Going Global:

One of my favorite recurring themes on this blog has been the argument that robust and free international trade can do more to bring about positive political, social and economic change where such change is needed than all the diplomatic maneuvering or well intentioned do-gooder boycotts could ever accomplish.

Along these lines, I would call your attention to a post last week on the China Law Blog entitled "US Consumers Changing China?". The post discusses an article by Nathan Gardels that appeared in the LA Times under the headline "China's New Revolutionaries: U.S. Consumers". I won't rehash it all here since Dan Harris does his usual excellent job of getting at the salient point. I will repeat here the following quote from Gardels' article which I think gets at the heart of it:

Americans won't hesitate to cut the import lifeline and shift away from Chinese products that might poison their children or kill their pets.

Unlike organized labor or human rights groups, consumers don't have to mobilize to effect change; they only have to stop spending. And their bargaining agents -- Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us -- have immensely more clout than the AFL-CIO or Amnesty International in fostering change in China.

Viva la multinational corporation! And, more to the point, their customers voting with their dollars in the open market for goods and services.

Regular readers are wondering where I've been. The answer -- opening a new office along with all that entails including locating space, negotiating lease terms, hiring management staff, training new people and making sure they understand our company's culture, making sure we're in compliance with the rules of a new tax jurisdiction . . . etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

In order to ensure a smooth transition for customers in working through the new office, everything had to come together at the right moment. Neither an office without staff nor a staff without an office would suffice. And it's always stunning how many little details can throw a monkey wrench in the works. For example, after assuring us that they could provide DSL service, the principal high speed internet provider in the area told us they could not provide the service just a week before we were to go live. A secondary provider kept dragging their feet in responding to our back-up order, eventually telling us that there would be a 6 to 8 week delay in getting service installed and functional. After much teeth gnashing and exasperated phone calls, the original provider came through although we had to delay opening the office by a week,

The office is still not fully furnished, but the good news is that that's primarily because, having gotten everything fully operational, we've been too busy since opening to worry about the final details of decorating. The most sobering part of all this is the craziness of the past month which kept me from blogging here involved a move into new office space across town to accommodate our expansion. It brought me right back, however, to a number of the new offices and plants I oversaw in other countries over the years. Needless to say, the challenges of opening a new office a few thousand miles away with employees who speak a different language present a daunting bur necessary and exciting endeavor.

When opening a new office you must hire a manager whom you can trust implicitly. You must get on site to resolve mission critical issues effectively. You must hire employees who are open to learning the company's culture and provide detailed training from day 1, if not sooner. Stay focused on the business plan driving the new office location and don't get bogged down in issues that detract from the goals of the plan. Find a quiet place and breathe deeply.