Archive for the ‘Economic and Finance’ Category

Last week, I focused on how your company gets paid for its knowledge. Today, I'd like to focus on why your customers are willing to pay you. This question is all the more acute given my post on Friday about the need to give away knowledge. This fact means that focusing exclusively on how ... Full story

In recent days, I have focused on getting paid for what you know. But, of course, there is another big story in the knowledge economy—one that is still being written. Basically, one of the challenging truths of the knowledge economy is that you will end up giving away a lot of your knowledge. Google’s ... Full story

As I continue the discussion of getting paid for what you know, it's important to point out that the same knowledge can be sold in multiple forms. Remember Dianna Booher’s books? She gets paid many times in many different ways for the same basic knowledge. This strategy is not just applicable ... Full story

For all the attention that we have paid to this point to direct sales of knowledge, many companies still get paid just for providing physical products. No services. No knowledge product. But don’t be fooled. These companies (or at least the ones that survive) get paid for their knowledge as well. This is very ... Full story

If you sell services, it is quite likely that your organization is an outsourcing partner to your customers. They are paying you for your expertise as well as for getting a job done. There are basically four ways to get paid for services: Getting Paid for Tasks Getting Paid for Time Getting Paid ... Full story

It is common to hear our current economy referred to as a “service economy.” This is because the rise of the knowledge economy means that more and more value is packaged for customers in the form of services. Service companies include anyone doing work for you outside of your own organization. Another word ... Full story

Yesterday, I talked about selling knowledge products. Another way of getting paid for knowledge is through licensing. This usually applies to situations where there is a very clear technology or knowledge product that has specific legal protection. I'll discuss intellectual property in more detail in a later post. The important thing to understand at this point is that if your process, service, or product qualifies ... Full story

We talk about intangible capital a lot. We even wrote a book on it. But we know that a lot of people think that IC is a very abstract concept. It’s not. It’s at the very heart of how you create value for your customers and get paid for it. Your company already has ... Full story

You have probably heard of the the Knowledge Era. You know that we shifted from the Industrial to the Knowledge Era sometime in the recent past. What you may not understand is the implication of this shift for economics--and for your own organization. The big difference comes from this simple fact: Knowledge is infinite. ... Full story

Oil, It is hard to imagine the tangible economy without oil. It fuels our cars and trucks. It generates electricity to power our factories and homes. It serves as a raw material for products we use everyday, from plastics to fabrics, fertilizers, and high tech materials. These many uses for oil have made ... Full story

Intangibles make up 70% of the value of the average company. They drive competitive advantage. They determine the innovation capacity of a company. Yet they continue to be ignored. And now we are at a moment of truth. Our economy seemingly made huge progress in the past decades. Computers created efficiencies and fueled profits. ... 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

A few weeks back UBS’s ASEAN regional economist Ed Teather put out the piece of research Six questions on ASEAN’s links with China (email me for a copy) looking at trade, investment and policy links between ASEAN and China by working to answer the following the questions: Which countries in ASEAN have the highest export exposure to China? Which countries can compete with China? How significant is the ... Full story

You are Warren Buffett or Axl Rose, Guns-n-Roses? I saw this clip via YouTube and laughed  a lot. At first, I did not notify the guy but later realized he is Mr. Buffett. His looking is so amazing ... Full story

1. Chengdu’s Metro Line 1 laid completely, to start trial operation next October On November 30th, the municipal government of Chengdu held a press conference, announcing that the track-laying of the Metro Line 1 of Chengdu has been completely finished, and the trial operation is predicted to begin next October. 2. Chengdu expected to become emerging growth pole in Asia Inland in future On December 5th, the third Chengdu Economic Development Forum sponsored by the Chengdu Economic Development Institute was inaugurated, and around the topic of “Chengdu Economy in fifty years”, guests from the National Development and Reform Commission, the China International Economic Exchanger Center, Chengdu-based higher learning institutions and research organizations and relevant governmental departments of the city, have discussed the road of future development of Chengdu. Experts thought that in about 20 years, Chengdu is expected to become an emerging inland growth pole in Asia and an innovative international hub city. Full story

Given it was less than 2 weeks ago that Obama, and his full team, were in China discussing the value of the RMB with senior officials, this morning’s WSJ headline China Talks With the EU About Yuan caught my eye. Equally interesting is that while US exports have benefitted from the current situation, the EU has not.  That as the dollar has sunk, the Euro “peg” to the RMB has gone the wrong way for most of the EU making its goods and services more expensive. European finance officials relayed to China’s premier and central-bank governor frustration over the Chinese currency’s rigid exchange rate at talks on Sunday, but said they didn’t expect a change in policy soon. further The yuan has emerged as the focus of wider frustrations roiling Europe’s relations with China. There are political concerns that the euro’s strength against the yuan is undermining economic recovery in the euro area, where unemployment remains stubbornly high, and that Beijing’s exchange-rate policies mean Europe isn’t benefiting fully from China’s surging growth. Ahead of the Copenhagen climate-change summit next month, Europe is challenging China’s argument that as a developing country it isn’t able to cap its output of global greenhouse gases. “I certainly asked the Chinese and all our partners to explore the outer limits of their positions,” said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. (All Roads comment – what does this have to do with currency discussions?) The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China warned last week that China’s massive economic-stimulus program risked unleashing a new wave of industrial exports and sparking trade conflicts. Full story

As Chinese businesses become increasingly assertive in evaluating and executing investments overseas, they are learning lessons critical to managing supply chains across borders. These lessons highlight not only the existing weaknesses of Chinese supply chains but also their growing strengths, and serve to illustrate the very real need for China's supply chain managers to understand how global trade, security, regulation, and development intersect in their areas of operations. Two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times provide excellent examples of this dynamic, both focused on aspects of China's intense effort to invest in and develop commodity resources overseas. The first, by the WSJ's Alex Wilson, is titled "As Commodity Prices Rebound, Australia Limits Foreign Investors" and reports on Australia's effort to slow the pace of Chinese investment in Australian companies in the mining industry. Chinese businesses focused on the import and development of the various commodities that feed into its high-growth, manufacturing engine have taken advantage of the Global Financial Crisis to execute deals with overseas suppliers in multiple countries. They have done so by making wholesale acquisitions or by injecting significant amounts of cash in companies that were short of revenue and hungry for sources of capital to simply remain in business, or continue with the capital-intensive investments so common in the mining industry. This has been a boon for Australia's mining-rich economy, sitting in China's immediate backyard. Full story