I am originally from Morocco and having spent a year in China, I started catching the homesickness bug, or should I call it the homefoodsickness. I am doing my MBA in Nanchang, Jiangxi, a small city (in Chinese standards) which is not very international, so whenever I travel to a...
Quality fade is a supplier’s behavior of progressively degrading the quality of the products to earn more profits. When a factory voluntarily participates in quality fade, disputes may arise between the buyer and the supplier, which can ultimately lead to early termination of agreements. Quality fade is not an unknown...
Born in Vietnam and subsequently emigrating to America, I feel like I have had the best of both worlds. Growing up, I would spend hours locked to my television screen watching Chinese historical dramas and soap operas, sometimes as much as 5 hours or more per day. My sisters would...
Typically, as soon as a purchase order is signed with a factory, an important next step is to engage in order follow ups. This is to ensure that your suppliers are in line to produce the correct product, level of quality, special requests, shipment dates, etc. However, there can be...
Anyone who has dared venture outside their apartment door is immediately greeted by the diverse sights and smells that a cultural hub like Beijing has to offer. One particularly poignant sight is the 8am rush on the Beijing subway. On the streets above, pedestrians constantly bump into each other, cars...
When working through a proper sourcing process, one important step to understand is dealing with a Request for Quotation (RFQ). This is a standard business process that allows suppliers to place bids on specific products or services. Here are 3 great tips to a get the quotes you are looking...
In China, it can be difficult to find suppliers who pay as close attention to quality as you do. Often as a new client of a supplier, the quality of your first order (or first few) is satisfactory. But as orders and money come through regularly, suppliers become lax with...
The beauty, cuisine, and the sheer size of the homogenous population in Beijing have left many tourists blown away by its dissimilarity to the Western world. Prior to my arrival in Beijing, I had heard so many examples of these differences and perhaps it was the ultra-alertness and expectations I...
