Regarding the cultural differences - I'll say this: It's very difficult to do effective work with chinese companies without micro management. The chinese work very hard, but sometimes they work very hard on the wrong things. An obviously flawed product will get created and nobody will bother to inform you till its too late. And the english is terrible. Products are mislabelled, punctuation is usually in the wrong spot.
Outsourcing to china is a very hands on affair. Quality control is not an option, it's a neccessity.
I've been to china often over the past few months, and it's a very different working philosophy from what I'm used to. So yes, be careful. Very careful.
Regarding the cultural differences - I'll say this: It's very difficult to do effective work with chinese companies without micro management. The chinese work very hard, but sometimes they work very hard on the wrong things. An obviously flawed product will get created and nobody will bother to inform you till its too late. And the english is terrible. Products are mislabelled, punctuation is usually in the wrong spot.
Outsourcing to china is a very hands on affair. Quality control is not an option, it's a neccessity.
I've been to china often over the past few months, and it's a very different working philosophy from what I'm used to. So yes, be careful. Very careful.