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Meet the PassageMaker Sales Team!

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My biggest project this year is the development of an international team of sales representatives to promote PassageMaker. While the roster is not complete by any stretch, we have a good start, with representatives in Brazil, Europe, Mexico and the USA. We will be adding more photos and bios shortly, and I will post updates as appropriate.

We are currently seeking representation in India. If anyone is interested, please contact me directly.

I love it when a plan comes together…

China, US to boost quality control

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Julien Roger, Managing Director of our sister company, China Quality Focus, sent me this short article on a declaration of China’s commitment to improving quality control.

Now the cynic in me would like to make a snarky comment on the pointlessness of such government pronouncements right about now, but I won’t for two reasons:

  1. Many of the quality problems pinned on Chinese manufacturers are at least 50% the fault of foreign buyers who fail to define expectations, perform proper due diligence, establish effective quality control regimes, etc., to say nothing of those clients who expect the vendor to do the engineering for them. Then when the design fails, they blame the vendor instead of themselves. PassageMaker exists to help our clients avoid each of these pitfalls and it is the reason why we created our Endorsed Service Provider network. The reputation for poor quality is a major issue for China, and the government is dead serious about rectifying the situation.
  2. As with so many areas of their society and economy – industrialization, intellectual property law, financial infrastructure – there has been astounding progress in just a few short years. Certainly there is still a long way to go, but the improvements are real. When I first went to China, I had to buy our vendor basic measuring devices like calipers, height gauges, surface plates, etc., and train them how to use them. Now there are numerous testing laboratories in every major city and companies like China Quality Focus and PassageMaker thrive by providing customized quality control and quality assurance solutions. The net effect of our efforts and those of the Chinese manufacturers is a measurable improvement in a short period of time.

China is still a darned challenging place to do business, and I don’t see that changing. If I didn’t believe PassageMaker had a bright future ahead of it helping our clients succeed on Planet China, I wouldn’t waste my time here. But I do see the progress China is making, and have to give credit where credit is due.

They levelled the playing field

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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.

TREKDESK!

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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

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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.

80% of success is just showing up

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A famous quote from Woody Allen, and 100% true.

When Mike Bellamy started PassageMaker, he was working out of his living room. He had no work force, no infrastructure, just his own willingness to work and work and work until the job was done. He showed up, plain and simple.

PassageMaker made plenty of mistakes in those early days. But Mike kept showing up, over and over, and he learned from his mistakes. He listened when a client (like me) told him what he was doing wrong and how to do it right.

And I listened and learned as well. Mike’s great innovation was to separate the service offerings from a set base of vendors. It was not an easy sell in a world dominated by the trading company model. It took real guts and vision to chart a new path and stick to it.

Since that epiphany, PassageMaker has added our Assembly Center in Buji, including the precision Medical Assembly Center, and has grown from 3-4 people working in the founder’s living room to a company with around 150 employees worldwide. Still small enough to care about the success of each of our clients, but big enough to provide the depth of services our diverse customer base requires.

Mike and I and the rest of the PassageMaker Team showed up and the success of the PassageMaker Model of Trust & Transparency speaks for itself.

No, it’s a want to issue

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Cogitating on the 60th anniversary of the PRC, one cannot fail to consider the current state of the USA, and as a microcosm, our domestic automotive industry.

Yesterday, it was announced the deal with Penske to buy Saturn fell through, and so dies another GM marque. In this case, I have a personal interest, as I drive a Saturn. I bought it on one gruesomely hot day years ago. I remember the day quite clearly, as at the time I was traveling quite a bit and had rented a series of then-current Detroit iron to evaluate the offerings. I had settled on a Dodge product (yes…I know), and due to the repairs required to keep my very old Ford running, we could delay no longer. So with pregnant wife and little girl in tow, we went car shopping.

Before you cut in to to ask why Mr. China, Mr. All-Things-Asian here has a problem with foreign brands, just don’t. It’s complicated and irrational bordering on schizophrenic. Just stick with the story.

And before you interrupt again and ask why Mr. Captain-of-Industry drives a Saturn, here’s why – cars, like horses, are for riding. For basic transportation. When one dies, you get another one. If you need to a car to show the world how cool you are, you’re not. If I show off anything in this world, it’s my wife.

But I digress.

Now, I’ve lived in Singapore, Taiwan, and spent considerable time in South China. I grew up working summers in Virginia factories without A/C. I cut my teeth as a manager in a South Carolina metal stamping plant that (surprise) got hot in the summer time. I can handle the heat, but the parking lot of that Dodge dealership reminded me of the scene from Lawrence of Arabia where they have to cross a stretch of desert called “The Anvil of the Sun”. My daughter, not yet 3 if I remember, just wilted. I thought my wife was going to have heat stroke. The BEST part – the part that still informs my concept of customer service to this day – was that I could see the entire sales staff in the air conditioned office, drinking sodas and looking out the window at us – the only customers in the place – in-between telling jokes to one another and calling their girlfriends on the company phones.

After 10 minutes of cooking my family and waiting for someone to bestir themselves to come sell me a car, i.e., do their jobs, I loaded the family into the wife’s Oldsmobile (yes…I know) and drove 300 yards down the road to the Saturn dealership. One (1) hour, several bottles of cold water and snacks to reconstitute the toddler in the A/C, later and I had a Saturn. Yes..I know. It’s not a great car, but it is fast enough, gets decent mileage and is (apparently) invisible to radar. 100k+ miles later, and it is still going strong. In that time, the dealership has always been friendly and professional. I will sincerely mourn seeing these hardworking and decent people lose their jobs. They have done nothing wrong other than sell and service a decent people-mover at a fair price.

And the Dodge dealership? It got its franchise revoked by the Obama administration. Now when you drive by its empty lot, you are greeted with huge banners saying “YES, WE’RE STILL HERE! PARTS DEPARTMENT STILL OPEN!”. I won’t comment on the political or economic wisdom of that move by the government but as far as it applies to this particular dealership?

good.

All this was put into sharp focus by this brilliant piece by the Autoextremist.com about Cadillac’s attempts to return to the top of the heap. As the article points out, Cadillac’s recent product offerings are excellent, but after so many years mediocrity interspersed with chunks of mind-blowing awfulness, the recent successes only get you back in the game. You have to maintain this level and build on it for at least a decade or more before you have a chance of getting back on top. And the author, Peter M. De Lorenzo, fears as I do that Cadillac won’t. Here are the key paragraphs:

Because it will take an all-consuming passion of total commitment – a relentlesswant to, if you will – on the part of the entire organization, something that currently only appears sporadically and only in some quarters of the division.

It will take a clear understanding of who they are and a clear vision as to where they want to go (an idea that perhaps sounds a bit too simplistic, that is until you’ve been inside some of these organizations and realize how difficult it is to get everyone on the same page and pulling in the same direction).

It will take a focused consistency in their design and engineering regimens and particularly in their product execution. What does that mean? If Cadillac is to be Cadillac again, the people toiling in it need to understand that the division’s recent resurrection to respectability is only that, respectability. It’s not a ticket to “the club” yet. Yes, the CTS-V is an incredibly outstanding machine, but it shouldn’t be the culmination of where Cadillac wants to be, because it’s just the beginning. Every single new Cadillac must bristle with the kind of creativity and executional excellence that’s evident in the CTS-V if the division is to attain real greatness.

If Cadillac wants to get back – all the way back – to the reputation it once enjoyed and thrived upon then it has to put its stake in the ground and understand that the raison d’etre that once propelled it to greatness, that brand image that was seared in the consciousness of consumers for decades has to not only be renewed, it must be embellished and enhanced for this new age.

Laughable? Not from where I sit. This isn’t a technology issue or a talent issue, because Cadillac has everything it needs to succeed as a luxury-performance automaker.

No, it’s a want to issue.

China was once the top of the heap. 1000 years ago, anyone visiting this planet would have taken one look at the Middle Kingdom and decided that was the place to be. And then they stumbled, became complacent and fell far behind. Now they are charging back. And there is no question in my mind that they have the want to part of the equation figured out. Frankly, sadly, I’m not so sure about America anymore.

As I’ve said before, China is back, and saying so isn’t anti-American or pro-Chinese. Mike and I saw this coming more than 15 years ago and planned accordingly. We realized then, as I cautioned students at my alma mater last month, there are easily 3 billion people on this planet who want your job. The world is an intensely competitive place. If you want to succeed you have to get the want to part down.

PassageMaker has grown in 10 years from one guy with one customer to a company of 150 people with customers around the world. Mike and I and the rest of the PassageMaker team have the bricks-and-mortar and the technical capabilities, either in-house or through our Endorsed Service Providers to make your project a success if China sourcing is required. But most importantly, for us, want to is not an issue.

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.