Who Is A "Vulnerable Group" On The "Made In China" Chain?

The surging tide of prices has rewritten the daily life of international buyers.

As the first link of China's manufacturing to the world, buyers first felt the pain of the tide.

"If I can't find a boyfriend this summer, I'll fly to Europe to find a big boss theory."

At 11 in the evening of July 13th, Zou Lin (a pseudonym) complained to her sister at a bar in Hengshan Road, Shanghai.

At the age of 30, in Shanghai, it is not too small to say big or small. Finding a boyfriend is not luxury at all.

However, she had no time to find it. To be precise, she was not in the mood to find it.

Zou Lin serves a large sporting goods franchise in Europe.

This is a multinational company, which integrates design, production and sales. It has nearly 30 thousand employees in 25 countries worldwide. Last year, its sales volume was 4 billion 500 million euros, of which 1/3 of products were made in China.

Zou Lin, a buyer of the Shanghai branch, is responsible for the purchase of mountaineering shoes.

Since last October, her mood is like the stock market in China, and she has never really seen a smiling face.

She kept in between suppliers and shopping malls, sometimes like grass in cracks, and sometimes on ants in hot pots, all of which were bestowed by the "made in China" face.

Last year, Zou Lin went to bed two times a week. Now, it's hard for her to soak in two weeks.

She kept meeting men, but she could not produce love hormones. These men were almost all suppliers. Zou Lin's job was to talk with them about orders, price and management.

Her mind was filled with two words of "negotiation".

Getting up every morning is to see the raw material market, policy and exchange rate changes. From the background of the company system, look at the stock situation of the various shopping malls in the world, and then consider the negotiations with suppliers on that day, and what details should be paid attention to and what changes should be made with what machines.

"Now the renminbi is rising to the US dollar, and raw material prices are rising sharply, so we have to split up the previous big orders and shorten the long period, so as to avoid that suppliers will raise too much price for us at once."

Zou Lin said.

When one thing is broken into several things, the workload and the degree of burdensome increase.

Zou Lin's company has a concept, not necessarily looking for the lowest price, but to find the most suitable one.

The suppliers who meet this idea are generally medium-sized enterprises, which are ranked third or fourth in the industry. Such Jiangsu and Zhejiang enterprises are gradually becoming "tough" at the negotiating table, and less enthusiasm for competing against the market and more rational arguments.

"You don't know how arrogant they are now!

Profits below 10% would rather not take orders. "

Zou Lin was very unhappy.

This may be the "misfortune" of the big international brands. If we are looking for new partners to replace the old partners of "outrageous price increase", it usually takes 3 months to half a year. If this leads to the breaking of goods in foreign stores, the problem can be serious.

Unlike the small buyers, the famous international brands, "feathers" are too important to cherish. When choosing suppliers, they can not bypass a series of procedures - a full range of research, and then have to ask third party organizations to certify the social responsibility (Lao Gongbao protection, environmental protection) of the target audience.

It all takes time.

If Zou Lin finds a favorite supplier, after confirmation by his boss in Shanghai, the European headquarters will send someone to check it to make sure that there is no defect.

The official expression of the company is "seeking a long-term partnership with suppliers".

However, from this point, we can also sniff out the restriction of multinational corporations on the power of buyers.

Zou Lin is a "flying family".

She frequently flies between Shanghai, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing and other places, so that she can spend more time with her customers.

"If only I could turn my heart into it!"

Zou Lin was in distress.

Domestic suppliers are becoming more and more proficient in computing and negotiating skills. They have to accept about 20% of the price increase. "We even need to use the recording pens frequently used by journalists to record the contents of the negotiations and go back and study them again and again."

If you can, maybe you'll find a handsome supplier boyfriend?

"This is impossible.

We are also knowledgeable about the place of negotiation. If we talk about price, we will meet in the supplier's office. If we talk about new product development, we will go to the supplier's factory.

We will never talk about things in bars, sauna and other places.

When it comes to the two words of sauna, Zou Lin's tone is obviously improved.

She has something to say.

Before last year, Zou Lin bought a private enterprise in Shanghai. At that time, the suppliers used all their strength to compete for orders. What impressed her most was that a supplier asked her male boss to go to the night club to "gather together".

Zou Lin could not bear this kind of habit, so he came out and came to the European enterprise at the beginning of last year.

However, the standardized procurement procedure gave her another kind of depression. She must find a breakthrough in "technology", that is to say, she must use various methods to resolve the pressure of rising prices.

They found the "technical" means include: replacing the more expensive raw materials, such as changing metal shoe buttons into plastic ones; exchanging money with foreign banks on a swap basis, and taking the goods for a period of time according to the expectation of appreciation, a fixed exchange rate. "For example, today's export exchange rate is 6.83 yuan, and it is expected to appreciate 4% to 6.56 yuan in 3 months, so it can be agreed that the 3 month export will use a compromise price, such as 6.7 yuan.

If the settlement is concentrated in third months, it will be much more cost-effective.

There is also the "highest technology" approach to help suppliers improve internal management.

At first Zou Lin felt incredible when she heard the boss talk about this move, but she soon discovered that if they worked together with the suppliers in social responsibility, logistics, human resources and quality management, they would win a win-win situation. The latter efficiency could be improved partly, and the price increase could be partly solved, so the price could be discussed.

One drawback to long-term cooperation is that it may spoilt suppliers. They are very generous and think that the chips for the increase will be heavy. They may suddenly change their plans in the process of stocking up and ask for a raise unilaterally.

On the other hand, some suppliers did not get the order for various reasons, so they began to use the media to publicize their "brand awareness" and rebuke buyers' "unreasonable pricing".

"This situation is very embarrassing, very helpless."

Zou Lin said.

She feels fortunate that the company in this area has saved many costs through intensive operation.

The company has more than 10 branches in China, though there is competition, but according to the geographical advantages of the products, the division between the branches is clear.

On the other hand, despite the close relationship between price and order, and supply chain management, it is done by different departments. In this way, power is dispersed and checks and balances are made, so that people avoid kickbacks and increase costs in disguise.

However, when it comes to his salary, Zou Lin, who is bright and talkative, suddenly becomes silent and never wants to speak.

Finally, one of her sworn followers spoke: "this girl's salary has risen by 30% at the beginning of the year, but now it is less than ten thousand a month."

The sworn followers went on to say that 30% of the increase was Zou Lin's repeated requests and requests. After encountering the surging price of "made in China", the company began to be miserly about these smart and diligent Chinese buyers, and was vague about the original pay increase commitments.

Commission?

"Ah!"

Zou Lin was finally unable to hold back. "Orders are equal to what everyone is doing together, so there is no royalty in strict terms.

We only issue bonus every month, and the salary is less than 10% per month.

Basically, it is equivalent to 13 months' salary in one year.

It sounds like a civil servant, but we are in a bad position.

On the "made in China" chain, it seems that every party is saying that they are "vulnerable groups" or "quasi vulnerable groups".

Zou Lin finally said that she couldn't do this job any more. She had to get married.