9/16/08

Ni Hao Journal,

I feel like a lot has happened since I last posted even though it has only been a couple of days. Let me see....

Oh, thats right! After my early morning posting on Monday we had a full day of visits in Suzhou. First was Andrew - they are an American company who provide wireless solutions....essentially all the gadgets that go on a cell antenna...nothing that the consumer actually sees. The Director of Ops gave us a presentation on the company. He did a good job providing a glance at what the company does but didn't get too technical. Additionally, he is American so was able to provide some more background on the Expat experience in China. He stressed that productivity was good at their China factories but due to low wages and plenty of opportunities elsewhere, it is important to keep a close eye on the employees to make sure production levels stay high. Our visit to Andrew also provided our first actual factory visit where we got to walk the floor. I have never really been to a US factory so I cannot compare but everything appeared to be well organized, clean, and efficient.

After Andrew our bus zipped us over to the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP)...well technically we were already in it but we went to the headquarters part. The SIP is a cooperative development between the governments of China and Singapore. Really, it is almost a city within a city. All teh buildings are new and so is the infrastructure within. It is really impressive! I can understand why a lot of companies are locating in Suzhou. The scary part, development is still underway - in the next few years I think Suzhou will look like any other large American city. Actually, it will probably have more impressive architecture.

We had lunch at SIP then went to Black & Decker, another American company. They had an assembly plant in Suzhou. Unlike Andrew who had a lot of business interests in Asia Pacific, much of Black & Deckers products were being shipped back to the US. The Manager discussed the importance of Six Sigma at the plant and within the company. One improvment they made was instead of storing the goods for a time after assembly they ship directly after the item is packaged. This saves time and money and ultimately makes the operation more productive and profitable.

It was a busy day in Suzhou but Shanghai was to follow the next day. I am actually in Shanghai now. We arrived yesterday morning. First thing I did was went to the tailor and got a suit and 5 shirts - I pick up tomorrow. I got all this for about $170USD. Not a bad deal! In the US for similar quality and custom made I would pay 10x time that!

Shanghai is a really impressive city. The architecture is amazing - mixes old vs new. Very impressive skyscrapers. The tallest building in the world just opened up this last month actually! I will upload a picture soon! Also, Shanghai is bracing for Expo 2010...don't know exactly what it is but the city is building up for it. I have a feeling it will provide a similar chain of events as Beijing 2008 olympics did, i.e. - improve infrastructure....just to a lesser degree.

At night we met with MBA students from Shanghai Jiantong University (STJU). This is one of the more prestigious universities in China. We had dinner together and then a joint class to discuss outsourcing in China and also key marketing differences between the US and China. Really, I was impressed with how similar we all were. Despite the many differences in culture and education style, I think we shared a lot of similar viewpoints. I found this to be one of the more valuable experiences here in China.

That is all for now - busy day ahead!

Paul