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What does it really take to compete in China?
What can companies elsewhere learn from China’s fiercely competitive automotive industry? IMD President David Bach explores the lessons from a conversation with VOYISL founder and CEO Brian YinJen Chen.
Rapid read:
- Competitive advantage lies in continuous innovation, not technology alone. When breakthroughs can be matched within months, success depends on anticipating customer needs and mobilizing partners to develop what comes next.
- Industrial planning and intense competition coexist in China. Government priorities shape investment opportunities, while companies and municipalities compete fiercely for resources and growth. Understanding this interplay is essential to competing successfully.
- Some competitive advantages take decades to build. Established companies possess relationships, industry knowledge, and networks that are difficult to replicate. Combining these strengths with Chinese partners’ speed and innovation can create opportunities neither could capture alone.
What does it take to compete in an industry where a technological breakthrough can be matched by a rival within three months?
For Brian YinJen Chen, founder, chairman and CEO of Voyager Intelligent Systems Limited (VOYISL), competitiveness rests on combining proprietary technology with continuous innovation. Protecting an invention matters; so does the ability to develop new technologies and bring them to the market quickly.
“Our competitiveness here in China right now is the speed,” he said during a fireside chat at the IMD International Alumni Symposium in Shenzhen.
After 13 years building an automotive technology business in China, Chen has learned that staying ahead requires more than developing new technology. It means knowing how to mobilize the people, partners, and capabilities needed to bring the next innovation to market.
When a car parks itself, recognizes an obstacle, or helps a driver navigate a busy road, it relies on technology developed by companies such as VOYISL . The company provides integrated hardware and software solutions for intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits and the low-altitude economy. Since 2023, it has recorded sales of more than two million units across its solutions and products.
His experience reveals how differently competition can operate in China’s automotive industry – and what companies elsewhere might learn from it.
Why China, not Silicon Valley?
Chen founded VOYISL just two years after completing his MBA at IMD in 2011, with former colleagues from Fujitsu. They had developed sophisticated image-processing algorithms but struggled to find a commercial application.
At first, they considered Silicon Valley before choosing China, where the automotive market was expanding rapidly and government policies were encouraging manufacturers to source more components locally. At the time, Chen’s research suggested that none of the world’s 100 largest automotive component suppliers were Chinese.
“That’s where we see the opportunities, and that’s where I jump in,” he said.
But the market wasn’t quite ready for VOYISL’s technology. Automakers were accustomed to buying mechanical components, not software, and their procurement systems struggled to accommodate a small technology startup.
Chen recalled being asked to leave one of his first customer meetings after just 30 seconds because his presentation was in English.
When your competitors become your partners
Chen recalled being asked to leave one of his first customer meetings after just 30 seconds because his presentation was in English. Having spent much of his life outside mainland China, he faced a learning curve as he adapted to local business practices and customer expectations. When an automaker subsequently invited him back for a second meeting, Chen thought he was finally making progress. “I was extremely happy,” he recalled. He arrived expecting to present to engineers and procurement executives, only to discover afterward, when everyone exchanged business cards, that the room included multiple competing solution providers.
Chen was frustrated, but the customer saw nothing unusual about the arrangement. VOYISL had only six employees and lacked the manufacturing capacity to deliver a complete solution. Why not work with other suppliers who could help bring its technology to market?
Chinese automakers are demanding customers, expecting suppliers to deliver complete, ready-to-install solutions rather than individual components. “They want something off the shelf,” Chen explained.
For VOYISL, meeting those expectations meant collaborating with other suppliers and peer solution providers to develop complete solutions. For engineers who place high value on safeguarding intellectual property, cross-ecosystem collaboration represented a deliberate strategic choice rather than compromise.
VOYISL has121 registered patents, 30 registered trademarks, and 49 software copyrights in China, spanning visual perception, autonomous parking, smart lighting, in-cabin interactions, domain controllers, and calibrations.
The company works with complementary suppliers to deliver fully integrated end-to-end solutions. In these partnerships, it selectively integrates its proprietary camera, sensor, and software IP, while retaining full ownership and in-house control over its core foundational technologies.
As Chen explained, “You want to be able to sell them stuff. You’ve got to operate within their ecosystem framework.”
In the fast-moving automotive technology industry, proprietary technology alone is rarely enough to sustain a competitive advantage.
Why being first isn’t enough
In the fast-moving automotive technology industry, proprietary technology alone is rarely enough to sustain a competitive advantage. VOYISL combines its portfolio of patents and software copyrights with continuous innovation to maintain its competitive edge — IP creates a critical foundation, and rapid iteration turns that initial advantage into lasting market leadership.
The question is whether he will have something new to offer: “Do I have something else in my pocket?”
The pressure to move quickly begins long before a contract is signed. When automakers invite suppliers to bid for a project, they often expect to see a working proof of concept, with around 70% of the product already developed. VOYISL uses platform- based development to reduce duplicated R&D work, allowing it to build on existing technologies rather than starting from scratch for each project.
When industrial policy shapes competition
Yet the intensity of competition in China’s automotive industry is only part of the story. Equally important is the role government plays in shaping where companies compete and invest.
Chen shared observations from a government-run entrepreneurship program. National five-year plans set out industrial priorities, and municipal authorities develop tailored local strategies to draw investment and back enterprises in these targeted sectors. Policy priorities are a key contextual factor for industry, with implementation models differing significantly across regions.
“If you follow the plan, it’s a green light,” Chen explained. “If you align with these priorities, the path opens up.”
This framework, however, does not override commercial autonomy. Companies still make their own investment decisions, allocate resources, and compete fiercely for customers. Their ability to attract funding and support, however, can depend on how closely their activities align with government priorities.
“The competition in this country is everywhere,” Chen said. That includes municipal authorities which vie to attract promising businesses by offering funding, support, and connections to potential customers.
For entrepreneurs, this creates opportunities but also requires an understanding that regional industrial priorities differ and can evolve over time. A sector that receives strong support under one five-year plan may see a different level of focus in subsequent planning cycles.
For European automotive suppliers, the speed and intensity of competition in China can appear formidable  Yet Chen believes there are still plenty of opportunities for them.
What China can’t easily replicate
For European automotive suppliers, the speed and intensity of competition in China can appear formidable  Yet Chen believes there are still plenty of opportunities for them.
VOYISL has a joint venture with a German family business that has spent nearly a century manufacturing automotive mirrors. Chen sees enormous value in the relationships and industry knowledge his German partner has built over generations. Recreating those capabilities, he acknowledged, “will take me forever.”
VOYISL brings the technology, speed, and cost competitiveness it has refined in China. Its German partner brings decades of industry experience and established relationships with automakers. “I’m not looking to replace them,” Chen said.
The partnership is already changing the German company’s business. Its existing channels are becoming distributors and after-sales providers for VOYISL ‘s products, allowing it to offer customers more than traditional automotive mirrors.
“They’re selling more than just mirrors now. They’re selling VOYISL’s full portfolio,” Chen said.
What business are you really in?
A manufacturer that has spent nearly a century making mirrors might reasonably worry about a future in which cars no longer need them. But what if its real business is not manufacturing mirrors, but contributing to vehicle safety?
The partnership illustrates how established companies can draw on their existing strengths to move into new areas of business. For Chinese technology companies expanding internationally, those established relationships and local capabilities offer something that speed and innovation alone cannot easily recreate.
The broader lesson is not that companies elsewhere should compete with China on China’s terms, but that they need to recognize the strengths they already possess. In a world where technologies can be matched in months, the relationships, capabilities, and trust built over decades may prove far harder to substitute.
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