Linglong Tire's New President Makes Debut at China Brand Festival

On August 8, the 20th China Brand Festival opened grandly in Beijing. Linglong Tire's new President Zhou Lingkun was invited to attend the opening ceremony's high-level dialogue, engaging in in-depth exchange on the theme "Ecosystem Going Global: From Fighting Alone to 'Goose Formation' Win-Win". This was Zhou Lingkun's public debut as Linglong Tire's new President. Against the backdrop of deep reconstruction of the global industrial chain, he systematically elaborated on Linglong Tire's nearly two-decade globalization journey, pointing out that Chinese enterprises' globalization is entering a systematic evolution involving technology, standards, brands, and ecosystems.

Navigating Four Major Phases: From Product Export to Ecosystem Elevation

As a pioneer in going global earliest in the industry, Linglong Tire's globalization journey is a vivid footnote of Chinese manufacturing going global. At the dialogue site, Zhou Lingkun summarized Linglong's path going global into four progressive phases:

The first phase is "Pioneering". Since 2009, Linglong has ranked first among Chinese domestic tire enterprises in exports for 13 consecutive years, but the early model was "carrying samples all over the world alone", with channels, standards, and brands still held by others.

The second phase is "Building Factories Across Oceans". In 2014, Linglong Thailand factory started production, becoming one of the earliest tire enterprises in China to build factories overseas; in September 2024, the Serbia factory officially went into mass production, praised by President Vucic as "Serbia's largest greenfield investment project", marking Linglong's entry from "selling products" to "building capacity" stage.

The third phase is "Winning with Systems". Linglong established R&D centers in "three countries and eight locations", beginning to define its own technical and product standards.

The fourth phase is "Ecosystem Elevation". Taking root and integrating in every overseas market, with ESG as the core, achieving the leap from capability output to system output.

"After going through four phases, our deepest realization is — fighting alone can help survive, but to win, one must rely on the ecosystem." Zhou Lingkun emphasized that only with collaborative operations across ecosystems can enterprises go further and stand more steadily.

Building a "Goose Formation Combination", Multi-role Collaborative Progress

When asked by the host which company Linglong would most hope to "fly with", Zhou Lingkun stated that ecosystem going global does not rely on any single enterprise, but is a complete ecosystem combination. He vividly proposed the "Goose Formation Combination" for Chinese brand going global:

The OEM is the "Leading Goose", Linglong participates deeply and jointly tackles key issues with the OEM; wherever the OEM expands, Linglong follows to support; professional service providers are the "Support Goose", soft infrastructure such as finance, law, compliance, logistics needs professional partners to jointly support; industry associations, think tanks, and testing agencies are the "Escort Goose", helping Chinese standards gain equal global discourse power.

At the meeting, Linglong Tire was awarded the China Brand 500 Strong Value Certificate.

Chinese Enterprises Need to Work Together to "Fly Together"

"Chinese brand going global is not about comparing who flies faster, but who flies farther, flies more steadily, and flies as a team." Zhou Lingkun summarized at the end of the dialogue, "There are no supporting roles in a goose formation, every goose has its own sense of direction, yet all fly towards the same destination."

Currently, Chinese brand going global has fully entered a new stage of ecosystem competition. This requires not only the awakening of single enterprises but also the combined force of the entire industrial chain — OEMs clearing the way, supply chain providing support, service providers escorting, standards leading, every role is indispensable. When more and more Chinese enterprises choose to "fly together", Chinese brands can truly achieve the leap from "going out" to "going up", reaching new horizons on the global stage, making Chinese brands more respected by the world.