Another day in Shanghai visiting businesses, May 29th 2007

Today, May 29th we visited 3 major companies in Shanghai. Chinaworldbest, Polaroid and Eaton Corporation. There were many mixed and interesting responses from people from these companies. I actually got a chance to talk to 2 out of 3 managers personally. China Worldbest company makes products from hand gloves for medical usage to shirts, t-shirts or even golf clubs. Their major clients are in US and Europe. One of the major shocking news was this company had much business wit Walmart but were very afraid to continue it. Cotton Hill, the manager mentioned that 40% of suppliers of Wal-Mart in China are bankrupt. Wal-mart gives them very harsh treatment with competition and they have to produce the good with certain limitations and very very low price otherwise Wal-Mart goes to another customers. Overall, this company visit was good but I could easily see the tensions and pressures Chinese businessmen have. Secondly, we visited Polaroid company. We actually met with an American businessman who has been living in China for more than 8 years. He speaks fluent Chinese and seemed to be a big supporter of Globalization. Polaroid gets most of their production done in China, this includes cameras, Television, audio-visual devices and any latest technologies e.g. JPEG image back up hard disk with automatic software. These products are selling in US, China and rest of the world only because Polaroid has a recognized name and their marketing through, Circuit City, Walmart, Best buy is very good. Actually owner of the Polaroid is from Minnesota and his name is Mr. Patterson. We heard many good things about him. He is a great businessman with very open mind towards every one's idea, most importantly because his abilities, hard work and skills he is one of the most successful businessmen in the world. Thirdly, we visited Eaton Corporation's China office. The numbers for Eaton are very big. It is a leading company in China's power assembly, automobile parts. It is growing up pretty fast and Shanghai office was the biggest and head branch of Eaton corporation. Enjoy the pictures.

Group picture at China Worldbest

China worldbest owns few floors of a tall building, this the picture of the Shanghai street from the last floor of that building.

The picture of the bay from Polaroid company, we were not allowed to take pictures of the building itself due to security reasons (hey are big money company!)

Very neat and well organized inventory of Eaton, China....interestingly enough there was only one board that gave information in Chinese, everything else was written in English.

Left to right, Kathy, Me, Wendy and Selina. they are all from China, they were great help to go around and communicate because I only know 5 words of Chinese. They like me....who doesn't?? haha...LOL

Chilling at the Eaton's main office waiting for manager to come out!