(War Stories) Production houses we rejected - part 1

(This is a 2007 excerpt from my personal journal.)

It’s the modern field trip.  How many would-be entrepreneurs have taken a domestic flight on ‘I’ve never heard of XXX’ Airlines out to some Chinese city they’ve never heard of for a factory tour.  Whatever the number, add one, because here I go.

Thank god I’ve got my chaperone.  Linda (Li Wei Wei) is a Beijing friend of mine from my very first trip to China, way back in 2005, when I parachuted in for a couple weeks on a project for the Boston Consulting Group.  An analyst and PR rep at the client’s office – a massive mining company – she was my virtual assistant for the duration of my stay.  I was so indebted to her, it was simply imperative that I buy her dinner.  And we’ve been friends ever since.

How I managed to swindle her into flying out to Ningbo with me, I still have no clue.     

Yep, Ningbo.  Another city of five million people (give-or-take seven figures) that we’ve never heard of before.  

Unless you trade with China, in which case you probably do know that Ningbo is one of China’s important port cities on the east coast, second only to Shanghai in shipping volume.  

Linda and I pass the flight going over our strategy once again.  Our strategy.  I’ve never done this before and I have the arrogance to imagine I can devise a strategy.  (Digression:  I was sitting in a bar (CJW) in Shanghai one night, thinking about the question ‘What is strategy?’ – can you believe I actually do this kind of stuff.  Anyway, it’s an interesting question.  And this guy is sitting next to me at the bar, and he says in this twang that I (correctly, as it turned out) identify as Mississippi-an.  “So what do you do?” And I tell him I’m a writer, and a wanna-be entrepreneur, and try to verbally assemble my life into a less-than-chaotic chain of doings.  And that right now I’m writing about strategy.  ‘Strategy?’ he says.  ‘Well, that’s real interesting.’  And it turns out that he’s an entrepreneur, making a lot of money doing some offshoring business, doing really well.  ‘So what do you think strategy is?’ I ask him, honestly curious.  ‘That’s easy,’ he tells me.  ‘Strategy is the hope that I don’t screw up.’)

Strategy is the hope that I don’t screw up.  Amen.  

We arrive at Ningbo’s airport.  It’s already late evening.  I’m mildly shocked that it’s modern and clean – but then I’ve been mildly shocked by the scope of China’s economic development so many times (especially out east) that by now I’m ashamed by this lingering proof of my close-mindedness.  (Journey out west, and it’s a very different China.  More on that later.)   

We exit the secured area, luggage in tow.  A local Ningbonian woman walks over.  ‘Chris?’

I guess there aren’t that many foreigners on each flight, so Linda and I are easy to pick out.  ‘Ms Fan?’ we reply.  And we’ve made contact.

Who ‘Ms Fan’ is, and why Linda and I are in Ningbo right now is a long story.  That’s tomorrow’s adventure, and tomorrow’s entry.  For the moment, it’s enough that we’re here.  

(Oh, this is the view from the hotel.)