Business Questions, Comments and Stories from a Week of China Tradeshows Here is the best quote from the shows so far. In talking with a Chinese industry consultant about the status of sourcing electronics in China, he told us: “I think that many foreigners have some serious problems here.” This is from a guy whose job it is to promote the
Business SRI Spring Tradeshow Speaking Schedule I’ll be speaking at 3 different shows in April. Topics range from Problems Solving to Sourcing Basics and an extended version of the bi-annual China for New Buyers. Like I've done with previous shows, I'll be posting Q&A as well as some
Business Labor, Sub-suppliers and Time--3 other ways to lose money in China A quick story before I get to the issues at hand. An interesting thing happened on the way home from church… I was picking strawberries with my boys at a small farm yesterday when I overheard the workers talking about us. Now, hearing people talk about foreign kids isn’t
Business Reasons why a factory doesn’t want you to come see things. Before I get to the post today, everyone working in China should read this great article on corrupt QC (h/t China Law Blog).----------------We’ve been extremely busy both before and after the CNY break. As we get back into factories to do QC and project management some factories
Business Under-promise, Over-deliver, Part II, Vietnam So I’m sitting in a factory office outside of HCM city as the factory General Manager is talking with another client. The inevitable discussion about product quality and how the production doesn’t match the samples comes up and the conversation starts to get heated. The client is arguing
Business Even if it's not your fault... On of the things that I’ve learned, the hard way, about doing business in China is that as a (foreign) buyer when there are problems, even if they’re not my fault, I’m going to be asked to pay for them. For me, this is the single most
Business Famous Chinese Brands and other things you've never heard of This article started a discussion on the China Law Blog LinkedIn group. Since I participated a bit (and I thought I summed it up nicely, "if I do say so my damn self") I thought I'd share my comments here. Interesting article. Convoluted point. My ten
Business Yea, but I'm not a Billion Dollar Global Giant While the Google controversy is truly fascinating, unless it’s directly impacting your ability to do business it really doesn’t matter exactly why Google says they might be leaving China. For most people it doesn’t even matter if they leave China or not. (For the rest of us
Business Foreign Mental Blocks While working in China is a completely new experience for most foreigners—and a completely foreign experience at that—there are some things that are, well, pretty easy to understand, I think, but that many new-to-China foreigners just don’t seem to get. I’ve put together a
Book Reviews Books to read if you’re coming to China I apologize for not posting for a while. I was completing a year-long goal of losing 50lbs and running a triathlon, the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, this last week. I have never been so proud of 618th place in my life! I've also been incredible busy--I'
