Doing Business in China

Doing business in China is a lot like receiving a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna' get. Visiting factories in person is important. Often things are not what they seem. The Chinese are not yet innovators. They are a nation of laborers, not thinkers. They copy, not design. Not to paint the whole nation with a broad brush, but they are behind industry-wise. They have been a closed nation for a very long time. They have not yet learned the lessons that can only be learned through experience in the world marketplace. I observed quality issues in some cases. QC is very important when the bulk of your production is hand labor. And in this lies the strength and the achilles heel of the Chinese industry. All these cheap, young hands to make things with, but also the level of human error that comes along with it. The West has long ago gone to automation to solve quality problems.

So, about the copies. That is what everyone is interested in, right? Copies of everything abound. Some are so good, only very skilled eyes can detect. Some become evident over time. But you can buy quality originals here - after all this is where many of them are made. You just need to be in contact with people who have worked in or for the manufacturers. And for some, if the copy is almost exactly as the original, it is of little consequence anyways.

The Chinese are having problems, like us, in communication. They still are trying to find the profitable way to market their services. Our ways are confusing to them. There is a large gap in understanding one another, but in the cases I have experienced, they are willing and seem anxious to participate in Capitalism, or whatever concept they have of it. Mr. Wang, a glassmaker I am in contact with seems to be studying the magic art of "smoozing". He has brown nosed me from the time we met until the moment I left Shenzhen. I allowed him to help me around the city when I wanted assistance, but I would not accept his offers of wining and dining to get my business (and believe you me I could've used a decent meal). In my opinion, this is not an admirable practice of American business. I do not want to encourage this in the Chinese. Much depends on getting the details right. It is there where I have had the greatest challenge at the factories. Subtle details are sometimes lost as we massacre each other's native tongue in efforts to communicate. With dialects and semantics all jumbled together, it takes time and effort to make sense of each other and the little things sometimes fall into the cracks.

So while there is definitely profit to be had in China, It has to be mined. I hope to have more time in the future to better understand and appreciate their system. They are growing and maturing and are destined to make the same mistakes we are making here in the West. Disregarding human labor welfare, raping natural resources and ruining the environment cannot go on without consequences. There will be a sad reckoning. Four days of doing business has made me no expert on China. I see things from a pinhole camera. But what I've seen, I have enjoyed and I hope to continue to do business with this great people.