Da David Dayton

Ancora una volta, sono in una fabbrica che funziona attraverso le edizioni di produzione che sarebbero impossibli risolvere sopra il telefono, con il email, o persino con le fotografie. Che cosa è l'edizione questo volta? Tra l'altro, la mia operazione primaria questo viaggio è di definire le possibilità reali della fabbrica rispetto ai passi di vendite eccessivo-ottimisti presentati in loro opuscoli. La qualificazione della fabbrica è definitivamente qualcosa che non possiate fare dall'altro lato del globo o persino da una distanza grande all'interno dello stesso paese!

Oggi sono al più grande fornitore domestico cinese di un prodotto specifico del bollo. E mentre credo che questo fatto possa essere allineare, non appena sono su terra alla fabbrica io sappia che a che cosa ci siamo detti non è necessariamente bugie interamente esatte-non, ma rilevazione non completa neanche.

Ora, la percezione di controllo o overselling per adescare un cliente è niente di nuovo nel commercio. È lo stesso nell'introduzione sul mercato o nello shopping negli Stati Uniti o dovunque, realmente. Tutti probabilmente siamo stati annaspati nell'acquisto della qualcosa che fosse sopra-hyped o siamo stati travisati. Ed allora, eventualmente, hanno imparato essere prudente alla luce del remorse del nostro compratore. Prestando attenzione questo stesso in Cina li servirà bene. Mentre tutti siamo usati a hyperbole nel paese, la Cina è il padrone delle percezioni in carico.

Per le migliaia di anni il cinese ha usato le tattiche psicologiche per sopraffare egualmente ed intimidire gli ospiti, i diplomatici e gli uomini d'affari stranieri. 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