Word: importance
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hayao Miyazaki: Considered the best in the animation biz, this Japanese filmmaker won for 2002's Spirited Away, and his Disney import Howl's Moving Castle, is up for Best Animated Feature. Yes, another reason to outsource...
...Rapton doesn't know how to pronounce the name of the Chinese company whose automobiles he would like to import and perhaps sell at his Honda dealership in Sacramento, Calif. He doesn't know what styles he'll promote, what he'll charge or how exactly he'll persuade Americans to buy a car made in China?one that isn't a Hot Wheels toy, that...
...together by hand?an assembly scene out of the '50s. But after his son test-drove a few models, Rapton started to think he could sell China's cars in the U.S. Setting aside doubts about Hebei's quality control, he signed a "memo of understanding" to negotiate an import deal. "It might take them a year or two to get started," he says, "but I'm willing to take my chances...
...average annual clip. Strong sales in China have cooled the impetus to export. So has the majors' ample capacity at plants overseas. And low wages don't make China a low-cost producer. The country has an inefficient supply chain, high component costs (many parts are slapped with import tariffs) and nonwage expenses like housing for factory workers. CSM's Zhang estimates that materials account for 80% to 85% of a vehicle's cost (vs. 65% in Detroit), eroding much of the labor savings. "It's not particularly cheap to produce a car in China," notes Steven Blackman, head...
...1980s, Rink Dickinson wanted to go into business to help an unusual constituency: his vendors. He proposed to import coffee by paying impoverished Latin American farmers double the going rate for their beans. Reaction from potential investors was predictably cool. "People were just, like, 'That's a bad idea,'" he recalls. "The concept of having your values embedded in everything you did in your business ... was just not happening in any major way at all." Nonetheless, with just $100,000 from family, friends and a few supportive idealists, Equal Exchange was born...