Getting the best of rivals is a delicate operation

Medical devices maker begins shedding its cheap image

For Christophe Papillon, leading a Chinese company to compete with some of the big names in the medical equipment industry is a demanding task, and selling Chinese products in France can be even more challenging.

Papillon, 44, general manager of Mindray Medical France, began to work for China's largest medical equipment producer and exporter Mindray Medical International Ltd in 2008 when it bought the French subsidiary of the patient monitoring business of its US rival Datascope for which he used to work.

Christophe Papillon, general manager of Mindray Medical France, says quality is the word he emphasizes most to his clients. [Photo/China Daily]

"The big difference for me after the acquisition is that my job became selling Chinese products instead of American products," says Papillon in his office in the suburbs of Paris.

He knew from the start that it would be difficult because Mindray is largely unknown in the medical equipment market in France, and the Chinese products are often seen as low-tech, low-price and of poor quality in foreign markets.

"Quality is the word I emphasize most whenever I talk with my clients," he says.

Last year a well-known private hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris, urgently needed to upgrade the equipment in its cardiac unit.

The hospital had once been a customer of Datascope, and Papillon saw an opportunity for Mindray. However, the first reaction of the customer was dispiriting.

"Initially the doctors didn't want to work with a Chinese company because their first reaction about Chinese product is 'poor quality'," he says. "They were really careful because it was about the lives of the patients."

To win the order, Papillon visited the hospital and hammered the company's message, including the value of its products and its willingness to develop long-term relations.

Rival companies such as General Electric and Royal Philips Electronics would not bother doing that, he says.

Eventually it was Mindray's relatively fast delivery and installation of its products that helped it nail the deal.

"It would take two months for GE to deliver," Papillon says. "But we did it in three weeks. It was our efficiency and fast response that really impressed the customer."

Although the medical equipment industry is relatively resilient to the debt crisis in Europe, the economic downturn has forced many hospitals in France to cut on spending.

"The complicated economic situation gave us an advantage as customers are forced to consider some cost-effective solutions," Papillon says. "Our big rivals are also seeing declining sales figures."