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With a growing population, increasing unemployment, a vibrant manufacturing sector and fast improving life-styles, China’s demand for natural resources, markets for its products and job opportunities is growing at astronomical rates. This has made it seek new sources of resources, markets and employment for its people and Africa fits the bill.Learn more here.
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... he has assembled a business in fast-growing countries that the company will count on for a big part of its growth.The article goes on further to say:
"Where do you think the growth in the world is going to come from?" Mr. White asked during an interview at his suburban Chicago office, a few miles from Lake Michigan. "Would you bet on the U.S.? Would you bet on Western Europe? It's going to come from emerging markets."
Now, the fast-growing emerging-market economies are much more attractive. Expanding middle classes in such countries as Brazil, South Korea and Turkey are not only spending more on health care, but their rising affluence has contributed to increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease and other conditions that once had been limited to developed markets. Some governments, notably China's, are beginning to provide insurance to pay for health care.Read the entire article here.
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| Photo credit: Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog, Chicago lakefront |
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The MED Week Conference helps minority-owned firms grow domestically and globally through a series of educational, training and business-to-business networking events. Throughout MED Week, nearly 1,500 minority business owners, government officials and corporate representatives will hear about President Obama’s National Export Initiative and develop the skills to become export ready. Minority businesses already export twice as much as the average business, as they often have existing cultural, family or business ties to foreign countries.Are you export ready? Get with the program -- read more here.
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Half of Asia will become urbanized, and nearly a billion people will shift from countryside to cityscape. Trillions of dollars will need to be spent on roads, trains, power plants, water systems, and social services. And it's going to happen in less than half the time that it took the West. China and India will account for two-fifths of the world's urban growth, but they are pursuing wildly different strategies for managing this shift.Read more about this here.
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| Photo credit: Laurel Delaney, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., Oak Street and Michigan Avenue, John Hancock Building |
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The current shaky economic environment is a challenge for all leaders, Davis acknowledged. He detailed three types of corporate responses to the economic downturn. "Some companies won't make it. Some will be crippled; it may take five, six or seven years for them to get back to the level they were at before the collapse." The third type of company, however, will keep its long-term goals in sight. It will pursue strategic growth in line with its core values. These companies will effectively balance conventional and digital business, strive for efficiency and think globally. Consequently, Davis said, these companies will learn, adjust and evolve as the global economy recovers. "Some companies will come out of the recovery stronger than ever. Times of great uncertainty are also times of great opportunity."Read: "Solving a 'Wicked Problem'"
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“A slowdown in the global economy is now obvious and that is cooling investor sentiment,” said Tomomi Yamashita, a fund manager in Tokyo at Shinkin Asset Management Co., which oversees about $5.8 billion. “There are no attractive positions to take right now in markets. We’re waiting for better economic data.”Read more here.
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Asian companies have been on a tear, but this may be as good as it gets. Despite a stellar round of earnings for the last quarter, the outlook for many of the region’s companies — household names around the world — is dimming.And a snippet from Alibaba.com:
“We continue to take a cautious view on the global economy and small-business development,” said David Wei, Alibaba’s chief executive, “and expect a slowdown in export growth for the following quarters.”Read more here:
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Many companies tend to categorize sales by regions or markets, while others segregate government sales. Additionally, intra-company sales, and hence profits, are sometimes structured to take advantage of trade, tax and regulatory polices. The resulting reported data available for shareholders is therefore significantly less than the desired level for analysis.Read more here: Foreign Sales - Love'em or Leave'em (Bloomberg Businessweek)
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| Photo credit: Laurel Delaney, GlobeTrade.com -- taken at The Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's Campus in Oakbrook, Illinois, 8/5/10 |
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Australia has about one million SMEs, about 90,000 of which do international business.
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