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16 The PCB Magazine • August 2016 of both digital and traditional media to increase frequencies and enable different exposures. There does not need to be a "Sophie's Choice" made regarding what tactics to use, regardless of budget or nature of the offering—whether revolutionary or evolutionary. An impactful and powerful market launch looks beyond the obvious news release and employs an integrated program relevant to the targeted customers and markets, where it will create engaging and dif- ferentiated value. The sales team is critical to providing a voice for the customer and should be instrumental in communicating the differ- entiated value that can be achieved. Tara Dunn President OMNI PCB, USA If they would only listen... …to each other! The advances in electronics over the past 10 years are truly inspiring. I of- ten find myself using the phrase, "We are really only limited by our imagination," which is true, but we also have to acknowledge the fact that it takes all aspects of the electronics supply chain working together to make these advances. Raw materials suppliers, designers, fabricators, and contract manufacturing ALL play an equally important role in supporting the OEM. If we could just step back and LISTEN to each other, and the OEM, new product development would be so much more productive and exciting. Product development rarely follows a linear path; there are always obstacles, lessons learned and restarts. All too often, when troubleshoot- ing why something didn't progress as planned, fingers start pointing. PCB fabricators blame raw materials, contract manufacturing blames fabri- cators and everyone blames the design. Just imag- ine the progress, and the fun, of stepping outside that vicious cycle, bringing everyone's expertise to the table, and having honest discussions and solving problems. Sounds like fun to me! Michael Gasch Semi-retired consultant DATA4PCB, GERMANY I was based in Asia, came back to Europe, worked with a large PCB manufacturer, and now (as a hobby?) I work as consultant to the PCB industry as a "one man show", establish statistics, and speak at conferences. Whether in the USA or in Europe, PCB man- ufacturers (or anyone in the electronics indus- try) seem to be complaining about Asia—in par- ticular China. I have the impression that "if we do it, it is free market; if they do it, it is dump- ing." But it isn't that easy. The political decision to open China came in the 1970s and coincided with unprofitable companies in the West trying to improve their bottom lines and having the vision to enter an enormous market. However, it was overlooked that China had its own agenda and the way to allow foreigners to produce against a ma - jority shareholding by Chinese nationals was the first step. Other steps followed (new tech- nologies, transfer of know-how, establishing facilities in inner China), and always granting favours, but with a subtle hook to catch com- panies. China-as-copy-cat was known, but ignored. The side effects are felt today. Successful com- panies are invited, their products and sales strategies are studied and parallel to this, their own products are developed. As soon as these products are ready for the market the same gov- ernment makes it more and more difficult for the foreigner to work in the country. So far, the global market grew, and this strategy was dis- carded as pinpricks, but with declining econo- my it is a question of survival. And who could condemn a nation that thinks this way? In America there is a similar sentiment—one has just to listen to the slo- gans during elections. We have to keep in mind that for more than 2000 years (!) China was the largest economy in the world (Andus Maddi- son University of Groningen [1] ). Only after the 1850s did other regions became larger (opium war, industrialization, crude oil). VOICES OF THE INDUSTRY X X