I Hate Doing Business With Asians!

[Rock]

Every culture has some quirks and it can either be of benefit to you or the opposite. The Chinese are more pragmatic and less perfectionist, so if you're the supplier, they're willing to overlook few minor flaws at the expense of the customer. The Japanese are more perfectionist and "beta" means "as good as production" to them. If you're the supplier to a Japanese company, expect them to nit-pick to perfection, to the customer's benefit. Minor cosmetic flaws, even those that do not affect the actual performance, is unacceptable. The Japanese are polite with one face but the other face is an Oni (*). I've personally witnessed Japanese managers chew out their subordinates in front of other peers with complete disregard for face saving.

Chinese companies can go overboard on hospitality for customers & guests, sending a chaffered car, putting you up at a nice hotel, treat you to banquets and take you to KTV. But to their own workers they'd go overboard on penny pinching. However the ethnic Chinese character has an undercurrent of rebellious streak. Given choice many Chinese would rather be their own bosses than working for someone else, and if pushed too far, the mob mentality takes over and they will riot. The Japanese, on the other hand, were generally better at being a "cog in the machine" and playing the role of the cog to perfection. But that's with the last generation and the current one, raised in relative comfort, have gotten lazy.

Korean bosses have a poor reputation because some of them have poor anger management skills and will verbally and physically abuse their workers. Stories of factory bosses making workers kneel because they didn't meet quotas, or beating workers are not uncommon in the press. I've never worked for a Korean company, so cannot testify to the experience.

If you've ever wondered where the biggest and best looking fruits went, for years they were shipped as premium products to Japan. However this is changing as American consumers are now more willing to pay more for organic or premium quality/selection produce.


(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni

Very insightful! And it matches well with the particular areas I've had experience.

How would you compare these groups on their reliability in honoring contracts and business deals when you don't have power to enforce things?

As for Taco, I think he's just getting screwed over by peasant Filipinos who see him as mister moneybags even tho the poor guy hardly has any money lol.

[momopi]

Very insightful! And it matches well with the particular areas I've had experience.
How would you compare these groups on their reliability in honoring contracts and business deals when you don't have power to enforce things?
As for Taco, I think he's just getting screwed over by peasant Filipinos who see him as mister moneybags even tho the poor guy hardly has any money lol.

I've not had major issues with Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, and Japanese suppliers (they all deliver). I've not had extensive dealings with Korean companies so cannot speak about them. When I worked in the MRO industry as a consultant, my client's opinion is that among Asian suppliers, Japanese made hardware has top reputation, while Taiwan is ranked #2 just behind Japan. Oddly they did not mention Korean made hardware.

My ex-fiance in Taipei worked for a government agency that deal with industrial/trade offsets. Basically for Taiwan to buy some stuff from country X, country X must buy some stuff from Taiwan. The Japanese were a pain in the butt because their QA people will reject based on even minor cosmetic flaws that did not affect function. Still, it was better than dealing with Indian companies. Another friend worked in pharmaceuticals and his work had signed an agreement to build a school for local children in India. After half the money were delivered, he went there in following year and meet with 2 local officials under a tree in a dirt lot. with no construction activity in sight. "The papers have been properly filed", they said.

My old workplace contracted a company in Shenzhen to make dispenser parts & carousels. If you've ever seen a nurse at the hospital use her badge on a supply cabinet, that was one of our products (dispenser cabinets with computer controllers, automated inventory & restocking, kanban, etc). We've never had any major issues with them but did have some quality/defect problems. To reduce the defect rate I produced QC videos and brought it to their factory. They took what I gave them and produced their own expanded version with even more test steps. However I'd note that this was a *big* company and not a small supplier.

On Japanese companies, I was sent to Ohio to a Honda subsidiary that made car parts. Company policy dictated that all employees on shop floor wear white overalls. By mid day they all looked like walking dust bunnies. Not sure how much they pay for dry cleaning services. The Japanese managers watched the shop like hawks and if you placed a cabinet outside of the safety line on the floor, they'd run over immediately and yell at you. There is no such thing as "I'm just leaving it here for a minuet".

[Taco]

Every culture has some quirks and it can either be of benefit to you or the opposite. The Chinese are more pragmatic and less perfectionist, so if you're the supplier, they're willing to overlook few minor flaws at the expense of the customer. The Japanese are more perfectionist and "beta" means "as good as production" to them. If you're the supplier to a Japanese company, expect them to nit-pick to perfection, to the customer's benefit. Minor cosmetic flaws, even those that do not affect the actual performance, is unacceptable. The Japanese are polite with one face but the other face is an Oni (*). I've personally witnessed Japanese managers chew out their subordinates in front of other peers with complete disregard for face saving.

Chinese companies can go overboard on hospitality for customers & guests, sending a chaffered car, putting you up at a nice hotel, treat you to banquets and take you to KTV. But to their own workers they'd go overboard on penny pinching. However the ethnic Chinese character has an undercurrent of rebellious streak. Given choice many Chinese would rather be their own bosses than working for someone else, and if pushed too far, the mob mentality takes over and they will riot. The Japanese, on the other hand, were generally better at being a "cog in the machine" and playing the role of the cog to perfection. But that's with the last generation and the current one, raised in relative comfort, have gotten lazy.

Korean bosses have a poor reputation because some of them have poor anger management skills and will verbally and physically abuse their workers. Stories of factory bosses making workers kneel because they didn't meet quotas, or beating workers are not uncommon in the press. I've never worked for a Korean company, so cannot testify to the experience.

If you've ever wondered where the biggest and best looking fruits went, for years they were shipped as premium products to Japan. However this is changing as American consumers are now more willing to pay more for organic or premium quality/selection produce.


(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni

As for Taco, I think he's just getting screwed over by peasant Filipinos who see him as mister moneybags even tho the poor guy hardly has any money lol.

Thanks, that helps me a lot.

Its not just me or other foreigners that get taken. My wife has been ripped by her own family and friends. And I've seen my wife rip off her own dad too, which really surprised me, in addition to stealing cable TV from the cable company. However, I've come up with some ways to piss off Filipinos in business transactions.

1. Hand them a 1000 peso bill for something that costs 10 pesos
2. Talk them down in price and then just walk away
3. Tell them your fighting cock is for sale and you imported it from the US so you can charge them 4x more, they will believe you if your a foreigner

This just in.

Held Hostage In China
http://www.businessinsider.com/chip-sta ... ina-2013-6

[Jester]

I thought the consensus here on HA was that Thailand was mildly protectionist against Farang business ownership?

It's all relative. And one of my main areas of interest is residential condos. In Phils, just buying and selling will cost you 25% in taxes and fees plus there are no reliable real estate management firms here I know of. Scams abound and power costs like 6 times what it does in Thailand.

In Thailand, things in my experience there run smoothly and are pretty efficient. The real estate managers are reliable, power is cheap, and taxes are reasonable (can be effectively zero if you use a corporate structure to hold property). It's a pretty simple and straightforward and reasonably profitable type of business which attracts a lot of foreign investors from all over the world.

Thanks.

[Jester]

[Taco]

I went to the SMART internet company office in my city to inquire about internet service and found out the office I went to gets their internet service from another company. They try sell me all these crappy USB sticks and modems and the company refuses to use them. The office staff told me that with straight face, I just left shaking my head.

[Zero_Tolerance_Man]

To the Jew hater: F you ignorant cocksuker. Most of us are just like you, tying to make a living and get by. Ok, asshat? I am sick of the instant Jew hating on his forum. Go burn in an oven, you idiot.

[zboy1]

To the Jew hater: F you ignorant cocksuker. Most of us are just like you, tying to make a living and get by. Ok, asshat? I am sick of the instant Jew hating on his forum. Go burn in an oven, you idiot.

Relax man...I don't hate Jews or hate my own race, but I won't be politically correct either; you need to grow a thicker skin, Zero Tolerance Man...On the other hand, I and Winston won't tolerate racial slurs, racist images, or violent rhetoric against other races; that's why some previous posters were banned. We can talk about race on this forum...as long as it's done respectfully and it's not too inflammatory.

[Zero_Tolerance_Man]

These racial stereotypes are ridiculously ignorant. There is bad in every race or religion, but there is too much antisemitism on this board. It saddens me because I identify strongly with the mission here and this board is important to me; I read it everyday.

[zboy1]

These racial stereotypes are ridiculously ignorant. There is bad in every race or religion, but there is too much antisemitism on this board. It saddens me because I identify strongly with the mission here and this board is important to me; I read it everyday.

I think you need to differentiate between people being "anti-Zionist" and "anti-Semitic." I think most people here are the former, and not the latter. And, besides, there are many anti-Zionist Jews around like Noam Chomsky, and groups like J Street and Neturei Karta.