Word: pesaro
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...neatly into conventional accounts of Italy vs. China. For starters, the motomaker had already suffered the consequences of a very different era of Asian competition. In the 1970s, it took a hit from top-performing Japanese bikes. What was once a company of 1,000 employees largely responsible for Pesaro's post-1945 growth had halted new production twice in the past two decades. By 1995, it had laid off all but the shell of a staff; those who were left merely produced replacement parts for existing bikes. Mauro Righi, who has worked 33 years at his hometown company...
...vocabulary (ziliao/raw material; caiwuchu/accounting department) and proper Chinese etiquette (introduce yourself with a business card ready; never open a gift right away). Of course, these lessons are by now standard for anyone in the West looking to drum up business prospects in Beijing or Xiamen. But the group in Pesaro are not M.B.A. students or venture capitalists. They are clock-punching engineers, mechanics and secretaries - and they're learning Chinese because that's what the boss speaks...
...behind the Western motor industry in know-how and design, which means the Chinese saw the small Italian firm as a vehicle for the improvement of Qianjiang's own products back in China. Dai Wei, Benelli's export manager, and one of just two Chinese employees on-site in Pesaro, spends time chaperoning colleagues from China. "Here they know how to make motorcycles better and faster," says Dai. "We consider this our European research and development center...
...main responsibility for Yan "Klara" Haimei, Qianjiang's chief in Pesaro, is to watch Benelli's balance sheet, leaving design and production in the hands of the Italians. Both the Chinese and Italian managers emphasize that the aim is to boost the Italian brand while improving the performance of the smaller and simpler Chinese scooters. It's a question of knowing your markets. The 500cc motorcycles popular with European and American riders are not even permitted on Chinese roads. Says Marconi: "In China they've produced the same scooter for the past 20 years." Marconi says the equation...
...with hypernationalist pride ... who noisily invade our beaches." He added that "this Schulz probably grew up ... drinking gigantic amounts of beer and gorging himself on fried potatoes." Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who had been planning to spend a couple of weeks at an Italian friend's home in Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast, was goaded into action by the powerful German tabloid Bild, which suggested that Stefani had "spaghetti for brains" and challenged Schröder to "Nix Bella Italia." Playing to a German national pride that's taken a pounding during the endless economic slump, Schr...