On the sixth day of the trip we had visited a textile company that goes by the name of Jaros. Jaros is a company that is like no other. First and foremost, their “management model” is based off of Buddhist teachings. They believe that acting in this way will result in a successful company. Here are some of the methods:

• Respect everybody
• Praise good deeds
• Correct mistakes
• Be happy for someone else
• Help others reach their goals
• Spread good teachings to others
• Follow these teachings
• Respect diversity
• Make everyone benefit from good deeds

Their aim is to make a business that has a great environment for their workers, a place where people can express themselves and grow as people. It seems to work because they sell products to England, the U.S., Bangladesh, Pakistan, and a handful of other countries. They have over 400 patents and over 50 key products in China. They even got 2nd place in China’s competition for technological innovation. Most of this success has come from the management of the business itself, but it is also because of the central government’s involvement.

The government’s “Commission of Development and Reform” directly supports businesses such as Jaros. The “Commission for Economic Information” even provides informational support to companies like this to help them out with logistics, etc. If they meet goals set by the government, they also get preferential treatment in the form of lower taxes and other credits. The business environment in China seems to be much different than the environment here in the United States. Here in the United States most businesses operate on their own and don’t get direct government help. Sure their are downsides to China’s model and the United State’s model, but I would think that if businesses in the U.S. got more assistance then there would definitely be more results to show for.

I was curious as to how this company was so successful in driving out all foreign competition in China and how they are able to sell to many different countries around the world. I got a simple answer from them. The biggest factor would be the price of the products. The pricing is, on average, 1/5 times cheaper than products made in the Netherlands and United States. The catch is that the quality is comparable to the quality from other Western companies. This strategy, I was told, has been a large contributor to their success overseas. They also have a policy where they will help build their products in the consumer’s country to lower the manufacturing price for their company. This is called localized production. Other factors include:

• Joining the WTO
• Lower labour prices
• Cheaper materials

I find it interesting how some companies in China operate. Not only do they get direct help from the government because of the government realizing the potential gain from doing so, but they are focused on competitiveness. They aren’t trying to outsource their work or create a bad environment for their workers in search of profit. They have taken an approach that I think many of our businesses in the United States should be emulating and that is to encourage innovation and create better business environments by means of government action.