Do As I Say, Not As I Do
May 30th, 2007
My 5 year old daughter calls me on my inconsistencies every time. Kids don’t miss a thing …
Same is true in business.
The Silk Road International blog recently made a good post containing an excellent tip for doing business in China …
[I]f you expect your suppliers to follow their contracts and respect your IP then you’d better do the same. If you bust your supplier’s butt over IP violations and then have the factory driver take you to the local knock-off golf or DVD shop, what message are you giving to the factory? Yea, what you do personally does influence how you are seen by your Chinese supplier ….
As a number of my Chinese friends say to me over dinner and maotai, “why do American’s who come here seem to think their own rules apply to us and not to them?”
I still don’t have a good answer. I instead offer a toast on some lame topic of “friendship and goodwill between us” to try and change the subject ….
Entry Filed under: China
4 Comments Add your own
1. Kerry Huang | June 1st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I just want to raise an issue that was highlighted in January 2007 issue of Harper’s Bazzar. Many of the fake purses made in China and purchased by tourists are made by children. So if the students on this trip are not comfortable with contributing to child labor then I don’t recommend purchasing fake purses in China.
2. Chris Carr | June 3rd, 2007 at 7:26 am
Good point.
3. Athena Schwartz | June 3rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
The fake purse (and other counterfeit items) issue is a tricky issue. I know that if I were in business designing or manufacturing a high quality item, I would not be very happy about people making money on counterfeits of my product. But I know when I get there, I’ll be tempted to purchase one - wouldn’t it be fun to walk around with a Gucci purse that cost me only a fraction of the price? But, this reminds me of something my Grandma used to say: “If you can’t afford to leave a tip, you shouldn’t go out to eat”. We are all getting Masters degrees - if any of us really desire a brand name purse or a few new DVDs, we can afford to purchase them. Brand name clothing, etc has never been important to me, so I would never spend the money to purchase it. If I flaunted a counterfeit Kate Spade purse, I would feel like a fraud.
So, to tie this back to the main point of this blog post, I think if Americans are going to go over to China and help bust the counterfeiting operations, we shouldn’t then go on vacation and buy counterfeit goods simply because they are cheap. Hopefully I do not become a hypocrite as soon as I get to China.
4. Chris Carr | June 3rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
One of the challenges in China is that counterfeiting is such a big part of the economy that at some places/markets, it can be really hard to tell what’s real and what is counterfeit. Fake Golf clubs and purses and DVDs are easy to spot, but other stuff can be difficult.
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