Quality Control is a crucial part in the process of importing from China. Pressure on production costs, distance, time and cultural differences make it unavoidable.

Implementing Quality Control allows the importer to :
• Minimize the risks (and associated costs) linked to quality, loading, warehousing or non-compliance issues : “My products have been rejected by customs because the labelling done by my Chinese supplier does not comply with European standards.”

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By William Dodson

A simple taxi ride from Shanghai to Suzhou put me very much in mind of developing contracts with Chinese – even the simplest of contracts. Very seldom in business do Chinese adhere to the Letter of the Law, while they exorcise its Spirit at their earliest convenience. And if the agreement is verbal, then watch out!

The deal was this: for 300RMB – including tolls – the Shanghai driver would take me to Suzhou. Assumptions: the taxi driver with whom I made the deal will be the one taking me; only the taxi driver and I will be making the trip; the trip will be direct, along the HuNing Highway that connects the two cities; the trip should take about an hour, since it was already 8pm, past Shanghai rush hour. Train and bus tickets back home were sold out.

I explained to the police in Suzhou the reason I refused to pay the taxi driver the 300RMB – instead, offering 200rmb – was that the driver and the taxi ring had deceived me, wasted my time and scared me half to death. Mind you, it was I who had called the police, because a Deal is a Deal and by golly this interpreting agreements Chinese Way was seriously getting on my nerves at the end of the trip, near 11pm.
Read the rest of “Terms of frustration in China” or post a comment

In terms of human resources, the current debate is focused on the continued need for multinational corporations in China to increase hiring of local staff, particularly for operations management, while decreasing or completely removing expatriate staff. Reasons for this shift away from expatriate staff include the high cost of salary and benefit packages, questionable value (in terms of productivity and ability to drive the business), high failure rates and most recently, the large readily available talent pool of expatriates already based in China (“halfpats”).

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By Nannette Ripmeester

In this issue I am venturing beyond European borders to China, a fast growing marketplace. But starting operations in a new market is not easy.Will you move your own people to the new location or will you start hiring locally? And if you hire locally, how do you attract the best candidates and what do these new recruits expect?

Campus recruitment

Kevin Ng, Partner at the Beijing office of Deloitte, is clear about the type of graduates Deloitte targets. “We will only approach the first-tier universities in China to be assured of quality graduates,” he says. “We conduct campus recruitment to introduce our firm and the attributes of graduates we are looking for.” Read the rest of “Eastern Promise?” or post a comment

Get 100 RMB off by mentioning China Success Stories!

CultureFish Media will host a one-day trio of charity events designed to raise awareness and generate funds for the China Dreamblogue and its associated charities. The three events (YOU CAN COME TO ONE OR ALL!) include:

1. A One in a Million Charity Golf Tournament,
2. The China Digital Media Workshop,
3. and the China Dreambash featuring international hit singer and Capitol records artist Che’nelle. Read the rest of “China DreamBlogue Dream Bash” or post a comment