2013-07-09
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Medtech industry hopes for “easy win” in TTIP talks
With US and EU negotiators facing gusty political headwinds from privacy activists, consumer advocates and entrenched industry lobbies, the medical device sector is hoping for a "relatively easy win" in the transatlantic trade talks.
2013-07-01
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Will US spying derail TTIP?
I’ve been working on a longer post about the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the United States and the European Union, but recent allegations that US intelligence services have been bugging diplomatic missions of several of our European allies are threatening to put the entire project on ice. Der Spiegel, which broke the story this weekend, is now reporting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "furious" and other officials are calling the monitoring "unacceptable" and "abhorrent". European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding stated that "We cannot negotiate over a big trans-Atlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators.", Der Speigel further reported.
So far the Obama administration has not had much to say in response. Initial statements from the President and Secretary of State John Kerry amount to "what’s the big deal, everybody does it" — a stance unlikely to reassure the Europeans.
2012-03-05
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Nuts and bolts
Solopreneur David Seah offers a thinking-out-loud protocol of his steps in confronting the "big hairy inconvenient mess" of setting up Paypal to take international orders. Sometimes microglobalization is high-level market analysis and product strategy; other times it’s the tedious grunt work of getting the business processes into place to be able to serve customers abroad.
2012-02-06
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Microglobalization
I want to begin writing here on "microglobalization", by which I mean the developments in technology and international trade that have put "global" opportunities within reach of independent businesses and even individuals. Once largely the province of well-heeled multinational/transnational corporations, global trade in goods and services increasingly presents compelling opportunities for smaller companies willing to take the plunge. I’m firmly convinced that even the tiniest firm has the ability to carve out a niche in worldwide business ecosystems, consciously and deliberately managing every aspect of its development within a global context. (I recently registered the domain name microglobalization.com, though I’m not yet sure exactly what I’ll do with it.)
Not surprisingly, a quick Google search reveals that I’m not the first to use the word "microglobalization". In an academic context, a number of hits revolve around a 2005 article by Karin Knorr Cetina called Complex Global Microstructures: The New Terrorist Societies. Now, I have neither qualifications nor interest in writing about terrorism, but some of Dr. Knorr Cetina’s ideas are rather intriguing from an indy business perspective. There’s some fairly heavy academic verbiage in there, but also some illuminating insights that suggest ways an alert player can find opportunity in "forms of connectivity and coordination that combine global reach with microstructural mechanisms that instantiate self-organizing principles and patterns". Dr. Knorr Cetina further elaborates these ideas in a chapter on microglobalization in Ino Rossi’s Frontiers of Globalization Research.
Jörg Dürrschmidt’s Everyday Lives in the Global City refers to "the microglobalization of the world city’s [i.e. London’s] everyday life". In this context Dürrschmidt defines "microglobalization" as "a compression and, subsequently, accommodation of global variety and difference into a distinctive sociocultural environment" — in this case the global invading the local.
Olav Anders Øvrebø, a Norwegian journalist and university lecturer specializing in media and communication issues, uses the term in essentially the same way I do — "how tiny service companies – even one-person outfits – can participate successfully in the global economy". Programmers, journalists, document translators and other purveyors of "digital" services like the ones he cites, for obvious reasons, have been pioneers of business globalization at the small-firm and individual level. (I was in the translating business myself for many years and personally experienced how widespread Internet access began opening up enormous new international markets along with opportunities for networking, collaboration and learning in the early nineties.) More from Øvrebø here.
2012-01-29
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Preparing to return to Prague
I’ll be heading back to Prague some time in the second half of February. Besides seeing friends and associates in Austin one more time, I still need to get some bits and pieces of my personal finance structure in place so it will require minimal maintenance while I’m overseas. I do also still want to talk to a few more independent businesses over here that I could represent and/or scout out opportunities in Europe for. Finally, our accommodations have not really been ideal during this stay in Austin, so I want to find the best arrangements for setting up a temporary "outpost" next time I come back as well as starting to plan the best way to maintain a permanent "base" that’ll be ready even when I’m away for much of the year.
2011-05-23
by Eurobubba
Comments Off on Microglobalization, Italian style
Kevin Meyer of Evolving Excellence describes how a maker of hand-sewn wedding dresses in the hills of Tuscany has turned its small size, craftsmanship and eye for opportunity to advantage in the global marketplace. Via @AlbertoRBaez on Twitter.
2011-02-09
by Eurobubba
0 comments
When: 7 pm February 28, 2011
Where: Business Success Center, Chase Bank Tower, 7600 Burnet Rd., Austin
There are different kinds of strategic alliances from the very formal and legal joint ventures to less formal cross marketing, co-branding, and even the use of channel partners. Which strategy makes sense to meet your business goal? Get familiar with how to create a workable plan and process that would help you find the best partners for a strategic alliance and how to avoid the worst.
Jan Triplett, Ph.D., CEO of the Business Success Center (BSC), is the author of A Networker’s Guide to Success, and co-author of Thinking Big, Staying Small. The BSC provides owners with strategy and advice to stabilize and grow their businesses by finding the best way to manage sales, marketing and financials. It was named a top 20 Management Consulting firm by the Austin Business Journal and has received numerous awards and recognition including a national award from the Small Business Administration. Besides running a family business with husband Dan Diener for over 25 years, Triplett considers herself a parttime family counselor and full time small business activist writing and testifying before the legislature and local government. She is a guest blogger for the Business Bank of Texas and has her own blog. She has been the keynote speaker for trade associations and chambers of commerce and led two international trade missions — one to Japan and one to Ecuador. She was recently profiled by the Austin Business Journal. She helped found the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the Austin Literacy Council.
2010-11-17
by Eurobubba
0 comments
Through research, direct observation, and interviewing, Sherry Lowry has focused deeply on developing a keen understanding of WHO actually ENACTS visions. Most of us have great ideas. Bootstrappers know nothing REALLY happens, though, until there are effective ACTIONS around such. Bottom line, something has to also be sold or put into action literally. We will have a first-hand look at what thousands agree ARE qualities, behaviors, mind-sets and core characteristics of those actually carrying out visions: their own, of their projects, and of their companies and organizations when they are employed or contracted.
Sherry Lowry has founded and led 7 business entities within 7 different industries, the smallest being a solo, the largest becoming a 20,000 client international organization. Though none focused only locally, all have been based out of her native Texas. At the time, each has been on an emerging edge. The Lowry Group for the past 17 yrs of this career has been focusing on the emerging futures of already successful business founders/owners – and their own “next great adventures.” Sometimes this is a reinvention or expansion within their existing business, or it may be actively planning their legacies. Along the way, Sherry has become something of a specialist in 5 generations in the current workplace/workforce, and it is out of this interest that her most current research has also seeded then flourished.
Where:
Business Success Center
Chase Bank Tower
7600 Burnet Rd.
Austin, TX 78757
512-933-1983
When:
Monday, November 22, 2010, 7pm
2010-07-13
by Eurobubba
0 comments
Fernando Labastida will lead this month’s Bootstrap B2B meeting.
Topic: "Smarketing: How to market an international company in the US on a shoestring"
When: Monday, July 26, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: Business Success Center
Chase Bank Tower 7600 Burnet Rd.
Austin, TX 78757
933-1983
By use of white papers, case studies, press releases, blogging and social media, small international companies can implement the "Smarketing" methodology to enter the U.S. market: a hybrid of sales and marketing, in order to penetrate the fortresses corporate decision-makers set up to protect themselves from sales people, create buzz, and generate sales.
Fernando Labastida specializes in providing content marketing services for Latin American software companies wanting to penetrate the U.S. market. He’s been a sales and marketing professional for the last 20 years, having worked for several Austin start-ups, including Powered, Vignette and Sunset Direct.
http://latinitmarketing.com/como-entrar-mercado-estados-unidos
Twitter: @flabastida
2010-05-17
by Eurobubba
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The Bootstrap Business-to-Business subgroup meets next Monday:
WHEN: April 24, 2010 at 7:00 pm
WHERE: Business Success Center in the Chase Bank Building, 7600 Burnet Road (corner of Burnet Rd & Northcross Blvd, one block south of Anderson Lane) — same building, new office!
Our speaker will be Jan Triplett of the Business Success Center, speaking on:
Getting Through Alive and Well
“If you know what to look for and how to reinforce what you’ve got, you can make your business grow more stable and successful. Learn what’s on the radar screen of one of Austin’s chief small business strategists and activists, Jan Triplett. She will talk about the five major business killers she sees out there now and coming. Some, she says, you have control over, some you don’t. She’ll also tell you the three top priorities she recommends to protect your business and move ahead. (She should know having lived through and grown businesses in six previous recessions.) You can also ask her questions about what the government (city, state, national) is doing. If she doesn’t have the answer, she’ll get it for you.
“Jan Triplett, Ph.D. is the CEO of the Business Success Center (BSC). She has provided management and marketing strategy and advice to product and service businesses for 27 years. She has published numerous articles on small business, is the author of A Networker’s Guide to Success and the co-author of Thinking Big, Staying Small. She was a moderator for KUT radio and is a frequent media commentator on small business issues. The SBA presented a 5-Star business development award to the BSC and named Triplett as Texas’ Small Business Advocate. She writes a blog at ownersview.com and you can follow her on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook @JanTriplett.”
See you Monday!