International Business

All business organizations the world over strive to be the best in a given category. Each is in a perpetual forward drive to remain relevant in its industry by offering only the best products or services. There are numerous methods and approaches that organizations use to accomplish these objectives. One of them is to have a custom flag for the business. The benefits that your business can reap from this are numerous.

Your customers will identify you easily. The banner will act as a non-verbal method that communicates to your clients and prospective ones wherever it is. It has the ability to relay messages and therefore creating an image that sticks in their minds. Whenever and wherever they see it, a particular product or service comes to their mind; your product. In cases where people do not know how to read, the banner brings out the message to them easily.

Custom Banners work as good marketing tools for your business. Because they have the ability to accommodate pictures and words, they have the ability to market what you do without anybody speaking a word. Although the design that your flag maker uses also plays a part, people tend to form opinions of a particular brand from simple things as these.

They give you the liberty on their design and measurement specifications. You can create numerous small ones to hand to people during events like trade fairs as well as big ones that are hung across streets or on walls. You also have a say on the colors that will be most attractive and striking. These will in the long run be a plus to your organization as more clients will come your way.

Whenever a corporate event comes up, the banner is the one of the best accompaniment for your display. If placed on a wall or mounted on a pedestal where the participants can see it clearly, it immediately relays an image that you are a force to reckon with when it comes to your products or services. It pays more dividends as most corporate events are covered by media. This will ensure that you get marketed to far corners just through a banner stuck on the background of the main stage.

They play as pieces of handouts you give to your customers. They will take them home with them and mount them on their yards or hang them on walls. What better way to bring you more clients than using your clients?

They are not expensive to make. Your flag manufacturer can break down the costs of the various sizes and types so you can decide on the best for your organization. And you have the liberty to use the fabric you deem fit and durable and one that can retain the logo design without fading.

Businesses that have it stand out and look more professional than those that do not. You will be given more consideration if you strategically have one on the entrance to your business. If you are in a crowded location, the banner will help direct your customers to you.

Start-ups. Fast-following. China and the Internet. These were just some of the buzzwords shared and discussed in our first installment of conversation between interviewees Richard Min of SeoulSpace and Kai Lukoff of TechRice. The two technology pundits shared insights about the environments where they operate, and discovered some uncanny parallels between the tech scenes of Seoul and Beijing. There was also talk of the impressive rise of the consumer Internet in both countries.

As the interview progressed, there was a glimmer of optimism about the opening up of Asian markets, as well as general enthusiasm about the prospects that were emerging for both interviewees. Min and Lukoff confirmed that their bridge roles served to provide valuable insights. In their separate spheres, they give the insider scoop on emerging entrepreneurs and behind-the-scene stories of Silicon Valley companies competing in the Asia markets. Both believe there are lessons to be learned from the failures and successes of companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

The conversation even took a philosophical turn. With increasing localization in Asian technology, could we expect a more Asian touch to computers? Is the copying and cloning of iPhones in China, or a Twitter knock-off in South Korea a temporary phenomenon? We discussed this and much more in this exciting conversation that bridged the best of Beijing, Seoul and Silicon Valley initiative.

(Editor’s Note: The interview took place over the course of two to three days, and some of the more salient highlights are provided in the transcript below. There’s also a 15-minute podcast of the last conversation between the two participants, an illuminating back-and-forth of insights and new ideas, for which you can tune in at the bottom of the transcript.)

AsianTalks: Richard, you describe Korea traditionally as a “walled garden” and Kai, perhaps you’ve experienced a similar attitude in China to outside influence in the tech field. Yet in both countries there’s overwhelming evidence of emulation and second-mover advantage. Why the copying and the cloning of Silicon Valley, is it something that’s ongoing, or just symptoms of an industry trying to find its way to better innovation?

Richard: (Laughs) Well interestingly, it depends how you want to look at that. The implication here is, again now, are we talking about being good business, being a good start-up, or being good innovators. Korea is criticized a lot on the innovation front, and even Samsung admits to being a fast-follower. And they do it proudly. So if you want to say that their ability to fast-follow is better than anyone else, in that sense, it’s a very good thing. So when you’re talking emulation, copying, or why is there so much of it, it’s because you can, and a lot of the forces that reach globally don’t hit Korea, and so then if they’re able to copy and do it better, then more power to them.

But at the same time I guess the underlying tone is here how do we release the walled garden of actual innovation, so that it’s not just fast following in a more expansive, rapid rate, but actually being an inspiration for new innovations in Asia. The first step is to lower barriers to entry, both in and out, which is very much what is happening right now. Korea has been the hermit nation forever, right? It’s been historically protectionist, which is a great way to be a Galapagos Island. It’s an independent evolution, where you see very unique things happening but no one really realizes it unless you’re here. But now with social networks and iPhones acting as Trojan horses in both directions, there’s no way to stop the leaks from coming out, and you’re just going to see more innovations. Plus Koreans are just innovators of cool technologies, which is why you’re going to see the beginnings of a renaissance of Korean start-ups in IT.

Kai: (In China) there’s a lot of copying and cloning, no doubt about it. There’s a whole word for it, Shanzhai, which is equivalent to a ‘mountain fortress,’ basically a secluded area where they copy lots of foreign innovations, or innovations of other companies. And the entire market in Shenzhen is built around building the “Hi-Phone” or the “Apple Phone,” just countless versions of the iPhone or the iPad, and every other product that one can imagine. I think the reason why is one, because the opportunities are there. There’s just so much low hanging fruit in the Chinese market, that both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists ask themselves “Why should I experiment or come up with a new business model, a new product, when I can simply copy one that’s proven to work in the US, and will probably work here too?” So I think that’s the story of the growth of a lot of businesses in China.

The second part of it I do think is somewhat cultural. In the US, in the Silicon Valley, if you came out with a clone, or an exact copy of the UI of another website, you’ll get hammered! You’ll be all over TechCrunch for all the wrong reasons. And you would really be like the black sheep in the industry. But in China the responses will range from, like, “Wow, how are you able to copy that so well,” to some consumers who believe they have the real thing, or never even heard of the US version, to some people frowning on it. But I think to some extent there’s an embracing of the Shanzhai culture.

AsianTalks: You’ve both built a web presence that addresses the interests and concerns of American and other business people interested in your markets. What is your most popular content, what do your readers like or demand the most, based on feedback?

Richard: It’s interesting. Feedback is always different than analytics. Feedback can sometimes be the loud minority. So on some things feedback has been more on controversial issues, whereas analytics would say something like Kakao Talk or the clone apps similar to the ones in the US. But other big stories like TicketMonster selling to LivingSocial, stuff with connections to the Valley that people feel they can relate to, those have hit big analytics. But what’s really interesting is, the stories that get the most engagement, are the insider’s insights into the market, like, how to actually do advertising on Naver, which is the number one search engine in Korea. It’s always a great anecdote to say that Google, which is dominant everywhere, has only a two percent market share in Korea, after ten years. That’s kind of a shocker for a lot of people, and reframes the conversation as to what’s going on. These kinds of things have been touch points and taglines of interest for many, so we’re really trying to focus on a good variety of just reporting on what’s going on. (Korea) is such a mystery that if you report on anything here, people are fascinated by it.

Kai: I think, in terms of feedback, I really only hear, or hear mostly – certainly — from the visitors from China, just because that’s where I’m located. So maybe that skews the particular feedback that I get. The posts that tend to be the most popular are analysis pieces about the Chinese start-up environment, or pieces about foreign Internet companies attempting to operate in China. So we wrote one particularly popular series on “Why Facebook Would Have Won If China Were a Free Market.” They’re blocked by the great firewall as is. And that did very well, as well as a piece on why MySpace failed in China, and questions about, you know, whether Facebook was going to come here via a partnership with Baidu. Also the analytics on (TechRice) is 40 percent visitors from China, 40 percent visitors from the US, and 20 percent the rest of the world.

On the side of local Chinese start-ups, some of the more culturally oriented coverage tends to do quite well. So telling the story of individual Chinese entrepreneurs, we wrote one piece called “The Story of W&L: China’s Great Internet Divide,” a translation of an original Chinese piece, but it portrays one entrepreneur, W, who caters to high-end, white-collar, urbanite Chinese, and another, L, who sells simple games for feature phones, for Chinese migrant workers and factory workers in third-tier cities. The article compares and contrasts those two worlds.

I also get really passionate about telling the story of individual Chinese entrepreneurs, because a lot of them have a hell of a story, like Jack Xu of Diandian, for instance, who got to university and had never seen a computer before. He realized he had to figure out how to type, so he drew up a keyboard on a piece of paper, and because he didn’t have computer access all the time, he used that in his dorm room to practice typing. He was CTO at RenRen, the Chinese social network, kind of similar to Facebook, and now he is leading his own light blogging start-up Diandian, that’s similar to Tumblr in the US.

People in the Western Hemisphere may consider Australia and New Zealand more as tourist destinations than viable, exporting trade partners. While it’s true Australia alone enjoyed an increase in foreign visitors in the last year, one cannot rule out their contribution to the global economy. This isolated country/continent is ranked among the top twenty national economies and has entered numerous free trade agreements with countries close to home and on the other side of the world. Australia’s involvement in the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-Operation Agreement, or SPARTECA, serves to bring Australian influence to lesser island nations in the Southern Hemisphere and improve trade relations among members.

SPARTECA has its roots in a treaty signed in July, of 1980 at a meeting of a group known as the Forum Island Countries, or FIC. The purpose of the treaty initially was to encourage trade among the smaller, lesser developed island nations of South Pacific with New Zealand and Australia. SPARTECA nations may trade amongst themselves without duty taxes and other restrictions.

Current members of SPARTECA include:

Australia – Australia holds the largest economy among the current SPARTECA roster. The Australian dollar is standard among several other island nation members, who trade with Australia for goods like beef, grains, and coal.

Cook Islands – This chain of small islands is technically part of New Zealand, and relies heavily upon tourism for their economy. Their geographical location allows for limited trade opportunities, though fruits and fish are exported regularly to Australia and Japan.

Fiji – While a popular tourist destination in the Pacific, Fiji has not existed without political controversy. A military coup in the late 2000s resulted in a governmental flux, and citizens continue to await the opportunity for fair elections. Prime exports of Fiji include timber, seafood, and various precious metals.

Kiribati – Once known as the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati is a former British colony with one of the lowest GDPs on record. Fish is a prime export, though Kiribati relies upon aid often from more developed neighbors like Australia and Japan.

Marshall Islands – A pivotal area during World War II with regards to nuclear testing, these Micronesian islands rely more upon imported goods from the United States, Japan, and Australia than they are able to export. Like other member nations in SPARTECA, seafood is a major industry.

Nauru – Nauru has the distinction of being one of the least populated independent nations in the world, and having a rather large unemployment rate. Strip mining is the major industry on the island.

New Zealand – New Zealand remains a constitutional monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II and is a highly developed island nation within SPARTECA, though trade is crucial to their economic status. Wool is perhaps their best known export, along with dairy and livestock to major partners Australia and China.

Niue – New Zealand is this island’s largest benefactor, and the New Zealand “Kiwi” dollar is their standard currency. Nearly everything exported from here – honey, coconuts, and passion fruit – is distributed among SPARTECA nations.

Papua New Guinea – This British commonwealth nation is one of the least developed and explored in the world, yet is rich in natural resources like palm oil and precious metals which are traded to Australia.

Samoa – Samoa represents one of the larger islands in Polynesia, and like other SPARTECA nations relies upon crops of coconuts and indigenous fruits for their exports.

Solomon Islands – This Melanesian nation subsists on fishing industries and exports nearly half of their goods – coconut products, cocoa, and other crops – to Japan.

Tonga – Tonga presently seeks to grow as a tourism destination in the South Pacific, but for now they rely on cash crops such as root vegetables, coconuts, and bananas to trade.

Tuvalu – As one of the smallest nations in the world, Tuvalu has experienced little to no economic growth in recent years. Interestingly enough, the nation derives some income through sales of their desirable national Internet domain suffix (.tv).

Vanuatu – Vanuatu is dependent on their agriculture and tourism to maintain their economy. Television viewers may be familiar with the island nation through reality shows as Survivor , which has filmed on location.

One of the major challenges to SPARTECA is the obvious underdevelopment of the lesser member nations and their dependence on the larger economies of Australia and New Zealand for aid. The islands of Polynesia and Micronesia may see branching out trade to Europe and the Americas as a challenge if there are not enough goods to produce to meet a demand. To this end, a focus on tourism may help boost these minor economies, though their isolation in terms of geography presents issues for travelers outside of Australia and New Zealand.

Wondering on how the businesses survive in today’s competitive markets. There is a great deal of competition in the market place. We see everyone having a difficult time striving for their ultimate goals. Who wouldn’t want to see himself on top? The individuals then seek methods of developing their business in such a manner so as to reach the optimum. We all want to carry on our business globally and for that we need to make cheap international calls to be able to be in continuous contact with all our business associates.

Communication

Communication by far plays the most significant role in the world. This is one of the most prospering businesses. There are even individuals who are new in the market and have no idea on which business they should start up with. The business of telecommunication is escalating. We see that for businesses to survive in the world they need effective means of communication. They need to make cheap calls and save up on their costs. Cheap international calls acts as a blessing. The businessmen today can save up on their operational costs to a great deal.

Customer satisfaction

Most of the times reaching the optimum isn’t that easy. We have to have a full research behind it. There are lots of things to be taken into account. For instance, the market we are focusing on, the number of competitors, the demand for our products and customer satisfaction. We may be providing the customer with the stereo types but we may in the end lack the most significant factor which is the satisfaction of our ultimate customer. By providing what is demanded doesn’t finish our job. We simply just don’t have to provide. We have to prove to them that what we are offering is far superior to what is available in the local market. We need to tell the customer that we are better. There are two ways of conveying this, through our quality service and a good customer support centre.

Where the majority of the businesses lack today is that they are acting clever in trying to save on their costs as they think it’s a smart move. This in return helps other businesses to prosper. The few individuals who in the market have employed in their firms a whole set up of customer facilitation centre and at the winning end. They offer 24 hour customer support. This customer facilitation centre will make it possible for the customers to get all sorts of issues resolved. They would just need to make a phone call. An international sim card also helps us as we can keep in our wallets and go anywhere in the world. We will be able to reach our loved ones conveniently.

When the customer is satisfied, he will attract towards us many other potential clients. But if our initial customer isn’t happy with us, he will take away from us our loyal customers too.

Business meetings

With the business of communication on the rise we are now facilitated in numerous ways. We can hold our meetings on an international level simply through our cellular phone. We are not restricted to one location. We have the freedom of mobility without any hindrance on our business. We can go wherever we like and still do business. The need for being available and present everywhere doesn’t exist now. It has become an old concept.

Individuals should remember that by utilizing the communication methods they are able to cut down on their massive costs of travelling from one location to the other for the purposes of business. When companies integrate with foreign companies they need to be in constant touch with each other. They need cheaper ways of communication. International calling cards are also in demand. They have the added advantage of mobility. We can make use of the calling cards across the globe. They are very much in demand as we don’t need to wait for making cheap calls from them. They provide the same calling rates at all times. We are no longer required to wait for the odd timings for making cheap calls.

The continent of Africa is perhaps the most diverse landscape on the planet in terms of natural resources and inhabitants. The Western perspective of Africa is likely so colored by media reports of internal unrest, drought, and poverty that one might be surprised to learn that some countries import and export billions of dollars’ worth of goods annually. Indeed, among the nations that comprise the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, there thrive a number of economies working together toward common goals to improve the region.

CEMAC has its roots in the Brazzaville Treaty ratified in 1966, which established the free trade area and eventually formed a common currency, the Central African Franc (French is one of the primary languages in the region). A little over a decade ago, the tenets of the CEMAC agreements took over the original treaty.

The six member nations of the CEMAC trade agreement include:

Cameroon – Since gaining independence over fifty years ago, Cameroon has seen a steady increase in its GDP. While fishing is a large industry, the nation’s exports are mainly comprised of petroleum and lumber and select crops.

Central African Republic – This landlocked nation relies primarily on agricultural industries to maintain its GDP. Main export crops include tobacco, coffee, and cotton, with nearly half of the goods traded to Japan.

Congo – The Republic of the Congo is comprised mainly of rain forests that support their timber industry, though petroleum exports play a sizable role in their export output.

Gabon – Rich in oil fields, Gabon exports several billion dollars’ worth of petroleum product to main trade partners Russia, the United States, and China annually.

Equatorial Guinea – This nation is somewhat new to oil mining, with reserves discovered in the last fifteen years. Oil production has helped raise Equatorial Guinea’s profile and GDP, though forestry and agricultural industries are also important to the economy.

Chad – Another oil-rich nation, the bulk of Chad’s exports are traded to the United States, which has a large presence in the Republic via Exxon Mobil.

Within this Central African community, goals include the establishment and growth of a common market to benefit member nations, continued stability of the CFA Franc, and harmonic political and social relations. Other goals set at the establishment of CEMAC, such as the elimination of tariffs within member nations’ borders, however, have yet to be realized. Possible reasons for the delay may include unstable political conditions or external issues that downplay the CEMAC nations’ merits and promotional endeavors. It is possible with the establishment of ECCAS (the Economic Community of Central African States), which will succeed the CEMAC treaty, these countries will see long-term goals come to fruition.