Waarom het Betalen van meer de Goede Zaken van China is
Door Dan Harris
Mijn vriend Chris Carr, deken van het van CalPoly Mba- programma en de hersenen achter de Internationale BedrijfsReis blog heeft een zeer nadenkende gerechtigde post, „Zal Betalend Meer Gedrag van de Verandering en iemand Ethischer maken?“ Nadenkend, maar verkeerd.
De postcentra op of het betalen van meer u beter prestaties en/of betere ethiek wordt, en Chris zeggen vrij veel het niet:
„Sommigen stelden voor dat wij konden het probleem van teveel producten met gebreken oplossen die uit China door meer aan de Chinese leveranciers komen te betalen die dit materiaal maken. Ik vroeg die veronderstelling, en nog.
Één voorbeeld 1 gaf in die besprekingsdraad was dat als het betalen van mensen meer het probleem oplosten, dan waarom meer nog betalend de meeste goede werknemers in goede prestaties, maar niet superieure prestaties resulteren? (Zie Commentaar Nr. 29.) En waarom wordt het betalen van de meeste slechte werknemers meer geld nog u slechte prestaties, en niet goede prestaties? (Als u van mening bent dat meer geld met hogere prestaties correleert, kom zien me nadat u meer dan een paar mensen hebt ingehuurd hebt, geleid en in brand gestoken, en vergelijk nota's.)“
Sta me aan deconstruct toe. Als u uw Chinese leverancier onderbetaalt, zult u slecht product krijgen. Het is eenvoudig dat. Door te onderbetalen, bedoel ik dat als u uw leverancier 1000 Yuan betaalt om koper door buizen leidend te maken dat 1000 Yuan in koper vereist, u het slechte door buizen leiden zal krijgen. Gewaarborgd. Uw pijpen zullen geen waarde 1000 Yuan van koper in hen hebben. They just won’t. Paying 2000 Yuan for the piping will not guarantee you get 1000 Yuan of copper in them, but it certainly does improve your odds. Does anyone disagree with me on this?
Paying employees more does improve performance, and it does it in at least two ways. If you pay your good employees more, they are more likely to stay with your company and forsake all others. This allows you to retain good employees and overall company performance rises. The second way is more direct and, presumably, more what Chris had in mind. If you pay people well, they will be enthused about their job, like the company for which they work, and be more willing to give their all. I have seen this in my company’s employees and those of my clients and I have felt this myself.
Many years ago, my firm had two good sized vessel owning companies as clients. Both would have their vessels repaired mostly in China and Korea. One would bargain the shipyard down to its “absolute lowest price” and then be an incredibly slow pay and the other would not negotiate quite so hard and would always pay on time. My firm handled countless shipyard disputes for both of these companies over the years and I can tell you it was very clear to me that the better paying client was getting much faster and better (and I think, in the end, cheaper) service from the same shipyards. When we would call the shipyard on behalf of the better paying client, our calls would be returned promptly. Not so with the other client. At one point, both clients needed a vessel repaired quickly from the same shipyard and both were told it would take about a month. The shipyard was hugely busy and the better paying client got its vessel back in a month while it took two months for the other client. Is anyone surprised by any of this?
And what does “paying more” in the context of China manufacturing really mean, anyway? If it meant just willy-nilly raising the price paid to Chinese factories, I would completely agree with Chris. But I think it also means a willingness to pay more for such things as due diligence, good contracts, and quality control monitoring and nobody will ever convince me that these three things do not greatly increase the likelihood of good product from China.
Choose your side.
UPDATE: Just saw this post over at Time’s China Blog. May help prove my point.
Dan Harris is a founding member of Harris & Moure, an international boutique law firm. He is also co-editor of China Law Blog.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Your last points need emphasizing. “Paying more” should not simply refer to paying the Chinese supplier/manufacturer more but should also refer (as you said) to spending more money on quality control, vendor training and other associated, “hands-on” activities. One area little explored is training Western staff back at HQ, especially executives (so they have a more realistic view of what to expect and ask for from China operations) and back office staff (so deals don’t go sideways during the order fulfillment stages).
February 11th, 2008 at 3:44 am
From my own purchasing experiences with Chinese factories, “Paying More” means better parts, better quality of products. Chinese factories could supply the same model of consumer electronics to various U.S. chain stores, however the level of quality for the same product may vary. It all depends on how much you pay the factory, the more you pay, the better parts they use!
February 12th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
As a Chinese, I agree Chinese factories can provide the same product with various quality. But in fact Chinese are easy to cooperate with when you know the Chinese culture.
Paying more is one good way to get good products and on time delivery, however, strong and positive attitude towards cooperation and a representative in China are also needed.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:54 am
That is not always the case. The more you pay, the better product or performance you will get. Normally that’s true.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:48 am
The characteristics of Chinese manufacturing capabilities and performance differ in two respects only to the rest of the world. Firstly, the capacity is huge on a global scale. Secondly, within that capacity there will be many hundreds of manufacturers who will offer to produce your product. The competition is fantastic. You must accept responsibility for specifying what you want in your product, including quality, packaging and delivery. Having specified very carefully, you must then continuously evaluate the supplied product against your product specification. This is simple stuff, but too often overlooked by consumers and importers. Criticising Chinese manufacturers is nonsense.