How Many people complain that Chinese factories deliver the wrong products, defective materials, and even items not made to specifications and shipments delivered late.
There are too many tales of knockoffs and counterfeit pieces. “We hired a firms to make our Picture Frames, now the factory is selling directly to our clients!”
Here are 11 strategies to employ to prevent this from happening to you.
• Ask yourself: Why did you think this would be easy?
This may sound psychological, but is a fair question to ask. If making lounge chairs is difficult in Cincinnati, why would someone think it’s easy, say, in Malaysia? The language, culture, currencies and laws are different. It’s also thousands of miles away. Managing factory workers is tough in any country and much more difficult in unknown countries.
• Protect your home base.
If you’re worried about your Malaysian factory selling your designed chairs to your U.S. retailers, then you’ve picked outsourcing as a your only solution>
• Live there for a while.
If you ‘re really considering making your anything in, say, Malaysia, you should invest the time and live in country for a while. Get to know the country, communication styles and your factory.
You can see the other 8 tips at www.lessonsfromtheroad.com
[tags]Global strategy, foreign cultures market research, international research, planning, international business, off shoring, outsourcing, making products, Global business, marketing, business planning, marketing abroad strategic consulting [/tags]
