1. Strengthen Brand Building and Promote Cross-Industry Communication

　　Some companies believe that the engineering market lacks brands and that low prices are the only reliable indicator. However, as the market matures, brands are becoming increasingly prominent in the engineering market. The brand awareness, reputation, and trustworthiness of companies in the engineering market are gradually being valued by real estate developers and design institutes. Establishing a positive brand image in the engineering market is a crucial task for companies going forward. Cross-industry communication is an important approach; actively engaging with real estate developers and design institutes to communicate and promote excellent products and design solutions is particularly important.

2. Emphasize Integrity and Rights Protection

　　Currently, the industry still suffers from phenomena that damage its reputation, such as misleading consumers, disorderly competition, dumping, counterfeiting, and false advertising. Furthermore, reputation is reflected in corporate tax payments, inter-company debts, and relationships between companies and employees.

　　(1) Failure to pay taxes according to law affects a company's reputation. Some companies also engage in illegal activities such as tax evasion and fraudulently obtaining export tax refunds. With the improvement of the legal system, such behavior, once exposed, will inevitably affect the healthy development of companies.

　　(2) Dishonest business dealings between companies affect their reputation. The complex inter-enterprise debt relationships, including "triangular debt" and "multi-cornered debt," severely impact the normal operation of enterprises. Enterprises often advance funds for engineering projects, and real estate developers delay payments, leading to insufficient follow-up funding and severely hindering development. Some enterprises, in order to secure orders, take risks by advancing funds and maliciously grabbing market share with low prices, only to fail to receive payment due to substandard engineering projects and lose future market share.

　　(3) Exaggerated advertising or false claims by enterprises significantly damage their reputation. Counterfeit and substandard products, along with false advertising, mislead consumers. For example, products with Level 3 energy efficiency are labeled with Level 1 energy efficiency; products used in engineering projects differ from those awarded in bids; some enterprises produce substandard products but affix qualified inspection certificates, passing them off as high-quality goods; cutting corners to reduce costs deceives customers; and poor or excessive service promises also erode consumer trust.

　　(4) Weak awareness of intellectual property rights. Due to insufficient innovation capabilities, some enterprises resort to plagiarism and imitation, blatantly using other companies' patented technologies and engaging in trademark infringement—dishonest practices are rampant in the industry. Currently, intellectual property infringement is time-consuming and involves complex procedures, leaving some companies feeling helpless. However, with the increasing emphasis on intellectual property rights by the state recently, companies that infringe on intellectual property rights will inevitably be punished.

　　Integrity is not only a moral standard but also a crucial resource that can bring economic benefits to enterprises, and to some extent, it is even more important than material and human resources. The survival and development of enterprises aim to maximize economic benefits, and truly sustainable economic benefits come from honest business practices.

3. Strengthen Product Quality and Service Awareness

　　Competition among enterprises is essentially product competition, and product competitiveness is mainly reflected in quality. A key reason why world-renowned companies possess strong competitiveness is that they consistently focus on product quality. Improving management and developing new technologies lead to the production of higher-quality products. If a company's products and services are inferior to those of other companies, no one will buy its products, let alone make a profit. A company without profit has only one way out—closure.

4. Boost Confidence and Adaptability

　　Economic slowdown, fierce competition, declining sales, increased operating costs, and thinning profits have led many business leaders to lack confidence in the industry's development, and pessimism is spreading. The 13th Five-Year Plan set a target of 800 million square meters. Solar thermal utilization technology is expanding into areas such as hot water heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration, with solar heating alone representing a trillion-yuan market.

　　Currently, my country's solar thermal utilization market is only focused on the low-temperature market and needs to expand into medium- and high-temperature markets. The medium-temperature market is considered a sleeping giant. The "China Renewable Energy Development Roadmap 2050" indicates that under the basic and positive targets of solar energy application development, China's annual carbon dioxide emission reduction will reach 2.15 billion tons and 4.65 billion tons respectively by 2050. It is easy to foresee that this market has enormous potential and broad prospects.

　　The market is changing, and companies must adapt and adjust accordingly. Many companies in the industry pursue "large and comprehensive" or "small and comprehensive" solutions, leading to a large amount of repetitive, low-level construction and redundant investment, with a lack of significant professional specialization and cooperation. Companies need to pursue a specialized and refined development path, forming their own characteristics and core competitiveness.

5. Expanding into New Fields and Exploring New Models

　　Solar thermal utilization has a wide range of applications, not just domestic hot water, but can be applied in many other places where heat is needed. Globally, solar thermal utilization accounts for approximately 49% of the energy market. Mature and widely applied technologies in solar thermal utilization are concentrated in the medium- and low-temperature sectors. Strong market demand has spurred the rapid development of the solar water heater industry; while centralized solar heating and cooling are currently in the demonstration stage. With technological breakthroughs and wider application, the cost of solar combined cooling, heating, and cooling systems (hot water, heating, and cooling) will significantly decrease in the near to medium term, enabling commercial expansion. Furthermore, with economic transformation and industrial restructuring, in the medium to long term, medium-temperature solar thermal utilization is expected to play a significant role in energy conservation and emission reduction in industrial and agricultural sectors. Therefore, enterprises can fully leverage technological innovation to expand low-temperature hot water heating and its application in the medium- and high-temperature markets.

　　The international solar thermal utilization market is relatively mature, with specialized manufacturers of complete units and components, professional sales companies, professional design institutions, dedicated investment companies, and professional operation and maintenance companies. Currently, my country's solar energy production companies primarily provide integrated services from manufacturing to operation and maintenance. The mainstream engineering market should now feature specialized division of labor and cooperation. The environments for technology research and development, manufacturing, system integration, engineering design, installation and construction, engineering supervision, operation management, and maintenance services should be subdivided. Enterprises should leverage their respective strengths, complementing each other and fostering symbiosis. This lays a solid foundation for industrialization and large-scale development, and provides clients and users with clearer functional requirements and professional job concepts. As the market matures, professional collaboration becomes essential. Enterprises should position themselves in the market early on based on their own characteristics and advantages, adjusting their focus to technological innovation and specific market segments. By specializing in a particular market segment, they can secure a place and achieve significant growth.

6. Emphasize Talent and Technological Innovation

　　Price wars are undesirable; they are an inevitable consequence of products lacking innovation, patents, and homogenization. Therefore, the solution lies in continuous innovation. Solar water heaters have remained largely unchanged for nearly 20 years, resulting in severe homogenization and inevitably leading to price wars. Technological innovation is the only way to resolve price wars. Technological innovation, as a broad concept, includes three main aspects: management innovation, technological innovation, and market innovation. These are interconnected and form an organic whole. To ensure a sustained competitive advantage, effective technological innovation is essential. A company's independent R&D and innovation capabilities directly impact the scale and quality of its development. In a highly competitive market, those who gain an advantage in technological innovation will seize opportunities and gain the initiative in the competition.

　　Technological innovation requires corresponding talent, and innovative technical personnel play a leading role in a company's independent innovation activities. Companies can consider a complementary development mechanism that combines the strengths of research-oriented and practical talents. In Germany, a large number of technicians are active in the business world; they are application-oriented technical talents with both theoretical knowledge and strong practical skills, playing a vital role in the development of German industrial production. Similarly, for our industry to achieve sustainable and healthy development, companies should prioritize the introduction and training of talent and establish sound talent development mechanisms.

7. Cross-border Integration and Collaborative Development

　　"Cross-border" has become a popular term in the last two years, with many successful classic examples of cross-border cooperation. "Cross-border cooperation" refers to a new industry, new field, new model, or new style that emerges by crossing two different fields, industries, cultures, ideologies, etc. First, companies in our industry should recognize the necessity and importance of cross-industry cooperation, and then proactively seek opportunities and platforms for cross-industry communication, exploring cooperation models and business opportunities through communication and exchange.

　　With the rapid development of the internet, the competitive landscape is undergoing tremendous changes. Confrontation and competition are increasingly losing their appeal, and cooperation and win-win outcomes have become the main theme of the market. Not only is cooperation between upstream and downstream companies within the same industry chain becoming closer, but cross-industry cooperation between different sectors has also become a call of the times.