European Debt Crisis

What is European debt crisis? It is the failure of Euro, the currency that unites together 17 European countries in an intimate but flawed manner.

Over the past 3 years, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain have all fallen down to the brink of collapse, threatening to bring down the entire continent and the rest of the world. How did it happen?

For most of Europe's history, it's been in a war within itself. Countries at war with each other tend to do less business with each other. Europe was always a continent of trade barriers, tariffs and different currencies. Doing business across borders was difficult. You needed to pay a fee to exchange currencies, and you needed to pay tariff fee to buy and sell to the companies in other countries. That tendered to stifle economic growth.

Indian Politics Reshaping International Business

With the ongoing slowdown destroying entire generation’s chances of living at developed nation levels of income, the newly-elected Modi government seems to be well-prepared for the challenges to be thrown in his path of revival of Indian economy. Fast-tracking the decision making process by government has so far supported that so-called “good days” might not be too far for the Indian population.

What, Exactly, is Business Development?

 “I do biz dev.”

Few times in history have more ambiguous words been spoken.  Ask ten “VPs of Business Development” or similarly business card-ed folks what is business development, and you’re like to get just as many answers.

“Business development is sales,” some will say, concisely.

“Business development is partnerships,” others will say, vaguely.

“Business development is hustling,” the startup folks will say, evasively.

The assortment of varied and often contradictory responses to the basic question of “what, exactly, is business development” reminds me of the way physicists seek to explain what, exactly, is the universe.  With conflicting theories on the nature of black holes and bosons, the ultimate goal for those scientists is a Grand Unified Theory, a single definition that can elegantly explain how the universe itself operates at every level.

Ways to Promote Your Product or Service

Your marketing budget deserves careful consideration, because it not only serves to create market impressions; it is expected to generate revenues. Understanding the kinds of impacts that can be expected from various print and electronic media will help to manage this element of business expense.

It is important to understand that each market segment may react differently to the way a promotional message is presented. An exciting, aggressive or even humorous message may be perceived as offensive or insensitive even though it may be grammatically and politically correct.

The Print and Graphic Arts Media

Business cards and stationery are effective, inexpensive and professional promotional tools but use of these items should be restricted to personal contacts. Rubber stamps or staples are for impersonal, routine tasks and should not be used in any way with this media. Advertising specialties such as pens, key rings and calendars acknowledge goodwill in the form of a small gift, but these convey more image than information.

How to Develop a Business Growth Strategy

There are many ways to guide a business through a period of expansion.

Turning a small business into a big one is never easy. The statistics are grim. Research suggests that only one-tenth of 1 percent of companies will ever reach $250 million in annual revenue. An even more microscopic group, just 0.036 percent, will reach $1 billion in annual sales.

In other words, most businesses start small and stay there.

But if that's not good enough for you—or if you recognize that staying small doesn't necessarily guarantee your business's survival— there are examples of companies out there that have successfully made the transition from start-up to small business to fully-thriving large business.

That's the premise behind the search Keith McFarland, an entrepreneur and former Inc. 500 CEO, undertook in writing his book, The Breakthrough Company. "There has always been lots of books out there on how to run a big company," says McFarland, who now runs his own consulting business, McFarland Partners based in Salk Lake City. "But I couldn't find one about how to maintain fast-growth over the long-term. So I studied the companies who had done it to learn their lessons."

The U.S. as One of the Developed World's Lowest-Cost Manufacturers

Export manufacturing has recently become the unsung hero of the U.S. economy. Despite all the public focus on the U.S. trade deficit, little attention has been paid to the fact that the country’s exports have been growing more than seven times faster than GDP since 2005. As a share of the U.S. economy, in fact, exports are at their highest point in 50 years.

But this is likely to be just the beginning.

It is projected that the U.S., as a result of its increasing competitiveness in manufacturing, will capture $70 billion to $115 billion in annual exports from other nations by the end of the decade. About two-thirds of these export gains could come from production shifts to the U.S. from leading European nations and Japan. By 2020, higher U.S. exports, combined with production work that will likely be “reshored” from China, could create 2.5 million to 5 million American factory and service jobs associated with increased manufacturing.

The perspective is based on shifts in cost structures that increasingly favor U.S. manufacturing. China’s once overwhelming production-cost advantage over the U.S. is rapidly eroding because of higher wages and other factors—and how these trends are likely to boost U.S. manufacturing in specific industries. Below, we focus on America’s increasing cost-competitiveness in manufacturing compared with leading advanced economies that are major exporters.