Pretty good day. This visit to the Chinese factory was tremendously interesting.

The Chinese owner (second generation) didn't really want to tell us much and was full of contradictions:
- what tips could you give us about the Japanese market?
- well, we were not successful in Japan because of the Yen fluctuations

- you operate throughout Asia, in fairly unstable countries. Aren't you afraid of currency risks?
- we produce and sell for the domestic markets only, we have no currency risk.

The factory itself was a model of everything that we are taught never to do in our Process and Operation Management, yet the company is very big in the region, is ISO9001 certified and has been successful for the past 50 years or so. Clearly this programme is worthless ;-) No seriously, it is, as my prof put it, the next best thing we'll have beyond intuition.

Workers earn less than S$1000 a month, work 12 hours a day and 6 days a week...

The products were truly succulent, delicious. A palate delight.