Emerging Markets Story...
I am Ukrainian guy currently working in Kazakhstan - CIS region, large county with small market but relatively stable economy cause of big deposits of natural resources.
My decision is to stay and fight...
Short introduction to the situation:
Hikvision is moving towards market domination.
Method of market penetration #1. They conduct direct sales and cheat on partners... I have heard several stories about partners who were thrown by Hikvision just before the actual deal... You as a partner conduct all presales activity (presentations, demo, pilot projects), negotiate prices and budgets. Then in some time you discover that Hikvision made direct sale to that customer with lower prices (of course). Intergrators were depressed and a wave of rage scattered on the market. Hikvision understanding that nobody soon will bring them clients has created several "pet" integrators (not directly connected to vendor) to support the illusion of a fair competition.
Method of market penetration #2. Hikvision representatives appear after presales activities done and the deal is focused on any other vendor to break the deal. The strategy is simple... We go to the upper decision maker (like VP or CEO) and tell him that we can offer the same or even better solution (not going deep to details) for the considerably lower price avoiding distributors and resellers. "You will by our outstanding solution, you will make company budget savings and you can get any sum from the rest of the budget in cash after the deal if you want." Everybody knows that CIS markets are highly corrupted but this is insane... No other vendor can't even think about such style of behavior. Surely most of C-management in such situation (knowing nothing about technology) will think that such proposal is a 3 times win... Results: other vendors sales fall and integrators depressed again with plenty of time wasted and opportunity lost.
Method of market penetration #3. While I was working in Ukraine one of my friends was working in a distributor company and they just had signed a contract with Huawei. Huawei just have opened representative office in Ukraine and I was told that Huawei have budgeted $20M just for bribes to penetrate the market (just imagine this... budget for bribes... this is sick...). This is the most wild and sassy strategy I've ever heard. C-management of target customers were offered "a cash forward" scenario... We pay you - you provide lobby... I have no info about Hikvision or other China brands doing the same things here , but I think it is pretty obvious...
At the end... Several small and medium integrators had a meeting discussing forced alliance to confront the emerging threat. We have an informal agreement to "seek and destroy"... during any bidding if Hikvision is present we form the temporal alliance to eradicate the vendor from the deal at all costs and only after continue to compete with each other based on solutions. I think that our "one vision" community will grow...
To sum up... situation is complicated but it can be solved making friendship among cats and dogs and uniting together against common enemy.
NOTICE: This comment was moved from an existing discussion: I Am Leaving The Industry... Here's Why