Business Lounge
Personal Networking
As a Commodity
“I
t’s not who you know, it’s what you do with who you know.” There are quite a few variations to this quote but this one sums up the concept of your network being your most important commodity most aptly. Relationships are the cornerstones that great businesses are formed on and the alliances and partnerships made by entrepreneurs early in the life of a business usually determine the longevity and success of a company. Today’s businesses are often multifaceted, complex and more global than ever, so chances are there will always be someone with assets and/ or knowledge that you lack, who will be more than willing to help you grow your business or develop your idea while furthering their own interests of course.
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Nobody is going to hand anybody with an unproven record of performance any money just like that, in fact that’s the reason Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy protection on several occasions yet continues to get funding to pursue business endeavours.
Courtesy of http://redgiraffesearch.com
So, build your brand, market it to those you know, get out there and meet new people and try to make sure that the impression you leave is a telling one. Be active in your field and never shy away from accolades. People love a winner, so let your work speak before you do and make sure that when the opportunity arises to take advantage of a business relationship it is seized without hesitation.
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Imagine an entrepreneur who has an idea that he is sure will make millions in no time at all; he just needs more than the average startup capital to make his dream happen. He approaches the bank which balks at the amount of money they will have to put up so the entrepreneur is left with only the people in his network to approach for funding to start his idea. Nobody is going to hand anybody with an unproven record of performance any money just like that, in fact that’s the reason Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy protection on several occasions yet continues to get funding to pursue business endeavours. In this case “The Donald” has proven to those who know him that he can build on an idea, for a while at least.
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Your personal brand is important in this aspect thus networking from a position of need is ill advised. Instead, networking from a position of strength will show those in your contacts that you are indeed an asset and someone who is more likely to be beneficial to them rather than the other way around. If you have the money to invest then you should network with the intention of interacting with those with ideas that you may be able to capitalize on while if your personal wealth is bulging our head rather your pockets then showing your value to others can be nothing if not beneficial.
yourmoney ezine
insights
Sovereign Wealth funds
Reverse Neocolonialism
”As long as imperialism exists it will, by definition, exert its domination over other countries. Today that domination is called neocolonialism.” - Che Guevara, Marxist Revolutionary, 1965
T
he thing about colonizers is that they believe in going for broke, pun intended. Economic control was exerted over colonies by sheer dominance because of the disparity in wealth and power between colonizers and colonies, colonies produced and colonizers profited. Even in the post-colonial era, the size and wealth disparity led to newly independent countries not being able to function as they would have liked, leaving themselves open to a new form of colonialism. The heavily leveraged assistance which many countries sought from their former colonizers after independence, led to the term neocolonialism being coined which refers to the high levels of control still exerted by these colonizers today without a shot being fired. In recent decades a sort of poetic justice is being meted out however as the concept of money as a means of dominance has caused the balance of power to shift somewhat as our traditional colonizers aren’t the only ones with some cash to throw around.
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around since 2002. According to the US Treasury Department SWFs are assets that a government (or governmentlinked entity) holds in another country‘s currency, with the goal of attaining a long-term return, but that it manages separately from its foreign currency reserves, which it uses for stabilization and short-term liquidity purposes. This kind of investment option is perfect for countries that depend heavily on volatile commodities such as the Middle Eastern oil rich countries. So with huge surpluses from rising energy prices and a rise in the number of SWFs towards the end of this decade, the concern over the speed at which Western assets were being gobbled up by Eastern interests led to the thought that a new form of neocolonialism was being waged.
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Even in the post-colonial era, the size and wealth disparity led to newly independent countries not being able to function as they would have liked, leaving themselves open to a new form of colonialism.
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The cash of which we speak is money that has been stashed in international profit seeking funds set up by governments known as Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF). The concept of SWFs is not new but that particular term has only been yourmoney ezine
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Sovereign Wealth funds
Reverse Neocolonialism
Comparing SWFs with a reputed instrument of neocolonialism, the International Monetary Fund, the differences are subtle yet looming. The amount of money that flowed from east to west to “help” embattled multinational companies dwarfs any assistance the IMF has ever made to “assist” the government of any developing country. While the SWFs do not impose conditions to go along with money lent as does the IMF, the fact that they own significant chunks of large companies in Western countries leaves the door open for implications of control and influence.
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The amount of money that flowed from east to west to “help” embattled multinational companies dwarfs any assistance the IMF has ever made to “assist” the government of any developing country.
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So while European and American policy makers call for transparency in SWF dealings which are currently about as transparent as aluminum foil, the irony of it all is not lost on many in the developing world. We may not have the surplus to implement our own SWF here in Jamaica but many people are undoubtedly rooting for the little guy.
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SWFs up to this point have been fairly passive but over time they will demand more of companies which will give them more influence in countries than the IMF could ever have hoped to achieve. The concerns that Western countries have are warranted but the most recent financial crisis has seen a reduction in the number of SWFs but this might be only a brief reprieve. Projections that SWFs worldwide would have topped $10 trillion by 2012 seems to have been undermined by several hits taken by these funds in their choice of stock purchases and the reduction in the price of oil which resulted in a reduction of the surpluses. Yet, with an economic spiral that is slowing every day and the good old black gold to rely on, SWF reserves could amount to 4 trillion in a couple years time. Recently, oil company BP that has had its own personal disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has reportedly approached the United Arab Emirates’ fund in order to implement a strategic takeover of the embattled company. yourmoney ezine
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