So looking back, what did the Western automotive industry underestimate about China at that time?

Unfortunately, so many things.

The Western companies in China were... were forced to work in what they were called joint ventures and they were usually they only had up to 49 of those joint ventures right so the chinese kept control there was an exception here and there but for the most part the chinese had 51 and the foreigners had 49 and there was a technology transfer which meant that the joint ventures had to pay license fees to the western companies for technology developed elsewhere to be applied in the chinese market And that gave the Westerners, I think, a false sense of security.

Because these license fees were saying, we don't know how to build these cars without you, so then we need to pay you.

And making a lot of money in China also makes a little bit complacent.

It's all going well.

Nobody needs to change anything.

What was that culture like when you came into Bentley at that time? What were some of your roles and how different was everything for