Wonderful Q&A with Peter Munk (Chairman of Barrick Gold) and his daughter Nina about Munk’s first failed business Clairtone - “The ultimate business school: A Q&A with Peter and Nina Munk“.

In episode 13 and the next few episodes, we will continue the discussion of how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• Negotiate with suppliers (與供應商討論協調)
• Determining if suppliers have tried their best (using a plastic parts example to illustrate) (決定供應商是否已竭盡所能 (用塑料部件的例子說明) )
• Production and Material Control (PMC) department reviews feedback of rescheduling requests from suppliers using their expertises/experiences of the production process (生產及物料控制部門用生產過程的經驗分析供應商的反饋)
• When the order quantity is increased or decreased abnormally (當訂購數量有異常的增加/減少)

You can click here to listen to episode 13 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

My friend Tyler Mitton and his girl friend Natalie are hosting a “Singles Auction” to raise money for diabetes this Saturday May 10th, 2008 at 6pm.

Quoting Tyler,

“It will be a very light hearted and fun event open to both singles and non-singles….it’s taking place this Saturday. If you’re free you should come check it out… I think it’s going to be hilarious!”

Click here for more information and profiles of the Bachelors and Bachelorettes.

Here are samples of what the Bachelors and Bachelorettes list as accomplishments. Have fun finding who are the Bachelors and Bachelorettes that list these accomplishments.

• “… 2007 Sing Star Champion of the dental hygienists of Saskatoon (no joke!) …”
• “… I am a pro with a jackhammer …”
• “… mastered medium on Guitar Hero …”
• “… World Champion Hula Hooper …”
• “… Minute Rice dinner cooked in 45 seconds, Level 10 on Duck Hunt from Nintendo …”

Tyler and Natalie, good luck in raising money for diabetes and wishing everyone have lots of fun.

In episode 12 and the next few episodes, we will discuss how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• When products are selling well ==> Increase order size or move up shipment (當產品暢銷 == >增加訂單或提早出貨)
• When products are selling poorly ==> Decrease order size or delay shipment (當產品不暢銷 == >減少訂單或延遲出貨)
• How purchasers can use computer to generate “rescheduling reports” to help process these changes (買手如何可使用電腦 “新調度報告” 來幫助處理這些變化)
• When suppliers can’t meet the revised scheduling requests (當供應商不能滿足 “新調度” 的要求)

You can click here to listen to episode 12 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

• LIVE BLOG ARCHIVE: Warren Buffett’s Q&A With Shareholders (Morning Session)
• LIVE BLOG: Warren Buffett’s Q&A With Shareholders (Afternoon Session)

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May 4, 2008 Update: Warren Buffett Talks to CNBC’s Becky Quick at Shareholders Meeting (Video with transcript)

Interesting article by Ian Kerr,

Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released two important privacy-related decisions, both addressing an increasing trend in which Canadian law enforcement agencies use police dogs to conduct random searches of public spaces.

[via Michael Gesit]

The video of Chef Gordon Ramsay (Hell’s Kitchen fame) with Toronto Star’s Food editor Kim Honey at the Star’s test kitchen is real fun to watch. (big smile) Thanks Kim for sharing it with us. It is just priceless!

See Kim’s article here.

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May 10, 2008 Update: More Ramsay interview at CBC The Hour here, here, and here.

The Copyright Myths presentation by Michael Geist (12 minutes video) this Monday. [via Michael]

A very interesting profile of Errol Morris in GQ.

Ask film buffs for a list of the greatest living American directors and you may hear the name Errol Morris, the documentarian who created an entirely new way of conducting interviews, made classics like The Thin Blue Line (which helped get a man out of prison), and this month gives us the fullest, most honest look yet [in the film Standard Operating Procedure] at the people who took part in Abu Ghraib

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4 May, 2008 Update: Roger Ebert review of the movie.

In episode 11, we continue and finished the case discussed in episodes 9 and 10.

• Use emails to document the reasons/mistakes for the lower-end supplier under priced the quote and high-end supplier over priced the quote (用電子郵件記錄 — 低檔廉價供應商報價太低 及 高檔供應商報價太高 的原因)
• Helping the suppliers (high-end and also the lower-end) to provide more accurate quote (幫助高檔及低檔供應商提供更準確的報價)
• Visiting the high-end supplier’s factory and providing technical assistance to help reduce yield lost thus provide better quote (參觀了高檔供應商的工廠,並提供技術援助,以幫助減少產量損失,從而提供更好的報價)
• Working with the high-end supplier to create a handbook to help reduce yield lost (幫助高檔供應商及寫一本加工手冊,以幫助減少產量損失)
• Passing on lessons learned to the lower-end supplier (教其他供應商)
• Updating US headquarter of the new cost & rationale, plus provide engineering samples (通知美國總部新的成本及原因,並提供工程樣品)
• An important lesson of do not simply pass along quotes from suppliers without some investigations (一個重要的教訓,不應簡單地交上報價,應做一些調查)
• Work together with the vendor (和供應商合作)
• How will Simon handle the “mis-priced” quotes if they are much closer in prices? (如報價近,Simon會如何處理這一”錯誤”?)
• Please send us your feedback, questions and cases (請電郵上您的意見,問題和案件)

You can click here to listen to episode 11 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

]]> http://kempton.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/tales-of-a-chinese-purchaser-eps-11/feed/ kempton http://kempton.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/most-important-statement/ http://kempton.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/most-important-statement/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:53:25 +0000 kempton http://kempton.wordpress.com/?p=1926

Interesting to read what Wallace considers as “the most important statement made by Steven Cheung“. For the curious readers who want to read the complete article where this quote comes from and the statement’s context, you can check out “假若人是不自私的（附后记）” (1984.02.17).

I don’t know enough to pick which is Steven Cheung’s most important statement. But I can say Steven Cheung’s way of thinking and analyzing problems play an important role in shaping my own. And Cheung has written this series of articles to share his insight in 1984,

思考的方法（上）, （中）, （下）

As an aside, some of my friends have commented that I read very broadly. Over the years, I’ve tried to learn from a diverse group of people. If you have time, I encourage you read and learn from people like Warren Buffett, Richard Feynman, and Bill Buxton (with videos and book recommendations). These three people are very different from each other but I believe we can learn from them just the same. For fun, I’ve created a series of posts call “Great minds of our time“ to share my personal picks of some of the great public minds of our time.

Helen Hunt discusses her directing debut — Then She Found Me

Very good news.

• Arms destined for Zimbabwe returning to China, official says - CBC News
• Zimbabwe arms shipment returns to China - Guardian UK
• Zimbabwe-Bound Ship Heads Back to China - NYT
• China says Zimbabwe arms shipment to return to China - AP
• Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe turning back: Beijing - AFP
• China’s Zimbabwe arms ship turned away by African nations - Telegraph UK

An excerpt from CBC (emphasis added),

A shipment of weapons destined to Zimbabwe from China will be returned after neighbouring countries refused to allow them to be shipped through their territories, a Chinese spokesman said.

Countries neighbouring Zimbabwe refused to allow the Chinese freighter carrying the weapons, which included mortar grenades and bullets, to dock at their ports.

“This cargo was not unloaded because the Zimbabwe side was unable to take delivery as scheduled,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

[...]

Jiang said the shipment was a purely commercial transaction that broke no laws and had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis. [K: If China wants to be a true world power, commerce can no longer be the only consideration. Of course, the Chinese gov may have wanted Mugabe to stay in power and that will be a different issue all together.]

There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, and China is one of the southern African nation’s main trade partners and allies.

ShoeTube ? Yes, ShoeTube. If “Live Life. Love Shoes.” describes you, check out “The Daily Shoe” @ ShoeTube. [via AdAge]

P.S. If they are going to be successful, they will have to get shoe lovers to create and post their videos/stories, otherwise there isn’t really a community.

From Guardian UK - “Meet the world’s best chef - His restaurant, El Bulli, in Spain, has been named best in the world - for the fourth time. So how does Ferran Adrià do it?“