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.

从创立之初仅有数名员工的小公司到成长为一家在全球拥有3000多名员工、产值近二十亿元的大公司，科曼医疗的成功源自科曼人的奋斗及创新，公司总裁易明生说道。

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

易明生在位于光明区的科曼办公楼里。

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. 

科曼医疗于2002年在深圳创立，是一家总部位于光明的医疗设备供应商。它的产品销往全球190个国家，并设有40多家分公司。在制造监护仪和医疗诊断产品领域，科曼是为数不多的拥有全面核心技术的中国公司之一。

Pioneer of special-use monitors

首创专科专用监护仪

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.

谈及公司的成功时，易明生提到了两个关键词——奋斗和创新。他本人于2004年加入公司，从底层的业务员做起，一直做到高管。

Employees work in the factory of Comen.

员工在科曼工厂工作。

“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.

“第一，我们这帮人比较奋斗，包括公司的创始人易勇，他是农村出身。我们公司绝大部分的高管都是从农村出身，他们都是从第一线员工做起。所以我们非常珍惜每一次机会。我觉得大家的勤奋是我们公司成功的第一要素。”易明生说道。

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

公司最开始从代工做起，目前，在医疗设备领域，它已经在全国甚至全球做到领先水平。

“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.

“医疗设备是高科技。最开始我们做的时候，在人力、物力，包括资金技术都有限的情况下，我们从OEM做起，就是加工组合，甚至是模仿，一直到创新到引领。这一路以来我们敢为人先，其实我们公司很多设备都做到了世界级的领先，就是靠我们的这种创新精神，敢于勇于创新。”易明生说。

Yi Mingsheng communicates with an employee.

易明生和员工交流。

“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. 

“我们做OEM的时候比的是性价比，就是说要打价格战。后面我们慢慢地发现，这类型的企业非常多，我们觉得生存就非常艰难。我们第一次创新是在监护仪领域做出专科专用监护仪，这是我们成功的一个关键点。”易明生说。

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.

以前，市场上只有一种通用的监护仪，后来科曼公司专门做了一款新生儿专用监护仪，从那开始就走上了专科专用监护仪的道路，包括之后的急救转运专用监护仪、心内科专用监护仪、产科专用监护仪等。“在全球，我们是第一家做专科专用监护仪的医疗设备企业。”易明生自豪地说。

A scene of the exhibition hall of Comen.

科曼展厅的一角。

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.

科曼医疗从2007年开始研发专科专用监护仪，相关产品于2009年上市。“后面在新生儿领域，我们市场占有率做到了最高。”易明生说。他补充说去年科曼的工业总产值在深圳医疗器械类的企业里已经排名第五名。

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.”

易明生介绍，公司的3000多名员工里有大约三分之一从事研发工作。“我们的大部分研发人员都有硕士学位。此外，我们跟很多学校开展校企合作，特别是针对生物医学工程的硕士生。”

Some of the certificates of patents of the company.

公司获得的一些专利证书。

Selling well overseas

海外市场销售良好

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

科曼医疗主要生产三种类型的产品。第一大类型是生命支持设备，第二类是体外诊断产品，于此同时，他们正在进军医学影像领域。

Comen's anaesthesia machines.

科曼的麻醉机。

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.

科曼将其产品定位为中高端产品。“在国内，我们的主要市场是三甲医院和大型医院。从国际的分布来说，我们在欧洲、南美洲和东南亚销售得比较多。在欧洲的德国、英国、法国等先进的西方国家，我们的销量也很可观，而且进了很多医院，像巴黎绝大部分的儿科医院都在使用我们的新生儿医疗设备。”易明生介绍说。他们公司的新生儿呼吸机占据了国内50%以上的市场份额。

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.

科曼在海外市场的销售也稳步增长。去年，公司超过40%的产品销往国外，其余50%多则销往国内市场。“国外销售的50%左右在欧洲市场，其余部分销往非洲、拉美、东南亚等。”易明生说。

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

科曼展厅展示公司的医疗设备产品在其他国家使用。

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."

科曼在印度、泰国、菲律宾、印度尼西亚、法国、俄罗斯等地都设有分公司。“从去年开始我们加速在各个国家布局，我们总共在国内有二十个多分公司，在国际有十多个分公司了。”

Made in SZ, 

an endorsement for high-tech firms 

“深圳制造”——高科技企业的加分项

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.

在来深圳创立科曼之前，公司创始人一开始是在云南创业的。由于深圳以高科技产品著称，他就搬到了深圳。

A scene of Shenzhen.

深圳景观。

“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.

“深圳的电子产品在市场上知名度很高。所以我们的创始人就在2002年把公司搬到了深圳，然后就一直扎根在深圳。深圳的电子类企业给人感觉就是走在前沿的电子科技企业。‘深圳’两字就能给品牌带来效应。这就是我们选择深圳的最大原因。”易明生说道。

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.

其次，深圳是一座人才之城。“这里有很多高科技企业，所以有大量人才。我们从2002年最开始的七八名员工，到现在三千多人，就不停地需要人才的加入。”他说道。

Employees work in the office.

员工在办公室工作。

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.

第三，深圳提供了优越的营商环境。“光明区、整个深圳市都提供了卓越的营商环境。有一个很好的例子，之前光明区有一位政协委员提了一个关于政府不同部门联合执法的提案，以减少对企业的干扰，这个提案一提出来之后，光明区政府就采纳了，这就是当地政府大胆创新、服务意识非常好的一个体现。”易明生说。他本身也是光明区的政协委员。

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.

有不少人问他们，深圳房租、劳动力成本和其他成本都这么高，为什么科曼还留在深圳。“很多内地的地方政府邀请我们到内地投资建厂，成本较低，包括东莞松山湖。我们考察了之后，最终还是决定留在深圳，因为这里已经变成了我们的故土，我们的所有的工作人员对深圳已经有依赖，我们的大部份供应链和合作伙伴都在深圳。”易明生说。

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.

公司起初是在南山区成立的，2017年搬到了光明，因为光明区的产业空间较大，他们的大部份供应商也在这里。“光明区是深圳的一部分，这里的营商环境也一样优越。我们发现找到光明就是找到一个正确答案。”易明生说。

Comen's office building in Guangming District.

位于光明区的科曼医疗。

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. 

自从科曼医疗迁到光明区后，公司享受到区政府各种支持政策及补贴，包括租金补贴和人才房等。

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.

让易明生印象最深刻的是公司申请产业用地一事。“深圳的用地空间非常稀缺，但政府对我们行业给予了大力的支持。去年我们跟另一家公司联合申请用一块地，后面我们公司发展迅猛，这两年都保持50%以上的高速发展，我们觉得联合拿地不能满足我们未来几年的产业空间，后面我们主动退出联合拿地，并独立申请产业用地。当时我们很犹豫，因为我们担心政府好不容易给你一个机会，结果你又自己放弃了，后面我们把内心的这种犹豫跟政府领导一说，他们反而鼓励我们不要有这种担心，很支持我们。”易明生说道，并点赞政府的大力支持。

Contributing to the fight 

against COVID-19

为抗疫献力

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

作为一家医疗设备供应商，科曼医疗在此次抗疫的特殊时期也做出了贡献。

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. 

疫情初期，中国急需大量口罩。“作为政协委员，当我得知政府领导在号召我们找口罩后，我们当时利用我们的渠道，从罗马尼亚订了100万个口罩过来中国。当时遇到包括国际航班熔断在内的各种困难，但我们各种折腾最终成功把口罩运回中国，并按两块钱的成本价全部让给政府机关了。”易明生回忆道。

Neonatal ventilators of Comen. Chen Xiaochun

科曼的新生儿无创呼吸机。

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. 

南美疫情最严重的时候，科曼组织了一些线上专题论坛，邀请拉美的医学专家、他们的渠道商以及中国的专家一起探讨如何防疫。“我们利用公司的资源，包括设备，在疫情期间做了一定的贡献。”易明生说。

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. 

易明生说，疫情期间只要能出设备就是一种贡献。让他印象最深的是公司员工为生产医疗设备不停加班寻找原材料供应。

“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. 

“当时最开始的时候又是中美贸易战，芯片之类的供不上货。我当时印象最深刻的是，我们一个采购人员为了采购电子元器件，在深圳一个多月都不回家，天天在公司吃住。我们的采购人员是我们公司最辛苦的人，他们当时用尽全力地维护供应链。此外，我们的生产人员也很辛苦，因为很多设备都已经研发出来了，就是一个供应和生产的问题，我们的生产车间几乎就是二十四小时的加班运转。”他说。

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.

当时需求最大的是监护仪和检测设备，科曼向国外输送了大量此类产品。在如此特殊的时期，科曼并没有涨价，而是按照原来的价格销售。“我们就一直维持着我们渠道商的那种原有的代理经销价，没有涨价，很多渠道商给我们写感谢信。我们给武汉的雷神山、火神山供应设备，国务院的防疫医疗物资供应组也给我们发来了感谢信。当时非常紧张，时间就是生命的那种感觉。”他说道。

Future goals

公司未来发展目标

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.

目前科曼没有上市的计划。“我们最大的一个战略目标就是要把规模做大。国内在医疗设备领域里有一个很重要的词——国产替代，就是国产的设备替代进口的设备，所以我们这几年最大的一个目标就是生产更多更齐全的设备。”易明生说。

Yi Mingsheng works in his office.

易明生在办公室工作。

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.’”

他介绍说公司盈利微薄，因为在研发方面投入了大量资金。“每年，我们把不低于15%的销售额投入到研发，有一年的研发投入达到26%。我们觉得这是一个企业发展的历史阶段问题。在这个历史阶段，我们要担负起这个责任，就是国产设备的企业要迅速地扩大规模，要能够生产更多的医疗设备，能够真正的做到国产替代。”

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.

公司的长期目标是成为一家世界级的领先的医疗设备供应商。“我前面提到说，我们公司的定位是走中高端路线，所以我们要创新，要做那种不是靠价格跟别人竞争，而是靠品质和功能，靠性能。我们的竞争始终放在世界的角度，就是着眼全球，要跟美敦力、强生、飞利浦、GE这种大公司竞争，这是我们的一种理想。”易明生说道。

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