a golden brand well-known in the market.
The Business published a story which is thought-provoking: a domestic beer company was on the brink of collapse. A manager of the company suggested to the boss to learn the production process from a famous Japanese beer brand. The boss felt frustrated: this Japanese company signs a very strict confidentiality agreement with their employees. It is very hard to access it. Then, this manager faked a car accident and broke his leg when the owner of the Japanese company was absent, to get the job of working as a guardsman at this beer company at the cost of one of his legs, and finally stolen the technology of the bear company against all kinds of difficulties. Later, this domestic company jumped into the list of brand companies. After reading it, I could not help but feeling respectful to this manager! He regards their enterprise as his own life, and treated their products as his own eyes. What a spirit of dedication! Is there any higher mountain of difficulty to scale in a person’s life? However, from another point of view, he used one of his legs to exchange for a new chapter for employees, the long-term vitality of the enterprise, and an invincible position of the company in the fierce market competition - that is, product quality! When the beer production technology is improved, and the beer quality is improved, which is recognized by the market, the company itself will become a brand, and an evergreen tree in the industry!
Of course, stealing the technology of others in the above story is not something applaudable, but we can still learn something from his dedication to quality. Achemetal’s development is not easy, either. In order to seek business growth, we have to go through stumbling barriers. However, these barriers should not be the excuse for us to deny ourselves, feel discouraged, or conclude that we are not competent in running the business or produce good products. Foreign customers complained why there were handprints on our products? The answer is simple: we did not have attention to details. We thought that as long as we bundled the products together, it would be ok. But, it is not ok. What we want is high product quality! A good product must be flawless! We should correct our shortcomings; we should wear clean gloves when packaging products, handle them gently, never use dirty gloves and never touch the products without wearing gloves. When packaging products, we should be as careful as protecting our eyes from dust and dirt! We must have professionalism! If a product is polished, then it is polished, and there must not be any defect on the surface! If the surface has a black dot, or the products of deep processing have any discrepancy from the drawings, someone may think, “Maybe it’s not a big deal?” That does not work. We want the quality of the product; we want that when this product is delivered to the hands of our customers, they will be satisfied. Only when the customer smiles can we smile. We cannot feel contented with having passed a certain process. We want due diligence in the entire process. Our profits depend on those of our customers!
Product quality is on the basis of market, but also it cannot rely on the market. Probably we can pass in a certain period in the market, but the market is not constant, so we must be creative in quality, and offer better products to the market - that is, to transcend ourselves. If Liu Xiang could surpass himself, he would not increase weight on his iron shoes!
The market is expecting more from Achemetal employees; expecting one after another self-transcendence from Achemetal people. We must be pragmatic, dedicated and innovative; in this way, the refractory metal industry will see its evergreen brand - Achemetal!

Geng Hongchang
2007/9/4