OMG this really is the land of opportunity !!!

5 whole days in Guangzhou China and I  know how to pronounce the city's name without stumbling. I have loved every minute and have been blown away by the opportunities here. It does not have the huge risk and great levels of difficulty, that so many NZers would have me believe .. sure there are risks in working with the Chinese in China but business is about risk, calculated risk and I've been taking these all my business life.

I have packed so much into 5 days here, food, fabric, shoes, accessories, interviews for the 'Her' Mag and factory visits .. I have been to places that by NZ standards are simply squalor and seen the women and men that make up the manufacturing industry here at work and never have I felt unsafe or threatened.



 I have meet many new people, from a wonderful Egyptian .. Bob, to a whole contingent of NZers living up here that have been introduced to me by KEA (this even included a friend of my daughters, hows that for two degrees of separation!) I have had average food and not very good wine in a bar owned by a german..(The Happy Monk) and wandered home at night quite comfortably on my own, often later than perhaps I should have.

Yes I did my homework before I came up here and it has truly paid off, traveling with the MBA Girls has been wonderful, I have two new friends, Kirstin and Sarah,  that are just as excited by the opportunities as I am ..
Guangzhou is massive, at an unofficial 20 million population some would think that it is as high as 30 million.
 I have no idea how they track all these people (life and death are all around us, it would be very easy to go missing here) and sure, they live differently to us but to be informed around this is so much better than sitting in our NZ bubble and criticizing their conditions and the wages.

Kirstin in a fabric market in Guangzhou

I have a new respect for the Chinese and for the way the Communist Party run this country it is so large, there are so many people, so many changes that are appearing for this developing nation that   democratic leadership in so many peoples opinions would never work !
 If change needs to be made the government simply passes a law, take for instance drinking and driving. To stop this with  the bourgeoning middle class emerging and all the trappings of the west, the government simply said  if you drink and drive and get caught, then you go to jail for 3 months, no negotiation, a very daunting prospect for anyone I'd say, even the chinese .. theres no pussy footing around here.. and I love that !
I have spoken to so many people about the working and living conditions here, which are changing rapidly  and I truly believe that as a source of manufacture, they are far superior to anything we can ever offer in NZ quality and efficiency wise, this is driven out of their cost effective labour and lets face it the extensive social welfare system that we have in NZ  is simply not conducive to any NZers wanting to work in this industry and these environments and the irony here is that nearly all our NZ factories are Chinese !

 So some tips for manufacturing /sourcing in this market:

 Do your homework before you come KEA and Trade NZ are great places to start and then theres aways Google .. which amazingly we found was in a few cases out of date but is most cases a mine of information as always.
Be prepared to get outside the NZ/English circle of comfort, we went into factories where no one spoke english and they as yet where not dealing with NZ, although they were exporting to english speaking countries, this is very important, you do not want to be their virgin experience no matter how good the price may seem.

Some of our highest prices came from the English speaking agents that sure make the transition into this country easier but definitely not in the most cost effective way. (there are many NZ designers up here using this type of platform)
Consider an interpreter before you come (you can sort this through the hotel or KEA) .. it is simply a must if you want to get out side your comfort zone and experience all that this wonderful city can offer.

 Don't get complacent, look at all options some of our best came from the off the beaten track stuff and visits we nearly shelved as it all looked too hard in the light of our discoveries to date.
 One visit saw as taking a driver back into the city from our last appointment in the Guan Dong province, OMG it was like country boy comes to town, as this driver tries to navigate the unknown territory of the this furious city . several loud phone calls seeking directions from his help desk??? 3 to 4 stops in the middle of the motorway while he got his bearings and the other vehicles torpedoed around us, several uturns .. and I knew that this was never going to happen in my life time, so out we jumped and grabbed the familiar green city cabs that saw us comfortably to our hotel which ironically wasn't so far away.

Come up here initially simply to discover the opportunities .. be okay about doing nothing initially.
Leave plenty of time, as getting to places and being hosted takes time, taxis are cheap, but always have the address of your hotel and the place you are visiting written in chinese.. there is very little english spoken here and even those that do are very little understanding of what the words mean.
  
Bring small NZ gifts with you (as well as a good supply of business cards).. the girls had NZ wine, honey and lambs placenta cream .. when we gave these out, the dynamic's of the conversation and level of helpfulness changed.

Bring a wide variety of your product with you, if you are looking at manufacturing up here  .. what you first thought may be suitable for this environment may not be the case .. have options that will   enable you to have all sorts of conversations.
Ask questions, every body has information, we found some wonderful markets simply by talking to people all sorts of people.... in fact we never stopped.

If you do decide to go head with manufacturing/sourcing from this country .. employ a Chinese speaking interpretor in NZ this can be done easily through your university, remember this country has many different dialects .. so they will need to speak the correct one .. yep even chinese people cant all understand each other.
 And as always bring the principals of good business into your dealings here, assess the risk, look at the capabilities, consider the turn around times, its not all about price !!!

 Remember until the job is worth more than the money it will never pay more !

Jimmy Choo knock off territory

So yesterday we left the wonderful city of Guangzhou and headed to Hong Kong .. for 6 more days of exploration into another market and its offerings .. a quick stumble through a late night market last night  highlighted the very real risk of manufacturing product here, as Jimmy Choo knock off bags   adorned so many of the stalls ..I wondered how Tara Mellon would respond to the blatant profiteering off the back of the Choo name .. I suppose in one way you could always look at it as the highest form of flattery .. in that to be in this environment you'd have to have the name sake .. and  I even heard that Karen Walker sunglasses have made it to these market stalls  !!!!