Poorly Made in China Quotes

“They believed that the customer's exact wishes mattered only as far as they were necessary to capture the initial order. Beyond that, they figured, what an importer didn't know couldn't hurt it.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Somewhere along the line, Made in China began to sound like a bargain. (...)
When an importer told a retail buyer that an item was quoted at 65¢ and made in the USA, the buyer figured it could be purchased somewhere cheaper.

When the same product was quoted at 65¢ and was said to have been made in China the buyer figured it could not be found for any less.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game

“Chinese were actually going out of their way to learn foreign languages, which was not exactly what international relations theorists had predicted. Academics who touted “hegemonic theory” insisted that the world was speaking English if only because the United States was the predominant political and economic power. China was rising to significance, these theorists insisted—and so the world would switch to Chinese. This was not what was happening in China, though, at least not in the world of export manufacturing. Importers, who had every reason to learn the language, were forgoing the opportunity. Instead, representatives at the manufacturers were learning the language of their customers. Part of it was motivated by simple economics. A full-time translator could be found in China for as little as $300 per month. Westerners had an opportunity cost that was much higher. And so, it made sense for the lesser-developed economies to bear the burden of bridging the linguistic chasm.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Chinese manufacturers did not think in a linear fashion; they saw business as multidimensional. Importers were thinking checkers, while manufacturers were playing chess.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Many deals that initially seem too good to be true in China, like a low price, often end in tears and disappointment.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Emerging markets are difficult places in which to do business, and South China may be among the most difficult of all.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Those who were in charge of buying at the retailers didn't like surprises, and if they discovered that we made changes without their prior approval, we were finished.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Manufacturers I worked with got away with whatever they wanted, and importers did not have the leverage to pressure their suppliers to behave in an ethical fashion.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“China watchers were suggesting that quality would improve in time, and that as the country developed, there would be fewer problems. My own experiences suggested the opposite—that things were getting worse, if only because factory owners were picking up more tricks as they went along.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“I worked with these colorful characters. Never mind the entertainment value, these were lessons you didn't get in business school. This notion of a company knowingly putting out things to be stolen was a riot, though I didn't like the rest of the implication—that I was in some way naive.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“it didn't matter if a person was dishonest, just so long as you got what you wanted out of the deal.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Once the manufacturer achieved a degree of success, it saw itself in the imperial role, while relegating the importer to that of a mere supplicant.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“The problem with this system was that we had to know what questions to ask in order to get at any sort of meaningful response. American consumers were accustomed to receiving exactly what they had ordered. Chinese manufacturers had a slightly different philosophy when it came to customer relationships. They believed that the customer's exact wishes mattered only as far as they were necessary to capture the initial order. Beyond that, they figured, what an importer didn't know couldn't hurt it.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“In China, there was no penalty for getting caught in any production scheme.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Donald looked at some examples and noticed a logo on the back label of one of the bottles. It was a small outline of a rabbit and around the cartoon figure were the words: No Animal Testing. “That's good,” he said. “You don't test on animals.” It was a nice logo, and it was truthful. We didn't conduct any tests on animals. Then again, we didn't do any other testing either. King Chemical ran some basic checks to ensure the general stability of the formulation, but they were not the sort of rigorous tests that brought anyone any real comfort. We did not test for toxic chemicals or bacterial contamination, for example. The factory had just a small laboratory located in a back room. The equipment was basic. Most high school laboratories in the United States had equipment that was more up to date. In any case, no one was checking on the factory to ensure that it produced a quality product.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“I had come to China to help foreigners get to the truth; it had never occurred to me that some of them might not want to know it.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game

“He knew that the venture was not a success, but at the same time, he wouldn't admit that it was a failure. The venture at least gave him bragging rights back in New York and New Jersey. While the joint venture did not generate profit, he could tell everyone how wonderfully well things were going for him in the Far East. The result of such a pattern of behavior was that even more foreign companies were jumping onto the bandwagon. "If those guys can do it, then so can we," the competition would say to itself.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game

“Some said that the answer to China's quality challenge was to test more of its products. The problem with this solution—at least in health and beauty care—was that it was too expensive. For many product categories, Johnson Carter earned not even 10¢ per bottle. If there were 20,000 pieces in a 40-foot container, the importer might earn only $2,000 in profit, and then the laboratory wanted to charge more than $200 for each separate test that it might run. Testing just one bottle for the presence of five different toxic substances could run more than a thousand dollars.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Supplier relationships were almost never better than they were at the very beginning. Manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their product, and at the same time, they found small ways in which to ratchet up prices in the short term.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Find a wall that you can bang your head against,” went the words of one well-known artist, “and if you accomplish nothing more than making a small crack in that wall, at least you can say—‘that’s my wall.’ ”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Maybe it was just my changed perspective from having lived in China for so long, but it seemed that Chinese companies were more aggressive in engaging the broader world. In the United States, the growing trend was to ignore a rival when a better strategy might have been to take the threat of competition as a welcome challenge. There was something about China's economic rise in any event that was causing American companies to lose confidence.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Engineers knew precisely what each part should look like, and there was a small surprise when the supplier was found to be taking metal out of certain components. One key part that weighed about 48 kilograms was coming in at less than 90 percent of its intended weight. The factory had taken the weight reduction as a cost savings for itself and had passed only the resulting product risk on to Build”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game

“Appearance over substance was a cultural theme in China”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game

“China manufacturing was a game played on a field without referees.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game

“Zealots are rarely ever weakened by disbelievers; in fact, they are encouraged by them.”
― Paul Midler, Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game