The Latest on China Labor

This week's Economist has a must read article on the new era of labor in China. While labor in China remains incredibly cheap, only about $0.81 an hour, new standards for workers' compensation and other inputs are raising real factory wage costs in major cities to levels on par with Thailand and the Philippines.

From Economist.com

A key takeaway is that the China game is growing up, not going away. The Pearl River Delta may be too rich for more and more manufacturers, but the interior and frontier areas of China, the origins of the huge supply of migrant labor that fuels coastal factories, are open for business.

Anthony Bourdain Jams

Get your second wind on a Monday by checking out super chef Anthony Bourdain's guest DJ set for L.A. Public Radio.

Walmart is Back!

At Walmart Old School is the New School

Back to the future, déjà vu, whatever you call it, Walmart this week removed any lingering doubts about the future direction of the U.S. stores division under the leadership of new president and CEO Bill Simon. 

The company is keen to restore sales momentum and frayed relationships with its supplier community, and to address those goals a group of senior level executives reportedly met with the entire merchandising team in the Walmart home office auditorium this week. They spelled out priorities that, according to notes from an anonymous source widely circulated among suppliers after the meeting, sounded like the company's traditional approach to business relationships and operational strategies.

Simon, Walmart president and CEO Mike Duke, former president and CEO Lee Scott and Walmart International president and CEO Doug McMillon participated in a panel discussion where the key takeaway was that autonomy has been returned to merchants to run their business. In addition, buyers need to listen to and collaborate with suppliers, have fun, take thoughtful risks and recognize there is power in assortments.

The messaging is a departure from the leadership of former stores division president and CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright and former chief merchant John Fleming. Castro-Wright in late June was reassigned to lead Walmart's global sourcing and Global.com business, and Fleming left the company a few days after Simon was promoted from his COO role. Castro-Wright and Fleming took the stores division in a new direction by reducing product assortments and eliminating promotional displays in the name of reducing clutter to enhance the customers' shopping experience. 

Some of the strategies, collectively referred to as Project Impact, were effective. Improved labor scheduling that reduced checkout lines, and supply chain efforts that reduced inventories worked well. But sales suffered as Walmart stores lost promotional intensity and suppliers who had grown accustomed to the collaborative approach of prior regimes grew increasingly alienated by the command and control style of Castro-Wright and Fleming. 

Mike Duke reportedly told the buyers, "You are officially unleashed to run your business."

That's welcome news to the company's suppliers as evidenced by the pace at which word of the meeting and those anonymous notes spread. 

Reprinted from article on RetailingToday.com

What the Big Mac Says About the Euro

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The Economist's latest Big Mac index came out yesterday. I'm seeing Euro $1.20.

Where Are My Pants?

click to enlarge. Image via WSJ.com

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Walmart is progressing in its efforts to incorporate RFID (radio-frequency identification) devices into its inventory. The technology, which allows for monitoring of individual items within a supply chain, is state of the art, but comes with some privacy concerns.

Starting next month, the retailer will place removable "smart tags" on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores...

Robert Carpenter, chief executive of GS1 U.S., a nonprofit group that helped develop universal product-code standards four decades ago and is now doing the same for electronic product codes, said the sensors have dropped to as little as seven to 10 cents from 50 cents just a few years ago. He predicts that Wal-Mart's "tipping point" will drive prices lower.

"There are definitely costs. Some labels had to be modified," said Mark Gatehouse, director of replenishment for Wrangler jeans maker VF Corp., adding that while Wal-Mart is subsidizing the costs of the actual sensors, suppliers have had to invest in new equipment. "But we view this as an investment in where things are going. Everyone is watching closely because no one wants to be at a competitive disadvantage, and this could really lift sales."

Wal-Mart won't disclose what it's spending on the effort, but it confirms that it is subsidizing some of the costs for suppliers.

Proponents, meanwhile, have high hopes for expanded use in the future. Beyond more-efficient recalls and loss prevention, RFID tags could get rid of checkout lines.

"We are going to see contactless checkouts with mobile phones or kiosks, and we will see new ways to interact, such as being able to find out whether other sizes and colors are available while trying something on in a dressing room," said Bill Hardgrave, head of the RFID Research Center at the University of Arkansas, which is funded in part by Wal-Mart. "That is where the magic is going to happen. But that's all years away."

Uncovering Caravaggio

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Word over the weekend from the Vatican that the painting Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (above) in their collection may be the work of Caravaggio, the bad ass grand master of Chiaroscuro. Experts seem a little dubious, but what's wrong with a shout out to the man who brought us the Baroque on the 400th anniversary of his mysterious death.

While we are at it, respect also to Saint Lawrence for being the coolest of the Martyr Saints. Supposedly as he was being grilled alive he asked to be flipped so that he would cook all over.

How Does Google Work?

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Infographic by PPC Blog

Wesley Clark on CyberWar

Thanks to Economist.com for these insights from one of my favorite fellow Arkansans.

Be an Airport Good Samaritan

Thanks to the original social media guru Chis Brogan for including my thoughts on good vibes in the airport on his great new travel site, Man on the Go. I'll be looking for all of my China Hands to upload their wisdom to this contribution-based video blog.

A few Thoughts on the RMB

China indeed came through with the promised revaluation of the RMB over the weekend, effectively reverting to the "pre-crisis" pegging criteria for the currency established in 2005.

By the close of business in Asia on Monday, the Renminbi had advanced almost .5%, to 6.7976 per dollar.

This looks like a blip on the radar, but represents the only real move in the RMB over the past two years, as the PRC government prevented appreciation of the currency in an effort to drive exports.

Check out John Hudson's post on the Atlantic Wire blog for a round up of punditry following China's big move. Lots of comments about posturing ahead of the G-20 summit and a few prognostications of the evolution of China's economy that address a gumbo of currency, labor and social issues.

As someone no longer bound to rationalize PRC economic policy as part of my job, I am more interested in the larger issues of State Capitalism in play for China. Ian Bremmer addressed the threats for China's government last year in Foreign Affairs:

I think that state capitalism is ultimately unsustainable in China. A government that micromanages economic life can take enormous credit when it helps generate three decades of nine percent annual growth. But when things begin to slow and the pace of economic expansion can no longer match the pace of rising public expectations, the leadership will have to shoulder a lot of the blame. When the gap between rich and poor reaches a tipping point, when go-go growth produces a true ecological disaster, whatever the turning point, the party will have to take the lion's share of responsibility. But these chickens won't be coming home to roost in the next couple of years. This is probably a much longer-term management challenge for the leadership -- though one much larger than any it has yet faced.

Kid Utopia at the Tellus Museum

This past weekend we make a spur of the moment trip an hour north of Atlanta to visit the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. This may be the best museum for kids in Georgia!



While Tellus is a new creation, its roots lie in the collection of the old Weinman Mineral Museum. The brand new 120,000 square foot facility, on a beautifully manicured campus, has it all: space stuff, dinosaurs, old cars, a planetarium and the core collection of rocks and minerals.

The campus is beautiful, the exhibits include an extensive play and learn areas, and there is even an opportunity to touched fossilized dino poop. What more do you want? Load up the Family Truckster and hit the road!

Tally in the Gulf

Click image to enlarge. Via Economist.com

Jazzy Note for Your Wednesday

Changes in China Could Raise Prices Worldwide

“For a long time, China has been the anchor of global disinflation,” said Dong Tao, an economist at Credit Suisse, referring to how the two decade-long shift to manufacturing in China helped many global companies lower costs and prices. “But this may be the beginning of the end of an era.”

Changes in China Could Raise Prices Worldwide - NYTimes.com

Chasing the General

Will and Genevieve in Hot Pursuit

Need a perfect day trip for a Thomas the Tank Engine obsessed child or the family Civil War buff? Head north of Atlanta to Kennesaw, GA to visit the newly expanded Southern Museum, and its most famous artifact, the steam engine The General.

Immortalized by Buster Keaton, the theft of The General by James Andrews' ring of spies in 1862 was a sensation in the North and the South. In an effort to prevent reinforcements from Atlanta coming to the defense of Chattanooga, Andrew's Raiders ripped apart sections of the Western and Atlantic rail line, set fires and cut telegraph lines as they rushed towards Union lines in the hijacked train. The conductor of the The General stayed in hot pursuit of the bandits and most of the raiders were captured after the train ran out of fuel.

The conductor, William Fuller, became a Confederate folk hero. Andrews and many of his compatriots met the gallows, but their antics had a Doolittle Raid-type effect for the Union. The first awards of the newly created Medal of Honor were made to thirteen of the soldiers involved in The Great Locomotive Chase.

The Museum is a treasure trove of railroad memorabilia and Civil War artifacts. The General itself is the show stopper. Kids will enjoy the run through Tunnel Hill (above) as well as the park and displays across the street from the Museum.

Want a taste of The General's story in Atlanta? Fuller lays in rest at Oakland Cemetery. You will also find a discrete plaque (on the cemetery wall facing Memorial Drive, across from Doc Chey's) commemorating the Raiders.

2,000 Miles for a Taco

I had a great time last week speaking to the Harvard Business School Alumni Chapter in Orange County. Perfect weather in SoCal and lots of great food finds, too.

Upon landing at LAX, I received this Tweet on my phone on the way to the rental car van:

NO LINE ALERT: LADERA HEIGHTS, where you AT? Your tacos are getting lonesome. And uneaten. @5640 S. Fairfax tiL 3PM!less than a minute ago via webkogibbq
kogibbq

It was on! Less than fifteen minutes from the airport (with some help from Google Navigation) and I was face-to-face with the Korean Tacos of my dreams.

Pioneers of LA's tweet-and-follow food scene, Kogi BBQ runs its lunch trucks throughout greater LA and keeps a devoted group of followers hip to the day's locations via their web site and Twitter.


I went for a trio of pork, chicken and tofu tacos. The flavors were amazing - zesty and spicy proteins with a juxtaposition of the familiar corn tortilla and a drenching of Asian toppings.

I left my place on the park bench across from the van with a trail of taco juice from wrist to elbow of my left arm. A perfect welcome to California!

Want this kind of action in Atlanta? Follow the movement at Atlanta Food Carts and help make it happen!

Uncle Tupelo for You

Poking around the web this week I found a great sounding, pre-pissed off, Uncle Tupelo show on Megaupload. Check out this soundboard from 10/15/ 1993 at the Vic Theater in Chicago.

Thanks to St. Louis, Mississippi Nights, and the Blue Note in Columbia for Uncle Tupelo and big love to Stephen Usery for sharing his advance copy of March 16-20, 1992 with me way back when.

Danny Barnes in Atlanta May 8!

Don't miss Danny's show this Saturday at the Earl opening for the Legendary Shack Shakers.

If you can't make the scene, check out Pizza Box and share the love with your friends.

Food for Thought: Do You Need Farmers for a Farmers Market? - WSJ.com

Food for Thought: Do You Need Farmers for a Farmers Market? - WSJ.com

Festival!

If you are in Atlanta this weekend, make your way to the Inman Park Festival for a funnel cake, good live music, and a once a year look inside many of the city's oldest homes.

Look for my crew on the Montessori In Town float during Saturday's parade.

See you there!

High on Cars

The Allure of the Automobile, the High Museum's latest big game exhibition, is a jaw dropper. The eighteen cars in the exhibit, each a masterpiece of design and construction, combine to offer a unique narrative of America from the height of the Jazz Age through the peak of post war buzz.

On display through June 20, the craftsmanship and bleeding edge styling of the cars will dazzle anyone, including kids. Car lovers will literally be overwhelmed. Car czar Ken Gross selected the best know examples of each model selected for the show.

The installation of the show allows great views of each car and unintrusive signage details the historical context of each piece.




My usual advice for big shows at the museum is in effect. Tuesday is the museum's slowest day, weekends will always be crazy as are Thursday afternoons (Toddler Day). Using the stairs behind the main gift shop at the ticket counter makes you look cool and gets you around slow elevator lines.

My favorite ride is the 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe. Drop a comment with your favorite.

China's Economy Soars, But Rebound Comes With Risks - WSJ.com

China's Economy Soars, But Rebound Comes With Risks - WSJ.com

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Atlanta's Foursquare Secrets Revealed!

Last night I had the chance to share great conversation, and Atlanta's best fries, with Foursquare Don 85Lives at The Porter in Little Five Points.

To get your weekend started I offer Eward's revaluations about the mystery of a particular Foursquare badge.

The Chinese case for a stronger, suppler currency

China's currency: Bending, not bowing | The Economist

Potent Pollen

Atlanta is a city of trees, and three weeks or so a year we pay the price for it.

The pollen count today hit 1,663, on a scale where 120 is the "Extremely High" threshold.

To help my fellow residents in their testimonials to disbelieving fiends in Boston and San Francisco:

Pollen.com for the big picture and allergy bragging rights via the daily Top 5 Worst Cities list.

Atlanta Pollen Chart from the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic