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Back with you in the new year. Enjoy.
The Definitive Blog for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
Interested in Going Global
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Sharing ideas on a regular basis helps support economic development, job creation and the marketing efforts of area cities.Read more.
But for many chamber organizations in Greater Kansas City, networking is going global.
The potential for tapping into huge overseas markets, including India and China, is becoming increasingly important for chamber members, particularly ones with expertise in the biosciences and information technology.
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Think you can translate your brand for the savvy Chinese shopper?
iStock/Thinkstock With a population of 1.3 billion whose per capita income is expected to double over the next 10 years, and a consumer market that is expected to grow to $14 trillion by the year 2025, it's no wonder foreign companies are investing billions to reach today's Chinese consumer. Research reveals a growing demographic of generally younger, affluent, urban Chinese consumers who are willing to consider foreign brands.
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... My interest has always been to track trends before they affect us. I like to be way out in front, and that’s why I follow closely anything that has to do with global small business trends.Let me know what you think. Direct link here.
read more here.In his weblog for May 7, 2007, Dani Rodrik takes us to task for exaggerating the benefits of globalization in raising US household income and GDP. Professor Rodrik long ago established his reputation as a globalization skeptic; today he is the favorite Harvard economist among the backlash crowd. Eight years ago, Francisco Rodriguez and Rodrik (1999) notched their academic guns against Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner (1995), expressing a skeptical view of the benefits of liberal trade policy to developing countries. As targets of Rodrik's latest outburst of skepticism, we share good company.
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To debunk globalization proponents, Rodrik uses ...
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Gardner: Let’s start with Laurel. Help us understand some of the issues facing small businesses, those seeking to expand their addressable markets and how they can start doing more business overseas.Visit here if you want to listen to the podcast or read the transcript. Go here if you want to simplify international trade.
Delaney: Actually, there are two forces at work right now for small businesses. One has to do with the issue of globalization. I think we all know the buzz that’s going on about going global that has been driven largely by Thomas Friedman with his book, "The World is Flat." He’s caused mainstream America and all small businesses to step up to the plate and consider the world as your market. The second force is technology, and technology is making it easier now to go global.
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As the media environment becomes increasingly complex and rooted in the digital space, the existing marketing agenda and capabilities need to be re-tooled and marketing organizations, agencies and media companies are having to change at an unprecedented pace. A new cross industry study details how marketers and their agencies must change as the convergence of media and technology, combined with the fragmentation and personalization of media, changes the connection between marketers and end users.Download the 15-page study produced by ANA (Association of National Advertisers), IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies), and management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton here.
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Is that you? If it is, I encourage you to read this press release and get ready to dive into the UPS Business Monitor United States 2007 Report when it is released November 1st. I will post more about it then.Most of America's small- and mid-sized businesses have failed to explore the significant growth opportunities offered by an increasingly global economy. Indeed, a new survey conducted for UPS shows 67 percent of the nation's small-to-mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still chaining themselves to the U.S. economy.
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Highlights from Doing Business 2008: As countries reform their business regulation, more businesses are starting up. Eastern Europe has witnessed a boom in new business entry that rivals the rapid growth in East Asia in the past. Large emerging markets such as India, China, Egypt, Turkey, and Indonesia, are reforming fast and investors are taking notice. This year Egypt is the top reforming country worldwide, while Singapore is #1 on the ease of doing business for the second consecutive year.Download report here.
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Spend some time in the hotels, restaurants and even newsstands of Western Europe these days, and as an American you understand pretty quickly that you're poorer than you once were. To be precise, you're 40% poorer--to go by the dollar-euro exchange rate--than you were six years ago.Read more here.
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The old theory is that when America sneezes the rest of the world gets sick (hence, the photo of an American girl sneezing) but it may not apply these days.Is the U.S. housing blowout going to hurt the rest of the world? Certainly, a major slowdown in the planet's biggest economy would cause some countries pain.
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But much of the globe will likely shrug off the worst effects of any American slump. "The global economy is no longer U.S.-centric," says Ed Yardeni, an economist who heads Yardeni Research in New York. "We may find that the global economic boom continues, notwithstanding the slowdown in the U.S."
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I really enjoyed your presentation today. Though, I am actively working on web 2.0 technology, I learned about a few additional good sites from your presentation. In fact, ScriptLance (Laurel here ... I had known about ScriptLance prior to Manoj's submission) is going to be a very good site for me to expand my business. I wanted to thank you for sharing the information. If you are in town, I would love to meet with you.Looks like we are on to something. Better check it out. Don't forget about the rest of the article -- sign up is here.
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Findings in the 2007 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location IndexTM reveal that the relative cost advantage of the leading offshore destinations has declined almost universally. Nearly every country in the Index, even those that fell in the rankings, improved their absolute scores, thus confirming that competition among low-cost countries is intensifying. Increasingly, simply maintaining current performance levels is no longer sufficient for countries that want to attract (and retain) the fast-growing remote services business. In addition, this year’s findings suggest that while the wage advantage of offshore locations will continue for 20 or more years, this advantage will diminish as demand for skilled workers increases in offshore locations around the globe.Download the 20-page complimentary report, "Offshoring For Long-Term Advantage," here.
Now in its fourth year, the Global Services Location Index, or GSLI, analyzes and ranks the top 50 locations worldwide that provide the most common remote functions, including IT services and support, contact centers and back-office support.
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WSJ: What retail alternatives are particularly attractive for your brands right now?
Mr. Lauder: We look for consumers who spend at the higher end of the product range.
There's a generic frustration that I have when I talk to the financial community. The vast majority of analysts we talk to are American, the vast majority of them don't travel much outside of the U.S., and if they do, I imagine that most of that travel isn't to figure out how our brands and other brands are sold and market in Europe or Asia. They seem singularly obsessed with North America and the success of the Clinique and Estee Lauder brands there. They miss the extraordinary growth and expansion that we're seeing from our brands outside of this market. More than half of our sales and a significant portion of our total growth will come from outside of North America.
WSJ: How do you translate your brands in foreign markets?
There are many things we have to do to make our message for each brand more relevant locally. For example, the Asian consumer is very heavily oriented to the skin-treatment business -- she trusts brands that are really solid in those areas. And she doesn't like fragrance. It's a very small portion of the total business. In Europe, in the parfumerie channel, it's predominantly a fragrance-driven business, more than 50% of the business, and the remainder is skin care and color. In the U.S., it's a little more balanced between fragrance, treatment and makeup. So our message in each of these markets has to be different and relevant.
WSJ: What about emerging markets?
Mr. Lauder: We see emerging markets as a tremendous opportunity. Beauty is one of the first entry points for that emerging middle-class consumer in these markets, and she's buying. The Estee Lauder brand in China is exploding right now because it represents aspirational luxury but at a price that's much more affordable than Louis Vuitton. We see the same thing going on in Russia. India is a little behind because there's a certain lack of established retail there. Also doing well for us is the Middle East, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
5 Tips from William Lauder on Seeking New Territory for your Business
1. While expanding globally, adapt to local tastes.
2. Make sure new markets still serve your core consumer and brand identity.
3. Stay open to new and emerging channels.
4. Sometimes the biggest retailers don't represent the biggest opportunities.
5. Don't think like a U.S. business with international operations, take the mindset of a truly global company.
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