Page 68 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active

they wanted. Therefore, I did not have to be concerned that my family or I would
be shot to death but rather we would be hacked with a meat cleaver. I think I would
have preferred being shot. [Chuckle, chuckle!]

I went to Mainland China twice a year for a month at a time - once in the winter
and then again in the spring. I went by way of railroad and traveled from the New
Territories (the northern portion of Hong Kong) to Canton, China. The month

would be spent negotiating new contracts for materials to be purchased from other
American, German, British, Japanese, or Australian competitors. I took a foot
locker with everything I needed: clothing, snacks, libation, medicines and company
literature.

I spent the month contacting appropriate individuals in the procurement function of

a factory such as a cloth mill, a timber mill, a shoe factory, a machine factory or a
pulp mill. The list of purchasing agents was 12 to 15 pages with 30 to 40 names on
each page. I would make a 15 to 30-minute appointment with each; most key
contacts had to be visited three or four times during my stay. They would meet
with me and then follow our meeting by consulting with my competitors. Then

they would take all the knowledge gained and use it during our next session. They
would openly compare our products stating the competitor’s benefits and
weaknesses. They would push me and expect me to say negatives about them. I
had products that were red-listed by the U.S. government, such as military
lubricants and aerospace adhesives. The U.S. government would not allow us to
sell these products to non-allied countries. However, the Chinese would ask for
them. They wanted them! The quirk was that I, being from the U.S., could not sell

these materials to China, but our ally, France, could and did, and with no
competition they really gouged them big time. Some of the flurosilicone adhesives
that we sold to Boeing and others were $13,000 to $15,000 per 55-gallon drum,
and the French sold them for $28,000 to $40,000 per drum.

The real push for contracts came the last two or three days before departure. I

would get phone calls and notes brought to my room. This was known as the
Chinese crunch. They had already received very attractive pricing, local inventory
points, special packaging and on-going training and would say I was on the verge
of getting the business but that I had to do much better. Of course, they were
always saying that they wanted to be our friends.

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