Supplier Love

(photo credit: GR Sipe)

I recently sat in a seminar where a guy, who runs a company in the Western world, which “specializes in China sourcing”, was telling the attendees not to make relationships with their suppliers.  I couldn’t believe my ears.

Boogeyman

China is opening up to the outside world.  Everybody and their brother know China is the place for manufacturing.  

The days of marketing China as a big, mysterious, scary beast are over.  If you are a company that touts itself as a China manufacturing expert and you do it under the blanket of how “scary” and “unreliable” it is to buy from China, then your days of marketing in that fashion may be numbered.

Bustling

China is bustling.  There’s no two ways about it, good or bad, the place is rowdy.   It’s a developing nation, it’s changing faster than any nation has changed in modern times and currently it’s a mess.

Work_Pt II

(Photo Credit: GR Sipe)

In the first part of this 2-part series, I illuminated my background and concept of the timeless institution of “work” and endeavored to contrast that with the modern-China concept of the same, or at least as my limited perspective perceives it to be here.

Work_Pt I

Managing a company in China since 2004, I’ve seen employees do and say a lot of…hmmm….how to say….weird things.  My China tour-of-duty is going on 10 years and even after these years of robust economic and structural development the country has seen, you can still see, a lack of professional development. 

Assumptions

Assumptions:  we all make them.  Many of them good, many of them bad.  I safely assumed when I woke up this morning I would have running water and electricity in my apartment.  That is a fairly safe, daily assumption.

Expect the Expected

(Photo Credit: Cindy W. Yount)

In life you should expect the characteristics of the place you live to shine forth.  For example, I live in China and to be successful, I have to make prevision for China to be like China.

Just as sure as the sun will rise in the East and set in the West, I can expect certain things to happen in China.  The expat and even local Chinese person who lives in China and hopes to grow (physically, spiritually, economically, etc…), should have certain expectations.  Wherever you live and whatever you do, you should be expectant. 

The Chinese Language “To study or to work???”

Monday's guest blogger is my colleague and friend, Mr. Shakiri Murrain.  See his LinkedIn profile here.

(Photo Credit: GR Sipe)

Since arriving in China in November 2006, I have met many many foreigners coming for a multitude of different reasons.  Some come for study abroad trips, some for business & some just to see the anomaly we call China.  The common denominator is that we all came with huge ambition and not a lot of knowledge of what China actually is like (In my opinion, print/online media give such a limited view).   So no matter how you look at it, there is a lot to learn.