cool global BIZ

A New Era of Globalization, Cross-Border Business & Cultural Diversity

 

 

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. - Maori proverb" by ZedZap (Nick Kenrick), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Nick Kenrick is a photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Happy New Year 2012.

CoolGlobalBiz is a non-partisan blog that explores the nexus and cross-border fusion of business and culture. Feeds and links to CoolGlobalBiz can be found on Guy Kawasaki's online news directory Alltop (economics or small business), on publishers' Web sites powered by digital news curator daylife, and elsewhere. Kingdoms rise and fall, cycles come and go. Every few generations, we're rocked by economic and cultural upheaval, from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Now we're at the cusp of another major epoch, an era of quickening change, innovation and global diversity. Borders dissolve, markets and industries merge. Cross-cultural companies, executives and entrepreneurs stand at the vanguard. The seasons are turning, turning. This ain't your Daddy's economy. The world: curved or flat? No matter, the convergence of business and culture won't wane. For better and worse, the new world is here.

 

 

Football's San Francisco 49ers Reflect Winning Workplace Culture and Management

 

 

"Drills" by jpeepz (Jay Peeples), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Peeples is a photographer and writer in Silicon Valley, U.S.A.
 

HOW DO YOU handle a soul-crushing defeat if normally-reliable colleagues fall short? Strengthen the fortress and build up your teammates, don't divide and conquer.

After the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers fell short of reaching the Super Bowl, losing to the New York Giants on Sunday, they did not blame the young player whose turnovers played a role in the loss. They rallied around him, and rightfully pointed out that the whole team missed opportunities throughout the game.

Under new coach Jim Harbaugh, general manager Trent Baalke and their staffs, the 49ers' classy handling of defeat reflects their winning culture and season -- a success by nearly every measure. Corporate types can learn a lot about leadership from first-rate coaches and athletes, who handle more pressure in one game than most of us see in our entire careers. In short, act like real and selfless teammates, not self-serving divas. Easy to say, hard to do. Look at any workplace.

 

McKinsey Calls for Resource Revolution As Global Demand Soars for Food, Water, Energy

 

 

"Sustainable energy from the source" by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Ahlefeldt-Laurvig is an illustrator in Copenhagen, Denmark, at HikingArtist.com.

 

NEXT TO GLOBAL warming, perhaps the most critical and urgent issue of the day? The supply and demand for basic resources as the world population -- a billion here, a billion there -- continues to explode. In a recent study, the McKinsey Global Institute urges companies and governments to launch a "resource revolution" to improve resource productivity, and to meet the vast global need for energy, materials, food and water in the near future. A McKinsey e-mail to subscribers reads:

 

"The English thinker Malthus argued in his famous 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798 that there was no longer sufficient land in the world to feed a rapidly growing world population . . . But an agro–industrial revolution soon transformed the economies of Europe and North America, and his fears proved unfounded.

"In more recent years, the conventional wisdom has taken hold that market forces would always come to the rescue  . . . During most of the 20th century, resource prices . . . declined despite strong growth in the world's population and even stronger growth in GDP. This price fall was due to a combination of new low–cost sources of supply and technological innovation.

"But in just the past ten years, demand from emerging markets, particularly in Asia, has erased all the price declines of the previous 100 . . . In the 20th century, governments and businesses didn't have to worry about resource productivity; they (focused) on capital and labor instead. Over the next 20 years, resources need to be put at the heart of public policy and business strategy."

 

• McKinsey Global Institute, "Resource Revolution: Meeting the World's Energy, Materials, Food, and Water Needs." 

 

Are You a Manager on a Mission, Like Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow?

 

HIS IN-YOUR-FACE spirituality may turn off some folks. His football passes can be wild and erratic. And his power scrambling surely will shorten his promising career. But Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow boasts those magical qualities and intangibles that every executive and manager wishes he had: Fire and spirit. Courage and credibility. Leadership mojo.

You can measure the visible traits of people all day. You can write performance reviews late into the night. But those assessments exist only on paper, only by the numbers -- and only in your biased and fallible judgment. As critics are discovering with Tebow, their damning reviews mean little, and results mean everything. On Sunday eve, the young pro quarterback led his team to another near-miraculous triumph. Pure and simple, Tebow is a winner, a leader who believes in himself -- and who inspires others. Whether he reaches the Super Bowl or not, he is a man on a mission.

Is the football field any different from the workplace? And are quarterbacks and their teammates much different from executives and their employees? Do your troops trust and believe in you? Will your staff follow you into corporate battle? Are you a coffee-break joke to them, or a real and respected leader? Are you a manager on a mission? Simple questions, big boss. Can you answer them, like the apostle-athlete Tim Tebow?

(Photo, above) "Tim Tebow" by Jeffrey Beall, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Beall is a photographer and university librarian in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A

 

Global Economy in 2012: Ho, Ho, Ho, Nobody Knows. Meanwhile, Happy Holidays

 

 

"The Christmas Carolers" by deltaMike (Mike Renlund), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. 
 

HO, HO, HO, nobody knows, not even jolly ol' Saint Nick! Holiday shopping up. Unemployment down. Euro debt rising. World economy stalling. You pick: 2% or 3% growth? Recession or depression? Read the latest economic reports, and haul out the Ouiji board. Or sing some holiday tunes, like the colorful Christmas carolers here. Meanwhile, happy holidays. 

 

• Associated Press via Google News, "Holiday shopping season is strong" by Anne D'Innocenzio.


• CNET, "Online holiday spending hit all-time high last week" by Don Reisinger.


• BusinessWeek, "Economy in U.S. expands less than previously estimated" by Alex Kowalski.


• United Nations Development Policy and Analysis Division, "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012."


• International Monetary Fund, "Africa's Future: Responding to Today's Global Economic Challenges" by Christine Lagarde.

 

 

 

christmas lights" by AlicePopkorn (Cornelia Kopp), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Kopp is a Germany-based photographer and digital artist whose work can be seen at alicepopkorn.de.

  

 

Still Happy Holidays for AT&T After T-Mobile Mega-Deal Falls Through?

 

SANTA HOPES THAT AT&T still has the holiday spirit, after its $39 billion bid for Deutsch Telekom's T-Mobile just collapsed amid opposition from the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and others. Will AT&T bandage its wounds and circle back to T-Mobile or other telecom firms with a more bite-sized acquisition attempt, maybe after the 2012 presidential election? I still wouldn't count them out, after predicting earlier that they would push through the T-Mobile mega-deal. Corporations on the prowl never rest. Meanwhile, a host of critics -- telecom rivals such as Sprint, antitrust advocates and some consumers -- will find reason to rejoice on the night before Christmas.

 

• AT&T and Deutsche Telekom news releases, "AT&T Ends Bid to Add Network Capacity Through T-Mobile USA Bid" and "AT&T and Deutsch Telekom terminate agreement on the sale of T-Mobile USA."


• Bloomberg, "Desperate AT&T May Turn to Dish: Stifel" by Alex Sherman.


• CNET, "T-Mobile's Consolation Prize: Will It Be Enough?" by Marguerite Reardon.


• Consumer Affairs, "Demise of AT&T/T-Mobile Deal Leaves Questions for Consumers."


• Politico, "AT&T's lobbying turned back in T-Mobile bid" by Tony Romm.

 

(Illustration, above) "Christmas Sale Vector Sticker" by VectorPortal, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Art courtesy of VectorPortal.com.

 

IBM's "5 in 5" Forecast of Innovations: Mind-reading! No Passwords! Digital Divide Begone!

 

IBM recently released its annual "5 in 5" forecast of new technology advances and how they might change our lives in the near future. This one predicts an end to global digital divide between "information haves and have-nots." YouTube video courtesy of IBM Labs.

 

HERE'S IBM'S YEARLY "5 in 5" forecast of five global innovations that could change our lives in five years. Fun, thought-provoking stuff. The technology may exist, but do the markets and financing and infrastructure exist? Do customers want it? Are foreign governments and regulators on board? And will the business gods and the planets align? IBM and other visionary multinationals know the answers to many of these questions, but they can't control a couple of them. If they could, there'd be a lot more gazillionaires running around. The forecasts, from IBM's A Smarter Planet blog:

 

1. People power (self-powered clean energy) will come to life.

2. You will never need a password again.

3. Mind reading is no longer science fiction.

4. The digital divide will cease to exist.

5. Junk mail will become priority mail.

 

• IBM's A Smarter Planet blog, "The IBM 5 in 5: Our Forecast of Five Innovations That Will Alter the Tech Landscape in Five Years" by Steve Hamm.


• CNET, "IBM: Mind reading is less than five years away. For real." by Daniel Terdiman.


• GigaOm, "Take a look at IBM’s 5 innovations for the next 5 years" by Om Malik.


• MSNBC, "Will Future Tech Read Your Mind?" by Alan Boyle.

 

 

Still Valid Question: How Long Will Silicon Valley's Legendary Tech Economy Last?

 

"Four Tubes in a Row "by Mike Cohn, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.

 

Editor's note: Will Silicon Valley's technology-driven economy continue to grow in the coming decades? Or will it wane as technology spreads globally? This week's rosy job outlook in the valley provides false hope for the long run. Can't ignore history. Even the greatest industries one day hit a plateau and fade like aging ballplayers. Here's a revised post on the topic from last year, when tech stocks rallied and fired up the broader market.

 

AS CISCO SYSTEMS, Intel and other U.S. tech titans spearhead another economic recovery, I wonder how long Silicon Valley and the U.S. tech realm will reign as the world's preeminent force for business growth and innovation.

Tech watchers have long debated the question, and time-honored "Whither Silicon Valley?" stories by the media surface every 5 or 10 years. (I plead guilty to writing a couple myself, including "Tech Industry Struggles To Cope With Its Losses" in USA Today, when many thought the growth of the New Economy and the dot.com boom would never end.)

Do You Jugaad? The Next Big Global Management Trend Hails from India

 

LOVE IT WHEN business people borrow co-opt build on use catchy foreign and ethnic slang and slogans for business and marketing purposes. It's like French-trained chefs using exotic spices in fusion dishes. In the management and leadership field, the latest buzz word is jugaad, or Hindi for creative and innovative ways to improve products and services with scant resources.

There's a minor debate in blog posts over the real meaning of jugaad, which has been around for decades and referred to makeshift street motor vehicles, and also to clever ways of building shoddy goods and dodging government regulations. Then India tech companies began using the word for low-cost R&D and innovation.

CNN 2011 Hero: "Mother Robin" Lim Offers Prenatal, Medical Care to Poor Indonesians

 

 

 

ROBIN LIM, AN American woman whose health clinics offer free prenatal, birthing and medical care to thousands of poor Indonesian women, was named CNN's 2011 "Hero of the Year" last night after public online voting. Lim and nine other global non-profit leaders and social entrepreneurs were honored for their community and charitable work over the years. Lim, known as "Mother Robin" in Indonesia, told CNN: "Every baby's first breath on Earth could be one of peace and love. Every mother should be healthy and strong. Every birth could be safe and loving. But our world is not there yet."

• CNN.com, " 'Mother Robin' Wins CNN Hero of Year" by Kyle Almond. 

 

Global Economic Collapse? Praise Marc "Dr. Doom" Faber and Bearish Contrarians

 

 

Global investment guru Marc "Dr. Doom" Faber predicting global economic collapse. Video courtesy of ReutersVideo's channel on YouTube. Interview by Jeanne Yurman of Reuters TV.

BEHOLD GLOBAL INVESTMENT guru Marc "Dr. Doom" Faber. Interviewed recently on Reuters TV, he's predicting the collapse of the global economy and derivatives market. Spooky stuff, even if he's always talking financial apocalypse.