Last stop Dubai
The Burj Dubai, 119 stories so far. Soon to be the worlds tallest building.
Dubai is a truly unusual place. There must be a hundred high-rise buildings under construction. The airport is first class and looks brand new (they are building a new one about ten time larger!).
Our operation in Dubai where we are doing final commissioning and customer inspections for our Indian customers.
What a trip! I am really glad to be home.
Yesterday we met with the Director of our largest customer to discuss the delivery and support for their $60+ Million order. Sorry no photos, just not appropriate.
Today we are meeting with our joint venture manufacturing partner here in New Delhi. Nothing like china, you notice several things right away. In China almost the entire workforce were young girl, in India almost entirely young men. In China machines made by the company (frequently copies of US or European machines), in India all purchased machines from the US or Europe.
Cable Manufacturing
Cable extuder
We did see several women out of a staff of over 200.
Laying out cable for measurements.
Arrived in New Delhi, India around 2 AM Sunday morning. Believe it or not the airport was absolutely packed. Checked in to hotel around 3AM very little security nothing unusual at all. When I got up for breakfast everything had changed. Helos on the roof, the Army and security everywhere. It seams the Southeast Asia summit is being hosted right here and one of the member country’s President is staying at this hotel. Not sure if I feel safer or am I in the target zone?
I could have taken a photo, however I think I might have been detained.
We met with our host and did a little of the tourist bit.
ALAI-DARWAZA gateway to thE QUNWATUL mosque New Delhi, India
Also had time to shop.
Check out McDonalds, no beef
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Shopping here is very interesting. Buying anything requires at least 45 minutes of negotiation, and then re-negotiation. No wonder we have difficulty with our customers here, it is just normal.
A Sari I purchased for Caroline.
Shenzhen day 6 and 7: Great meeting with our contract-manufacturing partner. Clearly Shenzhen is a different place than Xiamen! They told me the population was over 14 million (I doubt anyone knows). Take a look at the main entrance to the plant. Yes that is a 60,000lbs stone Buddha taking a shower!
Inside is even more impressive Lots of Buddha’s in the lobby, and they even have a temple. The president is one of the most gracious host I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I cannot show you photos inside the factory (except for the lobby and Temple). This place is really big well over 5000 employees (400 working on our products). These folks really have manufacturing down right. They also have a very impressive customer list (Cisco, Bose, Sprint, etc.).
Later we went out for the absolute best Chinese dinner I have ever had (and I had had a bunch). Check out this Lobster. 
I am at the airport now with a bout 12 hours of travel ahead to India.
Typical Chinese factory.
Day 5 it must be Xiamen (where did day 4 go?). Nice little city (by China standards an island with only one million people). We met with our supplier (part of a large US owned company) toured the factory, reviewed issues with our product design, and manufacturability etc.
Cindy the plant manager talking to Gordon Smith. All the staff here are very smart and very young, and clearly hard working.
After another great Chinese lunch we when to Gu Lang Yu, a island accessible by ferry (If you come here go ahead and spring for the extra 1 RMB (12.5 cents) to sit on the top deck.)
Also bring an extra bag for all the tea that you will be recieving as gifts. Tea is really big here. Now on to Shenzhen.
Ralph and the chairmen
I spent Monday meeting with my team in Beijing, a great group of very motivated employees. I talk to some of these folks several times every week, however face-to-face contact really makes all the difference. The good news was that I finally had time to see a little bit of Beijing (other than customers offices). We were able to tour the Forbidden City (Palace Museum) and Tienanmen Square. Quite a sight!
The team at lunch
Tuesday we went south about 70Km to visit my largest customer in China. We had a great meeting and for the first time they had nothing but good things to say about our products! Compliments are not part of the normal negotiating process.
Tomorrow on to Xi amen to visit a supplier (it is nice to be a customer sometimes).
I left Dallas Saturday morning on a trip to China (Beijing, Xiamen, and Shenzhen), India (Delhi, and Dehradun), and Dubai. In China I am Meeting with our second largest customer in Beijing and then visiting two manufacturing companies in Xiamen and Shenzhen. In India I will be visiting our new service center, a manufacturing partner, and then our largest customer. On to Dubai where our operation there is now staging the $60 million order for our Indian customer.
Looks like a fun filled (well at least interesting) two weeks. I will be posting comments as I go and putting up some photos.
One thing that struck me as I came though the airport (and waited for my lost bags), there must have been a hundred ads for GE (I use to work at GE). China is a little like GE; everyone works very long hours, and everyone knows what the five-year plan is. In China they are moving from the last plan “made in China” to the new plan “created in China”. More later.
Some MacBook Pro and MacBook customers (me included) have the faster 802.11n Wi-Fi chip already sitting in their systems, but it will cost $2 to light it up.
Apple said it is required under generally accepted accounting principles to charge customers for the software upgrade. “The nominal distribution fee for the 802.11n software is required in order for Apple to comply with generally accepted accounting principles for revenue recognition, which generally require that we charge for significant feature enhancements, such as 802.11n, when added to previously purchased products,”
See artical by Tom Krazil CNET News.com “Apple to charge for faster Wi-Fi“
Jim Clark resigned his position as chairman of Shutterfly three months after the IPO in a letter that was attached to the required SEC filing. Jim didn’t realize the letter, revealing his frustrated and frank attitude, would be released publicly. Now that it has he sat down with Nanette Byrnes from Business Week for a detailed conversation detailed in the article, “Jim Clark - Clipped Wings at Shutterfly.”
Jim suggested, “When I wrote that I had no idea it had to be attached to the document that went to SEC [the Securities & Exchange Commission]. That was a genuine statement. I basically kept that company alive. I became its bank. I hired the current CEO and had been involved in every step. I made a $30 million investment. I had been on the compensation committee, which seems like a rational committee for the largest shareholder to be on. Then suddenly I start realizing all these constraints on me.”
Jim continued by explaining that SOX is biased against board members who actually own the company. He explains, “Jeff [Housenbold, Shutterfly’s CEO] brought in some excellent board members. They just don’t own much of the company. Sarbanes-Oxley seems to take the point of view that if you own part of a company that’s a bad thing. I read all the time about the problems of a CEO having stock in the company. I wouldn’t want it any other way. What do we want to do, go back to days of Henry Ford, when 10 people owned the company?”
Nanette asked Jim what he thought about SOX and he responded, “If it did anything for you it would be O.K., but I’ve seen absolutely nothing except at least a doubling of the legal and audit bills. It’s very bad for small companies. The current notion of exempting smaller companies from Sarbanes-Oxley is stupid. Every small company wants to be a big company. It’s a continuum [so they’ll have to comply anyway]. It needs to just be flushed down the drain.”
Check out the full interview here. Hat tip to Inside SOX for the pointer.
The SOX blog pointed out that both Senator Sarbanes and Representative Oxley retired this year. Will their departure spell the end of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The SOX blog suggests, “The act, which was passed hastily in the wake of the Enron scandal, was surely well-intentioned. But it has proven counterproductive in the extreme, and Congress would best honor the departing lawmakers by repealing it.”
