MISS UNIVERSE CONTESTANTS might look like Barbie dolls in different shades. But beyond glitzy pageants, the colors (colours) of beauty are slowly but surely changing global consumer culture and the beauty industry, according to SkinInc.com ("Skin Color of the United States" by Daphne Kasriel-Alexander) and a new book by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones (Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry).
THE DVD OF the action film Fast Five rolled out this month, and it's good to see filmmaker Justin Linmaking buttloads of money for Universal Pictures and the Fast and Furious franchise. Also good to see Universal and Lin, a Chinese American and UCLA Film School graduate, making money with a multicultural cast (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson) that appeals to a global audience. As of October, Fast Five has hauled in more than $600 million in 40 countries, according to BoxOfficeMojo.
FORGET INTEREST RATES and investment flows. The best signpost of the global economy is Donald Trump's Miss Universe pageant. Look at the top finalists from Monday's show in Sao Paulo. A whole lot of women from emerging markets: Miss Brazil. Miss China. Miss Ukraine. Miss Philippines. Not an American or European in sight. The winner: Leila Lopesof Angola, Africa. "Every woman that competes is the embodiment of national pride," says Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, in the company's promo video. Aiya! Don't follow the money. Follow the beauty queens.
CoolGlobalBiz is an independent, non-partisan blog that explores the nexus and cross-border fusion of business and culture. Links to CoolGlobalBiz can be found on Guy Kawasaki's online news directory Alltop (economics or small business) and other sites. 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. 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.
WELCOME, TURISTAS! Eat, spend, play! Despite the scary global economy, world tourism still is growing, says the United Nations. And Brazilian tourists alone are dropping $43 million a day around the globe, according to Time. Last year, they poured nearly $6 billion into the U.S. economy. Obrigado! "Indeed," writes Tim Rogers of Time, "despite U.S. visa policies that treat all Latinos as immigrants vying for American jobs and their piece of the American Dream, many are just tourists from down under who have already achieved their own Brazilian or Chilean dreams and just want to visit the U.S. and spend their money here."
LIKE A VAST wave, you could see this business megatrend rising a decade or so ago. More revenues, more investments,more employees, more R&D, more everything coming from fast-growing businesses overseas. Now, that trend -- the emergence of new companies in rapidly developing economies -- clearly is a powerful pillar of the global economy that will reshape the world, says the Boston Consulting Group, which has been studying global companies for many years.
FASTER THAN YOU can say mighty mighty,that BRIC house keeps rising as a global powerhouse. In little-noticed news over Christmas, Chinese President Hu Jintao invited South African President Jacob Zuma to meet with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) leaders in Beijing in 2011. According to Bloomberg, Zuma said that South Africa will be "a good gateway for the BRIC countries. While we may have a small population . . . we speak for Africa as a whole."
THE MISS UNIVERSE CONTESTANTS might look like Barbie dolls in different shades. But beyond glitzy pageants, the colors and colours of beauty are slowly but surely changing global consumer culture and the beauty industry, according to SkinInc.com ("Skin Color of the United States" by Daphne Kasriel-Alexander) and a new book by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones (Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry) . . . From cosmetics to luxury spas, Kasriel-Alexander writes that "globalization is transforming the beauty industry, with brands being forced to respond to a far greater diversity of cultures and lifestyles as new markets open up worldwide. In the beauty realm, physiological differences between Caucasians and other ethnic groups have created a huge market for specialized skin and hair care products" . . . In his book, Jones cites China as an example of the rapid, cross-border spread of beauty brands and fashion trends. Three decades ago, cosmetics were seen as symbols of "bourgeois decadence" there. But now, he writes, China is the world's No. 4 market for beauty products.
