Por David Dayton

De nuevo, estoy en una fábrica que trabaja a través de las ediciones de la producción que serían imposibles solucionar sobre el teléfono, con el email, o aún con las fotografías. ¿Cuál es la edición este vez? Entre otras cosas, mi tarea primaria este viaje es definir las capacidades reales de la fábrica comparadas con las echadas de ventas excesivo-optimistas presentadas en sus folletos. ¡La calificación de una fábrica es definitivamente algo que usted no puede hacer de enfrente de el globo o aún de una gran distancia dentro del mismo país!

Estoy hoy en el surtidor doméstico chino más grande de un producto específico de la estampilla. Y mientras que creo que este hecho puede ser verdad, tan pronto como sea en la tierra en la fábrica yo sepa que qué nos han dicho no es necesariamente mentiras enteramente exactas-no, solamente acceso no completo tampoco.

Ahora, la opinión que controla o el overselling para hostigar a un cliente es nada nuevo en negocio. Está igual en la comercialización o compras en los E.E.U.U. o dondequiera, realmente. Nos todos han aspado en comprar algo sobre-hyped el cual estaba o se han falsificado probablemente. Y entonces, esperanzadamente, han aprendido ser cauteloso a la luz del remordimiento de nuestro comprador. Tener cuidado este mismo en China le servirá bien. Mientras que en el país nos todos utilizan al hyperbole, China es el amo de opiniones de manejo.

Para los millares de años los chinos han utilizado táctica psicologicas para abrumar y para intimidar a huéspedes, a diplomatas y a hombres de negocios extranjeros igualmente. Among the most famous examples is Mao Zedong’s meetings with Stalin-held at swimming pools over hot tea, both of which Stalin hated. Mao used and even created Stalin’s discomfort to his advantage.

Fortunately, that approach has changed. Today, you will be not be made to feel uncomfortable intentionally when visiting a factory in China. Quite the opposite. They will roll out the red carpets to their chauffeured limos and honor you at huge banquets. With careful planning, the Chinese control events and itineraries allowing them to sculpt the specific impressions they desire and to control, to a large degree, your perceptions of China and the particular factory you are visiting.

If perception is reality, then all a factory has to do is improve your perception by projecting a more capable situation than actually exists. That’s what I’m dealing with today.

We are picked up at the airport in a midsized foreign car by the boss and his driver. The fact that the car is foreign is a good sign, but it’s not German, Japanese or American which are considered to be higher status symbols in China. The boss is gracious and kind, but since he personally came to the airport to greet us we know a couple of things right off the bat. First, he doesn’t have a large (or any) foreign sales staff or he surely would have sent someone who speaks English. Second, while coming to great us personally is very nice of him, it also says that he handles most the factory business himself and isn’t too busy at this time.

Arriving at the factory complex, we are met by a guard at the gate and the boss’s wife in the office. All the large flat warehouse-like buildings have recently received a new coat of yellow paint. “All this for us? ” I ask. “Yes,” he tells us. He is glad to have us come and has been working hard to prepare the samples according to the standards that we outlined for him. Again, I’m touched by his willingness to make a good impression, but worried that he is willing to do so much for our visit. It seems to me that the “largest domestic producer in China” would have more significant accounts than this, our first trial order.

“The long trip must have made you very tired,” says the laobanniang (boss’s wife). We are ushered into an air-conditioned meeting room prepared with cold water, fresh fruit and copies of the factory’s newest catalogue. After a few more administrators (all men) are shown in, we start our grand tour with a review of their promotional literature and a brief corporate history. We walk through offices for QC, accounting, domestic sales, dormitories and reception (filled almost exclusively with women), and then out into the courtyard and across the complex to the production areas. First impressions: clean floors, freshly painted walls, uniformed employees and a number of huge fans working to keep everyone cool. About 50 employees are assembling stamps for domestic clients and some in Singapore. All the assembly line employees are women between the ages of 16 and 35. A couple of men are hauling large dollies of product from one place to the next.

Some of the workers look very young and I make a mental note to ask about this later-maybe after dinner or in the boss’s office. Now is not the time to raise questions. This is their turn to show off what they have and what they can do.

The next building is much darker and dirtier than the last. Though it must be recently painted, the oil and water from all the mold-cutting machines and the filings from the engravings and moldings have already soiled the floors and walls. One wall is complete covered from floor to ceiling with shelves of metal mold plates. Hundreds of them. No uniforms here. Another 20 men (everyone here is male except for one woman at a computer in the corner), all bare-chested and obviously used to hard work, crawling like ants over and around 15 to 20 large active machines. Machines engraving and cutting molds, hydraulic presses spitting out plastic parts, grinders, hand drills, and various CAD machines combine to give us the impression that this is the very heart of the Chinese economic miracle.

Other buildings house raw materials, finished product, a kitchen and some space for future expansion.

The tour takes about half an hour and we finish up in the same air-conditioned room in which we started. We are left alone while they make preparations for dinner. The purpose of the tour was to impress us with what they can do. While waiting, we take the opportunity to ask different men that pop in and out of the room a few light questions about numbers of employees, production quantities, etc. Dinner will be more of the same. A big meal that we can’t possibly finish (again, to show off how much food/money they can afford to waste) more small talk, drinks to loosen everyone up (I’ll politely refuse), maybe some Karaoke. We’ll start to talk about business about halfway through the meal. No specifics, this is the time to get to know each other. Business will start tomorrow morning.

David Dayton, Silk Road International