A Roadmap to Stop Bleeding and Start Healing (Part 2)

In my previous post i talked a bit of the current situation in America, and the difference it makes for the economic agents to boost demand and in fact sustain the recovery.


Now as America faced large deficits twin deficits (trade and fiscal) thru the 2000’s, is time to redefine the policies to change such disbalances.

On the fiscal side U.S need urgently a consumption side taxes (VAT), this may not like the overall population but may help to restrain conspicuous consumption, and contain the trade deficit from the demand side.

On the supply side the corporate rate at nearly 40% remains terribly high, (and the OECD second highest), this at the time where revenues fail to hit 2% of the GDP in good times, but nations with lower nominal rates, also fetch more income from their corporations while the higher nominal tax, the less receipts (companies cut their tax bill thru several loopholes, high taxes are an incentive to such distortion) as the graphs show below

Also the countries with higher corporate taxes are more likely to show lower output growth, so higher output gain, less companies cutting artificially their tax bill added to the fiscal incentive to hire and build in America, are strong reasons to slash those rates and bring them in par with the EU at least.

Fiscal simplification could do a lot too, as easier tax fillings could fill the coffers with fresh resources.

All this new money raised from a lighter, simpler tax structure could be used to plug the deficit, improve infrastructure and finally boosting the goods producing industries, a bit like cutting trade deficit cutting demand, and increasing supply by turning more attractive America as a production site, and helping the companies to keep prices of their wares by paying less taxes thus able to absorb partially or totally the VAT, an act that importers wouldn’t be so eager to do.

¿Isn´t this look like a coherent way to raise tax revenue while stimulating production?

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/8/15/us-corporate-taxes-still-second-highest-on-planet-earth.html

A Roadmap to Stop Bleeding and Start Healing (Part 1)

Right now the American economy is sputtering, losing momentum just in the most needed time, with exports failing to propel the way the did early in the year, and jobs hard to come by, pretty much this is how a recovery works.




Either way consumer led or export led kicks (both a source of demand), the spare capacity begin to shrink (from factories to offices and retail), but not until business think they need to, so a sustained rhythm seems necessary, in factories this is pending orders or unfilled orders, and in retail means dropping inventories + more and constantly increasing traffic in store turning in to sales, after the current number of employees begin to seem unable to fulfill upcoming demand, is when the magic happens and hiring unwind, unfolding a virtuous cycle when increasing hiring, led to increasing demand, to increasing investment to expand capacity and so demand keep rising, etc.



In the current recession, few have been able to consolidate a robust demand from exports or consumers, Asia thru a mix of both, as governments help to reassure confidence and opening the grid of credit.

Europe seems to be quickening before and during the debt crisis, and such event sparked a temporary stimulus by making the euro cheaper, the European GDP data proved that PIIGS remain weak, but a lot stronger than consensus, and improving German fortunes may actually send demand shockwaves across the mainland, while at the same time government have been sending confidence to the economic agents thru tightening fiscal policy with still loose monetary one, as well a big 1 trillion dollar support to states in need have quite shored up confidence along the way, even in the current state Europeans are likely to begin to spend a bit more, companies keep tapping Asian demand and even after the budget cuts, mostly because they are not so harsh in most of the nations and spread out across a span of several years.



Meanwhile U.S economic policy remains quite dovish about how to mend the country, the real worry (the same from companies and consumers) is about the sustainability of the country current economic structure, lack of reforms, overspending, and not foreseeable credible plan to return to a more normal path, the current lack of confidence, is denting the ability of the economic agents to take decisions to invest, spend and thus they rather save (¿have everyone seen how much cash is kept by companies and how consumers are saving?) , U.S need reform to strengthen real income grow, a credible plan to restore confidence in the public finances and a way to pave a true recovery road, while at the same time cutting trade deficit and raising competitivity

Why is the keyword “confidence” in this comment? because economic agents will hold their decisions until the future seems more clear, this is keeping most of Americans guessing “what’s next for us” and “in this current environment im unable to spend”

La Nueva Brecha Digital

Hoy en día me alegra ver a gente tan animosa, trabajando arduamente a lo largo y ancho de diversas redes sociales, sugiriendo como explotarla como una fuente de recursos empresariales, humanos y administrativos que permitan a las pequeñas y medianas empresas progresar, desde consejos sencillos, hasta oportunidades de lanzar campañas publicitarias de alto impacto y de gran cobertura, ligado a servicios como los del gigante Google, cuyo servicio sencillo y practico, permite que las empresas de cualquier tamaño tengan un pedacito de Internet a su disposición.




Es cierto que estos recursos han sido de enorme utilidad, en especial utilizados por personas hábiles y preactivas en el mundo desarrollado, donde los niveles de penetración de Internet móvil, banda ancha en los hogares sumado a una creciente participación por parte de las empresas.



Estas tendencias están igualmente moviendo a América Latina, desde una base mas pequeña y concentrado en cierta “elite” la cual tiene acceso a los medios para adquirir los equipos, redes y generalmente se le puede ver como un publico mas solvente que el grueso de la población, mejor informada y que demandan mas calidad, lo cual se esta volviendo un mantra para las empresas que están saltando al vagón de Internet, en nacimiento de empresas que facilitan pagos (paypal, moneybrookers, etc) por Internet sumados a empresas de paquetería y envió nacionales o locales que permiten entregas rápidas dentro de lapsos de tiempos pequeños, desde esta óptica es obvio por que la emoción del uso de Internet en los negocios, así como la mejora en los servicios y atención al cliente, ¿pero por que esta tendencia se esta ignorando tanto en México?



“¿Eso como para que?”



Hoy por hoy la brecha digital entre países desarrollados y no desarrollados se ha estrechado, al existir mayor disponibilidad de las herramientas (equipos de cómputo, celulares, etc), así como de los servicios (Sistemas de banda ancha, Internet móvil confiable, etc), de lo que hoy en día si se puede hablar es en gran medida de una brecha digital interna, donde los estados con índices de penetración casi a nivel de país desarrollado vs niveles de países en desarrollo en otros estados, por poner un ejemplo en el Distrito Federal se cuenta casi con mas de 2 líneas de telefonía celular registradas, cuando en estados del sur no se llega a 1 por cada 2 habitantes.

Otro dato destacable es que pese a contar con una elevada población, México en si no cuenta con un sistema de búsqueda nacional, pese a la presencia de Google en todo el mundo, Rusia y Republica Checa cuentan con sus propios buscadores de Internet nacionales y altamente especializados, lo que los diferencia del mercado, Brasil incluso cuenta con su red social nacional (eso si, Google Brasil es la dueña), la cual es altamente popular y el grueso de sus usuarios son de Brasil y Paraguay, esto nos hace sugerir, si existe tanto talento, nichos y oportunidades en otros mercados emergentes, ¿por que no sucede lo mismo en el país?

Según un artículo reciente la respuesta es tan simple como “desinterés”, lo preocupante de esto es que pese a contar con niveles educativos similares a países en la región, que cuentan con mayor penetración de Internet y mayor participación de empresas en redes sociales y apoyándose de Internet para sus departamentos y operaciones diarias.



Lo que se podría hacer para revertir estas tendencias, serian el abaratamiento de los servicios, quizás campañas de educación tanto para usuarios como para empresas, personalmente he visto mucha actividad por el lado de apoyo a pymes vía twitter, sin embargo es mucho “hype” para una audiencia aun tan pequeña, considero que deberíamos empezar por educar vía offline, a las empresas y usuarios antes de dar tanto impulso a herramientas claramente subutilizadas, el uso de Internet por individuos y empresas solo podrá alcanzarse cuando se pueda educar de los alcances, información, mercado potencial y crecimiento del mismo, a los grupos interesados, o bien, esperar 10 años a que el grueso de los usuarios (12 a 18 años), crezca hasta volverse consumidores y empredendedores con amplio uso y experiencia de Internet.







http://eleconomista.com.mx/industrias/2010/08/09/perdimos-liderazgo-entre-brics-apenas-cinco-anos

http://eleconomista.com.mx/industrias/2010/07/28/desinteres-motivo-no-usar-internet-mexico

Location, Location, Location

When it comes about SME’s particularly those from trade, catering and services, location is the single and most important raison d´etre when you are about to set a startup or expanding an existing business



¿Why is this so critically important?


Well mostly because the market you aim to cater is located within a radius of mile or two so this will be called our local market, in which existing business coexist with new ones forming a “business fauna” thus, there lays the importance of actually know the area supply (name it competition), and measure an approximate figure for demand is very helpful, another key fact to examine is whether your product is about to get a good reception, it’s like aiming to sell polish food products in a mostly Afro-American district or vegetarian meals in a rural district where meat is seen as a staple, first at all is trying to offer goods and services that can be assimilated in the local markets, ensuring a constant flow of customers while pocketing a profit from the trade, always remembering a constant flow of customers means a good product acceptance and the decisions mention before where taken correctly

Location is critical before you set up a shop or a service provider, when it comes to CBD location while costs may increase, also the potential impact from the floating population, higher education, constant demand for food, beverages, entertainment and also as corporate support and services provide (ranging from small office supplies stores to accounting and consulting services), and can in fact turn in to profitable trades, but the same kind of business in a lightly populated commuter town at the outskirts of a large metropolitan area, would hardly raise profits at all.


¿How to define business strategies from such several factors?

Always information is the prime tool to attack a market, approach a customer or tailor made a product/customer service strategy to appeal shoppers and clients, if trying to settle to a somewhat large mall with certain traffic, you should be aware of the kind of shopper that flocks to the mall, if setting up in a suburb, at least knowing their habitants profile, income and education levels, if are you planning to setting up nestled between corporate titans in the CBD aiming to capture a slice of their budget or trying to fulfill their employees demand from food, dry cleaning and lattes, it all comes first to know your environment, and the people that flock around this environment.

Talento en las Pequeñas Empresas, ¿Realmente se Aprovecha?

Las pymes aun que representan el motor de la generación de empleo en la mayoría de los países en el mundo, sin embargo muchas veces el manejo del capital humano suele ser sumamente mal administrado en relación a empresas mayores, o inclusive comparadas con aquellas pymes fundadas por profesionales, las implicaciones que esto tiene a nivel de firma, son variadas y pueden ser combatidas de diversas maneras.




Es un hecho que la mayoría de las pymes que cuentan con profesionistas, suelen desaprovecharlos, pagarles malos sueldos y generando ambientes poco agradables para su estadía, esto en detrimento de la productividad de la firma.



En algunos casos la existencia de un “Status Quo” por parte de empleados con años en la firma, evita que los jóvenes participen en el proceso de innovación o mejora de los procesos, es decir, desafortunadamente estas pymes suelen trabajar con las mismas técnicas y equipo que hace muchos años atrás, generando perdidas competitivas así como evitando que se generen nuevos conocimientos dentro de la empresa.



El como mejorar esta situación en detrimento para las pymes, como para el mismo profesionista, deriva de intentar construir equipos de trabajo y entender que su educación puede ser en beneficio de nuestro negocio, otro punto importante es el considerarlos como una pieza importante, sin embargo tambien haciendo entender que su posición no es de un gerente o jefe, la finalidad de que aporten ideas, conceptos y propuestas para el desarrollo de productos y servicios nuevos, así como maneras de reformar la empresa, son un excelente incentivo para que estos jóvenes profesionales aporten no solo su tiempo en actividades rutinarias que otros empleados ya realizaban, si no que puedan brindar sus conocimientos que complementados con la experiencia de otros miembros del staff, generen sinergias a favor del negocio, su línea de productos y finalmente su rentabilidad.



Conclusión: Es importante que las pymes de todo tamaño reevalúen su postura en cuanto a profesionistas jóvenes y la importancia que estos podrían tener en su organización.

The Globalizing SME

Right now as I type, probably there’s a bunch of small business chatting with similar companies facing similar problems across the pond, others are closing business online and picking up orders, and probably a smaller crowd is looking for partnerships to tap new markets abroad or gain experience from foreign firms.




Name it as you like it, but globalization has hit many sme’s in several ways, as a light google search to improve their ability to manage their staff, to building a global client network, carefully linked thru laptops and smartphones, while this synergies are being well exploited, several other sme’s are missing the chance.



Could be demographics, could be technophobia, or simply a taste for good old fashion in management, but internet and social networks also do their share when it comes to handle customers and picking up orders.



Handy & Useful



The recent communications advances could be exploited by those less eager to exploit the latest technologies, a few clicks and you may find foreign companies in distress on sale for a bargain, others looking for partnerships, and other as well aiming to raise capital to reboot their business, for sme’s now it´s easier track regional and foreign affairs, sales and orders, also business software manager is also more freely available and so sme’s can take advantage from it.



The bottom line is next: Going global while remaining a nimble and nifty sme, can trutly pay off, if your company already have export experience, partnerships and product development for several kind of customers, turning in to a mini multinational company should come next.