Posts

Meet the HOODIO!

/0 Comments/in /by

Another awesome product from our clients, LimbGear! The Hoodio is an MP3 enabled jacket, and LimbGear specializes in the professional and collegiate sports markets, so you will be able to get the Hoodio with your favorite sports team logo.

PassageMaker will be managing the supply chain for LimbGear, including garment customization at our Assembly Center in Buji. Our Endorsed Service Provider, Camrett Logistics, will manage the order processing and fulfillment in the USA, providing a complete supply chain for our client.

Have a great weekend and make sure to get your Hoodio in 2010!

My first time with Singapore Chicken Rice

/0 Comments/in /by

Yes, more food-borne analogies to ruin your day, dear reader. Hey, it’s Sunday.

My first 24 hrs in Asia in 1994 changed my life. I knew instantly I was hooked on Asia’s dynamism, the very excitement of just walking down the street in a part of the world so obviously on its way up, but it was the food that sealed it. Prawn Mee Soup with fish balls was the first meal I had on that summer night 15 years ago, and I still eat my homemade version at least twice a week.

But the signature dish of Singapore is “Singapore Chicken Rice”, more properly Hainan Chicken Rice, hǎi nán jī fàn, 海南鸡饭, from the Chinese province where the dish originated. And while I have it regularly whenever I am in Asia, I had never braved it on my own until a couple weeks ago. Now I must admit I cheated and used a box mix given to me over a year ago by my friend, a professor in Singapore. Despite under-cooking it the first go round and having to re-poach it (which made a colossal mess), despite using the wrong kind of rice, it was… not terrible. In fact, it was pretty darned edible!

So emboldened by my partial success, I pulled out the cookbooks with the dauntingly complex recipes. What had before seemed impossible now made sense. I tried it from scratch this past Sunday, no spice mixes or packaged sauces and everyone loved the results! I’ll keep trying different types of rice and with each attempt refine ‘my’ recipe, but I am no longer intimidated.

One of the reasons I enjoy cooking is the creative aspect, but as an operations guy, I also enjoy the process. A recipe is essentially a set of work instructions, usually poorly written. They leave out steps, get seasoning wrong, cooking times off. I usually have to make something 2-3 times before I know how it should work. The cookbooks are only the roughest guide.

One of PassageMaker’s greatest strengths is our ability to write solid bi-lingual work instructions that capture those critical nuances that make an assembly process actually work. The differences between a successful product and a warranty claim are minute – a torque setting here, an adhesive application there – but they are critical. When your money is on the line, don’t you want a team that knows how to cook and write a good recipe?

Stupid ads solving non-existent problems and other bad sales pitches

/0 Comments/in /by

I’ve been cogitating recently on some of the marketing campaigns out there that seem almost designed to not sell the product or otherwise turn off customers. What the **** were they thinking?

The creepy plastic faced Burger King ad campaign has won awards in the ad industry, but resulted in a declining market share for the client. I refuse to take my kids there. The food is nasty anyway.

Microsoft’s TV ads for their new “decision engine” Bing show people experiencing “search overload syndrome“. Apparently, people using those other plain old search engines get too many random results and become confused. It’s never happened to me, or anyone I know, but let’s do a little test.

Google “china assembly and inspection“. PassageMaker is #1 and #2 on the natural results.

Yahoo “china assembly and inspection“. PassageMaker is #1 and #2 on the natural results.

Ask “china assembly and inspection“. PassageMaker is #1, #2 and #3 on the natural results.

Now Bing “china assembly and inspection“. PassageMaker is #1 and #2 on the natural results.

Wow. Do you think they can ask the advertising agency for their money back?

Although Bing is prettier and it is nice to see our friends at China Quality Focus at #4 in their natural results, their ad campaign turns me off. If you have to tear down your competition to sell your product, you don’t have much of a product. To the folks in Redmond, how about making amends for the twin travesties of Vista and Office 2007 by givingaway the upgrade to Windows 7 instead of charging $200, before everyone calls it quits and switches to Mac?

What’s next? Ads warning everyone away from that horrible Firefox 3.5, now that it has taken 25% market share? Not bad for a free browser developed by an not-for-profit foundation. Oh, and it’s the best product on the market. That’s got to hurt.

I switched to Firefox after buying a new HP laptop earlier this year with Vista (yes, I know). I had no choice as the old XP machine was nearly dead and wasn’t ready to make the running transition to Mac (though after 6 months of Vista, I am now). The default security settings made Internet Explorer 7 completely unusable – after 3 or 4 days of trying to figure out how to configure the security settings to allow normal browsing without constant warnings, blocked pages, etc., I installed Firefox and I will never go back to IE. They lost me for good.

US Cellular is aggressively promoting their new “battery swap” program with radio ads in my area. The idea is you forget to charge your battery, so you drive to the store to swap your perfectly good but temporarily depleted battery for a fully charged one. I guess they figure if you are in the store anyway for such a reason, you might just be dumb enough to renew your contract ahead of schedule, buy a new phone when the old one still works, etc. The first thought I had when I heard this campaign was “boy, business must really stink”. Are uncharged batteries a problem requiring a multi-million dollar as campaign? I have a charger in my car, in my office and a spare in my brief case. Methinks poor phone sales are the problem, so how about reducing the prices on the plans or offering better phones?

Yesterday my wife told me about a phone book salesman (I still can’t stop laughing at that one) who came into the boutique where she works and tried to renew the ad for this year’s yellow pages. This was the second salesman from the same company that day to visit with the shop owner trying to get this ad. The owner says no, she’s launching her website this month, she’s well established, premium location, and she doesn’t need the print ad anymore. The salesman responds with “everyone who cancelled their ads last year went out of business”. What?! That is the worst line I’ve ever heard, even if true! How about encouraging her to buy the ad to promote the new website? Keeping the ad for her older clientele or new students at the local colleges? There apparently is a rung lower than used car salesman.

Now Apple is trying to charge $1000 in China for an iPhone that is Made in China when in the USA it costs $600? My first impression was maybe I need to reconsider that Mac purchase. How is charging nearly twice the price not trying to alienate the PRC market? There are many other options for smartphones in PRC than the USA. I mean, why not just post the “ no dogs or Chinese” signs (supposedly an urban myth, but you get my point)! Dan Welygan, one of our sales reps and formerly a project manager in our Shenzhen office tells me this is common practice, to charge outlandish prices to capture the cream of the market. I am sure he is correct, but considering it lacks wi-fi, and the Hong Kong versions have been available on the gray market for 2 years, this is not exactly a new device. I’ll be watching to see what happens with Droid or some other iPhone killer when it hits the China market. My gut tells me this is a mis-step for Apple.

The primary reason why I joined PassageMaker was because it was a positive environment and a positive message. We sell Trust & Transparency – the services themselves are almost incidental. Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Assembly-Inspection-Packaging, Logistics, VAT Planning, Factory Formation , etc., all provide solid value to the client, and are so flexible and fungible that we can do pretty much whatever the client needs.

I tell all our sales reps that they don’t need to talk down our competition. There are other good companies doing business in China. It is foolish to pretend otherwise. We don’t need gimmicks or mascots or incentives. We are selling exceptional service, fair pricing and peace of mind. What more do we need?

The truth shall set you free.

Mike Bellamy knows his stuff (part 2)

/0 Comments/in /by

For anyone thinking of doing business in China, please listen here for an excellent interview with PassageMaker founder Mike Bellamy. In this interview, he focuses on practical measures to protect your Intellectual Property (IP) when dealing with Chinese suppliers.

PassageMaker has years of experience protecting our clients’ IP, including filling Chinese patents and trademarks using our Endorsed Service Provider for legal services, Ms. Li Yan of the JunZeJun Law Firm. All of our core service offerings – Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Assembly-Inspection-Packaging, Factory Formation – were developed with the primary goal of IP protection.

And don’t ignore protecting your design in your home market. For our American clients, we recommend Michael Mann and Todd Serbin of Nexsen|Pruet.

If you’ve spent the time and money to design the product, why would you not take every effort to protect it from theft? Contact PassageMaker and let us show you how to successfully and securely manufacture your product in China.

They levelled the playing field

/0 Comments/in /by

There has been lots of ink lately about Mao the “political philosopher”. I won’t get into that other than to say that if any one person deserves credit for China’s economic transformation over the last 30 years, it is Deng Xiao Ping, not Mao.

It was either Mr. China or China Road (both wonderful books) that pointed out why China’s business environment was able to change so rapidly. For better or worse, the Maoist era had wiped away the old entrenched power structures, including family business empires, and also eliminated most of the atrocious sexism of traditional Chinese culture. Whichever book it was made the comparison to Indonesia and India, where business was tightly controlled by family conglomerates and outsiders had far less opportunity to set down roots, to say nothing of the limited role of women in the economy.

Though it is a gross oversimplification, and does not address all the things that went wildly, tragically wrong during the first 30 years of the PRC, Deng did have a “level playing field” to start with. If you are going to re-light the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese people and try to attract foreign investment, starting from nothing is actually an enviable situation.

I am often asked about India. With English widely spoken, the British legacy, democratic government, etc., it seems a better choice for business. The Dragon and the Tiger have the world’s rapt attention, but for manufacturing, the choice so far has clearly been China. I’ve seen figures quoted that China has 10 times the number of factory jobs as India despite comparable populations. And I’ve had Indians tell me the reason they are trailing China is because they have so much cultural baggage, whereas China is in some ways like a new country. This article in the BBC about the beating of ‘witches’ in rural India is a good example of the press that makes investors hesitate. [Note – I admit I have never been to India and know next to nothing about it other than what you can read in a book or newspaper. My sister travels there regularly, and through a family business, we’ve been doing business there for decades, but I have no personal experience to draw on.]

Expatriates often lament the hyper-capitalist zeal of the new China. Indeed some of the Chinese I meet lament it as well, which accounts for the rebirth of religion in the officially atheist PRC. But I find the rule of the almighty RMB reassuring in way. Capitalism at least has clear incentives and bridges cultures.

It is not for nothing that China is referred to as the new ‘Wild West’. Mike Bellamy was one of the few white faces in town when he arrived in Shenzhen in 1998. The positive and open business climate allowed him to put down roots and PassageMaker was born. And while we have long-term plans to expand into India (PassageMaker-Mexico will be first, perhaps in 2-3 years), China will remain the core for years to come. Our services – Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Assembly-Inspection-Packaging, Factory Formation – are all designed to help clients succeed and thrive in this crazy boom town that is China.

Trade Show Season 2009 is different

/0 Comments/in /by

In years past, the China trade shows were dominated by American buyers. What we’ve seen at the trade shows in April 2009 and so far this October is an increase of attendees from the developing world. It is not for nothing that PassageMaker opened our first two satellite sales offices outside of the USA in Mexico and Brazil.

This article from the NYT provides a good overview of the current situation. Key paragraphs:

As throngs of prospective buyers swarmed the exhibitions, equal to five times the floor space of the Empire State Building, Chinese exporters were upbeat. By keeping China’s currency, the renminbi, tightly yoked to the weak and weakening dollar, Beijing had made Chinese exports increasingly competitive around the world.

“We are very confident,” said Liu En Tian, the marketing manager of the Huasheng Jiangquan Group, a manufacturer of ceramic tiles in Linyi City. “Already the buyers who are coming this morning are more than last year.”

Like those of many Chinese manufacturers, his company’s exports fell by nearly half last winter because of the global economic slowdown, but they are now down only 20 percent from their peak more than a year ago because of a surge in sales to South America and the Middle East. “The economy will get better very soon” around the world, Mr. Liu said. [ed. – emphasis added]

While Washington seems hell-bent on borrowing / printing / spending money in reckless abandon, almost as though they want to destroy the dollar and the rest of the USA economy (much to the horror of American businessmen like me), other markets around the world are recovering quite well. It seems that many nations know that Keynesian economics is bunk without having to try it out each and every generation.

I’ve avoided commenting on the decline of the dollar, mainly because it feels like commenting on a slow motion video of a train full of children hitting a bus load of nuns, but as a global company PassageMaker is working daily to position ourselves to take advantage of the global rebound. We have sales representatives in Mexico, Brazil and Europe and are interviewing for sub-Saharan Africa, India and Australia. Like it or not, China is a global player and PassageMaker is well positioned to help our clients succeed in China. Please contact us an let us know how we can be of assistance.

More TREKDESK in the news!

/0 Comments/in /by

Short Sunday post – more media coverage for our client, TrekDesk, this time a great segment from Bruce Pechman, aka, “Mr. Bicep, the Muscleman of Technology”. A comprehensive review of this great new product!

PassageMaker manages the entire supply chain and assembly for this product and one of our Endorsed Service Providers did the design work. So I encourage everyone to place their order for a TrekDesk and get in shape while being more productive at work!

TREKDESK!

/0 Comments/in /by

I love my clients! I have the best job in the world working with creators and innovators to help them bring their ideas to market. TrekDesk is one I have a special interest in, as I’ve used the product and it is an AWESOME way to work. You are more alert, feel better at the end of a long day, and you lose weight without having to go to the bloody gym! What’s not to love?

PassageMaker was involved at every stage of the project, and the TrekDesk was designed by one of our Endorsed Service Providers, Dwight Smith of Contract Engineering Services.

Watch this news clip and then go order one!

Consultants are a waste of time and money

/0 Comments/in /by

Today my state and federal tax returns were due. I paid my (substantial and onerous) estimated taxes back on April 15th, but extensions were filed to finalize some deductions and so today was also tax day. Oh, the rhapsodic joy of having two tax days this year! Everyone should be so lucky.

Despite being assured by my accounting firm on 14 October that no additional taxes were owed, when I got the call to come pick up my return on 15 October – that is one (1) day later, for all you mathematically-challenged, overpaid tax professionals out there; e.g. 15 – 14 = 1; take off you shoes and socks if you need help counting – I was cheerfully informed that I owed a rather large amount of money because they made a mistake. Turns out that instead of actually reviewing the data I gave them around 6-8 months ago, they made some “assumptions” which proved false when one of these aforementioned tax professionals actually looked at the numbers on the day the return was due. Somehow, I always assumed accountants were the nerds who did their term papers a month in advance. Go figure.

Needless to say I had a grand time running to the banks and post office between 3:20 PM when I actually got the returns and the 5:00 PM mailing deadline. Of course I had nothing else scheduled for today. Nope, nothing at all. These fine professionals had my information for the better part of a year and managed to get my taxes to me on the day they were due less than 2 hours before the deadline, with a surprise bill to double the fun! Talk about customer satisfaction!

In case you were wondering, I fired them today.

This accounting firm loves to tell people all about their business consulting services, supposedly the best around. Today’s miserable, arrogant, incompetent performance stacks up with most of my experiences with consultants over the years. Expensive, time-consuming and ultimately an infuriating waste of time and money. Thus the harsh title of this post.

Selling PassageMaker’s services is engaging and thoroughly enjoyable, but it is time consuming because our services really don’t fall into any of the normal definitions. We perform assembly and light manufacturing, but we are not a manufacturing company. We help clients do business in China but we are not a trading company. We never take ownership of the physical product, so in a sense we are not even a supplier. Our core services – Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Assembly-Inspection-Packaging, and Factory Formation – are simple in concept, but so flexible in practice that there are a thousand ways they can be customized to serve the customer’s needs. We want to fulfill the client’s operational requirements in China; to identify, establish and manage the client’s supply chain, so that there’s a tangible service provided that adds real and quantifiable value.

Because PassageMaker falls outside of recognized business models – indeed, in my experience we are unique – prospective clients sometimes refer to us as “consultants”. Oh, how I recoil from that label. As someone once put it, “a consultant is someone who will tell you the time of day by showing you your own watch”. Shoot me if I ever fit that description.

While it is time-consuming to explain the full scope of our services, the philosophical foundation – Trust & Transparency – resonates with our clients. Many of our clients have been through the wringer in China, and our open pricing, commitment to customer satisfaction and quality of service are a breath of fresh air.

Yes, we sell a set of services, not a product per se, and that may seem like what a consultant does, but we are NOT a consulting firm. Them’s fighting words.

October is Global Sources Trade Show Month!

/0 Comments/in /by

With the China National Day holiday behind us, the trade show season starts and Mike Bellamy will be in Hong Kong hosting Global Sources’ China Sourcing Fair’s Buyer Education Conference as well as holding separate seminars on issues of Vendor Coordination and Intellectual Property Protection. You can find information on Mike’s seminars here and here.

PassageMaker and China Quality Focus will also exhibit at the following booth #’s on the following dates:

10/12 to 10/15 PassageMaker booth 5B34

10/20 to 10/23 PassageMaker booth 10L38

If you are in the area, please attend a conference and visit our booth. Also, we encourage all clients to take a half a day and pop across the border to visit to our facilities in China. Seeing our offices and Assembly Center will be much more rewarding than a quick visit at the show. Let us know if you need assistance making travel arrangements, and hope to see you in Hong Kong!