Arnaud Theron
Arnaud serves as Vice President of Business Development at Hutchinson, where he drives strategy across the company’s automotive and general industry divisions. With more than 25 years of experience across Asia, Europe and North America, he applies an engineering-led perspective to navigate global operations. He has spearheaded major projects and led transnational teams, consistently delivering practical, cost-effective solutions from concept through to production.
RELEARNING LEADERSHIP WITHOUT DIRECT AUTHORITY
Over the last two to three years, my focus has shifted heavily toward people management, learning curves and aligning teams across functions and regions.
Earlier in my career in China, managing direct reports felt relatively straightforward. There is a strong respect for hierarchy. The dynamic is different in France, where I started my career, and different again in the U.S.
Today, I do not directly manage a large team. My focus is on business development and strategy for one of the five activities inside Hutchinson. It operates across two divisions: one is fully automotive, while the other derives from B2C with automotive, appliances and general industry, and B2B with bicycle tires.
The real learning curve has been leading without direct authority. I constantly work with engineering, marketing and sales teams across tech centers and markets worldwide to keep everyone aligned with corporate direction.across tech centers and markets worldwide to keep everyone aligned with corporate direction.
CONNECTING ENGINEERING EXPERTISE WITH MARKET REALITY
A typical day starts early if Asia is involved, stretches through European hours and can finish late with the U.S. When all three regions are active, meetings happen early. I catch up on overnight developments in Asia and ensure information is transferred accurately. When I am not in back-to-back calls, I dig into field insights, market surveys, global news on tariffs and trade exchanges to understand what needs to be revised in terms of orientation.
That intelligence then feeds conversations with the teams. My engineering background in the first 15 years of my career helps me to spend significant time coordinating across regions alongside the commercial side. Business development is not confined to the sales side. It is an almost even split between sales, marketing and engineering.
The most visible trend since COVID is the sharp inflation that hit Europe and North America, where prices rose 25 to 30 percent or more in the early phase. Meanwhile, China has been in deflation for more than two years. The resulting price gap between Asia and the West is gigantic.
Western observers interpret it as aggressive competition from Asian players. I see it as a reflection of different economic realities. China did not experience the same cost shocks, so pricing stayed lower. In the US, tariff structures that began around 2018 at 25 percent and later increased further have created a protected environment. American customers have normalized higher price points, for example, believing a car should cost $50,000 while the same vehicle sells for less than $25,000 in China.
Modern Product Development Is Like Video Games— Launch First, Update Continuously.
This distortion is unsustainable. When tariffs eventually ease, the impact on purely domestic American manufacturers could be severe. Understanding these dynamics requires looking beyond newspaper headlines at economic context, policy, and long-term shifts.
THE SPEED ADVANTAGE IN ASIAN MARKETS
If you operate globally, my advice is to be physically present and spend meaningful time understanding how decisions are made. Short visits of two or three days are insufficient.
In parts of Asia, economic pressure has created a work environment where a standard 40-hour week in the U.S. or Europe can stretch to closer to 70 hours, with longer days and weekends, because the fear of losing employment is more immediate. That intensity compresses timelines and accelerates development.
New competitors, particularly from electronics and software backgrounds in China and Korea, bring a different approach to product development. They launch at roughly 80 percent validation and then improve rapidly based on customer feedback. It is the video game model.
Two decades ago, purchasing a game meant receiving a fully finished product, delivered on a disk or cartridge, with no defects. Today, products are released with the expectation of immediate updates and gradually upgraded until they reach optimal performance.
This iterative development approach of Asian manufacturers significantly reduces time to market while enabling real-time refinement based on actual user experience. In contrast, traditional Western manufacturing still emphasizes full validation before launch. While the gap is narrowing, it remains significant.
COORDINATING MOMENTUM ACROSS GLOBAL DIVIDES
If you are part of a global organization, your advantage lies in access to diverse information. Use your colleagues across regions and listen to their experiences. Don’t dismantle established processes, slash costs or drastically redesign your workflows simply because Asian competitors operate faster and at lower cost.
It is essential to understand the broader context, including economic conditions, work culture, and mindset, before making substantial changes. Firsthand exposure provides a level of insight that no report can fully replicate.
If you are operating primarily in a local market, stay close to your customers. Focus on responsiveness, on-time delivery, clear communication, quality, and accountability. Provide a level of business that sustains trust. You cannot absorb the full cultural picture of Asian competition in a brief trip, so concentrate on strengthening what you have already built.
After 25 years, I see business development less as pushing aggressive growth targets and more as the act of interpreting and coordinating across regions and functions that do not naturally align. The value comes from bringing perspectives together so the organization advances in the same direction, even when realities differ.
