By Kay Nolan
For WisBusiness.com
Wisconsin employers may be used to deer hunting season with its absenteeism and work slowdowns, but nothing prepared Sheboygan businessman Dan Gray for the disruption caused by the Chinese New Year, after his office furniture company, Mayline Group, began doing business in China.
“Business all but shuts down for three weeks,” said Gray. “There is nothing in this country that matches it.”
And some workers continue the celebration even longer – or don’t come back to work at all, forcing employers to start over with new trainees, he learned. “You definitely have to plan for it,” said Gray.
But despite tales of cultural differences and challenges regarding fluctuating currency values and trying to synchronize accounting procedures and quality control measures on two continents, leaders of Wisconsin companies, large and small, remained enthusiastic about doing business in China.
Gray was part of a panel discussion at the 47th annual Wisconsin International Trade Conference, held Tuesday at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. The event was coordinated by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and attended by about 450 businessmen and women.
Panelists included representatives of small businesses like Mayline, which decided to buy Chinese-made wooden furniture to add to its existing line of steel office furniture and Deb Anguil of Milwaukee-based Anguil Environmental Systems, a family-owned air pollution equipment manufacturer.
The panel also featured executives from large corporations like Rockwell Automation, which has developed a multi-layered presence in China over 23 years that includes manufacturing facilities, research and development sites, software engineering and systems engineering offices and teaching laboratories at 40 Chinese universities.
The companies shared varying experiences in China.
Yen Jung Lin, who directs international sourcing for Briggs & Stratton Corp., said the engine giant has taken a methodical approach over several years of locating suppliers, honing the manufacturing process and streamlining supply chain management.
Gray, on the other hand, said his company didn’t utilize formal sourcing. “We jumped on planes and started this on our own,” he said.
But these common threads ran through all the panelists’ presentations:
* China presents an irresistibly vast market for U.S. products.
* Find a way to manufacture your products there to avoid prohibitive shipping costs.
* Experiment with hiring local contractors, setting up licensed fabricators and creating joint ventures to see which business model works best.
* Take advantage of Chinese know-how and ambitious work ethic, especially among its youth, but insist on product quality control.
* Learn about Chinese culture and learn from it, especially the ambition of its youth.
Mike Webb, president of Eau Claire-based U-Fuel, a maker of fuel stations, believes in paying workers well at his company’s manufacturing facility in China. He adds monthly and yearly bonuses as well. He believes Americans are good at running businesses and can use that expertise to work well with the Chinese, who, he said, are great at managing people.
Frank Dowd, of Rockwell Automation, said he met a group of teens in China that were planning to spend a Saturday afternoon practicing their English, then take a break for dinner and tackle studying Japanese. “Can you imagine American teens doing that on a Saturday?” he asked.
In a separate session, Gilles Bousquet, dean of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , said if he has his way, more American students will learn multiple languages and enhance their global preparedness. He is working to grow the university’s China Initiative, founded in 2007, which encourages students from a variety of majors, including engineering, law and foreign affairs, to study Chinese language and culture.
Dan Keegan, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, said the famous, Calatrava-designed venue will host a “golden opportunity to deepen our appreciation of a culture we will no doubt be getting to know very well” with a 5-pronged summer exhibit of Chinese art, beginning June 11. It will feature paintings, sculpture, furniture, ink drawings, and “chinoiserie” — 18th- and 19th-century European items with a Chinese influence.
Although the panelists agreed it made sense to build their products overseas, they said the results have led to adding some jobs in Wisconsin, especially engineers.
In addition, Webb said his firm will always continue making certain components in the U.S. “Certain things, like fuses, and proprietary intellectual property, we will not manufacture in China,” he said.
