Video and photos by Lin Jianping expect otherwise stated.

From a small workshop with several employees to a big company with over 3,000 employees around the globe and an output value of nearly 2 billion yuan (US$282.65 million), Comen's success lies in the hard work and innovation of its people, according to Yi Mingsheng, president of the company.

Yi Mingsheng gives a thumbs-up in the office building of Comen in Guangming District.

Comen, a medical device manufacturer founded in Shenzhen in 2002, is headquartered in Guangming District. Its products are sold to over 190 countries worldwide, with over 40 branches set up. Comen is one of the few Chinese firms to possess comprehensive core technologies in manufacturing monitors and medical diagnostic products. 

Pioneer of special-use monitors

When talking about the company’s success, Yi mentioned two key words – hard work and innovation. He joined the company in 2004, starting from the bottom as a salesman and worked his way up to an executive.

Employees work in the factory of Comen.

"First, our people have been working really hard, including our founder Yi Yong who came from a rural area. Most of our senior executives have a rural background and they all started as frontline employees. We cherish every opportunity, so I think the top element for our success is hard work," Yi said.

The company started as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and is now taking the lead in its field nationally and internationally.

"Medical devices are high technology. In the beginning, we had limited resources including manpower, capital and technology, so we started from OEM. We did product processing, we imitated others, but later we kept innovating and now, many of our products are leading the world, which can be attributed to our innovation," Yi said.

Yi Mingsheng communicates with an employee.

"When we worked as an OEM, we needed to compete on the price. Later, we found that there were many OEM companies in this field so it was hard to survive. Our first innovation — the creation of special-use monitors — is key to our success," Yi said. 

In the past, there were only general-use monitors in the market, so the company innovated and created the neonatal monitor. From there, they started manufacturing special-use monitors such as emergency and transport patient monitors, specialized cardiovascular monitors, and specialized fetal and maternal monitors. "We are the first in the world to produce special-use monitors," Yi proudly said.

A scene of the exhibition hall of Comen.

Comen started its research and development (R&D) on special-use monitors in 2007, with their products entering the market in 2009. "Later, our neonatal monitors took the largest market share," Yi said, adding that last year, the company ranked fifth among medical device companies in Shenzhen in terms of total industrial output value.

According to Yi, about one-third of their over 3,000 employees work on R&D. "Most of our R&D staffers hold a master’s degree. We cooperate with different universities, targeting master’s degree students in biomedical engineering."

Some of the certificates of patents of the company.

Selling well overseas

Comen produces three major types of products, namely devices for life support, in vitro diagnostic medical devices, and devices for medical image.

Comen's anaesthesia machines.

The company has positioned its products as medium- and high-end products. "Domestically, our main customers are top Grade-A and large-scale hospitals. Internationally, we sell a large quantity of products to Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. Our sales in Western countries including Germany, the U.K. and France are quite good. Most of the pediatric hospitals in Paris are using our neonatal products," Yi introduced, adding that the company's neonatal ventilators occupy over 50% of the domestic market share.

The company's overseas sales have been growing. Last year, over 40% of their products were sold overseas and the rest in China. "About 50% of the products we sold overseas were to Europe and the rest to Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia," Yi said.

A scene of Comen's exhibition hall, showing its medical devices being used in other countries. Chen Xiaochun

The company has branches in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, France, Russia, and other countries. "Since last year, we have been speeding up the establishment of overseas branches. Currently we have over 20 branches in China and over 10 branches overseas."

Made in SZ, an endorsement for high-tech firms 

Before Comen was set up in Shenzhen, the company's founder actually started the business in Yunnan Province. Later, he moved to Shenzhen as the city was known for high-tech products.

A scene of Shenzhen.

"Shenzhen's electronic products are well-recognized in the market. So, our founder moved the company to the city in 2002 and has since stayed here. In people's eyes, Shenzhen’s electronic companies are always on the cutting edge. The word ‘Shenzhen’ produces an effect on brands. This is the main reason why we chose to set up in Shenzhen," Yi said.

Second, Shenzhen provides a huge talent pool. "The city is home to many high-tech companies, so the talent pool is big. When we just set up the company in 2002, we only had seven or eight employees, but now we have over 3,000 employees, which requires talents constantly joining," he said.

Employees work in the office.

Third, the city provides an excellent business environment. "Guangming District, and Shenzhen in general provide an excellent business environment. For example, once a political adviser from Guangming District proposed the joint law enforcement of government departments to reduce disturbance to enterprises' operation, and the Guangming District Government adopted the proposal. This shows that the local government is very innovative and service conscious," said Yi, who is also a district political adviser.

Many people asked them why they still stay in Shenzhen now that the rent, labor cost and other costs have gone up. "Many governments of different places invited us to invest and build up factories in their places, including Songshan Lake in Dongguan, where the costs are lower. After inspection and consideration, we decided to stay in Shenzhen as all our employees feel at home here. Our supply chain and our partners are mostly here," Yi said.

The company was originally set up in Nanshan District and moved to Guangming District in 2017. Guangming District has more industrial space and suppliers. "Guangming is part of Shenzhen, and its business environment is the same. So Guangming is the right solution for us," Yi said.

Comen's office building in Guangming District.

Since Comen moved to Guangming, the company has enjoyed different supporting policies and subsidies including rent subsidies from the district government as well as talent housing. 

What impressed Yi most is the company's application for industrial land. "Land is very limited in Shenzhen, but the district government gives great support to our industry. Last year, we joined another company to apply for industrial land. But over the past two years, our company has maintained a growth of over 50%, so the joint land use could not meet our future development. So, we canceled the joint application and applied independently for industrial land. In the beginning we hesitated and worried that the government may not approve it, but they encouraged us for the application," Yi said, giving a thumbs-up to the district government’s support.

Contributing to the fight against COVID-19

As a medical device manufacturer, Comen has greatly contributed to the fight against COVID-19 during this special period.

At the start of the pandemic, China was in urgent need of masks. "I am a political adviser, so when the government leaders called on us to look for masks, we made great use of our channels and ordered 1 million masks from Romania. There were many obstacles including the suspension of international flights, but we managed to transport the masks to China and provided them to the government at the cost price," Yi recalled. 

Neonatal ventilators of Comen. Chen Xiaochun

When South America was hit hard by the pandemic, the company organized some online thematic forums, gathering medical experts from Latin America, the company's distributors and Chinese experts to discuss on how to prevent and control the pandemic. "We utilized our resources including devices, which made certain contributions," Yi said. 

Yi said that during the pandemic, if one could provide a medical device, he was making a contribution. What impressed him most is that the company's employees worked overtime frequently to look for raw material supplies. 

"At that time, there was the trade war between China and the U.S. and chips were in short supply. I remembered that one of our purchasing staffers, in order to purchase electronic parts, stayed at the company for over a month, living and eating here. Our purchasing staffers worked very hard to maintain the supply chain, and our employees in the production line also worked very hard. Our factory basically ran 24 hours a day at that time," he said. 

The items with the highest demand at that time were monitors and testing devices, which sold a lot overseas. Comen sold the devices at its original prices. "We didn't increase our prices to our distributors, who later wrote to thank us. We also provided medical devices to makeshift hospitals Leishenshan and Huoshenshan in Wuhan. The State Council's epidemic prevention medical supply group also wrote to thank us. It was a very tense situation, and we really felt time was life," he said.

Future goals

At the moment, Comen has no plans to get listed. "Our biggest strategic goal is to expand our scale. In the medical device field, there is a key expression called 'home-made substitutes,' which means substituting imported devices with domestic devices. So, our main goal for these years is to produce more comprehensive device categories," Yi said.

Yi Mingsheng works in his office.

According to him, the company has made very little profit as it has invested a lot in R&D. "Every year, we invest no less than 15% of our sales in R&D and there was one year when our R&D investment reached 26%. We think it's a historical stage for the development of a company. We should shoulder the responsibility of expanding the scale of producing domestic devices to realize our country's goal of 'home-made substitutes.'"

In the long run, the company aims to become a world-leading medical device manufacturer. "Like I mentioned before, our products are positioned as medium- and high-end products. So, we need to keep innovating, to compete on quality and functionality instead of price. We want to compete with globally renowned companies such as Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Philips and GE. This is our dream," Yi said.