I like being a 72

Does anyone really want to be perfect?  To have everything under control in life and around them?

After  thinking about it, my answer is NO. I like being a little daffy, a little imperfect. Variety is the spice of life.

Beautiful spices in a Fijian farmer

My self-esteem has changed over the years.  I have grown and matured. The shy nervous girl of my teens has morphed into a confident (though not necessarily competent) business woman, to a relaxed entrepreneur.

So, grab a pencil and piece of paper. (remember those old fashioned things?) and see where you’re at.

On a scale of 10 through 1 rate yourself.
(1 = disagree or not at all, 10 = fully agree.)

Tally it up and I’d love to see your Comment – how did you score yourself. See what I came up with at the end. See you there.

1. I firmly believe in certain values and principles, and am ready to defend them even when finding opposition, feeling secure enough to modify them in light of experience.

2. I am able to act according to

Part 3 – Before WTO by Albert Koopman

WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE WTO?

A brief background to Trust.. and  Friendship …… Chinese style!

To acquaint ourselves with some of the deepest causes of friction in Western/ Eastern business partnerships, a brief history of Western and Eastern Economic approaches will suffice.

In both the West and the East, around the 14th – 15th Century, merchant trader businesses were run by families. The single biggest concern that kept enterprising families awake at night…………was the availability of filial sons to look after, or take over, the family’s wealth.

After all, they were the only ones one could ‘trust’……. with the transfer of bullion for the completion of a trade-oriented exchange!

But, in the last throws of a 100 Year War……Europe’s population began declining. On top of these relentless wars with their accompanying rape….. dispossession and plunder ……. there was the Black Death which swept across Europe. Poverty everywhere! The nations were in fact burying more sons than they were creating.

At the beginning of the Renaissance, the Western world also started witnessing the  phenomenon of the nuclear family ……as opposed to continuing the extended one.

Steeped in poverty in the aftermath of some serious wars….. it was time for change and for starting to separate the individual from his natural familial connections….. no more ‘connections’ to call up.

With the advent of a Commercial Revolution in Europe around that time, and rapid business growth in Venice, there was a desperate need for more trust-worthy sons….or a ‘technology’ that could substitute.

This pressure gave rise to two innovations that changed the world …..(1) the double-entry bookkeeping system as a means of recording transaction details……… to stop would be thieves, and (2),  Bills of Exchange…. to minimize the shipments of bullion and to speed up transactions.

The bill of exchange was a written and negotiable contract that eventually replaced bullion payments… making it much safer and cheaper to administer….and less tempting for thieves to contemplate stealing.

The Venetians continued life as if sons were plentiful. Some learnt how to release angels from marble, some painted perpetually smiling ladies…. some, apparently, had a fetish for upside down painting on ceilings …… with the banker’s money …of course…… who invented  the bookkeeping system.

Releasing the Dragon

Part Two

Releasing the Dragon

by Albert Koopman

Grappling with change, and not short of resistance at the top level of the Communist Party leadership during the late 80’s and early 90’s, Deng Xiaoping announced that ‘plunging into the sea of business was good‘ (xiahai)….and that ‘making money was acceptable’
But … in a Sate of transition …..evidenced in all political transformations, a whole new set of problems emerge. Bureaucrats have a tough time giving up their vested interests!

As power is devolved to lower levels … right to the Village level…….. so there appears numerous ‘leaders’ who want to claim their piece of the action…… claiming ‘connections’ at the most lofty of government levels. Some have this access…… most do not. Most start their own businesses! Wealth permitting!

The first group to benefit from the ‘opening’ up of China were the military leaders and cadres who were co-erced into streamlining their operations.

Most of them went into retirement and were given gracious packages …. such as struggling State-owned hotels and MTV Entertainment locales to look after….. and make connections. Many failed…but many also succeeded….. creating some innovative ways to utilize their connections (guanxi) And established businesses! Wealth permitting!

To the extent that they became wealthier, this new…. moneyed ‘class’, also became the single biggest ‘market’  segment of first time consumers…… of washing machines ……cars . ….microwave ovens … TV’s…. cell phones …… and so on. And established businesses! Wealth permitting!

Along with them, an ‘army’ of farmers … who were lucky enough to be compensated for their lots under an avalanche of property development in the countryside……joined in an even more apparent consumer frenzy. And also established business! Wealth permitting.

After a few years, a third mini-segment of consumers emerged. A  mass sell off of State Owned Enterprises put disproportionate compensation packages into the pockets of departing bureaucrat managers.

Besides multitudes of workers being discharged and having to return to their villages,… empty handed, the ‘Fat Paycheque Wangs’ of the world went on to establish businesses. Wealth, of course, permitting.

Traditional Chinese are very hesitant consumers …. preferring to save and to live their lives conservatively. One never knows ‘where lurketh the next malevolent Emperor’.
So… if wealth did not quite permit…. favors were called in from the guanxi and the extended family……. and businesses were once again created.! Tens of thousands of them.

History had caught up with China …… from being the wealthiest Empire in the world in the mid 1850’…. to slipping into 3rd World Status in the mid 1900’s…. to  becoming the next wealthiest country after the USA at the turn of the last century.

Seemingly…. The Dragon lay dormant for the longest time…. murmured for a short decade or two and then …. in the late 1980’s early 90’s sprung alive when Deng Xiaoping woke him up!

The Chinese Dragon Shakes its Tail

Part One

The Chinese Market Opened…or did it?

By Albert Koopman

In November 1999, China and the USA signed an agreement that was to change the face of the global economy. In December 2001 China joined the world, and signed the WTO (World Trade Organization) Agreement!

For China, entry into the WTO served the distinct purpose of liberalizing trade barriers, lowering import tariffs and opening China’s ability to trade with the world as well as opening its own market to the world … and of course, adapting to the necessary accounting and legal compliance accompanying such practices

For the young Wang Yadong … just fresh out of Beijing university … this meant buying a cheaper, imported, model car from Europe!

For John Smith, in Plush Street, New York?…. Why, he envisaged an opportunity for ‘conquering’ the Chinese consumer market …. single-handedly……all 1 Billion of them!

As the anniversary dates of successive WTO Celebrations went by, things turned out different…….unexpectedly!

While China became a major manufacturer of motor vehicles and exporter of parts, creating many new manufacturing jobs …. Europe and the Americas retained the service industry of Carwashes and Software Companies…. and closed down factories left right and centre.

As it went with cars and industrial equipment … so it went with other white goods … telephones … clothing ….. and gee-gaws …… of every type and description, fuelling and feeding the Wal Marts of the world! Benefiting consumers internationally and keeping them happy with ever-dropping prices.

The Chinese interpreted this event differently. For them it was a case of: WOW …. Now we have access to 6 Billion people … with whom we can establish relationships. We’ve got new access to CashFlow. Now we need technology and training….! Fast!

What happened?