A Fascinating Entrepreneurial Adventure
Some stories remain in the drawer for a long time, ask for patience before they can be told, sometimes seem too good to be true, and others too difficult to become a reality. For us at The Production Advisory Group, now is the time to reveal our entrepreneurial adventure in a country that is simultaneously one of the world's largest, most challenging, and most stimulating markets in our sector: China.
Our story in China started thanks to one of our most prominent customers, the Volkswagen Group, with whom we have been working as Global Production Advisors for years. In 2015, VW offered to introduce us to the First Automobile Works Group (FAW), the most significant player in the Chinese Automotive sector. FAW ranks first among the so-called "Five Sisters" of the Chinese car industry and relies on over 70 years of history and experience.
The German VW's Wolfsburg headquarters delivered our business card in the right hands, and their stamp of approval carried a lot of business capital. Still, FAW subjected us to a rigorous trial period, which proudly ended with the offer of a two-year contract. The FAW experiment worked so well that we decided to open a subsidiary company in Shanghai to organize our work in a more continuous and effective way.
It is easy to forget the logistic difficulties of this operation, the bureaucratic delays, and the endless legal and administrative hurdles because of the result. At the end, the reward outweighed the hassle when, in 2018, we officially registered our business in this immense country and opened the new PAG headquarters run by highly qualified Chinese staff: The Production Advisory Group China WFOE!
Thanks to the quality of our work with FAW Group, SAIC Motor Corporation LTD (another industry giant) enlisted our services. SAIC Motor Corporation LTD owns numerous international automotive brands and partners with companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen, CNH Industrial, and Volvo Group.
The Production Advisory Group has been working alongside SAIC on multiple brands for over three years, never stopping, even amid the Covid19 pandemic. When the world shut down and working in China could seem like a "Mission Impossible," PAG overcame every logistical and organizational obstacle, progressing almost normally with the assigned tasks.
This herculean effort was made possible by the coordination skills of Yan Zhu, head of PAG for Asia, and the valuable contribution of all our external collaborators, such as Ruby He Xinyue, Junior Producer, and Hu Haitao, Assistant Director.
Yan explained that "Over time, PAG's line of work in China has exponentially evolved. Our customers have started to involve us in the pre-evaluation phase of each project, allowing us to have a tangible impact on the Production Houses' bids and, in so doing, simplifying and streamlining our approach to production costs and production management."
In 2021, our collaboration with Ducati China for a project related to the launch of the Monster represents another important milestone for our Company.
Sabrina Allaria, CEO of The Production Advisory Group Srl and of The Production Advisory Group China WFOE, echoes Yan's statement: "I am extremely proud of the progress made in China in so few years. It seemed almost surreal to think back and realize that during the pandemic, we went ahead with an investment of this caliber. Our international DNA proves to be the winning factor when approaching new customers. With 25 years of 'Global' experience in the world of production and a network of collaborators active in 4 continents, we are able to adapt to ever-changing scenarios. The key to PAG's continuing growth is the irrefutable respect we grant to anybody we encounter."
The massive size of the Asian market stimulates our imagination. The excellent feedback received to date encourages and fuels our desire to fully explore the territory's potential in each sector of our business.
Thank you for reading, we are simply delighted to share the story of our first meaningful steps in the "Country in the Middle" (Zhong Guo), as the Chinese commonly call their homeland. We are equally pleased to present our headquarters in Shanghai (the Paris of the East), a financial hub of world importance and, with its 26 million inhabitants, the largest city in China!