Archive for the ‘Global News’ Category

Miss Philippines rated #1 on Miss Universe website…Can’t wait to see the show tonight at NBC.  You go girl! Full story

No book epitomizes the nature of today's globalized world more than Ian McPhedran's "Soldiers Without Borders," a book that covers the post-Australia SAS (Special Air Service) lives of multiple former soldiers. The alumni of the SAS are situated around the world, comprising a tightly-knitted network of individuals and families with the shared values of trust, ... Full story

Who does that? Full story

When I heard in 2007 that a Mandarin-speaking politician well-versed in Asia relations was elected as Prime Minister of Australia, I was living in Japan and understood almost nothing in regards to the Australian political scene beyond the fact that John Howard was previous Prime Minister. As a result, I was initially impressed ... Full story

  I guess it is only fitting that this become one of the last hot questions to be pondered in the public domain these days. After all, there is a cleantech war underway (which China is winning), there is talk that the world needs to move away from the USD, and the Moody’s of China saw it fit to saw that the US was now ... Full story

Not long ago, a Forbes.com article titled The iPad and Dreamliner Economy discussed the innovation that was taking place inside the US and why domestic technological innovation was far from a standstill. While the article reads like a litany of US brands the author’s firm likely holds an interest ... Full story

Over the last few weeks, a united front of sorts has begun to develop around the issue of whether or not China has erected a new wall, a wall meant to prevent the penetration of foreign economic interests within China’s domestic market. Consisting of chambers of commerce (American and European), multilateral agencies ... Full story

I just found out that they make Spanx fo men…really? Full story

Nothing to say about this, just take a look and realize what we should be afraid of now. Full story

Believe or not, Galaxy S from Samsung will come out in Jun to compete to iPhone 4G. I do not know whether Galaxy would really be able to compete to iPhone or not. Most of all its global launch is the best strategy on the product. If you would work on product side, you may know how it is difficult to launch ... Full story

Well, it seemed only a matter of time. Web sites, protests, and even a murder later, Arizona has finally cancelled the speed camera contract with Redflex out of Australia. The murder was a tragedy, to be sure, but the cause wasn’t entirely routed in the brain of a psychotic ... Full story

Thirteen year old Erik Martin is living with liver cancer. But that didn’t stop the comic-fanatic from saving Seattle as Electron Boy. The Make-A-Wish Foundation recently granted Martin’s superhero wish by organizing a giant city-wide role playing scenario.... Full story

Now the gold price is soaring significantly everyday. Do you know that a gold ring would be the best gift to friends who have their babies at one year old birthday party in Korea. This becomes just old fashion now because of soaring price. Looking back, usually guests would spend less $100 for gifts to babies, but now it ... Full story

Phoenix and its new law went to the court yesterday and defeated (?) against to another. What does it mean? Yes, Phoenix Sun, NBA team, wore the different jersey of "Los Sun" protesting against to the new immigration law. Anyway,,,the Los Sun is leading 2 games over San Antonio Spurs. Enjoy this clip... Full story

Do you know when the World Cup is? It is getting close. The world sport event will start from June 11 to July 11 in South Africa in this year.  Of course you must be awaring of this world event I believe. I want to share what Coca Cola is doing toward World Cup right now, called "Longest Celebration". Once I was involved with 2002 World Cup for our former client ... Full story

FTA boosts expansion into member countries, and stabilizes imported raw material costs and supply.  Despite general uncertainty in the global trading environment, China manufacturers have one positive development going for them. Implemented at the start of 2010, the China and ASEAN Free Trade Area eliminated import tariffs for most articles exchanged between the countries.  The ... Full story

Most of you may notice this situation of the new immigration law in Arizona that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into the law last week. Now the reaction from other states reached a lot to here. I do not want to comment and put any opinion either, but we can expect what we would face in future on ... Full story

Last April 30th according to Reuters, announced that Samsung would launch 50% more smartphone based on Android Powered OS among its new smartphone. The rest of 33% will be based on bada, Samsung's own OS. Samsung Electronics is the second largest company of mobile phone market in the world, right after Nokia, and this announcement is not ... Full story

A fantastic Comedy Central clip on US firms returning to the US from China to find cheaper wages. There are some classic quotes from this clip “Don’t try to up Third world me”… to “the don’t want those crappy jobs”… and all humor aside, the clip highlights a topic of conversation that I ... Full story

Annual Summit of China Green Companies to be held on 22nd in Chengdu The Annual Summit of China Green Companies 2010 and Chengdu Forum of Business Leaders sponsored by China Entrepreneur Club and Chengdu Municipal People’s Government will be held in Chengdu from April 22nd to 23rd, and over 600 important Chinese and ... Full story

Unless you are Korean or Japanese, you may not know about annexation 1910 between Korea and Japan. It had happened almost 90 years ago by Japan. Here is something interesting survey of bilateral relationship between these two countries at the time of 100th annexation after 1910, which was done by The Seoul-based Hankook Ilbo ... Full story

Again, Thunderbird MBA school got the  #1 school of international business by US NEWS 2010. This is not a big news because the school has been taking the leading position for 15 years. Even though I graduated Thunderbird, now I am experiencing the reasons in person and also I am still realizing the reasons daily and the needs why ... Full story

Andy Sernovitz interview with Adam Brown of Coca-Cola regarding their recently updated social media policies for employee contributions in social media.   Coca-Cola's new Social Media ... Full story

  Going into the weekend, Zhang Xiaoqiang (NDRC Vice Chairman) made an announcement at the Boao forum that leaves little doubt that a series of new regulations are on the way.Regulations that are going to discourage resource intensive and environmentally degrading industries, while supporting those that are going ... Full story

Did you see the last game of San Francisco Giants vs Houston? Did you see this player of outfielder, Eugenio Velez and his jersey? Can you read this logo? Yes, San Francisco was misspelled with "San Franscicso"!?!?!?!? What a fun happening on his jersey! How come nobody did not ... Full story

So, it goes without saying that when the Treasury Secretary diverts his plan to land in another country, a country who was looking at being called out as a “currency manipulator”, it is going to peak the interest of many. And it has.  Wall Street Journal was first on the scene with their ... Full story

Of course this is a really hot potato. Since I was in university this issues have been talking for 20 years still. However They are talking again in Korea when we are living in 2010. Their example is still same as they did 20 years ago. The government brought out and compared between ... Full story

Over the last couple of weeks, I have written a few posts that looked how firms considering China may not always be making their decisions on the best available data, or the best analysis of that data.  That, in a rush to please an executive, investor, or to solidify a ... Full story

1. Chengdu’s power saving technology world-leading, filling domestic gap On March 12th, Chengdu Gaowei Power Saving Technology Co., Ltd officially announced its latest R&D results costing 6 years and a few million yuans – the energy-saving technology and equipment of the submerged arc furnace and electric arc furnace. It ... Full story

Once you start looking at charts, you just cannot stop, and following my post last week of , I cam across this interesting chart in the post China Adapts to the Climate Change Fashion Show which plots energy intensities for the US and China. Besides the ... Full story

Yes, this is April fools. Have a good day. However this is not a just April fools, but we wish to make it later. ThunderPost Full story

Growing up in St Louis Missouri offered a life very different than that I have found in Shanghai. Very. Yet, it is a city that shares a lot in common with some of the more interesting, and successful cities, I have found in China. Located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, St. Louis is pretty much right in the dead center of the continental United States, and is a city with a long history as a trade port and industrial center. It is a city that has transformed over the last 20 years from almost a pure manufacturing based economy (cars, automobiles, beer, and chemicals) to one that was highly focused on services (banking, real estate, insurance, financial services, etc), and has been dinged pretty good over the last few years as things fell off. Full story

Following up from my recent posts A Few Rules for Succeeding in China and  What is China’s Obligation to Make Firms Feel Comfortable?, and the fact that Google’s decision to finally pull the trigger has driven so many to question why Google did it.. and whether or not it was the right move…I felt the need to write another piece.  I do so hesitantly because I am really not that interested in entering the great Google debate, whether or not their move was driven by a moral imperative vs. failure to be the leader in the market, and while I have my opinions, I am not looking to chase the “will Google change China” analysts with my own post. However, where the Google case for me is so interesting is that many of the analysts who are supporting Google for how brave they are doing so as Google is making such a decision given the size of China’s potential market, and on the other side you have analysts against them saying that they are idiots for making the decision they did and possibly forgoing the potential China market.   Full story

Among all the chants of “being ready” (or was that Beijing Games?) and the billboards counting down the seconds between now and what is sure to be an event to remember, I have one fear…. that Shanghai’s metro is just not going to be able to cope with all the traffic. It is a ... Full story

I have read the interest article from consumer reports April version, and it released a chart regarding vehicle problems by ages from each makers. The chart shows luxury brands to standard class car makers such as Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Do you know how many years the manufacturers guarantee their qualities? Normally the makers have 3 years and 50,000 miles for the vehicles, and especially Korean makers such as Kia and Hyundai and some have 10 year warranty programs. Full story

The discussions here of Afghanistan's Endless War have not only extended across boundaries, but also across time. This is because of my belief that the importance of Afghanistan cannot be understood unless the observer acquires a solid footing in the country's historical context as well as regional context. This of course holds true for many subjects of modern interest, but in the formulation and execution of strategy driven by governmental policies, we are constantly reminded of how easy it is to  become beholden to any number or accumulation of short-sighted, narrow-minded tactical maneuvers aimed at winning the day rather than empowering our future. Mr. Goodson writes with the foresight and wisdom of someone aimed at cultivating the empowerment of our future, including the future of Afghanistan, towards something worth creating for generations to come. This is why I cannot recommend this book enough as it relates to the current affairs of Afghanistan, and Chapter 6, simply titled "The Future of Afghanistan," does not disappoint in rounding off the previous chapters. Here, Mr. Goodson discusses the bedrock upon which a new Afghanistan must be laid, the required constitution of that bedrock, and how it must be cultivated and strengthened over time. He also steps back to clarify the lesson Afghanistan provides to the rest of the world in regards to failed states. Laying the Bedrock of a New Afghanistan Full story

Did you get any compensation about your Toyota cars that are in recall models? Of course this is not an official announcement, but I have just thought that customers should have received compensation about Toyota recall. This is my reasoning. We need to think of several costs as well as brand value of Toyota when we think of its compensation. Think about the cost strucutre in a car. Even in a car, Toyota must have added any single cost on total amount; R&D costs, Marketing and commerical costs, and material costs. In here, what about Branding cost? They must have spent a lot of budget to improve its brand value. No one can deny this. Full story

According to the PC World and other sources, it is saying that the launch day would be March 26th due to current production problem. Soon we will get to see this iPad Wi-Fi version and later in 30 days after this, there would be another 3G version again. Additionally, launch ... Full story

Welcome back everyone. Seems like it has been a while since I have posted, it has been a whole 10 days, and I have a few posts in the cage getting warmed up. In the meantime, I thought I would just post a short clip ... Full story

Over the last few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time things about the risks of China.  More specifically the risks that either are not thought through, are thought to be too low to consider, or are believed to be removed by a third party relationship.  It is a situation that, as the interview below will show, is almost systematic in the outsourced manufacturing game, and was highlighted by the recent strike at one of Apple’s Suzhou based suppliers two weeks. It was a strike that particularly frustrated me because Apple has had 3 or 4 other incidents in the past two years, and had in my mind simply not done anything to address the problems in a productive manner.  So, I asked long time friend and labor compliance specialist Pierig Vezin  (Founder and CEO of WethicA) to answer some questions for me based on his experiences in the field What are the biggest compliance issues that exist in china? The more common compliance issue in China is about working time. It is found in almost every factory as the Chinese law is quite strict (40 hours per week), but the reality is that the average working time is among the highest worldwide with around 70 to 75 hours per week. The toughest compliance issue, bounded labour (i.e. young child labour),  is rarely an issue of big factories. Second to the issue of child labor though is that we regularly meet factories that pay workers once a year only, which essentially means that workers can’t resign from their job once they have started. This kind of practice leads workers to be fully dependent on the factory, even in case of major needs to change. Full story

When it is my recall turn? Actually my car is one of these models which were suspended. At the first time of purchase I was told their quality is the world best and there was no company that could superior to the Toyota. However other players such as Honda, Hyundai, Kia other American brands will be little or big happy by Toyota's unprecedented recall incident. The ... Full story

It was published last 25th Jan by Financial Times that Thunderbird MBA school is the first top school for international business, and then University of South Carolina, Moore, is ranked at 2nd place. As we are working in global business, once again, this is something we may need to know. Working in dynamic environment ... Full story

  Following up on some earlier posts about driving sustainability through education, McKinsey has loaded an interview with the Blair Sheppard, dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Encouraging to see these shifts, although I personally would like to see more schools really integrate sustainability into their core curriculum.  That, rather ... Full story

A lot of conversation over the last few weeks about what China is for many firms. and what it is not. It is a conversation that, while recently catalyzed by Google’s announcement that they were looking at pulling the plug, is a conversation that I would say is had on a basis that is more frequent than many would like to admit to at time. Typically preceded by an event of some sort, commercial or political, and can be defensive, self defeating, or well analysed depending on the person, and one of the more interesting analysis I have seen lately comes from James McGregor in his recent piece in Time, The China Fix, where he writes the following: Full story

With all of the publicity in surrounding failed and corrupt business executives flooding the news since even the early stages of the financial crisis, the "business man" in the form of the "Wall Street executive" has taken a pounding in the eyes of the public. This anger has in turn been channeled by politicians and other opportunists looking to leverage it to their advantage in aggregating influence and power. Given this phenomenon, it is no wonder that business schools and their product, MBA's, have begun taken a beating themselves, leading to prominent discussions amongst business school deans and pundits in the press around ethics, honor codes, and the general culpability of business schools in the global financial crisis. Below are a few articles from 2009 to this effect: How Business Can Stand Tall Agan, May 4th, 2009 Thunderbird MBAs Take the Oath, May 15th, 2009 MBAs: Public Enemy No. 1?, May 20th A Promise to be Ethical in an Era of Immorality, May 29th, 2009 Blame the B-Schools, June 16th, 2009 Full story

Earlier in the year, I wrote several posts speculating on how the Obama Administration would develop their grand strategy for the Asia-Pacific. For convenience, I have provided links to the key posts below: Speculation on Obama's Grand Strategy for the Asia-Pacific Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI Full story

This chapter, titled "Afghanistan and the Changing Regional Environment," is perhaps the most important of Mr. Goodson's book since a comprehensive understanding of the Central Asia region and beyond is a requirement for related strategy and policies to be achievable and effective. Mr. Goodson summarizes Afghanistan's unique position as follows: "Despite its devastated infrastructure and economy and its limited natural resources... Afghanistan's geographical location and cross-border ethnic ties position it to play a critical role in trade between South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia. This is a novel situation for Afghanistan in the modern era, when it has more often served as a buffer state between empires or, as it has most recently, fought to avoid absorption into an encroaching superpower." Full story

This weekend while attending the Three on The Bund Sustainable Business and Society Event I knew that it would be one that I would be interested in as at the top of the ticket you had thee leaders of business management schools talking about sustainability. Moderated by PhD Lu Xiongwen ,Dean of Fudan University’s Business School, the main event was really when Prof. Richard Locke got up to speak. Proceeded by his Dean, Prof Locke’s speech was basically broken out into a few major areas: How Sloan defined sustainability,where “sustainability” is going , and what Sloan was doing to educated its students. Full story

Just a notice for readers that in two weeks JUCCCE will be holding its next Idealab, and you will be able to see both myself and Charlie McElwee of China Environmental LAw blog presenting at the event.. as well as participate in a workshop that will look at what will happen with all the materials from the EXPO pavilions. When: January 26, 2010; 2pm to 6pm Where: ... Full story

One of the more interesting discussions I had last week was surrounding how one (a firm or an individual) could position themselves against China in the markets. That, if one believed, China’s economy was in a bubble – and that the bubble was going to pop – how would one position themselves favorably. It was an interesting discussion as the person I was speaking with historically would have loaded their portfolio with short positions on those he thought would be the first to fall. In China this option is largely negated by the fact that you can’t short Chinese stocks in China, and that there aren’t really enough firms listed overseas (or at least not the right ones should the fit hit the shan). Full story

Already weak from years of disfunction, the nation of Haiti and its physical, financial and human architecture has been devastated by this week's massive earthquake. Buildings, roads, all the physical means of commerce, aid deployment, and support services has been crippled; tens of thousands of people, including the people required for Haiti ... Full story

When asking for a white Christmas in China, I guess you gotta be careful.. cause you might just get what you ask for.  It’s like a blizzard outside .. hard to see.. don’t advise anyone to go outside.. yet, as it is smog and not snow, it just isn’t the same. Full story

With the launch of its newest, fastest, and most expensive rail projects, you too can now pass through 20 cities, go over 600 bridges, and pass through 200 tunnels to on your way from Wuhan to Guangzhou to help to create better cooperation between Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong. … and in about 1/3 of the time of the old snail rail method.... Full story

 A recent article in the Financial Times by Jonathan Birchall titled "Walmart looks to cut billions from supply costs" has spurred a few connected posts by some of my favorite bloggers: Bob at Supply Chain Matters, Steve at Enterprise Resilience Management, and Tom at his personal weblog. Most people are familiar with Wal-Mart in one way or another, and from different perspectives and experiences. For management professionals, Wal-Mart has been under constant study for its supply chain prowess, analysed backwards and forwards to understand what works and what doesn't. However, few would argue that Wal-Mart does not possess tremendous strength in high-performance supply chain management. Due to its size and incredibly large financial turnover, when Wal-Mart launches new supply chain initiatives and / or programs, people from a wide range of disciplines and interests take instant notice. Full story

In my review of Chapter 3, I summarized the series of stages in Afghanistan's experience with modern war as described by author Larry Goodson. Chapter 4, titled "Impact of the War on Afghan State and Society," focuses on the impact of this experience on the entire architecture of the Afghan nation. So to frame and organize the thoughts of Mr. Goodson in this chapter, I would like to use the supply chain architectures I have discussed in relation to Afghanistan previously. These architectures can be viewed as comprising a pyramid within which the base architectures are most critical and without which the entire pyramid would crumble: Full story

As Michael Yon recently posted on Facebook, there are many groups and organizations besides NATO and the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan working in parallel and coordination to bring the country from the brink of collapse: Full story

When I visited Shanghai a few weeks ago, for the first time since March 2006, I was not really prepared mentally or physically for what Shanghai had become in its lead up to Expo 2010. My memories of Shanghai in 2006 were mostly filled with images that in one sense contrasted greatly with my Beijing experience in 2004 and in another sense echoed characteristics of living inTokyo's concrete jungle. Thus, I came away from multiple visits to Shanghai at that time with a relatively positive impression. Enter November 2009. What I witnessed last month was a city consumed by preparations for Expo 2010, whether you wanted to be or not. Almost every construction site was covered in Expo 2010 signs, either because the site really was being built or remodeled for the Expo or because it provided great PR cover for construction not entirely related but happening in parallel with everything else. This included the new building going up close to the apartment of my parents-in-law. Since my father-in-law is part of the administration preparing for Expo 2010, I sensed from him a particular determination and faith that all of the construction, dust and resulting chaos throughout the city would be justified once everything completed by the end of March target and once Expo 2010 kicked off shortly thereafter. Going into the heart of the city each day to brave the hustle and bustle revealed to me the determination of Shanghai to have its moment in the spotlight following the Beijing Olympics. Full story

One of the most interesting things about living in China is the phenomenon where something in the expat community happens that lights off a series of emails and text messages meant to unite everyone to either do something … or to not do something. In the case of the email below, it is the later, and it is simply titled: attacked at the fabric market *Physically Assaulted at Booth 272 * I went to booth 272, “Famous Costume Store”, at the South Bund Soft-Spinning Material Market on LuJiaBang Road to have a costume made. When the costume was ready for pick-up, I gave the woman the slip of paper/receipt and she gave me the costume to try on. After trying it on, I changed back into my clothes, placed the remaining money I owed on the counter, picked up the slip of paper and the costume in the bag and proceeded to leave. Full story

When reading about Afghanistan's history in the context of current events, the famous words "those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it" echo loudly. Thus, it is no wonder that senior U.S. officials such as Secretary of Defense Gates as well as President Obama seem to be reluctant warriors ... Full story

Riding the metro this morning to campus, I noticed something new. Line 2 had a new map... with 30 stops... Always cause for excitement, the ever expanding, ever evolving ,Shanghai metro system is perhaps the best EXPO driven infrastructure project and the opening of Line 7 has a linked more than a few friends into the grid. ... and while ... Full story

With one of the hottest topics lately being China’s role in the upcoming climate discussions in Copenhagen, and their potential for cleantech, I thought I would pass on the recent white paper from Edelman Leading to COP15: Understanding China’s position on climate change as it is a topic that has become ... Full story

  Following the previous two posts on how I would make improvements to the metro line, Part 1 and Part 2 here, I have another easy one that came to me while I was in the station looking for a map that would effectively plot where I needed to go. I was on the way ... Full story

When I was in 7th grade (about 1987), I remember an assignment that required us to do a report on a country of our choosing outside the United States. For a reason I cannot quite remember, I had chosen Afghanistan and put together a small booklet containing illustration and text that I still ... Full story

While in university, and while at Thunderbird, I was exposed to the academic model called transfer pricing. For many firms, it was a key tool for repatriating profits. while for others, it was a way to hollow out a local operation. In China, they are tough on firms who go to far, and when ... Full story

Anyone who has worked across borders will tell you how difficult it can be to maintain supplier and customer relationships from one end of the supply chain to the other. The resources required to do so are often taken for granted, even in a growing economic environment. But in a recession, these resources become even more constrained as many businesses recoil and dig in for a tough stretch of lower revenues, tighter or non-existent margins, and over-worked staff. As consumers who overspent the past few years restructure their lives and finances, so are the businesses and organizations that benefited from that spending restructuring. Most businesess, depending on their individual situation, will have already reviewed, and made decisions about, how to focus and deploy their supply chain architecture over the next few months and even years based on the sudden changes in the global economy since the incredible downturn experienced just over one year ago. When reviewing supply chain architectures that stretch across borders, there are a variety of measures that businesses, large and small, will take to survive: exit a particular market, or number of markets, entirely re-allocate and re-focus resources from one part of a region to another maintain existing architecture, but at a reduced scale Full story

On February 11, I highlighted Afghanistan and its unenviable logistical challenges, noting where the U.S. and coalition forces would be most vulnerable in building a supply chain architecture for success in the country and in competition with their enemies. Via The Corner and Michael Yon's blog, I found my way to an article ... Full story