Yerzhan Mandiyev:
Less than 20 years ago, our country was a part of the Soviet Union. Our heritage was one of strong machine-building industry and other advanced technologies. Kazakhstan produces fuel for nuclear stations and metal for Boeing and Rolls-Royce. The Kazakhstan space center launches crews to the International Space Station.

Despite this, my countrymen still don’t believe Kazakhstan is able to produce quality cars. In point of fact, our company is more a part of the modern international motor-car industry than a part of the business community of our own country! It’s an incredible and paradoxical thing, that the relations of the plant with foreign partners such as General Motors, Volkswagen Group and KIA Motors are more close and trusting than with many of our Kazakhstan partners and customers.

But we have enjoyed support from our president. In fact, during our comparatively short period of existence, we became one of the main industrial companies of the region, thanks to the rapt attention of the president of our country. (Our country takes ninth place in the world for territory possession and showed the highest economic growth per person, before the economic crisis.)

The saturation of the car market has barely started here. Yet cars made in Kasakhstan (like the ones my company makes) are not popular with most of our people. Maybe it’s normal for them to pursue a dream of owning expensive, prestigious off-road cars such as Lexus or Porsche, after no access to other car brands for almost 70 years. This intentional enmity against all domestically produced things is seen in Kazakhstan not only for cars.

Still we, who manufacture world-quality products at a competitive price, are amazed by consumers’ skepticism and lack of faith in their fellow Kazakh nationals’ ability to do serious work. Maybe seven years is not enough to break the way of thinking of 70 previous years. To gain our unpatriotic and skeptical consumers, we will need not only the right proportion of quality and price, but also patience, self-reliance and the strength to stand up.

We are ready to do that.

Mike Ducker:
During the last 50 years we have learned that people do not buy cars for national pride. Even the United States consumer doesn’t trust the quality of U.S. name plates as much as Japanese or German ones. The automotive sector is a sophisticated global sector, and firms compete by focusing on their strengths and partnering with others on their weaknesses.

In the automotive industry, building a brand name that consumers can trust is not just about producing a good product at a low price. A firm needs to invest heavily in educating the consumer on the value provided, while focusing on creating processes to improve quality to keep up with the international competition.

Over the last 10 years, Chinese automotive firms like Chery have developed very successful business models that were built on their great reputation of outsourcing manufacturing. Their international partners have utilized them to build automobiles in other countries beyond China. At the same time they have leveraged their learning from international firms in trying to start up their own consumer name plate.

It’s a good model for AZIA AVTO. You should focus on your core competence of manufacturing in the near term and find ways to expand the existing plant or maybe even find other countries in Central Asia that your partners might want to reach. The best way to see if there are opportunities for these expansions is to start talking to your partner and giving suggestions on how jointly you can each expand your business growth. In the long term, you want to focus on your own consumer name plate. Do your market research and find a specific segment in the Kazakhstan market that is not being served by the current competition.