Global shifts in business alignment

Many political economists believe that in future business alignment will be driven by a strengthening of the China US business to business relationship. The rationale behind this thinking is that the export driven Chinese economy driven by US IPR and US business operating from China will drive in self interest towards greater alignment and synergy between the two countries.

I have partial disagreement with this US China world view. Chinese like all other nation states are driven by self interest. The ongoing global recession has been exasperated by the rapid drop in US and European consumer demand. China is bound to re-align its business model to focus more on domestic growth from the existing export growth. The two most populous regions of the world India and China, inspite of their political differences will bury the hatchet and start working together to strengthen business to business ties. Africa and parts of Asia that are resource rich will increasingly get aligned to economies of India and China who will increasingly become the major customers of commodities being produced by them. While North America and Europe will continue to be major global players but business to business global re-alignment has begun.

Perils of internet VC fund placement networks

I got conned last week in paying $500 to a network group whose agent informed me that they will get us early stage finance for one of my companies. We got the commitment letter for funding which however required us to pay another $2500 to a consultant who will negotiate the letter on our behalf. When we refused, the commitment letter was withdrawn and threatening letters were written.

I see a lot of blogs speaking on the incompetence of entrepreneurs and the lack of understanding of the investing process. I trawled and couldn't find a single blog describing the experiences of investees with investment placement agents.

I know majority of the agents are hardworking, straight and deliver value for money. US regulation in this area is almost invisible to investees who are forced to move from pillar to post for fraud redress.

In the internet world of today, these people will not be able to hide because the world is watching.

Small and medium sized corporations- lessons from large corporations

Corporations just like organisms have a life and implode or wither away at the end of their life cycle. Having worked for over a decade in a multinational corporation, I have noticed that once the corporation grows beyond a certain size it tends to become a conglomeration of satraps. Each satrap has an empire that is run in accordance to the whims and fancies of the satrap. Depending on the vision and management style of the individual satrap it grows, flourishes or withers away. The organization parts over time lose their vigor and withers away, other parts get afflicted and the disease spreads leading to ultimate demise. GM, Chrysler, Lehman and a host of other are examples of this phenomenon. These examples exist world over.

Small and medium sized corporates need to learn from this phenomenon and prevent implosion as they go up the value chain in growth and quality. Level headed leadership, human management capability, humility while being aggressive are some of the characteristics that will enhance life of organizations. Swollen headed CEOs, lack of responsiveness to customers, status quo orientation are some afflictions which we need to prevent occurring in our companies.

Collaboration with start ups and medium units

Just like living organisms, corporations also historically are known to have a life cycle of their own. An exceptional entrepreneur conceptualizes and builds a corporation, a great team takes it forward and the change in market paradigm, poor leader or act of God leads to its demise. There are very corporations which are more than 200 years old.

Some of the start ups of today will be the corporations of the future. They have the flexibility, the drive, the decision making capability to grow, expand and become strong. Just like the most profitable business gets created when a product or a service or offering is at the early stages of its marketing cycle, so I believe in collaborating with start ups.

There are two such start ups with whom I have been building a relationship for some time now. Both of these are based out of the US and experience so far has been good.

I am keen to collaborate with more start ups and create a multinational corporation during the half of a life time that still remains.

Social network sites and business

I have been using linked in to build global relationships. This is a great medium for connecting with people and exploring business opportunities. However, individual group managers of linked in designated groups are often a bottleneck in networking. Posts aimed to invite collaborating companies are shifted to the job section where they should not be. On the other hand, you will see large numbers of frivolous posts on the discussion forums. Most of these are from placement agents, networkers seeking to connect with anyone.

I think there is a need to regulate linked in better. This could be in the form of defining rules for each of the group managers to follow, curtailing the roles of group managers and restricting these to use of things like offensive language etc.

The popularity of social networking site is the freedom that these provide to people. This voice of freedom should not be permitted to extinguish.

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.