The Review: Peak Performance 2019 CSC ASIA A. Agostini CSC China Trading
SWISS Air-Business-Class-Lounge New York JFK Airport Terminal 4
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Wow, that was a hell of a ride in 2018, it is actually hard to believe that another year has passed by and we are — again- standing by to board the new 2019 Flight.
One thing is for sure, our company will be — as usual- in the First- and Business-Class-Lane and will take advantage of all the priorities that this journey will provide. Life’s a beautiful journey and one thing is for sure: we are all going to achieve top-tier performance.
This article is not only about praising the new year and for being ready to “kick-off” and to be sure that the we are the ones that will get the ball rolling, but to also review 2018.
This year’s success journeys:
Started with Abu Dhabi, Dubai and was followed by Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Oslo, back to Beijing, than from Shanghai to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and than there was Seoul, New York, Boston, Washington DC, and a few domestic travels within China Mainland such as Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and than there was Chengdu as well.
Well, now we got a few more days to go until the very end of this wonderful year 2018 and we still got Manila and our return flight to Abu Dhabi on our list. As you may be aware, next year in March we will be in Frankfurt and Vienna, as well as one of our most favorite destinations: Monte Carlo, Monaco.
What did 2018 bring and what made it so unique:
We managed to secure several trading deals that were between US$ 115,000 and US$ 331,000 for each single transaction, those fund have been gathered during our overseas client and investor meetings and we are proud of having achieved such top-tier-performance, because in the end all of our project start with a pen and paper and an idea that has the be brought on a piece of paper. From this piece of paper it has to be actually put into action, which can also be quite challenging. There are always a nay-Sayers and this is only putting multi million dollar projects on ice.
Most of our suppliers are not very well educated and probably don’t necessarily know how to use a calculator, which makes it even more difficult-even funds have actually been approved-to procure.
Getting funds approved for projects that are worth US$ 1 million plus is something we should not just put aside and take a look at all those people that grew up in the 911 generation, where all our lives were affected by the destruction of the World Trade Centers and the collapse of the world’s largest insurance firms, job losses, our whole life has become a dark journey with loads of barriers and obstacles to overcome. Yes, the unemployment rates went down and the alcohol consumption increased, but that doesn’t mean that life is all that bad. Have some hope and optimism, bring the world back to life and make it colorful again.
Life’s a Chess-Game:
The other day I was staying a couple of days at the W Hotel, right next to the brand new established World Trade Center, which is quite impressive. People in the US have moved on and have put this tragic day behind, life is a journey, maybe not every leg was what we have expected, but still: there is a way to turn our weaknesses into strengths and make it right again.
Most of the time we cannot be influence-rs, of key-factors such as politic decisions, but we what we can do is: choose our friends (but not family), decide what we are going to wear today, or what we are going to eat, whether we are going to do some sports, or travel to a different country, city, or just to have a cup of coffee with friends, or even a round of chess would also do.
Running Businesses VS Costs:
The other day we came across some of those Nay-Sayers that don’t agree with our company’s policies and it is easy to make wrong accusations and feel being treated unfair, rather than looking at the reality of life and an actual complex business structure and cost a company can have.
Those Nay-Sayers usually don’t have a website / email account, use Gmail / Hotmail accounts, don’t have an actual office number and prefer to do calls via WhatsApp, WeChat or Skype. Once someone asks us to do such online calls, we are immediately recommending to simply call our head & administration office directly, which handles our mails, correspondence and directs all the phone calls to different extensions. Such offices with meeting room facilities actually have been established, just to ensure we can run in a smooth and professional manner and if someone would like to do a Video Call, we can use Polycom Video Conferencing with an extreme speedy and high quality cutting edge technology and our tables. All our phones are CISCO-made and this counts for all our offices, even those that have not been put online / our email signatures.
One main office, why not posting all of them:
I agree, it is hard to understand why one office / address cannot hold all business licenses in one place and why “we” / “they” are not finding all licenses in one place. It’s quite easy to explain: In China, every district and every city has different laws, rules, advantages for each type of firm, which pretty much depends on the business purpose.
For us, as Beijing / Shanghai Food and Beverage Importer, since 1997, it would be not advised to register such firm in the City Center of Beijing or Shanghai, because those areas are strategically constructed for the retail- service and banking-industry, which certainly includes consultancy. So we did setup one company that only handles paper-work and forwards incoming phone calls to our Beijing and Shanghai based import firms / sales-firms.
Centralized Organization & Advantage:
By allowing every single mail, letter, delivery, phone-call, email go through our Shanghai City Center Office, it is acting as centralized distribution center of information and data. The advantage is very clear, there won’t be no more phone calls, letters, mail, packages going to the wrong office, get lost or be addressed to wrong person. Benefit: time-wise, we can already organize all data and forward it to the relevant person to handle cases and procedures. This could be a simple sales-request, shipment documents, or even just a phone call from a client / supplier / investor. Even leaving a message is one of the key points, the message will be delivered to the mailbox of the receiver and it does include contact details or this person / representative.
Disadvantage for the Short-Sighted:
There are short-sighted and super-smart people that want to do a background check of the address we have provided in our email signatures and sneak in our office register and request a business-license that shows “we are a consulting business” and not an import firm. Well, again, our Import Firm is not registered in the Head & Administration Office, in the City Center of Beijing / Shanghai. Seems like this is for a stubborn “Westerner” hard to understand, because by their law the place where the office is located at is supposed to be the address where the business has been incorporated.
Running Cost of 5 Offices:
Some Nay-Sayers are acting like employees and offices are free of charge and are not aware of the actual running cost, especially suppliers don’t agree to let a trading firm / sales-team to generate revenue and everything has to be for free, which has let us call for a rethink: what could be the reason to believe that this would be the case?
Quite simple, a farmer got the land and the house they live in already inherited and the only thing they got to do is to setup the Internet connection and phone-line at home, most of them just have a mobile phone and don’t even need a phone-line. Well, for those, it is quite simple: local governments allows home-owners to build an office room in their premises and this could be a big tax-advantage as well. But this is a very “American” and “European” thing to do, because this is not allowed in China. It can either be a home or an office, no combining here.
Investor Dinners, just like yesterday:
At least twice a month, we arrange such investor dinners in private VIP rooms, with set-meals and I’m not talking about hamburger and fries, rather lobsters, sea-food and that expensive stuff, which also includes salmon, caviar, tuna and of course also the best parts of the cow / sheep you can ever imagine. Those usually come with a few bottles of the good stuff and it’s easy to spend US$ 5000 for a meal for 18 plus. Seems, like it is just not enough to invite clients and investors for hamburger and fries and TGI Friday’s or McDonald’s, or even that fancy Burger King, top of it’s class hamburgers.
This year’s failures:
In life, not everything can go smoothly, life is not always a rainbow journey and just recently we have received negative news from the Government of Beijing, where Hungarian Products have officially been rejected and those are not allowed to be ever imported over a period of 10 years. Sad but true, a risk to take.
This year’s successes:
Several approvals by Authorized Government Officers in Beijing have let us close several multi million Dollar deals and our firm really needed those for the sake of our employees salaries, our office spaces, facilities and successful suppliers that rely on us over 20 years plus. Those firms that fully comply with the requests of local authorities will get their orders and import permissions, those who are Nay-Sayers and believe that they know things better, jump the gun and write fake blogs online will get nothing. Our firm got ZERO TOLERANCE for such Nay-Sayers.
Message for the Nay-Sayers:
- Looking at the wrong perspectives of life doesn’t improve anything
- Give those people a chance to make it right and have trust and faith
- Actively searching for answers at the wrong place is not the solution either
- Let it go, just tell yourself “it is nothing” and believe that NOT all comes to nothing
- Have a little bit more optimism and let experts handle their job
- Only because some projects require active participation, doesn’t mean that everyone is a scam / or a cheater. Take out your calculator and start to make your numbers / start counting into the right direction.
- For those guys that didn’t get an order immediately, that also doesn’t mean that someone is scammer.
- Some larger scale projects may take longer than expected.
Life is a journey!
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
If there are any questions that may arise in the meantime, please feel so free to contact me directly at (86–21) 6157 4954 or drop me an email to aa@csc-shanghai.com.
Kind regards from the very city centre of Shanghai, The People’s Republic of China,
Maximilian Alexander Agostini
PRSC Enterprises ASIA
People’s Republic Sourcing Channel
China Sourcing Channel Corp. (Shanghai, CN)
China Sourcing Channel Corp. (Beijing, CN)
China Sourcing Channel Corp. (Dubai, UAE)
