By Graduate Student: Kyle A. Grahn

The day began with a visit by the class delegation, which included Prof. Kelly Ottman, Rosanna Dyer, and Jully Siglauf, to the Beijing Xicheng District Shichahai Community Center as part of the servant leadership project that the entire class had prepared for.  Some portions of the servant leadership project were omitted due to concerns surrounding the swine flu (H1N1).  The delegation was able to tour the Community Center and see the facilities available to the migrant workers and the underserved.  Of particular interest was a well equipped video editing studio which allowed the Community Center participants to create and edit their own videos.  Following the tour the class delegation had lunch with an employee of the center (Insert name).  A representative from “migrant girl magazine” was also on hand to discuss their publication and programs with the delegation.

In the afternoon the entire group assembled and was transported by Foton to one of their corporate headquarters located outside Beijing.  The Foton partner visit began with a tour of a bus final assembly line.  The final assembly line consisted of approximately 10 stations with about 8 assemblers per station.  The assembly hall was very clean an organized.  All of the metrics and employee communications boards were only in mandarin, which may be a reflection of the fact that Foton is 39% government owned under the Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.

The group was then taken to a courtyard area where several of the trucks manufactured by Foton were on display for the MSOE Group.  Jason and I took particular interest in the display as we are both in the truck manufacturing industry.  The group was then invited into Foton’s opulent meeting room for a presentation by Michael Wang, PR Director.  He explained that Foton is the 2nd largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world, manufacturing 426,000 vehicles per year.  This was very impressive as the company was founded in 1996.  The company has operation in 9 provinces with over 26,000 employees, 2,600 of whom are employed in the corporate R&D center.  Foton also recently entered into a joint venture with Daimler to manufacture trucks in China (http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/07/daimler-foton-jv-markets-equity-cx_vk_0807markets02.html). One interesting fact that came out of the presentation was that the Chinese government has imposed a life limit for vehicles of 10 years or ~500,00 km at which point the vehicle can no longer be registered.

Subsequent to the presentation the group was invited to a dinner hosted by Foton in the company’s own on-site hotel. During the traditional Chinese family –style dinner the group had the opportunity to interact with other members of industry and even a civil servant from the PRC’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.  This group shared the common thread of all being former students of Dr. Ottman.  This insightful interaction from such a diverse professional group would not have been possible without Dr. Ottman’s effective use of “Guanxi”.
During our time with Foton it became very apparent that they will be a strong source of competition for any multi national corporation with aspirations for entering emerging markets.  They have a potent combination of fast growth, large market potential, and government support.  Foton also has a small presence in the US where it is marketing its Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) busses (http://www.foton-america.com/default.aspx).

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