- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady speaks with Stephan Tanda, CEO of , about collaborating with China.
- The big story: Musk’s choice regarding electric doors preceded 15 fatalities.
- The markets: Calm (low drama).
- Plus: All the latest news and office chatter from .
Good morning. It’s simple to assume China must have been severely impacted by the U.S. trade conflict that reached a when President Trump and President Xi met in October. However, China’s trade surplus stood at a in the first 11 months of this year. Part of this is because China has doubled down on other markets: overall exports rose 6% in November compared to the prior year, even as exports to the U.S. dropped 29%.
Yet another factor reflects that U.S. companies didn’t leave. I recently chatted with Stephan Tanda, CEO of AptarGroup—a $3.7 billion annual manufacturer of specialized packaging and delivery systems for pharma, beauty, and consumer firms, based in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He notes China remains a key manufacturing hub with longstanding infrastructure and relationships central to the company’s regional supply chain. Moreover, he says the speed to market is an advantage hard to replicate at their other global innovation centers.
“The level of grit and sheer willpower is on a whole other scale,” said Tanda, adding he now leverages Chinese talent to help European plants develop product prototypes in six weeks (vs. up to 18 months before). “We need the China ecosystem to create the pilot mold. We may still want French-made items for luxury beauty products, but much innovation that once was China-for-China now serves the region and the world.”
Tanda has an edge: his products aren’t national defense-sensitive—“essential items, but no war will be waged over them”—and he aligns with U.S. peers by focusing most production on local needs (over half his China-made product customers are Chinese). “Before, people wanted Western luxury brands; now they buy Chinese ones because they’re just as good or better… It helps we were early to automate core processes, and AI makes this much easier.”
Added Tanda: “China is more capitalistic than any country I know in terms of real drive, hustle, problem-solving, and iteration. For businesses operating there, this is what you compete with. To succeed, you become a far more competitive player yourself. It keeps us sharp and boosts our competitiveness—if we can do it there, we can learn it here.”
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