I got to interview the fabulous Dr. Bernd Pichler for the P&G Alumni podcast! Agreeing to co-host this pod was the best decision – it gives me a reason to reconnect with esteemed friends and colleagues to chat about China 😄 Bernd is the Managing Director of Aston Martin in China. Seriously. He leads the hottest brand on the planet in the world’s most dynamic market 🤩 Bernd dropped wisdom all over the pod but two critical customer-facing concepts really stood out: ignorigance and conrelevance 🤔
What is Ignoragance?
Bernd refers to this toxic recipe as an efficient way to exit the Chinese market quickly 😆 Ignoragance is when ignorance meets arrogance.
Our German auto expert described how Western companies watched with arrogant posture, as Chinese companies began to build cars. Those Western companies failed to keep a close eye on what was happening in the market. And now that same ignoragance is requiring expensive JVs to gain entry to, or stay in, the China market. In sum, those companies “ignored the local brands and were arrogant enough to think they could capture any trend and do it better than anyone else, especially the Chinese.” Wow.
💡APPLICATION: Where do we experience Ignoragance? Are there areas in our own lives where we may approach issues with a degree of ignorance + arrogance? How might we become less ignoragant?
- Educate ourselves – intentionally take in different points of view. We can proactively avoid ignorance if we constantly try to stay informed on different perspectives. For more, I just wrote about taking in different voices here.
- Focus on the great – if we consistently look to the most inspiring, mind-blowing innovations, we can avoid that brand of arrogance which comes from ‘having been the best’. Instead, we remain curious about what’s coming and what might be.
OK, so what is Conrelevance?
It’s the beautiful thing that happens when convenience meets relevance. It’s about setting what’s convenient and relevant for the customer as our North Star. Next, Bernd described how traditional auto makers lost the plot – they engineered what they knew and expected the customer to pay for it. Now, can you just imagine their stunned reaction when electrification undulated across the country?!
In summary, Bernd described a razor-sharp focus of the Chinese on a key question: “What can I sell?” They constantly ask, “Is there a customer need? How can I tailor it to what matters to our customer?” This is conrelevance, my friends.
The success of a leader doesn’t mean the success of an organization.
This is an important insight I captured, and had to throw in the mix! How often do we incorrectly ascribe success or failure to a leader? Given transitions between leaders, depending on lead times in industry, we may get the credit of successful results, which we didn’t lead. On the other hand, we can be blamed for poor results, for which the path had been laid long before our arrival.
💡APPLICATION: What success or failure are we attributing to the leader or their predecessor? Given how frequently leaders change roles, this can serve as a very clarifying question. And incidentally, it’s why I particularly respect those who have led successful businesses for a long time.
Click here to listen to the full podcast and here for our first of the series with Trevor Lai.
For related articles, check out:
- Life is an emerging market – how key insights from developing markets apply to our daily lives
- Make good micro-choices – small decisions become habits which become our way of life.