10 Key Relationships Every Lighting Professional Must Read! Worth Reading

Author / Tang Guoqing

Introduction

The current situation can be summarized in one sentence: unprecedented changes in a century. Its main manifestations are two:First, global politics is moving from a unipolar era to a bipolar era, no matter how the US suppresses it, it will become the foundational battle for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.Second, human society is moving from the industrial age to the AI age,the original first, second, and third industrial revolutions are coming to an end, while the brand-new AI age is approaching and will gradually change the human world.

Based on the above understanding, I briefly discuss ten relationships of current lighting enterprises. These are my personal views for discussion with readers; criticism and corrections are welcome!

1. Single Loop and Double Loop

"Accelerate the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic large cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycles promoting each other." This is the strategic choice to cope with the complex and severe economic situation and to ensure "survival." If we can grow stronger domestically, why not do it? The problem is that involution makes survival difficult; this is one point. Additionally, given the nature of lighting products as human necessities, is focusing solely on the domestic market too narrow? I have said many times: The world looks to China for lighting. Capable enterprises certainly have the responsibility to go global; going out is a necessary path. Closer destinations include Vietnam, Thailand, the Middle East, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Farther ones include Mexico and Africa, mainly depending on where your buyers are and where your market chain lies. Have you considered that Hainan Island will implement full customs closure on December 18, 2025? Does this present favorable opportunities for our lighting enterprises? With so many new policies, surely they are relevant? "Liberalize the first line, control the second line (mainland entry into the island is treated as Export, eligible for tax refunds), and freedom within the island." To achieve differentiation, we must take the lead.

2. Local and Overseas

Rooted locally, going global. History has never presented such an opportunity as the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the "Global South." Lighting is a universal product; where there are people, there must be lights. Supplying nearby offers the advantage of "favorable timing and location." MLS Co., Ltd. has two engines: one named MLS and the other LEDVANCE. There are five manufacturing bases in China, located in Zhongshan, Foshan, Yiwu, Ji'an, and Xinyu. Overseas bases are in Mexico, with sales networks covering 151 countries (regions), and R&D institutions located in Munich, Germany, Shenzhen, and other places. It is not enough to view the world from within the lighting circle; one must also look at the globe from outside the lighting circle. Only then can rigid thinking transform into dynamic thinking. Blindly adhering to "unchanging responses to changing circumstances" may mean forever doing hard labor and busy "collecting money" at year-end. "Foreigners" are relatively "lazy," while we are so diligent; why not find some new business opportunities? The extension of the main business + direction is not wrong; could we pay attention to the second growth curve?

3. Core Business and New Ventures

Never forget lighting, keep the mission in mind. Regardless of success or failure? Regardless of an IPO or not? We must remember the path we came from and never lose our way. The head of Company E said in several speeches in Guzhen: Dare to make mistakes! I disagreed at the time. Can SMEs afford to make mistakes? I advocate that "the first choice must be the right one." What was the result? The collapse of Company E created the biggest tragedy in the LED lighting industry, with over 7 billion lost! There was also Company S, which developed a bulb speaker. When we met and chatted back then, I reminded them that standard lamp caps (E27) in households were becoming rare; could this really open up the market as a foothold? Also, would audiophiles choose a bulb speaker? Priced at 500-1000 yuan, the vision was beautiful, but reality was harsh.

Furthermore, you are in lighting; macro control systems beyond lighting are the domain of established "large companies," where lighting accounts for less than 10%. How can you win? I have a good friend who was very successful in lighting for the first ten years, but abandoned lighting in the next ten years to pursue big data, and the result is predictable. Genius is rare; without strong capital support, never attempt a zero-to-one venture a second time.

4. New Quality and High Quality

What is the new quality productive force for lighting enterprises? How to achieve high-quality development for lighting enterprises? This is the key to solving the problem of involution. A company in Changzhou is making lamps for lithography machines used in IC production lines, replacing imported products, selling for tens of thousands of yuan each. A device with a halogen lamp in China Eye Valley is for eye therapy, selling for 200,000 yuan per unit. If a clinic equips one, isn't that a "huge" market? Since heating the eyes can also be achieved with LED lamps, upgrading to therapeutic equipment makes it high-end, especially if paired with doctor-patient data? Similarly, isn't the market for beauty lighting even larger? Why not give it a try?

5, Wisdom and

Recently, PLC (Power Line Communication) has become popular, becoming the favorite of smart cities and even smart light poles, perhaps driven by Huawei! I was invited to visit a company in Guangzhou. The female boss confidently said: "We don't even need to go out; we can achieve 150 million next year (starting from almost zero)." Their slogan asks what industry diseases and pains it cures? After hearing this, I felt it was extremely outdated. I casually helped them draft a sentence: "One wire changes the lighting world!" Upon hearing this, they suddenly realized its value, immediately noted it down, and planned to use it right away. Later, I visited Nansha Zhongke Zhicheng. I trust the technology of the Software Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; it is both safe and reliable. Unfortunately, it cannot become the only choice in the industry. Since the emergence of smart light poles and urban combined poles, there has been a hundred schools of thought contending and a hundred flowers blooming. One hundred companies will have one hundred systems. Why can't they be integrated into a standard type?

Similarly, the control systems for smart lighting are the same; what a huge waste of resources. There is no particularly high technical threshold, so why fight to the death? A few years ago, a design master in Hangzhou asked me, saying that a certain enterprise jumped into making control systems, using mostly young people under 30. Can they succeed? I answered immediately: No! A lamp seller suddenly selling system integration, without even explaining the PPT clearly, do you think they can succeed?

6, City and Cultural Tourism

"Cities make life better," this was the slogan of the Shanghai World Expo. "Lighting makes life better," this should also become the theme word that the lighting industry talks about every year, every month, and every day. Beautiful China needs beautiful lighting; this is the mission and pursuit of lighting professionals. During the day, we mostly rely on sunlight, but at night, we must rely on lighting; this is a human necessity. Urban landscape lighting and cultural tourism lighting are characteristics of China. This is determined by the strong national power, so that people can directly gain a sense of acquisition and happiness from the brilliant lights. Regardless of any controversy? The main trend will only be to make lighting more beautiful, more environmentally friendly, more energy-saving, and more moving.

Of course, based on the current economic analysis, capable enterprises should bravely take a step forward and directly invest in cultural tourism lighting projects. Signing a 10-15 year project, somewhat similar to street light projects, using a managed operation model, can still be profitable if the potential is accurately assessed and calculations are precise. The night view lighting project of Slender West Lake in Yangzhou is a benchmark case; the contractor has additionally invested in Dujiangyan.

7. OEM and Self-Created Brands

Contract manufacturing is one path, a shortcut. Several domestic companies have taken this route to achieve a successful IPO. Creating your own brand and going global is certainly better, but it is comparatively much more difficult. Interestingly, lighting brands show strong localization tendencies, especially in Europe and America. Grandfathers use them, then sons, then grandsons. However, there are two exceptions. One exception is where capable enterprises persist with resilience, continuously investing heavily to penetrate the market further. The other exception is the remote African market, where cost-effective light source products dominate. If supported by major international brands, a dual-brand strategy yields even more significant results.

8. General Purpose and Niche Markets

General lighting covers a large volume and wide range, characterized by intense internal and external competition. Firstly, prices are low; secondly, quality requirements are high. Average small and medium-sized enterprises find it difficult to compete unless they have the inherent advantage of 'shelter under a big tree'; otherwise, it is hard to achieve greatness. SMEs should leverage their advantage of 'small ships turning quickly' by creating differentiated products. I admire some companies that do this well: offering what others don't, and superior quality where others do. By taking the first step and establishing early presence, they excel in difficult, high-barrier areas. They dance skillfully in the international market, obtaining increasingly difficult international certification certificates (explosion-proof series). With entry permits, there are few competitors, allowing for a relatively closed loop.

9, Innovation and Expansion

Innovation must keep pace with the times, especially as the AI era marks the end of the industrial age. How should lighting move in this direction? LEDVANCE has set a successful example for us: an AI lighting robot won the 2025 US LIT Lighting Design Award. Friends have asked to buy it; even at a thousand yuan per unit, there is no shortage of consumers. Pixar also released an AI desk lamp, quite playful. The nature of the lamp has changed; it seems like it has become your close friend, not only providing visual comfort but also emotional value, which is interesting! Many years ago, when Shenzhen Konka entered the lighting industry, its then-chairman discussed it with me, and I said: "Master lighting." How exactly to do it? It was not very clear. Now, looking back, AI has arrived, lamps have come alive, and we can start playing!

10, Correct Guidance and Misleading Directions

The orderly and healthy development of the lighting industry requires positive energy. Universities and enterprises must share responsibility and provide guidance that keeps pace with the times, avoiding the repetition or misuse of outdated terms from foreign sources. For example, first, light pollution. Where did this term originate? Is the translation accurate? Americans call it light interference. A few scholars at universities in Shanghai like to apply for municipal projects. Outdoor lighting is not enough; they even extend it to indoors, isn't that strange? With such rich vocabulary in Chinese, why favor this term? A supervising official said: "Isn't this misleading?" Even worse, in a park in the central urban area of the "Magic City" (Shanghai), they created a demonstration. They made a perfectly good park predominantly dark, so much so that using a mobile phone feels tiring to the eyes, let alone reading under the light.

For example, second, blue light hazard. This is even more baffling; I don't know why. The industry likes to use terms like low blue light and dual blue light; being neutral and gentle is fine. But talking about blue light hazard, isn't this exaggeration, shooting oneself in the foot? CCTV just broadcast the HarmonyOS Night Concert, all under the glow of blue light. Are Huawei employees and participants not afraid of blue light hazard? Besides, humans survive under the blue sky, and sunlight contains blue light. Do we need to, as Mr. Lu Xun said, "hide in the corridor and ignore winter, summer, spring, and autumn"? A PhD told me: "Without verification of dosage, it is a 'lie'."

For example, "Dark Sky." It is said that Shenzhen has an "International Dark Sky Community" project, which has been honored with the IDA certification. I wonder: what is the purpose of lighting? Isn't it to bring pleasure to the public? Why talk about affecting astronomical observations? Astronomers in the past, when science was less developed, needed to observe the stars and coined certain terms. Why take them as absolute truth? Today, China has the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) in Guizhou. Why do you still need dark skies in the city?

In short, whether in academia or industry, we in the lighting community have the responsibility to transmit positive energy and empower the lighting industry to become brighter. Since the establishment of the national leadership office for Semiconductor / Solid-state lighting (SSL) in June 2003, more than 22 years have passed. China's LED lighting has evolved from following, to running alongside, to leading! We in the lighting industry are both light chasers and light creators. Can we emit more positive and upward light?

Conclusion

Edison invented the electric light, which illuminated the world for about 100 years. Humans invented the LED lamp; can it also last for 100 years? I am optimistic. Recently, perovskite quantum dots were introduced, which I thought was a brand-new discovery, and I was excited for a while. After on-site investigation, the main light source behind it is still LED. Later, I heard about other inventions? Actually, it is a good thing, just adding flowers to brocade; the protagonist of lighting remains LED.

As long as the Earth exists and humanity exists, the Sun and LED lighting will coexist.

Source: "Tang Shiyi"