Southern Perspective Shenzhen

For those of you doing business or purchasing in China, certainly this is a problem that you run into. A great article from David Dayton over at Silk Road International titled, You’re not getting what you asked for? Really? . It is from last year, but I think it is a great article.

He hits a lot of good points on what you want to get from your supplier.  I am going to cherry pick some from his list to show my point.

1.   If you’re not here, you’re not getting what you ordered.

10. Nobody cares about your product as much as you do, but if your supplier sees you regularly, knows how much you care and also cares about you/likes you, you just might get what you are asking for.

These two points above are one of the biggest reasons you might have communication drop off. If you are not here in the first place, they can simply ignore you.  Knowing that you are not even the same country, can lead to this kind of conduct when things might be going wrong or you have put on the pressure.

The solution then lies in number ten of David’s list. If you can’t be here representing your interests, (which is costly in plane tickets and hotels or a change in your life style and move to China), there should be somebody here to represent you.

To tie this to legal situations, I think this also holds true for the contracts you draft for suppliers to abide by. If no one is here to over see the enforcement of those terms, there is not much bite to your bark.

Now, this is not to say that you should be in the way and overbearing to your supplier. Being on site regularly helps drive home the idea of your commitment to them and the project at hand.

Writing a rock solid contract IN CHINESE is just one part of your interaction with the company. Backing up those agreements and showing commitment is the other part.