Getting the best of rivals is a delicate operation

Bucking the industry's downward trend, Mindray France's sales have grown 25 percent in each of the past four years. It has successfully acquired about 10 percent market share in the business patient monitoring business, Papillon says.

To penetrate the French market, the prices of Mindray's products were initially 30 to 40 percent lower than those of GE and Philips.

But Papillon soon realized that lower prices were unsustainable and could sometimes scare off potential customers.

"We did lose some deals because our products were not expensive enough."

So Mindray France is now moving from its price advantage to brand building and innovation capability, allowing it to launch new products every three months.

"We want to expand our product portfolio and launch more new products as we are eyeing not only the patient monitoring market, but a much bigger market including ultrasound, anesthesia and diagnostic equipment," Papillon says.

Mindray France recently won a four-year order worth 14 million euros ($17.8 million) from the purchasing agency Union des Groupements d'Achats Publics, a government organization that acts on behalf of public hospitals.

It was the first time a Chinese medical equipment company won a government purchase order in France, Papillon says.

He says he is confident about achieving this year's sales target of 11 million euros.

While meeting the sales target can be a demanding job, Papillon says he never finds working with his Chinese colleagues to be difficult.

They often endearingly call him Mr Butterfly, based on the meaning of his surname.

"It is easier to communicate with Chinese people," he says. "They listen very well to what you try to express, and they want to adapt their products to the local market."

But that does not mean Papillon and his Chinese colleagues always see eye to eye.

Three months ago Mindray decided to recruit a service manager, and the top brass reckoned an experienced manager from one of the big-brand names such as GE or Philips was needed.

However, Papillon reckoned someone from a small company could do the job, so long as he or she had an open mind.

"We are at the stage of rapid expansion and our business model is new and different. So we need someone who is flexible enough to handle any problem that may occur during our operation.

"We haven't reached an agreement yet, but the good thing is communication and discussion is always possible."

lixiang@chinadaily.com.cn