Collaborating with European companies

I have been trying to wrestle with the problem of reaching out to non English speaking European companies. Many countries in Europe have great technology and skills but we in the English speaking part of the world are unable to access them. Language clearly is a barrier that is tough to break. Perhaps there is another challenge. The inability of the Europeans to come to terms with the rapidly changing global landscape where demand for goods and services is rapidly shifting to India and China. Although the political leadership is cognizant of the change. What I now see is a typical change management syndrome with business and society structured into three broad segments innovators, followers and laggards. I am trying to hit on the innovators to lead. After all in the 18th century the Europeans were leading the world. It is just a matter of time that the innovators will take it upon themselves to lead, collaborate and take advantage of the business opportunities in the emerging markets. Europe- emerging markets of India and China business to business relationship is ready for this change.

The perils of virtual business

In pursuit of the growth of my business I escaped being conned by a person running a Ponzi scheme. I met him in Milwaukee and I could at that moment not understand what he was offering. With the Madoff story becoming public, things are becoming clear how people are taken for a ride.

Fraud has no boundaries- it exists in all parts of the world. In the virtual business world you do blind dating and can be conned relatively easily. I am lucky so far but I don't know if others have had similar luck.

In these times of global recession, one is being forced to innovate to survive and grow and virtual business models are great. These are hugely facilitated by the social media and one can build good relationships across the globe.

It is tough to find the right combination with both parties being tentative, scared of the unknown and of each other. Maybe, new technology and more information on global publically accessible databases will help break these barriers and facilitate business. Yes, we will all lose a bit of our privacy. But I feel a bit more transparency will do us no harm.

Entrepreneurship is not restricted to the rich. The poor too have it. They lack in exposure, education and information in addition to capital. Social development programs rarely focus on making the poor owners of their destiny. Instead the givers become the owners, the capacity builders, the do gooders and the poor are the recepient.

There is a lot of talk amongst socio economists of direct hand outs to the poor in countries like India. Perhaps they are unaware of the reality of the world of the poor in India where exploitation of the poor happens at the post office, bank, money lender, contractor, job giver, colleague, village headman, politician, bureaucrat etc. In direct handouts there is an assumption that as money will get credited into the account of the poor, he will receive it. It doesn't happen like that.

Make the poor the owners of the enterprise, assist him with knowledge, information and management process but let him run that business. You will see them succeed and true poverty alleviation happen.

Projects for the disadvantaged

During my quest for looking for collaborating institutions who would help identify entrepreneur minded poor communities be they in the rural or the urban area, I am facing a whole range of challenges. Reaching out to the right community set is perhaps the biggest of all. There are too many do gooders in between the entrepreneur like me and the community. Each intermediary seeks to have a bit of the pie for themselves.

Political leadership is not adequately internet savvy to take advantage of opportunities that are presented on social networking sites like linked in. Inspite of the global diffidence on the political leadership of a country, this the group that the world has to live and work with. Its evolution into the world of internet is happening and I hope that in the future we can reach and connect with them to work with their constituents. Not only this will give us return in financial terms on the money that is deployed but there is an added attraction that somehow somewhere we have made a bit of a difference to the lives of the poor.

Community development

Most community development models have been developed by government agencies, charity groups, not for profit entities, corporate social responsibility providing corporates but rarely by communities themselves. Project development and financing institutions view communities and the poor as a group who require to be uplifted from penury. The relationship between the two is that between a giver and recipient.

On the other hand business organizations build businesses and prepare business models with a view to generate ever increasing wealth. The original equity or debt gets quickly paid back by the company and the company becomes self sustainable.

The question then comes to mind is that why can we not undertake community development on business lines. After all many communities have assets in the form of land or could own rights over forests or have certain skills in arts and crafts etc.

Development professionals need to re-look at their project development models and perhaps unlearn some of their methods and look at communities as productive assets who can generate wealth just like any private business.

We are in the process of development projects on these lines.

It is becoming increasingly clear as the global recession plays itself out that the balance of economic power is slowly but surely shifting towards Asia. US and Europe will however continue to dominate in technology and research. Two way business growth between the developed countries and India and China will get stronger. Companies in the US and Europe behavior will follow the classic pioneer innovator, follower and laggard model while looking for collaboration and new opportunities in the fast growing Asia economies. It will not be too far in the distance that the followers will join the pioneer innovator clubs and the trickle will turn into a flood.

I am seeing this play out in my business where I see pioneers collaborating with us in entertainment, finance, healthcare and education. The pioneer innovators who are building these collaboration based business with us are all from USA. The Europeans are still too waiting on the sidelines.

US and European companies

In the course of building a collaboration based business I have been interacting with companies both in the US, Europe and other parts of the world. I observe some trends which fascinate and intrique me at the same time. The fastest response to a business offer comes from India and the US. European, East Asian companies rarely respond and when they do relationship building is difficult. On the other hand, I find it easier to work and collaborate with US companies who after the initial concerns on protection of IPR, commercial concerns, contract legalities etc are resolved, things move relatively quickly and smoothly. Ever since, I have been to initiate potentially long term and enduring relationships with US companies in the entertainment and healthcare segments. I hope to build similar ones in other segments like education and food processing too.

The questions that come to my mind- how to crack into the European, Australian and East Asian market and reach out to companies there. I am looking for answers but I know that ultimately I will discover and a truly global collaboration based business will come into existence.