Silk Road International Blog

This is a great book!

In The China Price Alexandra Harney has documented all of the stories and rumors that you’ve ever hear about manufacturing in China and delivered them in a captivating and easy to digest format.  But its not just the details that are fascinating—the human stories are equally as captivating.

Harney clearly defines what manufacturing in China costs the local people, the environment, governments, consumers, economies and of course laborers in China and international businesses.  She, to her credit, daringly exposes many of the secrets of manufacturing in China—uncovering the unspoken secrets, lies and deals that make China the manufacturing behemoth that it is.

This book should stand along side other great books on China, like: China Business Etiquette, Inside Chinese Business and One Billion Customers as the MOQ of required reading for those planning to do business in China.  Contrast this book with others that have similar goals and you will find no comparison.  Books like The Coming China Wars (complete crap) can’t compare in terms of analysis, research or readability.

Finally, this book resonated with me on both a personal and professional level.  I learned much about my wife, who moved from Jiangxi to Shenzhen in 1991, from reading about the factory girls that successfully moved up the corporate ladder from ranks of line worker ultimately to college-educated white-color professional.  This isn’t just a book about business it’s the true story of millions of Chinese workers.

I highly recommend this book!

Tags: Book Reviews, China by David Dayton
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Here’s what I’ve been telling people about starting a business here.

First, you have to really understand what China means for you. China is not competitive in commodities.  China is not competitive in small qtty’s.  China is not a billion people just waiting for (enter-your-brand-here) because it’s a poor country that only wants something (other than money) from the West.  While there are certainly culturally specific rules about working (successfully) here, the laws of business, in particular the rules of due diligence, still apply in China.

To be honest, China is probably a waste of time/money for many small companies when costs, mistakes and shipping are figured in.  Really.  Unless you know what you’re doing here, China will kill your bottom line and production quality.

For example, I have a client that we just did some QA for (and rejected the order, by the way) who has been trying for over a YEAR, on his own, to work with a three Chinese suppliers to get stock, not custom, but stock items, to meet the suppliers own sample quality standards.  Back at home he’s published catalogs and offered product that was either late or sub-standard or both.  Sure, the product he’s order from here is cheaper than what he could get from local distributors—but what is a year worth?  What are a shipment of bad products and untold numbers of disappointed clients worth?

Second, if you’re going to commit to China, do it completely. No half-assed jobs (queue Sherry Bobbins).  This is an issue that we have with many first time clients and an issue that I talk about with buys at shows a lot.  The bottom line is this: are you buying a product or two from China or are you establishing an office in China?  More people than will admit it are trying to do ½ of both, thinking they’ll save money.

These ½ and ½ companies have a “local” here that they pay (in cash) to keep things going for them.  They fly in and out 4-6 times a year.  About ½ of what they get out of China is right and the rest is “tolerable” but not quite right.  They don’t have a registered office but they are doing more than a couple of projects and more than a couple of different product each year here.

If you’re coming to trade shows and buying a few times a year, great.  If you’re opening up your own office (even if it’s just with two people), great.  But being in the middle, hiring people “off the record” passing business cards with a Chinese phone number and address but no registration is not just illegal, it’s asking for problems.  How are you going to go after a supplier that breaks their contract with your pseudo company?  How are you going to defend yourself when your “employee” leaves with your computer, clients and factory contacts?

Third, have someone on your team that is 100% against going to China—they make great balance for your enthusiasm. It’s vital that you have someone checking your China plans.  China is risky and someone that is not sold on the whole China venture is necessary to help you (or whomever is pushing the China agenda) take off your blinders and see those risks for what they really are.  Many people are so excited about China (the prices, their first trip to a huge factory, how nice everyone was) that they forget that among East Asian countries China is just above Myanmar and North Korea in transparency.

Fourth, If you ultimately do decide to set up here pay someone to do all registration for you so you can focus on #1. Just hire an accounting firm to do all the legal work for you.  As I mentioned here before, they are professional, they do it all the time, they are reasonably priced, and unless you’re writing a book about red tape it’s unnecessary and so much easier on you.  Once you get the initial registration done they can do all the annual re-registration and all the quarterly taxes for you too.  These are not some guy at the train station with a briefcase or a taxi driver offering connections.  I’m talking about hiring a real company with hundreds of similar clients–there are scores of them in Shenzhen alone.

Fifth, on the other hand you can unnecessarily talk yourself out of China if you try. I’ve talked with a number of people who knew that they should be here for the sizes of orders and prices they were dealing with but just couldn’t pull the trigger on moving over.  There was always something: “there’s no transparency,” or “the engineers are not experienced enough,” or “nothing is ever on time,” or whatever other excuses you can think off.  These are all true issues with China, yes.  But the rest of the world can deal with it, rather successfully too, so suck it up.  Don’t stay away from China because it’s not the US or Western Europe.  Thailand, Malaysia, India, Mexico, Russia, Argentina, Brazil are not either.

I’ve talked with a couple of people that were just amazed that anyone could make money here.  There seemed to be so many reasons with every order and every plant that they saw that they were sure China was just an over-hyped money pit.  It is.  But that doesn’t mean that you can be on the receiving end of the money.  And that doesn’t mean that just because others have problems that you will too (OK, you will, but if you know what’s coming you can avoid/resolve them, right?!).

Sixth, set up a company/bank in Hong Kong. Not only is HK a great break from China is you are not quite sinocized yet, but HK contracts are enforceable in the mainland, banking services are much better than in the mainland, there are fantastic legal, professional and logistical services that understand the both the West and China, and HK was also just recently named the world’s freest economy.

If for no other reason than the banking, you should do it.  For example, there are offshore and other banking options in Hong Kong available through HSBC.  Many of the big HK banks have overseas offices in many cities all over the West.

And online banking in China still really sucks.  We’ve got at least three different banks with online services and none of them are as good as the services offered by my local credit union back home in Podunk Utah.  The USB keys are clunky and don’t always work.  Wrong password entries have to be reset by PHYSICALLY visiting the branch that issued the key and showing ID.  Nuts.

Finally, if I was going to start a new business in China I’d be looking to import things into China rather than export things from China. China (the government) and China (the people) have cash.  They save.  They buy luxury goods, cars and houses with cash.  They don’t used credit cards (like we do in the West).  They are afraid of domestic quality goods and they want the status that comes from imported brands.  I know that, in particular, luxury goods sales are down 30% to 40% but they are still a growing market that, after this year or so, will be pretty exciting again.  Remember, there are a 300 million plus middle class in China that want more than what they are used to.

Specifically, I’d be interested in food and health products, education and children’s goods and luxury brands with name recognition and history.

Good luck.

Tags: Business, China by David Dayton
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Since Thanksgiving I’ve had 4 people call me about working with SRI or information about new jobs elsewhere, two people talked with me about starting their own companies and a couple others talk with me about networking for other work options.  I also met in the airport a new couple just moving over to SZ for new jobs.   After the first couple of guys called, I realized that I should be collecting the ideas that I was sharing for a future post.

Here’s what I’ve been telling people about finding work here.  I’ll put the corporate ideas in Part II.

First, if you want to work in China, you need to be in China.

I’ve heard that finding a new job is a full time job in and of itself.  I agree.  And how effective is working in China from the US?  Less effective, right.  So if you’re looking for work here you need to be here.

If you’re here you can talk with people that own companies, that are doing projects, that are employed by the companies you want to talk with—you see these people at church, at Starbucks, at the supermarkets, at the schools, at local pick-up ball games, etc.  You don’t’ meet these people at home in the US.

Plus, if you’re here you can start building your own network of factories and friends and resources for your own future business success.  I know more than one guy that had one small project from a neighbor or friend back home and work that first and then another little project and another and pretty soon was doing multiple jobs a month—“pretty soon” is certainly relative; I think it means “a year or so.”

Second, Do you want to be in Asia or be in “x” profession?

This is the question that I faced personally about 20 years ago.  I wanted to be in Asia more than I wanted to do any specific job.  I did grad work in Thailand and started working there in ‘97.  I lost my job in ’98 when the economy crashed and had to rethink what I wanted to do.  I still wanted to be in Asia, so I left translating/consulting for oil and telecom companies in BKK to teaching 4th graders English in Taiwan?  Why? Because I wanted to learn more Chinese and stay in Asia.  I spent two years doing that.  Then I moved back to Thailand and eventually China with SRI.  It was certainly a different career path than some, but in difficult economic times, it was what I could do to achieve my long-term goals of working in Asia.  I don’t’ regret it for a moment.

Third, what’s the goal of work?  Make money or be happy?

In my book, work is for money and the rest of my life is to be spent pursuing happiness.  This doesn’t mean that I want a bad job that physically hurts me or doesn’t give me any time off.  But it does mean that I’ll do jobs (like teaching kids English) that in the short term really kind of suck but pay the bills and, most importantly, teach me skills and give me opportunities.  More than half the battle of success, I think, if being in the right place with the right skills AND being willing to jump into the opportunities when they arise.

Take a less than ideal job, learn, network, and pay the bills while you actively search for something else.  Then leave for something better when you get the chance.

Fourth, network, network, network.

No secret here.  Talk with everyone.  I’m amazed at how many people I meet at the airport or on a vacation home or playing ball that need something from China or know someone working in China.  And if you’re here, and going to the right spots, you’re going to meet even more.  Don’t be afraid to ask for business cards, interviews (for advice, not jobs) or introductions.  The worst that can happen is they can say no.

Fifth, Jump, but have a parachute.

When I left a good paying job for the chance to start up my own company I jumped in with both feet.  From the perspective of the first couple of years, the landing was rough.  But from a much longer perspective, it’s getting better all the time.  So keep your end goal in mind, even when the chips are down.

My parachute was a partner that reigned in my enthusiasm.  We worked great together because I wanted to jump after every opportunity and he couldn’t seem to quite get over the edge on anything that had much risk.  The balance, the give and take, made it both safer and more profitable for both of us.

Maybe your parachute is your parent’s basement apartment if it all goes south in 6-8 months.  Maybe you’ve got a client already that you can subsist with while you get other things going—I know that I lived on a credit card an $150 a month for more than a year when we started up.  Maybe it’s going back to school if you’re attempt doesn’t work out.  Just make sure you have that option to either stick it through on a shoestring or get out without hurting yourself or you family.

Remember any landing you can walk away form is a good one.  In this case, that means that if you learn something, don’t die or get divorced it was probably a good decision.

Sixth, pieces are as good as a whole.

Maybe you still think that you’ll get a single job and it will be the career your father had—same industry, maybe only one company change in 30 years.  Don’t count on it.  When I graduated from college in ’95 I was told to expect to change INDUSTRIES 5 or more times before I retired.  I’m sure that recent grads are told to expect even more than that today.

So take small jobs on the side, if it’s OK with your employer, and do things that you like or that you think will improve your stock for the future.  Maybe you’ll be translating for one company, teaching for another and managing projects for folks you know back home all at the same time.  Eventually one of these part-time gigs will turn into the real deal or will give you the contacts you need for a better job.

Part Two–What I’m telling people about setting up a business in China.

Tags: Business, China by David Dayton
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The much anticipated part II:

6.    No one can control Chinese workers around national holidays.

Despite the iron fist that most use to control their workers the rest of the year, Chinese New Year is the exception.  Workers rule with their feet.  They leave when they want and come back when they want.  With a real labor shortage here for the last two years most workers know that they will have jobs waiting for them when they get back.  Whenever that maybe.  And, if there still work too close to the holiday, many will just leave.

While the three big holidays are now changing into 1 big holiday and a number of other little breaks like the rest of the world, Chinese New Year is still the biggest deal.  Imaging having summer vacation, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in the same 10-day period and then x what ever traffic you can imagine by 100% and that’s CNY.

This year, we’ve had a number of factories tell us that if we didn’t have our orders and deposits in by Dec 31st then they wouldn’t take them until after CNY because everyone would have gone home (because they had nothing to do).

Some factories are already on holiday.  Many will leave as early as this week.  Some start this weekend.  Most start next week sometime.  But no one will be back before February and many won’t be back until the 15th.

For some reason, it seems that CNY is always a big shock to everyone every year.  Hello!  It’s annual—you can plan for this.   Sure, it follows the lunar calendar so it’s not a fixed dates but Easter and Thanksgiving back home move each year too and we still manage to get those right.  This just takes some planning—admittedly, factories often don’t know before New Year’s day when their CNY breaks will be but you can (and should) block off the two weeks surrounding Chinese New Year months in advance each year.

7.    Everything NOT specifically detailed in the contract will be charged back to you or substituted at the lowest possible cost by the supplier.

This isn’t Chinese, it’s everywhere.  That’s the point of contracts, right?  But in China it seems like there are myriad expenses and millions of variations in component quality that you’d not even think existed let alone you’d need to specify or contract.  The problem here is that often you’re not asked about unspecified details, they just plug in the cheapest option (and maybe charge you for better).

So this problem, like most of them, really turns into a communication and presence issue rather than a contract issue.  Possession is 9/10ths of the law and that’s how it works here too—if you are here, if you are seeing it, talking about it, watching it—you get exactly what you expect.  If not?  Someone else with different motivations/agendas is making decisions about your money and product.

8.    Build in extra time for every stage—even if it pushes you past your deadline.

Add extra time into EVERYTHING.  Even if it’s something you’ve a number of times before.  Especially if production schedules are near any holiday or during typhoon season.  You think I’m joking; I’m not.  Typhoons along the coast always give us at least one delay a year.

If the factory is telling us 20 days, we say 23. If the shipper says 16 days we say 21.  If the United States Post Office says two weeks, we say a month and a half. (Don’t ever send anything to China via the USPO.  If it ever does get here, it’ll be crushed beyond recognition, it will have been poked, prodded and “customed,” it will cost you an arm and a leg even if you’ve already paid for it on the other end—and that’s if they don’t loose it first!).

The most difficult times to schedule out are sample times.  Don’t ever ever ever commit to a delivery date if part of the time includes time for samples.  Especially if the product is a first time item that has never been made before.  Factories are notoriously overly optimistic in what they can do and foreigners are notoriously trusting of what people say.  That’s a bad combination if you’ve got to get product into Wal Mart within a 24-hour window.  Even simple adjustments can take weeks (there’s a reason you’ve never seen your idea before—chances are someone thought it up but couldn’t pull it off).

Another thing that we see foreigners do often, never to good ends either, is to assume that since general production times at large Chinese factories are overall so quick that late changes to “one little thing” will not make any difference.  WRONG!  Even the smallest of changes, if not specified prior to production starts can cause days or weeks of delay.  Materials are bought, cut, printed, dyed, molded, painted prior to final assembly and if you change one piece, the color of a molded part for example, you may delay the entire assembly line while they remix paint/dye or while they remake the entire piece because it was all ready all painted.

9.    Either specify up front or fix it later.

Similar to the situation with art and contracts, if you have specs that you’re not totally, well, specific, on then you’re going to have to fix it or change it later.  No if, and’s or but’s about it.  If there is a dimension or measurement that you’ve not specified someone else is going to have to guess.  And you have no clue who that someone is, what their experience is or what their motivations are (Cost? Quality? Timely production?).  If you ever think, “oh, this is just obvious, I don’t need to spec it out” you’ve actually just added a delay, a cost increase and probably an argument into your project.  Way to go!

10.    Double confirm that you are talking about the same thing.

Unless you are sitting in the factory yourself, there is really no way to confirm that you both talking about the same things.  Cameras and art are great, but not everything translates like you expect.  Taking a train/plane/taxi for a couple hours to sit down with the factory for a morning is worth the cost—unless two to four weeks of digital communications and a(nother) round of incorrect samples is your idea of a good use of time.  Really, talking face-to-face will save you weeks—not days, not hours but weeks.

But you absolutely can’t be here to double check yourself then make the factory describe back to you what they are doing.  Make them commit, in writing, to the updates/changes/next steps and get a date and responsible individual for each item.

Just because you sent a sample, a set of digital spec’s and even CAD or other 3D files doesn’t mean that you are all talking about the same thing nor does it guarantee that, even if you are talking about the same thing, both sides each what the other side is talking about.

The more you double check, the less you’ll have to pay for when mistakes are made later.  It’s just that simple.

11.    Assume that everything will NOT go according to plan and plan accordingly.

You will not get samples on time.  You will not get colors, packaging and art correct the first time.  You will not get the quality you thought you were getting the first time.  If you know this going in, life is much less stress full later on.  So plan on problems and you’ll be happier, more prepared and have the time/temperament to deal with them.

12.    Anything less than a signed stamped “YES” is a “NO.”  And even a contract is only as good as the verification/enforcement.

You know contracts don’t mean much here.  So if the contract is the beat-all end-all of legal documents why would emails, MSN chats or Skype notes be enough to convey production changes?  Hint: they’re not.  Like anything else, you first of all want to see it in writing to confirm that it’s both received and understood.  Then, second, you want someone that is actually responsible (for more than their sales commission) to confirm that the changes/updates are received and understood.  And finally you need at least one, not more, people to confirm what change the change/update will have on both price and production time.  Sales managers or reps are not the people that can give you these assurances.  They will agree with just about everything you ask for, unless you ask for a signed commitment from them—then they will have to go talk with a manager (which is whom you want to talk with anyway).

It’s a small thing to have the sales rep get a manager to sign off on changes/updates, but it can make a huge difference in what you eventually get/pay for.  So get all commitments signed, stamped and faxed back to you.

Now you’v got it signed, they confirmed it’s going to happen.  You’re safe, right?  Nope.  You still need to verify that everything is actually done like it was agreed to.

Good luck!

Tags: Business, China, Thailand by David Dayton
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We’re back!

No, we were not on vacation for all of last month.  Not all of it, at least.  We’ve actually been so busy that I’m wondering where the depression I’ve been reading about is.  Really.  Back in SLC, the stores, mall parking lots, theaters and restaurants were so full that we had to adjust evenings out and shopping trips because seats and parking spots we’re completely full/sold out.  I was thrilled to see this.  And I’m so glad that, while it’s certainly bad out there, it’s nice to see that it’s just the media that is making it worse—meaning it’s not as bad as we read about every day.

Also, I was told that a couple of interviews I did in November were on the CBS Evening News (with Katie Couric) in the US last month.  Twice!  December 1st and 11th.  Thanks for letting me know, CBS.  I’ve got a link to one of the clips here. Nothing for the other one, though.

A little bit of a story here.  I interviewed with CBS on camera for 20+ minutes each at of a couple of locations and there was a ton of factory film footage too.  I spent 6-8 hours total with them over two days.  All that for 5 seconds!  I guess that means I’m still due 14 minutes and 55 seconds more of fame.

Now for the real blog.

We’ve had a number of issues that have come up in production during the last month that individually wouldn’t be huge deals, but collectively they really begin to add up.  Not all of these problems happen on every project, of course.  But they are common enough on many projects that you’ve got to be aware of the potential for these to pop up at any time.

If you don’t know that these things could potentially happen to you, you’ll be caught of guard and the surprise can be almost as bad as the problem itself.  So, to help prep for impending issues (which WILL happen, you can count on it), here are some of the common avoidable “surprises.”

1.    Price changes will only make your price go up (except for shipping).

This isn’t as crazy as it sounds.  Typically, factories pre-buy a limited amount of product, as do local distributors.  When prices are going up, they bid out to you the new, higher price, before it actually hits them since they don’t know when you’ll actually pay a deposit.  The reverse is true when prices go down.  Since they economy slowed way down many suppliers have been left with stock in their warehouses—expensive stock at that.  Now that gas prices are back down they are still holding on to stock that they want to sell first.  So the drop isn’t as fast as the rise.  The only real exception to this is international shipping, which seems to go up and down just about as fast as other market prices.

The answer here is to know as much (or more) about the costs of component parts than your supplier.  This may not be worth if for small pieces or small orders, but for anything over $25K you can probably save yourself 1-2% and that’s certainly worth it.

An easy way to do this is to bid out the same item with multiple suppliers.  You’ll be able to tell what your price should most likely be by throwing out the outliers on both ends.

2.    Mistakes will be your responsibility.

This is probably the most irritating part about doing business in China.  No one is responsible for anything that has to do with “your” product.  For example, we had a factory bid on a product, totally spec’d out, with material samples and photos.  They gave us a bid and we placed an order.  Then, just today they came back and said: “Sorry, we made a mistake.  The cost is 30% more and there are dye fees for each of the colors (21).”  They refuse to eat the costs of their own mistakes despite the fact that we have a contract and PO and have paid the deposit.  Or, rather, it’s because we have all this in place already that they can just give us an ultimatum.  Why?  Because they know that the order, for less than $10K is not enough to go to court over.  And we need it as a component in a larger product.  And we’ve already paid a deposit.  We’re committed and they know it.

This is the worst kind of mistake.  Productions errors you at least can talk about and often, if you’re on-site, can even fix on the spot.  But this type is just something that comes out of left field.  Something that can’t be verified and leaves you with few if any options but to pay.  I swear that people stay up nights thinking up these types of issues just to make a buck or two.

3.    Delays will be your responsibility (unless otherwise contracted against).

Same as with the costs of mistakes, if you don’t plan for delays, they will be a major hurdle to you completing your project on time.  Everything is late and so up front we always build in a buffer for each item.  But sometimes you get a component supplier that is just killing you on time and slowing everything down.  I’m not talking about big orders.  Again. This is little stuff—$5K to $10K worth of component parts for a larger project.  My experience is that if you’re not willing to go to court over it then you have very little leverage.

This happens MUCH more with our Southeast Asian suppliers than it does for us in China.  Honestly, one of the good things about China is that so much of what we do is so close to Shenzhen and can all be done in huge capacities in relatively short amounts of time.

The key to keeping things on track is to get not just finish dates but process dates and then to (independently) confirm them.  Was raw material delivered on time?  Were molds delivered on time?  Did production start on time?  You should be doing in-line QC anyway, so you’ve got a least one day when you’ll be able to see where the supplier is in terms of production goals.  But verification (best way is in person) is essential to getting things done on time.

4.    Art and designs will be changed unless you are involved in the process.

If you are not involved in every step of the mold or (re)design process be warned that production will NOT match art.  As far as I can tell, this is due to three factors.  Engineer’s ability/experience, willingness of the factory to really do what you want, and material or technological limitations.  If we fly someone over from the US we can almost always get exactly what we want—and the factory usually learns a few tricks in the process.  If we are asking for a lot of molded items within a short time, we get cut corners.

But even simple stuff like the placement of text on printed cards can be “adjusted” by local suppliers, sometimes not on purpose.  Often if factories are not using the same software (version) as the US then the fonts or placements will not be the same over here.

Last month we were offered a molded sample of “our” new designed product that was the same general shape but nothing else matched.  Turns out, they already had a mold from a previous client and just thought that they could pass that piece off on us as our since they were relatively similar.

There is just no better solution to this problem them being here.  We had a client that asked: “should we send art for factory engineers to work with on their own or should we come over and work with them directly?”  No contest.  If you’re spending money you should be intimately involved with how it’s spent.  We bring engineers and designers over to work with factories many times each year and outside of a few issues of food poisoning, we’ve had great results—much better than if we had just passed along spec’s and waited for product.

5.    Extras and rejects will be resold to others and/or recycled into your final product.

Your exclusive distributor in the EU calls you one day and says “Hey, we’re going to end our agreement with you!! You’ve sold product to another distributor!”  You’re lost, confused and know that you haven’t sold to anyone else in the EU.  What happened?  Yup, all your production rejects found their way to market.  Surprise!  We’ve had a couple of people come to us with this problem.  And, I’ll admit, we know that it happened to us once with a factory in Thailand too.

In the normal course of production and printing you’ll have a decent % of rejects—probably a higher % than what you get in the US as process are just not as tight over here in many things.  This is to be expected.  And most of these will be sold to recyclers or recycled in house.  The qttys are so small that they may find their way into the local Chinese markets but no farther than that.  Not really a big problem.  But when you have a significant % of a production run or even an entire run of products that are rejected you really need to control what happens to them.  We’ve heard of people that have watch their product be loaded onto garbage trucks to be destroyed only to find out that the trucks went out one gate and rounded back to another and the product was sold to people who took it out of country and into the client’s home markets.  I personally know that multiple factories that I’ve worked with sell functionally correct but esthetically incorrect product to international distributors on a regular basis.  Do you really think that anyone outside of North American or Europe cares if the widget is lime green instead of forest green?  Well, they don’t.

Specify exactly what will happen to rejects, overruns, samples, etc.  Have QA confirm it.  Build into contracts that if any product that is found outside of the factory will be fined or sued.

Sorry, this is getting long….so I’ll break it into two parts and post the rest later this week.  Part II will included:

6.    No one can control Chinese workers around national holidays.
7.    Everything NOT specifically detailed in the contract will be charged back to you or substituted at the lowest possible cost by the supplier.
8.    Build in extra time for every stage—even if it pushes you past your deadline.
9.    Either specify up front or fix it later.
10.    Double confirm that you are talking about the same thing.
11.    Assume that everything will NOT go according to plan and plan accordingly.
12.    Anything less than a signed stamped “YES” is a “NO.”  And even a contract is only as good as the verification/enforcement.

Tags: Business, China, Thailand by David Dayton
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