Kailiou Commercial Equipment Co., Ltd, China
This summer I was fortunate enough to work for Kailiou, a commercial equipment manufacturer located in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China. Kailiou manufactures numerous products including shopping carts, meat racks, airport trolling, etc. During my time there I was lucky enough to intern directly for the company’s CEO, Steve Chen. Working with Steve and his team was a priceless experience that I will be forever grateful for. This opportunity taught me innumerable lessons about Chinese culture and how the Chinese conduct business. I was able to develop new business skills while practicing Mandarin Chinese. The many friends I was able to make over this summer have been and will continue to be great aids in my study of the Chinese language and business culture.
Getting to work with Steve was quite a unique experience, as it provided me a full tour of the industry as a whole. Being able to sit in on all meetings, I was able learn common Chinese business practices. Business amongst the Chinese involve a lot of favors, such as price compensations in return referrals or “I Owe Yous” for raw materials. I was able to visit multiple competing factories in the area, broadening my understanding of where Kailiou stacked up against the competition. In the end, Kailiou proved to be at the head of the game with all other factories in the area working to become more like them. Steve’s factory was by far the most efficient, organized, and disciplined factory in the region. Orders always left on time, workers took pride in their work, and anytime a problem arose it was immediately addressed. The factory as a whole was clean with proper safety gear always in use, allowing for an overall very good working environment. Competing factories were often dirty and disorganized, which often caused delays and issues with their product. Some of the lower tier factories didn’t even have adequate safety gear, with welders using cardboard cutout masks instead of a proper welding mask. Often, the factories that were better run had a business plan that focused on developing customer relations and long term business. The bottom end factories tended to focus on the next incoming paycheck, not worrying about customer satisfaction or quality of their product. The companies with the long term business plan tended to sell mostly to the American, Canadian, and European markets. The lower end factories tended to have short term business plans and predominantly sell to Russia and domestically within China.
Steve’s factory is focused on developing long term business with his clientele, allowing him to continue to grow his global reach. Currently, Kailiou sells product to over 70 countries around the world, with countries including the United States, Japan, the UK, France, Britain, Australia and many more. While working for Steve I was able to sit in on three deals adding Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Malaysia to that growing list. These meetings were a priceless experience as I had never seen a business deal be brokered between two entities with a very different language, culture, and background. The Chinese greeting practice with internationals was an interesting process to be involved in. The first meeting always began with new introductions and hellos between old friends/partners involving an exchanging and intense analysis of business cards. In Chinese and many East Asian business cultures, a business card is a representation of the person who gave it to you, not analyzing it and complimenting it is seen as insulting. It’s almost as if saying, you’re time is unimportant to me. This name card exchange allows you free cheat cards to help you remember new clientele’s names but it also prevents you from having any excuse to forget. This introduction and exchange of name cards is followed by an exchanging of gifts. The Chinese always produce a gift that is a representation of Chinese culture and uniquely Chinese, such as a depiction of a Beijing opera singer. This is usually reciprocated by the foreign client giving a gift representing their own country, such as Canadian maple syrup and chocolate.
After admiration of gifts and exchanging of thanks, a factory tour is given by Steve, his head of sales, his head engineer, and any required translators. This allowed buyers to see the quality of labor and materials going into manufacturing their product. They are also able to see the production process from start to finish, providing buyers the opportunity to see that ever step is being completed properly, to the highest industry standards. Clients can see all processes are state of the art and the ease in which engineering and floor staff are able to collaborate to continuously innovate. After the factory tour there is food. Lots and lots of food. Every meeting in China ends with a meal, and every deal, with baijiu. Although most days Steve eats alongside the rest of his employees in the company’s dining hall, when international clientele are visiting lunch is served in a private dining room in the main office. Traditional Chinese dishes are laid out family style, allowing everyone to try a bit of everything. In Chinese culture, you must leave some food on your plate once you are finished eating. A cleaned plate might be a complement to the chef in various Western cultures, but in Chinese culture it’s seen as your host hasn’t fed you enough.
These are just some of the invaluable lessons I’ve learned while working at Kailiou. Not only did I learn tremendous amount of business lessons, I also gained a new perspective on life in foreign countries. The quality of life was very different from the U.S. and this was extremely eye opening. The Chinese people I interacted with were extremely grateful for work and educational opportunities, with the majority believing quality of life would increase for them and their children in the coming years. I hope to return next year and be able to have deeper conversations with my new friends, therefore I will continue my Chinese studies at Williams. This experience provided me the opportunity to explore international business, which is a career pursuit I am extremely interested in. I will be forever grateful to Mr. Thomas E. Jones ’71 and the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for making this internship possible.