Interview: Developing business and services in China

“The four years in China have been an experience,” says Ewald Beivi, director, UPM Technical Customer Service (TCS), and a member of the China and Asia-Pacific management team. “We basically started from zero to support the sales teams and our customers in Asia Pacific region six years ago. At the moment, the Chinese print industry is as developed as Europe was about 15 years ago so there are plenty of challenges for us,” Beivi says.
In more than 20 years in the industry, Beivi has achieved a lot. Originally from Switzerland, his experience includes print production and quality management, envelope industry, paper coating development and, since 1999, UPM. Now based in China, for the past two years, he has been a member of the Asian Print Awards international judging
panel in Singapore.
“I have learned to work with interesting people and teams from different cultures. In China, everything is possible, but nothing is easy,” he says.

Training is everything
Business in China is very different compared with Europe.
“Training and know-how is essential. People you work with are often under 30 and there are no best practices established. Long-term strategic planning and working experiences have to be further developed, which also needs time. This creates huge challenges for us as an international company in China. That’s why we invest significantly in training and development activities for both our employees and our customers,“ says Beivi.
UPM’s TCS team has offered basic printing school modules for its customers in China and Asia-Pacific for the past three years. “Now we are moving on. In the near future, UPM Printing Simulator training will be part of the advanced printing school, on top of the lectures and practical paper seminars we provide to our customers,” he says.

A whole new concept
It was Beivi who took the European concept of customer care to China. In the scheme, UPM started a new way of working by
asking the customer: ‘How can we solve your production quality concerns and learn something about it, together?’
“Besides introducing a systematic analysis of problems, this was a completely new approach in Asia, where traditionally personal contacts and relationships play a huge role,” says Beivi.

Outperforming expectations
As one of his biggest achievements during his time in China, Beivi points to the latest customer satisfaction survey feedback. Results showed that the team’s work on technical support, troubleshooting and value-added services have continuously developed and last year, even exceeded customers’ expectation levels.
“For this I also have to thank my local team which has done a great job,” concludes Beivi. “Every year, we want to be better and offer more to our customers. Results count and profitable business is ultimately our focus.”