Culture - Silk Road International (Page 7)

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Culture

A collection of 174 posts

What you don't know you don't know can be dangerous

It goes without saying that there is more than one version of China. The view of the English teacher, the foreign expat working for a large MNC, the foreign entrepreneur. There's rural China, East Coast China, rich and poor China, white collar vs blue collar, etc. I’m

Red Shirts and Business as Usual

Red Shirts and Business as Usual

The protests in BKK have put the Thai government and the Thai people in an awkward position. The protests are no longer about if the government will change. Rather they are about when will the govt step down, how will it come about, and what will Thailand do afterward. The

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

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

Reading the (Western) Media on China

Reading the (Western) Media on China

UPDATE, 01/03/10: Apple Admits Child labour was Used to Build iPods and iPhones in Chinese Factories.This is at best an (educated) guess but at worse a lie--Apple did not admit this. From the article: The exact location of the factories has not been identified. Apple has

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

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

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

Another day, another interesting conversation (headache) with a factory.

We’ve been working on samples for a large order of clothes for over a year now. The clothes are cool, new, fun. But it’s been a very difficult process getting to the end of the road—the start of actual production. We’ve got the PO signed, the

Books to read if you’re coming to China

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'