India cannot afford to buy cheap glass systems

We only had a small stand but we met a lot of people and had many interesting discussions. The further the trade show progressed, the more I became aware that most of those who came to visit us were discussing pricing instead of talking about technical solutions and priceperformance. On the second day, we changed our strategy and focused more on trying to convince our audience that performance, quality and ROI have a price and if one only keeps looking for the cheapest solution, nothing good will come from it. Systems in the glass industry need to perform for many years, they need to improve the process, increase the efficiency and help customers to be more competitive. I do not like the word ‘cheap’, as it simply does not cover what we are looking for. ‘Costeffective’ covers more of what we try to achieve for customers. ‘Best priceperformance’ perhaps even more.

Something else that has also changed, however, is the discussion about ‘cheap’. Nobody in India is looking for the ‘cheap’ option anymore. They look at performance, innovation and price-performance now. I met many people at the trade show and at their production facilities who have amazingly stepped up to a higher level of manufacturing performance and understanding. 

India is changing quickly and I would not be surprised if the country soon overtook China, if it has not already done so. Understanding that there are other, more important factors than ‘cheap’ is important because if you buy cheap, you most probably need to buy twice. Once a country understands that, its people will be able to accelerate their growth faster. I bet India will move extremely quickly and we as innovation providers should support that the best we can.

Download the article here.

Originally published in Glass Worldwide, issue 62, 2015.