How to Get Ahead in China

Finally, the van arrives at the supplier's factory, Shanghai Maxton Industrial Company. It's a gray two-story building on a side road lined with rubble and old men smoking cigarettes. The van drives in, attracting giggles and stares from workers outside on their break. They are young men and women, in ponytails and Mohawks, wearing jeans and royal-blue jackets, all sipping tea from mugs and plastic cups. Free hops out of the van and is quickly surrounded by a few older men with a managerial air who usher him into a chilly conference room.

When Free first came to China, he wasn't sure how to find, let alone sell to, Chinese suppliers like this one. You can't purchase a directory of small manufacturers, as you can in the States. MFG.com has assembled a team of about 20 interns in Shanghai who collect and screen the names of Chinese suppliers. They find listings through yellow pages, Web searches, and trade show directories. The team is made up of mostly college kids who work part time for 800 renminbi (about $114) a month, plus 1 renminbi (14 cents) per call. The team has identified 58,000 suppliers and aims to have a list of 100,000 by the end of the year.

Shanghai Maxton makes parts for industrial gear. In silence, Free and the Chinese factory managers exchange business cards one at a time and nod firmly at one another. Then everyone sits, sips green tea in paper cups, and watches two long multimedia presentations about the metal stamping and cutting facilities. The language barrier is high here, and everyone remains silent rather than engage in the usual business banter. Finally, the second presentation ends, and the lights go up. "Thank you. Very nice," Free says.

"Have you any questions?" asks a Chinese sales manager. "Not about that," Free says. He's more interested in hearing about how MFG.com stacks up against its competitors. Maxton, he learns, also uses a Chinese competitor called MadeinChina.com. Free begins firing questions at his hosts. Do they get good service from his Shanghai office? ("Yes, sometimes they recommend some customers to us.") Is the stronger Chinese currency and value-added tax making it harder to compete? (Yes, it increases costs 15 percent.) Will they transfer some work to lower-cost countries like Vietnam as a result? (Not yet.) Is MFG.com's website fast enough? (No.) Can they understand drawings written in other languages? (Yes for Japanese and English; no for German.) They will follow up this stilted exchange with an equally stilted lunch, everyone sitting around a lazy Susan in a rundown banquet room at a nearby restaurant, with a waitress in a stained red skirt serving boiled fatty lamb and slippery shrimp. Free will say, in slow English, how delicious the food is and thank the managers for taking the group to lunch and for using MFG.com.

First, though, a factory tour is in order. Though the screams of metal on metal and puffs of machinery drown out most of what the Chinese managers are saying, they are eager to show off their systems. The factory is clean and organized. With Free's staff translating the more intricate explanations, the Shanghai Maxton executives run through their quality controls and workflow charts. The employees, they say, earn a base salary of about 1,200 renminbi (about $171) a month for five eight-hour shifts per week, and they get a housing stipend and two meals a day at the factory. (The factory lunch smells and looks pretty good: fish in sauce, a leafy green vegetable, rice, and sprouts.)

Free pays several compliments about the cleanliness of the factory, then steps away from the tour for a moment. He is diverted by a grim-faced young woman sitting at a boxy, beige machine. If she understands English, she doesn't let it show and ignores the American CEO and the fuss her bosses are making over him. She is on the clock, cutting holes into sheets of metal, six times a minute, 360 times an hour, eight hours a day. Free takes a long look at her. That was once his job, too.

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