Another Day, Another Interesting Conversation With A China Factory. And How Lawyering Has Its Widgets Too.
Silk Road International Blog is one of my favorite blogs. It is written by David Dayton, an “international procurement and project management” specialist with more than twenty years of Asia experience. What I like so much about his blog is that it so often brings us up close and personal and it just tells it like it is. Though the posts are usually about dealing with Chinese factories, they very often “hit me where I live.” This is especially true of David’s most recent post, “Another day, another interesting conversation (headache) with a factory.“
The post is about getting clothes produced from a Chinese factory. David worked with the factory for more than a year to line everything up and then, as soon as David’s factory paid the money, the factory’s promises went by the wayside:
We’ve got the PO signed, the deposit paid and what happens? Factory tells us: “We don’t think that we can do this order. We’re really busy now.” This, of course, was the response to the payment of the deposit. No indications prior to the placing of the order that there would be anything problems. We’ve talked EVERY day in the two weeks preceding the actual transfer of funds and every conversation was great. “Of course we can meet these dates.” “Of course we’ll work with you QC.” “Of course we’ll meet all the QC standards (you’ll never be as strict as our Japanese clients.)”
David then explains what his company had to do to get the Chinese factory to “keep the commitments that they agreed too (signed and chopped) in the contract:”
Fighting about the contract is not nearly as effective as begging. It’s all about face. They know they are wrong but allowing them power can often be as effective as offering them money. The end result of our negotiations is them being in power anyway—they have the deposit, the control the speed for the production line, they monitor the QC, purchase the materials—there is so much that could be sabotaged and be made to look it was just bad luck. So, giving them the face now and admitting that we’re at their mercy is both pleasing to them and the truth. We don’t pay any more (yet) and can still go after them legally if we had too. But at this point they are pretty pleased with themselves and we’re just glad to be back to square one.
Thanking them profusely (gifts) is the correct response. A dinner will cost $100 for the manager that told us “we moved other projects back for you.” A shirt or wallet (brand name but from Ross or another US discount store) gives tons of face and costs $20. It fulfills the social obligation we had to the manager for “helping” and it saves us a bundle of money we would have wasted in transferring the order or suing them or fighting and raising the price. I’ve often said that sometimes the best option is paying more to get what you had already agreed to. When it’s a small gift or dinner it’s almost not even painful. Ego is a bit hard to swallow, but that’s about it.
I feel for David, having been there myself countless times in dealing with attorneys overseas. Just as David needs to engage in creative wheedling to get a widget produced, I often need to engage in creative wheedling to get a legal document filed.
We have an expression in my office on how “a day on the ground is worth a month in the office” and what we mean by that is that to get foreign lawyers to get things done and to get our clients’ cases/matters moving, a meeting with local counsel is oftentimes required. The power of the meeting is that work gets done before we arrive so no face will be lost when we are there and then at the meeting, we can work together so that the plan going forward is theirs, not mine. For more on what it is like to work with lawyers in China and in Korea, check out this article I wrote about a year ago, entitled, “Working With Korean And Chinese Attorneys.”
I am guessing I have had at least as many tug of wars with foreign lawyers as David has had with foreign factories. I am not exaggerating when I say that along with our ability to work with foreign counsel ranks right up there in importance with our need to provide great client service and to know the law (both in the books and in the real world).
My favorite part of David’s post echoes something I constantly find myself saying both at the office and to my own kids: “keep your eyes on the prize.”
Sometimes you are totally in the right. Sometimes people lie to you. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. But the end goal, which is often very very hard to remember, is to get the project done (correctly, on time and on budget). You may not get what you wanted at the originally contracted-for price, but on balance you’re still getting what you want (and it’s still at a savings too!).