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Let’s see how far we’ve come

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I had a late dinner Monday night with an old friend/classmate/colleague/client who was passing through town. We had a nice time watching the Colts defeat the Dolphins, despite despite only having the ball for 14:53 (amazing), while reviewing his exciting new product, eating way too many hot wings and reminiscing about the start up days of PassageMaker. Back then, I was the client, and he was one of 4 or 5 employees.

PassageMaker has grown to around 150 employees in China, and our global sales force will likely number 20 sales reps by the end of the year. You’ll see changes to this website as we introduce our global sales force and country offices. PassageMaker-Mexico is already up and running with active clients. I am working daily to formalize a relationship in Brazil that will form the foundation of PassageMaker-Brazil. Same thing for Australia/New Zealand. And for India. We’ll have at least 3-4 active sales reps in Europe within the next 30 days (for instance Julien Roger, Managing Director of our ally, China Quality Focus, covers France and Belgium). We are even in discussions to set up a representative in South Africa to serve all of sub-Saharan Africa. We already have a network of reps in the USA covering most of the country.

We expect at least the Mexico office to grow into an Assembly Center in a few years time. Just as we’ve grown from one guy working in his living room a decade ago, we intend to make the PassageMaker name a truly global brand over the next decade. It isn’t how long you have the ball; it’s what you do with it while you have it.

Sick of China

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I’ve been an expat several times in my life, from studies in the UK to stints in Singapore, Taiwan and China. All were relatively short, so my sense of excitement and wonder never wore off. For that I am grateful.

I’ve known expats who stayed away for 15 years or more, and many were counting the seconds until they could return home. They were “Sick of China” (or India, or Mexico, or Japan…you get the idea). The thrill was long gone and the tedium and irritations of daily life – amplified a hundredfold due to their surroundings – were sadly all that remained.

In the last few years PassageMaker has picked up a wide variety of new clients, but the ones that make the biggest impression on me are successful mature companies who have been doing business in China for 15 years or more. Why would a profitable company with that many years under their belt turn to a “sourcing company” like PassageMaker?

If we were just a sourcing company, that would be a valid question. But PassageMaker brings real bricks-and-mortar to the equation and provides a much wider range of services than just sourcing. Our core services – Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Assembly-Inspection-Packaging, Logistics, Factory Formation – are so flexible that we can easily tailor them to suit a client’s requirements, whether providing quality control for millions of dollars worth of electronics or creating a consolidation regime to control VAT and shipping costs. These mature clients see our services as not just a cost-saving move, but as a hassle-saving move. When you talk to them, you can hear that they are sick of the day-to-day attention success in China requires. They just want to go home and have us handle it for them.

Mike Bellamy has been in China full time for 12 years and is happy right where he is. PassageMaker is NOT sick of China, and we will be happy to take over for you whenever you wish.

CHINA BUSINESS | CHINA TRADE | CHINA DEVELOPMENT | CHINA FOOD | CHINA BUSINESS BLOG | GUANXI | CHINA TRAVEL

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I had a late dinner Monday night with an old friend/classmate/colleague/client who was passing through town. We had a nice time watching the Colts defeat the Dolphins, despite despite only having the ball for 14:53 (amazing), while reviewing his exciting new product, eating way too many hot wings and reminiscing about the start up days of PassageMaker. Back then, I was the client, and he was one of 4 or 5 employees.

PassageMaker has grown to around 150 employees in China, and our global sales force will likely number 20 sales reps by the end of the year. You’ll see changes to this website as we introduce our global sales force and country offices. PassageMaker-Mexico is already up and running with active clients. I am working daily to formalize a relationship in Brazil that will form the foundation of PassageMaker-Brazil. Same thing for Australia/New Zealand. And for India. We’ll have at least 3-4 active sales reps in Europe within the next 30 days (for instance Julien Roger, Managing Director of our ally, China Quality Focus, covers France and Belgium). We are even in discussions to set up a representative in South Africa to serve all of sub-Saharan Africa. We already have a network of reps in the USA covering most of the country.

We expect at least the Mexico office to grow into an Assembly Center in a few years time. Just as we’ve grown from one guy working in his living room a decade ago, we intend to make the PassageMaker name a truly global brand over the next decade. It isn’t how long you have the ball; it’s what you do with it while you have it.

What makes a successful company?

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I saw this piece today that asked when GM could have turned it around. It is just a short blog post, but I read it and the comments with great interest. I’ve owned at least 10 GM cars in my life (I drive one now and think it’s fine but not great), and most bring back great memories, mainly because being young and crazy is fun, regardless of what car you’re driving. Of them all, my favorites were the 1964 Corvair convertible and the 1978 Pontiac Grand Safari station wagon, which my Mother ordered with the custom Corvette yellow paint job (brightest yellow offered), chrome luggage rack, the fake wood trim and fake wire wheel hub caps. The first was the coolest car any teenager could possibly drive, and I loved every second of the attention it earned me (especially from the fairer sex). The second was so blindingly awful it it created its own anti-vibe. Girls were actually morbidly interested in finding out who the lunatic was who drove that wretched abomination. Bad boy image courtesy of horrible Detroit iron.

So it is with great sadness that I consider the mess in which the American auto industry finds itself. It is fair to ask the question of when it all went wrong. For what it is worth, I agree with those that say it was not any one thing. GM forgot to do many small things right, and that’s what’s led to the current predicament.

Excellence is consistent and faithful execution of a good plan. Toyota and Honda are the prime examples of succeeding by paying attention to details and playing a consistent game. GM seems to have been counting on one or two home runs a decade (like SUVs in the ’90s) to keep winning the game, when focusing on the boring fundamentals of building good reliable cars was the winning strategy.

PassageMaker is not about the big play. Quite to the contrary, our team understands that you win by treating every customer with the same level of care and professionalism, that each successfully completed project builds on the lessons learned in previous projects and prepares you for the next one. Continuous improvement is a cliche by now, but that’s really how companies succeed.

The Importance of Trust

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I love to read. It is really my only hobby; I never go a minute without a source of new information to occupy my attention. I’m known for taking books to my kids’ soccer games. When they are not playing, I’m reading. This makes a great impression with the other parents. Try it sometime.

So you can only imagine my excitement at the new Kindle 2 from Amazon. The Kindle 1 was a cool idea with awful ergonomics, so I decided to wait. Kindle 2 had it all. I couldn’t wait to order one, but decided to hold off a few months to see how the new device shook out in the market. Buying the first or second model year of a new car is always a bad idea, so I just wanted to be sure.

I am glad I waited. The shake out was poor, but not for the reasons I expected. It has nothing to do with the device, which seems to be fine, but rather with the company selling it. I will not be buying a Kindle 2 (or 3 or 4 for that matter), nor will I ever buy anything from Amazon in the future. Why? First, ‘vanishing’ 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ devices is so creepy and boneheaded it is a permanent turn-off. Second, a company that would rather sell books to the possessor of a stolen device instead of helping the rightful owner reclaim his property is just not my kind of people.

Forget pulling an Orwellian move on actual works of Orwell for a second (my mind still reels). The removal of the books was supposedly because the sellers were not authorized – in essence that the books were stolen. But had the kid bought a paper book from a bricks-and-mortar book store, paying full price on the assumption that it was a legitimate transaction, my understanding of the law is that unless the true owner comes forward to claim the property, the buyer would have done nothing wrong and would very likely get to keep the book. After all, he didn’t know it was stolen and paid full price. Now combine that with essentially colluding with actual thieves of actual Kindles and my head starts to hurt at the illogic and sleaziness of it all.

Now Amazon will chug right along without paying any attention to my one-man boycott. And Barnes & Noble will not see a massive swing in quarterly earnings because of my switch. But trust is the most valuable commodity in any business transaction, especially when dealing in China. PassageMaker’s motto is “Trust & Transparency” for a reason.

Why go it alone?

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Random thoughts at the end of a great week, one where long-delayed projects resumed, new customers signed on, and some HUGE potential clients visited our facilities in Shenzhen and Buji:

  1. While I don’t think for a minute the recession is over, I am amazed at the resilience of the entrepreneurs we meet in this business. Creative, driven people with amazing ideas. Coming from the soul-draining purgatory of automotive, the best part of being PassageMaker’s global sales chief is the opportunity to work with such people in so many markets.
  2. Even though a significant percentage of our clients are inventors and start-ups, some of these new prospects have been working in China for 15+ years. They see PassageMaker’s bricks-and-mortar; our skill navigating the Chinese VAT system; our proven ability to manage supply chains for everything from medical products to toys; our commitment to “Trust & Transparency“; as game-changers that can simplify their lives, reduce costs and generally provide piece of mind. While PassageMaker doesn’t claim to eliminate all the difficulties of doing business in China, we could not have grown as we have if we could not deliver on our promises.
  3. At the close of this amazing week, I heard the story of a local businessman who just returned from his first trip to China. He doesn’t speak the language, but felt obligated to go to try to convey his expectations to the suppliers. He was basically told by his hosts not to expect too much, this was China after all and quality problems happen. While in a sense this is wise counsel, what a sad statement. I would advise anyone who loves to explore and travel to visit China, but not for that reason! PassageMaker and our friends at www.SourcingServiceCenter.com are in business to help insure quality and keep our clients at home with their families. You can bet I will be contacting this gentleman first thing Monday morning to offer our services!

Great weekend to all!

China’s Fuzzy Math…Who do you trust?

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“China’s growth figures fail to add up” says the headline. And the sky is blue, you say?

“China’s gross domestic product figures are among the world’s most closely watched since they can move markets or boost hopes of an imminent recovery.

But the latest set of first-half numbers provided by provincial-level authorities are far higher than the central government’s national figure, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of statistics in the world’s most populous nation.”

China has made great strides (herculean is a better word) over the past three decades catching up to the rest of the world, but its statistical reporting, shall we say…lags. Just a bit. The USA’s is laughable at times as well, so I am not picking on the Chinese.

So what does one do when you can’t trust the official numbers from the Chinese provinces? The same thing you do when you are skeptical of numbers posted in other countries (did I mention the USA “unemployment rate”?). You go and have a look for yourself; you do your own research; you dig around for the truth. But what with the cost and indignities of international travel, how much better to have an “office” in China to do such looking and watching for you. That is precisely why PassageMaker developed the idea of the Sourcing Feasibility Study. If you could trust everything you read on a sourcing website, getting your products made in China would be a snap. But of course just as the “official” numbers are rarely accurate the first time out, you have about an equal chance of finding a fully qualified vendor on a typical sourcing website as you do finding true love on an internet dating site. And are you gullible enough to give your credit card number and banking information to that lovely lady you just met online? Think before answering…

Excellence is the consistent execution of a good plan. PassageMaker’s Sourcing Feasibility Study allows you to see a range of qualified vendors, not just somebody’s cousin’s stamping factory or their best friend from high school’s plastics shop. In this way, we help you establish the true “China price” from solid supply chain partners, without hidden mark-ups. By controlling which vendors see your design, we protect your IP, and by acting as a “Quality Gate” we make sure you only pay for good product.

Combining PassageMaker’s services with those of our friends at China Quality Focus (factory audits) and GloBIS (financial due diligence), and you can get a very clear picture of your Chinese supply chain.

Our motto is TRUST & TRANSPARENCY, so you know you can count on our figures!

China’s Fuzzy Math…Who do you trust?

/0 Comments/in /by

“China’s growth figures fail to add up” says the headline. And the sky is blue, you say?

“China’s gross domestic product figures are among the world’s most closely watched since they can move markets or boost hopes of an imminent recovery.

But the latest set of first-half numbers provided by provincial-level authorities are far higher than the central government’s national figure, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of statistics in the world’s most populous nation.”

China has made great strides (herculean is a better word) over the past three decades catching up to the rest of the world, but its statistical reporting, shall we say…lags. Just a bit. The USA’s is laughable at times as well, so I am not picking on the Chinese.

So what does one do when you can’t trust the official numbers from the Chinese provinces? The same thing you do when you are skeptical of numbers posted in other countries (did I mention the USA “unemployment rate”?). You go and have a look for yourself; you do your own research; you dig around for the truth. But what with the cost and indignities of international travel, how much better to have an “office” in China to do such looking and watching for you. That is precisely why PassageMaker developed the idea of the Sourcing Feasibility Study. If you could trust everything you read on a sourcing website, getting your products made in China would be a snap. But of course just as the “official” numbers are rarely accurate the first time out, you have about an equal chance of finding a fully qualified vendor on a typical sourcing website as you do finding true love on an internet dating site. And are you gullible enough to give your credit card number and banking information to that lovely lady you just met online? Think before answering…

Excellence is the consistent execution of a good plan. PassageMaker’s Sourcing Feasibility Study allows you to see a range of qualified vendors, not just somebody’s cousin’s stamping factory or their best friend from high school’s plastics shop. In this way, we help you establish the true “China price” from solid supply chain partners, without hidden mark-ups. By controlling which vendors see your design, we protect your IP, and by acting as a “Quality Gate” we make sure you only pay for good product.

Combining PassageMaker’s services with those of our friends at China Quality Focus (factory audits) and GloBIS (financial due diligence), and you can get a very clear picture of your Chinese supply chain.

Our motto is TRUST & TRANSPARENCY, so you know you can count on our figures!