India’s dynamic electronics ecosystem is creating a strong demand for test and measurement instruments. The market has opened its doors to global T&M players, offering them significant business opportunities. James Huang, VP-overseas sales, Good Will Instrument Co., discusses the expansion plans the company has charted out for the Indian market with Paromik Chakraborty of the EFY Group.
EB: Globally, which products from Good Will’s inventory bring in the most business?
While we deal with a large variety of products, our main focus lies with power supplies, oscilloscopes, digital multimeters and function generators. Our products are mainly aimed at test labs and repair centres. Power supplies have been generating good business for us, of late. Some of our major customers for power supplies are the mobile phone manufacturers. Each mobile phone repair centre needs one good power supply. With the increasing number of smartphone producers coming into the market, we are experiencing higher demand. We also provide on-field training to other power supply system manufacturers. Companies send their engineers to us for training, to ensure proper quality control.
EB: Where are you manufacturing your products at the moment?
Our products are manufactured in Taiwan and China.
EB: How has business been in India and how much revenue is Good Will generating from this market?
The Indian market is growing, and demand is increasing. We are expecting a great increase in business from India in the years to come. Right now, the revenue is not too significant – about 1 or 2 per cent of our global revenue comes from India. But in the next five years, we predict up to a 10-fold growth in business from India!
EB: How long have you been doing business with Indian companies? Going forward, what is your strategy for marketing your latest products in India?
We have been doing business in India for about 20 years. Following two decades of business development, we have built partnerships with a number of good local distributors. Our strategy for achieving continuous growth is to enhance our presence in India and increase our resources to support the distributor partners. That will help us develop the market further. Our potential target markets include the electronics manufacturing firms, government institutes and the educational sector.
EB: How do you plan to achieve the level of growth you have predicted?
Looking at the potential of the Indian market, we have decided to expand our presence here. We have plans to set up a new unit in Bengaluru in 2019.
EB: What kind of operations will be carried out at your new unit?
We will have application engineers based out of that office. The main focus will be to provide technical support to customers, help in setting up systems and have a troubleshooting team to assist customers.
EB: Will your upcoming business unit in India focus on any other essential operations?
Yes, in the first stage, our emphasis will be on the sales and marketing of Good Will’s products. We plan to gain more experience on market trends and demand through our sales and marketing team in India. Once we generate stronger demand, and have a clear vision of the investment environment, the availability of local talent and the resources for R&D and manufacturing, we will move to the next stage, which could include establishing a manufacturing facility where we will build part of our product portfolio.
EB: What potential do you see for your products in India?
We believe the ‘Make in India’ initiative and other associated programmes will ramp up the potential of the T&M market in the country. These will invite more
foreign investments, which will build up a solid foundation for manufacturing in India. That is where we see a lot of potential, going forward.
EB: Are you planning to also expand your distributor network in India?
We have around 10 distributors in India at the moment, which I think is sufficient for now. So we don’t plan to increase the number of distributors.
EB: How are you engaging with Indian customers at the moment?
We have a support team for customers in India, which is available all the time. In addition, we provide training to our Indian customers. We keep a constant tab on how convenient it is for customers to use our products. We hold seminars and workshops in India and schedule periodic visits. This year, we visited India twice.
EB: What are the biggest challenges that India needs to solve on priority in its T&M ecosystem?
From what we have witnessed, there isn’t enough skilled manpower available in India as yet. We need to have more people with strong technical skills. India is a huge market with a vast pool of talent, especially nurtured by the curriculum of the universities and the training provided. India pays good attention to systems design. In the long run, it will not be a hard task for India to build up an ecosystem with sufficient technical manpower.
EB: In general, what are the challenges customers face while investing in T&M instruments?
The most important challenge is that the market is flooded with low cost products that are of low grade quality. While the performance of these products drops in the long run, more purchasers invest in them because of their lower upfront cost. Buyers do not realise the hassles that await them with these low quality instruments. This situation makes it difficult for providers of authentic T&M products to get their offerings across to the customers.
EB: What are your buying tips to Indian customers in this regard?
The Indian market is currently very price-sensitive, but buyers should pay more attention to hardware quality. In the past, India focused more on software but was a little lax on the hardware side. As a result, the higher priced rugged products were overlooked in favour of lower priced options. However, India is getting better on this front. With advances in technology, Indian customers are showing greater preference for the quality of the instrument required, rather than a lower price.
