MMC Credits Local Partnerships for Explosive Growth

MMC, the Chinese-based commercial drone manufacturer, is claiming their business has increased by over 500% in the last two years with company orders having risen to over $10 million. The company credits this growth to having established key partnerships on the local level.

MMC have modeled their growth on the concept promoted by John Quelch, professor of Business Administration at Harvard which is that “All business is local”.

To that end MMC has developed important partnerships in more than 5 countries to oversee sales and distribution of their hydrogen drone  and their power line stringing solutions, tether system, and unique plug-and-play payload system.

“We rely on open, cooperative and local partnerships to expand,” says Liu Leo, MMC’s CEO. “MMC’s deep cooperation with our partners has allowed us to grow much faster – we count on partners for their understanding of local needs and markets.”

MMC’s partnerships with their joint-venture factories include technology transfer of drone assembly and testing and hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing. They cooperate with their partners on product development to meet customer demands, raw material cost controls, and navigation of local regulations. Bringing production local means MMC can develop understanding of local industries: from government and law enforcement to commercial applications like oil and power. That understanding translates into targeted service offerings for customers.

Joint partnerships with manufacturing facilities mean MMC can offer customization of their solutions and service offerings that large enterprises expect.

Forming deep local partnerships isn’t easy but MMC believes it is worth the effort. Technology transfer is challenging; customization can be costly. But the results demonstrate the benefits that can be achieved from bringing your business to customers.

“We intend to continue to go our own way,” says Leo, “We plan to establish more joint-venture factories and build strong local industries. Cooperation with local businesses has paid off: from research and development to after-sales support.”