From Heidelberg to Omet: Zhou Dongyan's Path in Flexo, Packaging and Labels

Zhou Dongyan, Omet's chief representative in China, is now a respected name in print. More than a decade ago, however, he was navigating the printing world largely on his own. With curiosity and admiration for a successful business manager, we listened as he recalled career stories few outsiders know.

The industry has already asked many questions about Zhou. From his first steps in printing to six years heading Omet's China operation, and from obscurity to industry recognition, only those who lived it can understand the struggle, patience and persistence—and how those experiences shaped him.

The Heidelberg years: learning the value of persistence

Zhou joined Heidelberg in 1996 and led flexographic press sales in northern China. At the time, flexo presses were still new to the region, and their advantages were not widely understood. He still remembers showing flexo samples to customers and being told the output was waste. He had to find a way to enter and break through the market—a search that ended up lasting two years.

He recalls, 'In those two years, not one machine sold. I kept asking what was wrong: was I not familiar enough with the product, unable to grasp its features, or was the company's market policy off, or was the timing simply not right?'

Those two years turned out to be the most valuable period of his career. He learned to stay composed under heavy pressure, to review himself, the market and company strategy, and to combine available resources in search of a breakthrough suited to the business.

Some colleagues in his department moved to other product lines; a few stayed. They kept reviewing experience, studying competitors' sales policies and sharpening their technical skills. Extensive market visits and research showed that packaging was the most promising entry point in northern China at the time. As the market was carefully cultivated, packaging doors finally opened, and in the following year they sold six large, high-configuration flexographic production lines.

Having experienced persistence with a calm mindset, Zhou received a clear answer from the market: the path he had explored was the right one.

The pressure of those early years built a solid foundation for his later success. His Heidelberg years gave him a sharp sense of market demand; he knew which equipment to introduce and what suited China. Zhou says, 'Working at a powerful company like Heidelberg gave me a strong base—market insight, a professional approach to launching new products in China, team building and more.'

Looking back, Zhou says everyone faces a hurdle early in their career. Getting past it requires calm. Only with calm can you focus on exploration. In that difficult process, persistence matters most: when others can no longer hold on, one more effort can turn hardship into reward. Experiencing persistence with calm is his deepest lesson from adversity.

The Mitsubishi years: building a new profit center

After leaving Heidelberg, Zhou joined Mitsubishi Corporation. He says, 'Mitsubishi taught me how to run a product department.' If Heidelberg expected you to be a single screw with little room beyond that role, Mitsubishi was the opposite: it gave you broad space to discover markets, identify suitable products and build an independently operating profit unit.

At Mitsubishi, Zhou served as printing department manager. To grow the new department, he considered various market strategies. In the early stage, to avoid competition, he selected lesser-known overseas products aimed at niche markets—bringing equipment unavailable in China into the country and selling it. The results were strong. For example, he introduced holographic embossing equipment to China's packaging market for the first time. But as an independent profit center, low-competition products also meant relatively low sales volume; expanding the department required mainstream products.

At that time, China's mainstream press market was dominated by offset and gravure machines, which already had stable channels and agents. Zhou's Heidelberg-honed market insight became critical, and he turned to flexographic equipment. Through overseas exhibitions, he noticed Italy's Omet. Omet's strong R&D capability and high registration quality impressed him; the equipment was unquestionably advanced, but its weaker marketing had kept it out of China. To Zhou, this was a high-potential opportunity. Later, they successfully introduced Omet's first machine to a Chinese tobacco packaging enterprise, opening Omet's road in China.

Zhou's Mitsubishi business gained momentum, and peers and customers increasingly mentioned his name. His connection with Omet began at this point. While expanding the product department, he found Omet; through dealings with Omet headquarters, management came to know and understand him. In 2003, Omet planned a China office and wanted Zhou as its China representative. Omet's commitment to continuous innovation and R&D attracted him deeply, so he joined with enthusiasm and began the third stage of his career.

The Omet years: navigating ups and downs through innovation

Omet is an Italian family-owned company with nearly 50 years of history. It led industry trends in technology and R&D but did not rely on aggressive marketing. Previously, its Asian presence was mainly in Japan; to China, Omet was very new and little known.

When Omet entered China, it was also the first flexo manufacturer to set up its own direct organization in the country. Zhou built Omet's China office from the ground up. Speaking of the June 2003 entry, he says, 'We set up a representative office in Shanghai. At the start there were only three employees, and everyone handled everything hands-on.'

He adds, 'The difficulties were enormous—nobody knew you. The Chinese name Omet was translated by us and appeared in China's printing market for the first time.' The challenge was how to bring a completely new brand into China and build its image as quickly as possible.

'Within 2-3 years, we established Omet's high-end brand image. How? By understanding customer needs in depth, discussing solutions with customers, and jointly building each customer's unique equipment platform.'

At this stage, Zhou's accumulated market background, passion for technology R&D and solid technical foundation played a key role.

'We never simply took existing products and sold them as they were. In the high-end market, an off-the-shelf sales approach does not work. Omet products are highly technical. Our sales thinking addresses current market needs but also anticipates future needs. Based on a deep understanding of existing technology, we do focused R&D so it can meet customers' present and future requirements. That creates market-driving products and profit points that move the company forward. We make full use of existing resources and, without forcing special R&D, satisfy current and future market demand. That is what we do.'

Traditional marketing sells existing equipment to suitable customers, rejects special requests and leaves R&D out of sales. Zhou broke that model by tailoring unique equipment platforms for high-end customers. He says this is Omet's core philosophy for succeeding in China's high-end market.

His years at Omet gave Zhou distinctive insights. 'Running a company always involves ups and downs, which can be described with two curves. The first is the loss curve: growth starts fast, then hits development difficulties—sometimes severe—before rising again after the trough. Management means keeping the overall direction while adjusting to internal and external changes, reducing the swings of the loss curve and moving the company forward steadily. Omet, for instance, went through a low period, mainly because its sensitivity to the market was insufficient. A few years earlier, we used our technical strengths to break directly into cigarette factories. Later, consolidation in China's tobacco industry inevitably affected printing firms, and many customers took a wait-and-see approach during the adjustment. When we saw this trend, we balanced our market structure, shifted toward labels and achieved good results in the fast-growing South China market.'

Zhou has always combined market development with R&D, requiring Omet's launches to lead the market and help customers create new profit growth. Examples include combination processes for different markets—high-speed lines combining offset with flexo, or offset with gravure—and auxiliary lines using registered hot stamping, screen printing and die-cutting. Processes must be combined, and people must be combined; to grasp the market deeply, one must also understand R&D and technical characteristics. This largely sums up Omet's path in China over these years.

The first phase of Omet (Suzhou) Machinery Co., Ltd. is now nearing completion. Interior work on the plant has finished, and the production line is about to start. This is Omet's first production base outside Italy. Zhou's responsibilities have clearly grown heavier. We firmly believe that whatever difficulties lie ahead, Zhou will lead his team forward.

This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (news.pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-376274.html. Copyright belongs to the original author; it is provided for industry exchange and learning only.