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Consultants are a waste of time and money

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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.

Why I don’t brew beer (anymore)

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20 years ago I wanted to be a brewmaster. The American microbrew movement was just taking off, and it was a good time to get in. I attended beer festivals, visited breweries, did research (in the days before the internet no less), etc. Ultimately I had two banker’s boxes full of information on techniques, equipment, business models, etc. Today this would occupy about 5% of the free flash drive you got for opening your checking account last year, but this was 1989, and paper was still state of the art. And I still have all this information, thank you very much.

I used this copious research to sell the idea of a brewpub to two entrepreneurs opening a new restaurant in a location I had long had my eye on. It was tremendously exciting being even obliquely involved with the start up and I enjoyed working there as an assistant brewer. As great learning experience all the way around, and should either of those entrepreneurs read this, thank you sincerely for the opportunity.

And what I ultimately learned from that experience was I did NOT want to be a brewer anymore. Beer from the store is just fine thanks.

Now, onto the tortured analogy section. Many of our clients are new to doing business in China. Many have done awesome amounts of research, days spent on sourcing websites like Global Sources, and they are totally jazzed about this new experience, much as I was 20 years ago. They want to travel, try new things, etc. Then they realize that the China trade is work, and the fun wears off quickly.

There are brewers who get up every day excited to go to work and make beer. I admire them and wish them well at their chosen craft. Thanks to them, I get to have a drink without all the scalding water, acids, caustic sodas, foul-smelling slime and general hard-work-nastiness that goes into making beer.

The PassageMaker Team and our friends at China Quality Focus are a collection of such dedicated “brewmasters”. I know I wake up every morning happy and enthusiastic about my chosen field. Our Sourcing Feasibility Study, Vendor Coordination and Assembly-Inspection-Packaging service offerings are all designed to help our clients have a successful experience in China. Most importantly, we want to take care of things on the ground in China so our clients can stay at home with their families, instead of spending $10k every other month traveling back and forth to visit vendors. When you do choose to come to China, we want you to come for a relaxing guanxi tour, not to fight fires. We’ll even help you with your travel arrangements and buy you a drink!

How to make a BLT

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Years ago I saw a cookbook in Taiwan, written in Chinese, that taught our intrepid Taiwanese housewives how to make such standard American fare as the BLT (that’s Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches for the non-Americans) and the PB&J (Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches). It had never occurred to me that anyone in Taiwan would (A) require instructions for such basic American fare or (B) want to cook it. I can’t really remember why I didn’t buy it – probably my student budget – but I regret that decision often.

Regular readers of this blog know I study food. Cuisine is the most basic cultural art form. Every culture, no matter how primitive, develops its own distinct cuisine. You learn a lot about someone by trying their food.

Asking an American how to make a BLT provokes a guffaw, but I’ve had exactly the same experience in reverse when I ask Chinese folks how to make the core dishes in their cuisine. BLT is every bit as literal as my favorite Chinese dish, 拍黄瓜, “banged up cucumbers”, which describes how you use the flat of the knife to lightly crush the cucumbers*.

Cultural assumptions greatly complicate international business. Foreign expectations of how things are in China are nearly always wrong. PassageMaker has studied the culture in China for more than an decade and our company exists to help our clients be successful in China.

We developed the Sourcing Feasibility Study to identify a wide range of capable vendors. Our Vendor Coordination services can be customized to support almost any task the client requires. Our Assembly Center was started to bring the critical Assembly-Inspection-Packaging functions in-house where they could be managed exactly to the client’s requirements, as documented in the Product Quality Manual.

While exploring foreign cultures – especially through cuisine – is one of the great adventures in life, it is a bad idea to try to learn the business culture of a foreign country on the fly. When your money is on the line, you need an experienced guide like PassageMaker.

* – Pai Huang Gua – “Banged Up Cucumbers”

4 small pickling cucumbers, washed and chilled – make sure to use fresh, crisp cucumbers

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 tsp pickling salt

3 tbsps black vinegar (available at Asian markets, substitute white vinegar if unavailable)

2 tbsps sesame oil (3 tbsps if no hot sesame oil)

1 tbsps hot sesame oil (optional – available at Asian markets)

1tsp hot sauce, preferably Chili Garlic sauce or Sambal Oelek (optional – available at Asian markets)

Wrap cucumbers in plastic wrap and using fist, cutting board, rolling pin, flat of a cleaver, etc., smack the the cucumbers until they split. Unwrap and coarsely chop into large chunks. Salt the cucumbers and garlic in a bowl, drizzle liquid ingredients one at a time in order over the cucumbers and gently mix with a spoon. Do NOT cover and shake or otherwise try to completely blend liquid ingredients. You do not want to create an emulsion, but rather a layered sauce. Serve immediately as a cold appetizer.

Nothing is harder than simple

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I loved this saying when I first read it a few months ago, and it is my motto now. My dearly departed Mother, a professional artist, used to tell me simplicity is the key to design. Quite true of course, but there is something more visceral about nothing is harder than simple. As an example, watch this video (if it doesn’t play, you can find it here or here) – hat tip to Instapundit:

Pomplamoose – Single Ladies

Whether you like the song or not is immaterial. The arrangement and performance are brilliant in their stark simplicity. Compared to the heavily produced original, it is elegant and beautiful.

Nothing is harder than simple guides all our efforts at PassageMaker. Doing business in China is frustrating, difficult, infuriating, aging, expensive, complicated…pick your adjective. It is anything but simple.

Thus the innovation of The PassageMaker Model of Trust & Transparency. Nothing is simpler than the truth. It may not be fun to hear, it may be unpleasant to deliver, but telling the truth is not complicated.

Trading companies exist by keeping customers in the dark. As middlemen, they add no value if all is out in the open. Maybe they are not actually lying, but maintaining the wall of secrecy between client and vendors is a form of deception that only adds complexity. In our experience, operating as a trading company is always more work and stress than it is worth.

All of PassageMaker’s services are built around the concept of being straight with the customer. Sourcing Feasibility Studies provide the client with all the vendor quotes and contact information, nothing is hidden. Vendor Coordination contracts are billed as a monthly fee – this is what our time is worth, take it or leave it. And if you choose to leave it, no hard feelings. We wish you well, and stop by if you are ever in town. Assembly-Inspection-Packaging contracts are billed on a per unit basis, but the same logic applies – it is a straight line item on the invoice, no hidden margins built into the materials, no kickbacks from vendors.

Mike and I have plenty scars from doing business in China, and I’m not going to say your project is going to be perfect and headache free. It’s China, after all. But PassageMaker will not add to those troubles and we will help make your life as simple as possible.

A ship is safe in a harbor, but a harbor is not what a ship is for

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The title of this post is one of my favorite sayings. As an entrepreneur, it reminds me to keep trying, even when it is hard; especially when it is hard.

These days the world economy is a tempestuous sea, but PassageMaker is growing and thriving. A “passagemaker” is a small motor boat capable of crossing the open ocean; I think Mike Bellamy chose an appropriate name for the company.

Even in this time of chaos, new clients contact us daily. Even though budgets are tight and the margin for error is far smaller than just a year ago, those entrepreneurial passagemakers know that if they ride out the storm they will be in a much better position to prosper when the storm ends. And they won’t be smashed to bits tied up to the docks.

Harbors are over-rated. There is no such thing as a safe job anymore. The closest thing to a job for life is the value you create for yourself as an entrepreneur.

Why do so many people source in China? Because tooling prices are 10%-25% of USA. Because component prices are 25%-50% of USA. Those are great enticements, but a Chinese supply chain takes far more time and effort to establish than an American one. In this economy, budgets are tighter and risks are higher, and you can’t afford the learning curve to figure out China on your own. Now more than ever entrepreneurs need a real PassageMaker to help them navigate the storm successfully. Contact us and let us show you how our Sourcing Feasibility Study, Vendor Coordination and Assembly-Inspection-Packaging services help our clients achieve success in China.