Driving Service, Innovation and Value: Creative Electron and Unicomp Join Forces

In a world where innovation is often driven by collaboration, Philip Stoten explores an exciting new joint venture between Creative Electron and Unicomp, both leaders in x-ray manufacturing. This transformative partnership aims to bridge product offerings across continents and enhance customer accessibility to cutting-edge technology and the relentless pursuit of excellence in product and serve.

As we delve deep into the strategies behind this joint venture, emphasizing the critical role that timing and cultural compatibility play in its formation. Philip and Creative Electronics founder and CEO, Dr. Bill Cardoso, discuss the two company's mutual dedication to customer satisfaction and the shared values that brought them together. Throughout the episode, we highlight how different market dynamics require tailored approaches, especially in diverse regions and in particular in a world where geopolitics creates additional challenges.

Listen in as Bill unveil plans for leveraging expertise while maintaining a stand-out quality that Creative Electron is known for, something that resonates deeply with customers and creates loyalty. The partnership opens doors for new levels of service excellence and agility to respond to market demands, showcasing how adaptability can drive growth even amidst geopolitical changes.

Ultimately, this episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the intersection of technology, business strategy, and international relations. Discover how collaborative efforts foster innovation, help companies stay competitive, and redefine what’s possible in the technology sector. 

Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to support our deep dive into the future of EMS and tech partnerships!

Learn more about Creative Electron at https://creativeelectron.com/, and Unicomp at https://www.unicompxray.com 

EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.

Transcript

Introduction and Guest Welcome

Philip Stoten 0:08

Hello, I'm Philip Stoten, from my House to Yours, welcome to EMS@C- Level. I am joined once again by the inimitable and wonderful Dr. Bill Cardoso, a dear friend and an expert in the field of x-ray manufacturing bill. I am looking forward to seeing you and everybody else at APEX in less than two weeks now.

Philip Stoten 0:29

I can't believe it's come around so quickly, yeah I think it's because we've been a bit preoccupied with what's been going on in the white house the last few weeks, but it's uh, it certainly snuck up on us. I know you guys have got some new stuff there. You're always innovating, you're always coming up with new things, but I think you've got some pretty big news that you're launching at Apex. Give me a quick overview of what's going on.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 0:53

Yeah, so, again, good to see you, again, looking forward to seeing you in person in a couple of weeks. It's going to be an amazing show. Know, we've talked to this in the past, right, we've talked about, um growth, right? Uh, you are, you know, really well plugged in and connected with the world, so it's really I was awesome to talk to you about growth and what's happening in the different markets.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 1:19

So for us, uh, for the past four to five years, we've been consistently growing in North America, south America, mexico, and it's always been in the back of my mind, right, when is the time to take a look at Asia and see how can we expand in Asia? Right, bring our products and make the best products to the Asian market. And it just turns out that our friends at Unicom in China were having the exact same thoughts the other way. Right, they've been growing really nicely in China and Southeast Asia and selling machines and doing really well, and they've been thinking when is the time and how to get into the Americas, right, so last year we were able to get together and figure it out that we can successfully do on our own right. We can successfully Creative Electron can successfully build a team from the ground up for the Asian market, and so does Communicomp, right. But Uniting Forces will present a beautiful team, right, because we have amazing people in both sides of the world, right? Amazing people in both sides of the world, right.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 2:47

It turns out our culture of service excellence and pushing technology forward is, you know, really common. So we thought why not get together, come up with a GV which will allow us to promote the Unicom product line in the US? And there's a lot of complementarity there, you know, from X-ray sources to inline CT machines, food inspection, larger entity systems. There's quite a few gaps that in our product line that they can fill, and likewise we can also supply our made in US products to their customers. So with that, the big announcement for Apex is going to be our combined product line and our customers and our partners We'll have, I think, a an idea of the strength of this partnership right and the ability now to have global top-notch products with a local service and local warranty and local support right that this global organization is going to be able to provide for customers.

Philip Stoten 4:00

Yeah, that's really exciting and you know, Bill, when I look at these JVs or M&As that work successfully, it always starts with culture, and when I think of Creative Electron, you know a lot of that culture comes from you and comes from your background. So I think of a company that's fiercely innovative and has multiple patents and really understands their technology. I think of a company that listens very carefully and spends a lot of time with the voice of the customer and is always trying to design a product, not to make a buck, but design a product to resolve an issue in the market the market. I think of a company that is really proud of its roots and where it comes from and where it manufactures and where it delivers and how it delivers that service. Is that something you found matched in your new partner and is that something that surprised you?

Dr. Bill Cardoso 4:58

And again this topic we've covered in previous conversations we had China is a fascinating place. If you look at the growth vortex they've been through for the past 20, 30 years, it's really a unique place that allowed technologies and allowed companies to grow and to be able to serve that internal market. So it was fascinating when I met with Dr Liu and we're going to meet he's going to be at Apex and we're going to have a chance to talk to him when we are there. He, you know, similar to my experience. Right, you grow a company with the customer first. Right, you don't design technologies in a vacuum. Right, you design technology and you build machines in this context of enabling customers to achieve what they need to achieve. And so it didn't take long for us to realize that we had this flame inside us in common and we were able to quickly put together a partnership that allows, as I said, both companies to use the best of what we have to, you know, to go and serve our customers locally. So I'm really excited about that.

Philip Stoten 6:29

Yeah, no, it's super exciting, I think, when I look at the second thing that makes joint ventures and these kind of activities successful, it's timing. Timing is everything. We're in a very volatile well geopolitically. You know, we've got hot wars raging um in in both the middle east and in in europe, but we've got a major trade war going on at the moment. When you are talking to your partners and sharing that, how do you feel about that and how do you? How do you feel about that? And how do you feel about the timing of this JV? Is it going to give you more flexibility, more agility to respond? Because it looks like things like change, not just week to week, day to day at the moment.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 7:15

Day to day, exactly the tariffs, with this. I don't want to call it war, but this, the tariff discussion, right. The arguments we're having with China and now Mexico and Canada. Right, which is unprecedented. Right, we're putting 25, as of today, right we're putting 25% of Mexico and Canada.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 7:42

Never know what's going. Have the next five minutes. The timing is everything. And these tariffs definitely contextualize our ability to move manufacturing sites globally, right? So we're not an Asian company, american company, we're a global company. So when we have those conversations, the fact that we have a factory in the United States, we have four factories in Asia, three in China, one in Malaysia that allows us to start moving things around to maximize our ability to serve our customers At the end of the day, we want to get them the best technology at the lower price.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 8:30

That's what everyone wants to do. We're not the lowest cost in the market. We never are. Our machines are usually in the mid-range, but the idea is that we don't want to also price ourselves out of the market. So having this global footprint definitely helps. And then the Unicompte is a public traded company in China. A big, you know. A big size allows you to tap into resources. Yeah, people understand, you know, how to do this correctly so that we can, you know, keep them growing for the next few years, the next several years.

Philip Stoten 9:12

Yeah, cash cash definitely brings agility alongside it as well, doesn't it?

Dr. Bill Cardoso 9:18

It gives you that ability to move fast.

Philip Stoten 9:19

Whenever we talk about your new products, new innovations, new strategies within the business, you're always most excited when we're talking about it in terms of what you can deliver to your customers. When do you think of your key accounts, of the companies that have really embraced your technology? What are you most excited about telling them about this new JV and what's it going to mean to them in terms of, you know, greater product range, maybe affordability, maybe scalability?

Dr. Bill Cardoso 9:50

Oh my, what? What I'm most excited about is that a lot of our key accounts or if not all of them, they have a certain presence in Asia, Right, so they buy machines in the United States, in Mexico they always have, you know and factories or partners in Asia that also need our machines. And it's been a challenge for us to say you know what, we don't really have a huge presence in Asia. That also need our machines. And it's been a challenge for us to say you know what, we don't really have a huge presence in Asia but we can support with distributors, maybe a rep, you know, but it gets clunky to offer them the same amazing level of service that we offer here, right when we're here, and we can get things done really quick.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 10:33

Now we have 1,200 people supporting them right on the other side of the ocean, right, so that's a whole new experience. And they don't have to buy a machine in California and get it shipped to Malaysia or Singapore or Hong Kong right Now. They can buy the same machine over there and just get it shipped over there. So the beauty of a global footprint is the locality right. It's being able to get super hyper-local and super attentive to our customers, no matter where they are. So that's what I'm really, really excited about In India. We have a big office in India now, right, so it's like that's perfect, right. We can actually see where they are when they are, with the level of care that we've been only able to do here in the Americas.

Philip Stoten 11:26

Yeah, and it's having that service that's associated with the Creative Electron brand. But now having that as a global service and having it as a scalable service, you know you're selling successfully. In the US it tends to be relatively small numbers as you look at India, you look at Malaysia, you look at the Pacific Rim Vietnam and you look at China itself, much larger numbers. But you want to be able to maintain that same level of customer service and that same level of customer centricity with respect to how you manage to do the business. And I think what's really important that you said there is it's not just about having something in California and having something in China. Now, it's about having something in between all of those having stuff in Asia, having stuff in Central and South America, having the ability to support the European market either locally or from either of those locations. That's where you're adding value and, as you say, many of your accounts have facilities in all those locations and, with the tariff situation, that's becoming increasingly important to them as well.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 12:41

Exactly. The other interesting thing is you mentioned the growth that Asia has had for the past couple of decades and the volumes of machines they sell there. It's something really interesting because when you have a market right that's growing the way they're doing and requiring the level of automation that's required for the scalable growth right, because if you don't automate you can't scale right doesn't happen. So they developed the company right. Unicom developed their company and their products right With a whole different mentality than we have. It's service oriented, wholesale oriented and customer centered. But they've been able to develop a whole set of inline automation that we don't have here. North America we've alluded to that, but we're mostly high-mix right. We're high-mix guys. But now I can tap into all that technology that they've done for the past.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 13:51

We're in here and start offering even our high-mix guys. Hey, there's some automation here, there's some inline 3D stuff we can do now. That's not going to cost you a million dollars. Let's you know, let's blend some creative election DNA here and make it way more easy to use and affordable, right. In the same way we're going to crush the high-mix markets in China, which is not necessarily the focus when you're selling 100 machines at a time. So, it's a really nice blend of untapped markets in both geographies.

Philip Stoten 14:29

I think what's exciting there is you start with the same you know, with the same ideal of you know really understanding the technology, really understanding where it can go, understanding the customer demands. But you and they started in completely different environments. You start in this high mix environment, they start in this high volume market and you resolve. You resolve the customer's issues in each of those locations. You resolve the customer's issues in each of those locations. When you get to throw that all together and put it in one big mixing pot, there's some pretty exciting stuff that can come from that and that's going to be great for your customers.

Philip Stoten 15:05

Really looking forward to Apex and learning more about this. Equally importantly, starting to dig into some of the products that you're going to be launching into new markets in the next few months. We'll dig into some of the products that you're going to be launching into new markets in the next few months. We'll dig into those while we're there. But exciting news, bill, really really looking forward to chatting about it more and looking forward to see you. Thanks so much for your time.

Dr. Bill Cardoso 15:27

Likewise man, Talk to you soon.