Most technology companies now, from Microsoft to Cisco to Oracle to  IBM and HP have a new mantra.  Understand and know how to sell to small and medium businesses.  That is where the growth is.

It is not difficult to see why.   According to US statistics, there are about 7,000 large companies there, 98,000 mid size companies ( less than 1,000 employees), 8 million small businesses ( less than 100 employees) , and over 32.5 million home based businesses.  In my country, over 99% of the busineses are classified small and micro and I guess in most countries, it is well over 95%.

Here’s an excellent suggestion

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I would not have admitted it before ( maybe because for the last 20 years I have read too many inspirational books), but yes, some people, like , they say, Benjamin Franklin, could have succeeded anytime, and anywhere. He was that talented.

For many of us, we will succeed based on our attitude, our talents, our hard work, and yes, luck. Many successes can be attributed to being in the right place at the right time. And just like a fool can be right some of the time, some business successes can be attributed to just that.

The important thing to distinguish however, is to know when you have succeeded Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things I have noted is that it is hard for many truly successful people to understand about failure. For sure, many business successes were not build in a day, and there surely were challenges, but if failure is described as running out of options, many successful people may not truly identify with it.

Of course, it can be understood intellectually, and they can sympathize with it when they are told the story, but a success is where he is today because he overcomes problems, and not let problems overcome him/her.

In most cases, there is always a way out (or many ways out) , and a person who knows will look and evaluate those options and make that choice. So in a sense, many successful people will harbor a certain amountof arrogance in their ability to overcome problems, and you must give it to them - problems, in most cases can be overcomed, and knowing that and harboring that can-do attitude is the first step in not letting failure overcome you.

Chinas current reserves is standing at over 940 billion dollars and it is growing at over 17 billion per month. In the next ew wees it will soon hit 1 trillion dollars.

Its economy grew 11.4 percet 2nd quarter of 1994 which was the fastest growth quarter since 1994

Andrew Carnegie, one of the most prominent industrialist who practically invented the US steel industry during 1900s, was born in Scotland, but migrated to the US. In his autobiography, he wrote about the growing US economy, and was quoted to have written this famous line. ” The old nations of the world creep on at a snail’s pace; the republic thunders past with the rush of the express.”

The last four days, I was in China, on inivtation by the Chinese government on a business mission. Everywhere you look , it does seem that at the turn of this century, China will play a prominent role, and looks like this century will be the Chinese century.

I will write on more observations later on the Chinese economy and style in subsequent posts.