By Dan Harris

My friend Chris Carr, dean of the CalPoly MBA program and the brains behind the International Business Tour blog has a very thoughtful post, entitled, “Will Paying More Change Behavior And Make Someone More Ethical?” Thoughtful, but wrong.

The post centers on whether paying more gets you better performance and/or better ethics, and Chris pretty much says it does not:

“Some suggested that we could solve the problem of too many defective products coming from China by paying more to the Chinese suppliers that make this stuff. I questioned that assumption, and still do.

One example I gave in that discussion thread was that if paying people more solved the problem, then why does paying most good employees more still result in good performance, but not superior performance? (See Comment No. 29.) And why does paying most bad employees more money still get you bad performance, and not good performance? (If you feel that more money correlates to higher performance, come see me after you have hired, managed and fired more than a few people, and let’s compare notes.)”

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In the aftermath of the recent recalls of tainted and toxic China-made products, more than a few have speculated that manufacturers who have outsourced production operations there are no doubt rethinking their sourcing strategies and quality control processes, and, if some of the, shall we say, ‘more aggressive’ pundits are to be believed, even rethinking their continued presence there altogether. However, according to the results of a proprietary survey just completed by the smart cube, the pundits appear to be very much mistaken.

Read the rest of “Survey: Global Manufacturers Staying Put in China” or post a comment >>

By Omer Abdullah

In the aftermath of the recent recalls of tainted and toxic China-made products, more than a few have speculated that manufacturers who have outsourced production operations there are no doubt rethinking their sourcing strategies and quality control processes, and, if some of the, shall we say, ‘more aggressive’ pundits are to be believed, even rethinking their continued presence there altogether. However, according to the results of a proprietary survey just completed by the smart cube, the pundits appear to be very much mistaken.

In fact, the majority of manufacturers surveyed are confident their supply chains are more than adequately secure to ensure the safety of their products. Indeed, nearly 80% of respondents (all of whom were manufacturers who currently manufactured their products in China) reported that they felt no need to review their supply chain activities in the wake of the well-publicized toy and toothpaste recalls. Further, these global manufacturers believe that the recent recall issues, while serious, are aberrations and not symptomatic of some more fundamental issue inherent within Chinese manufacturing. They appear to be on solid ground, as Mattel itself has apologized for initially putting the blame on its Chinese suppliers.
Read the rest of “Survey: Global Manufacturers Staying Put in China” or post a comment