It might not be "socialism", but what we are seeing not only in the US, but across the globe could be somewhat similar in concept:
State capitalism is an economic system in which governments manipulate market outcomes for political purposes. Governments embrace state capitalism because it serves political as well as economic purposes--not because it's the most efficient means of generating prosperity. It puts vast financial resources within the control of state officials, allowing them access to cash that helps safeguard their domestic political capital and, in many cases, increases their leverage on the international stage. But state capitalism also stems the rise of globalization, because to varying degrees it hampers the flow of ideas, information, people, money, goods, and services within countries and across international borders.The rise of state capitalism
As the Cold War stumbled to a close, the belief that governments could micromanage national economies and generate prosperity seemed dead. The dynamism and market power of Japan, the United States, and Western Europe--fueled by private wealth, private investment, and private enterprise--appeared to have fully and finally established the dominance of the liberal economic model. As these countries' governments privatized businesses and pensions, companies such as Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Toyota Motor, and Wal-Mart Stores feverishly sketched out global expansion plans. Globalization became a household word.
But even before the still-developing global financial crisis had shaken the foundations of faith in free markets, the determination of a new generation of emerging-market heavyweights (many of them politically authoritarian) to chart their own courses toward prosperity and power ensured that public wealth, public investment, and public enterprise would make a stunning comeback.The engines of state capitalism
Yet, despite the massive state interventions in economies across both the developed and developing worlds, many corporate leaders and investors act as though globalization remains the dominant paradigm. That is a mistake. In fact, the new importance of the state had become obvious well before the onset of the current crisis. Energy markets provide a good example.
The story extends well beyond energy. Across a broad range of economic sectors, China and Russia are leading the way in the strategic deployment of state-owned enterprises, and other governments have begun to follow their lead. In defense, a growing number of emerging-market governments--power generation, telecom, metals, minerals, and aviation--not content with simply regulating markets, are moving to dominate them.
Such state-corporate activity is fueled in part by the emergence of a new class of sovereign wealth funds. States with large holdings in the currencies of other countries are establishing ever larger risk-taking funds meant to maximize their return on investment--and their political influence. With the global credit squeeze making funds harder to come by, sovereign wealth funds have become even more important for the financing of state capitalism.
The global recession has accelerated the trend of state involvement in markets as governments around the world spend billions to stimulate growth and bail out vulnerable domestic industries and companies.
Winners and losers As the landscape shifts around them, international companies and investors will discover that the large-scale injection of politics into market processes will produce its own set of winners and losers. Because political factors unique to each state will determine the response to each domestic economic slowdown, countries with relatively strong political fundamentals will have a better shot at a quick recovery.
Given the vast sums its government can spend on fiscal stimulus, China will likely emerge from the global recession before most of the developed world.
In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has over the past several years forged a durable consensus in favor of disciplined macroeconomic policy.
Second-order effects
There are other implications of these trends worth considering.
We're
likely to see new restrictions on the access to certain foreign markets
for some companies.
- Tit-for-tat protectionism will remain a serious threat until the global recession comes to an end.
- Social upheaval will pressure politicians to turn increasingly toward a familiar and reliable tool: subsidies.
- Some of the regulatory changes will favor domestic firms... and SOME domestic firms.
About the Author
Ian Bremmer is the founder and president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy.
Read more at McKinseyQuarterly.com
Resource one that caught my eye:
The GAP Analysis Program"Keeping Common Species Common"
The goal of the GAP Analysis Program is to keep
common species common by identifying those species and plant
communities that are not adequately represented in existing
conservation lands. Common species are those not currently threatened
with extinction. By identifying their habitats, GAP Analysis gives land
managers and policy makers the information they need to make
better-informed decisions when identifying priority areas for
conservation.
I always learn from natural systems...so this was interesting. Community matters! Survival matters!
Resource two:
gap analysis definition - from BusinessDictionary.comTechnique for determining the steps to be taken in moving from a current state to a desired future-state. It begins with (1) listing of characteristic factors (such as attributes, competencies, performance levels) of the present situation ("what is"), (2) cross-lists factors required to achieve the future objectives ("what should be"), and then (3) highlights the 'gaps' that exist and need to be 'filled.' Also called need-gap analysis, needs analysis, and needs assessment. www.businessdictionary.com/definition/gap-analysis.html
Change...yes! List factors. Cross factors, and objectives. Highlight gaps. Fill them! An updated needs assessment. That makes sense.
Resource three: ... this was a synthesis of what I was looking for!
Image results for gap analysis
Gap analysis is a very useful tool for helping marketing managers to decide upon marketing strategies and tactics. Again, the simple tools are the most effective. There's a straightforward structure to follow. The first step is to decide upon how you are going to judge the gap over time. For example, by market share, by profit, by sales and so on.
This will help you to write SMART objectives. Then you simply ask two questions - where are we now? and where do we want to be?What is Gap Analysis?
Your next step is to close the gap. Firstly decide whether you view from a strategic or an operational/tactical perspective. If you are writing strategy, you will go on to write tactics - see the lesson on marketing plans. The diagram below uses Ansoff's matrix to bridge the gap using strategies:
Strategic Gap Analysis.
You can close the gap by using tactical approaches. The marketing mix is ideal for this. So effectively, you modify the mix so that you get to where you want to be. That is to say you change price, or promotion to move from where you are today (or in fact any or all of the elements of the marketing mix).
Tactical Gap Analysis.
This is how you close the gap by deciding upon strategies and tactics - and that's gap analysis.
Thank you Marketing Teacher!
With social media, and YouTube and Google and Ebay and the Obama Stimulus Plan... do the old rules apply?
Having been around for a few decades, my husband and I have been through this recessionary cycle before. And we've seen long recoveries and deep drops...like this one. And the latest fads in marketing all came tumbling down. Just like now.
I hope Google survives. I hope YouTube survives. I hope...well, I'm not so sure about Twitter.
But good companies need to survive. Good products are needed to put food on the table and connect us to our loved ones and get us to our jobs ... if we still have them. What we've observed is that during down times, fluffy marketing strategies fall away and we get back to basics. Product, price, promotion and place.
PRODUCT: Product adjustments are in order: people and companies are buying ESSENTIALS. Things to fill definite NEEDS. As in "find a need and fill it," kind of business.
PRICE: Prices are adjusting. Banks are once again trying to gouge their best customers to bail out their mistakes,... but for the rest of us, we are adjusting our prices to balance between what we need to survive and what our customers can afford to pay during these stressful times. We respect our customers' needs as much as our own.
PROMOTION: It still starts with the people we already know. I know...the giant blogosphere is tempting...but strangers use us and throw us away because their best bud or their cousin drops by and offers them a deal they can't refuse! Internal promotion to your own customers and the folks who know you will work best during these lean times.
PLACE: Distribution is still rather local, rather bricks and mortar. We know that shop owner down the street. Local is back. When times get tough we band together and distribution becomes a matter of supporting one another because we care as much as because it's the best price. That is, IF we have any of those relationships!
So the four P's of marketing still matter. They still can shore up a business during tough times. They still make sense, even in the era of YouTube and Twitter.
People are asking themselves the ageold question...who will take care of me when I'm down and out? That's who will get their business after they come to their senses. And if we're smart, we'll come to our senses before we burn all our bridges -- our relationships with the people who make our food, make our cars run, educate our children, manufacture our clothes and pass the word along to readers like you :-)
That's gap analysis and gap solutions!
Carolyn, your steadfast friend, right?
The web magazine publishing model goes something like this:
Find a vertical with an audience attractive to advertisers, brand it (Daily Finance, Asylum, Lemondrop, Politics Daily), hire five to seven people to run it and plug in AOL's traffic fire hose. Repeat.
The notion of thin-staffed online publications is sweeping the industry. MySpace launched celebrity site DailyFill earlier this year. Last year MSN launched Wonderwall, created by the same team that earlier launched the Yahoo version, OMG. Break Media, owner and operator of guy-centric video site Break.com, hired a few Maxim refugees for its own online lifestyle title, MadeMan. Sugar Inc. has launched a dozen titles off its PopSugar brand. Then there's Nick Denton, godfather of the model, whose Gawker Media has been making inroads in brand advertising after slogging away in this space since 2002.
Unique Product Identification Numbers
From the day Intelligent Nutrients's product was made available to consumers, the bottles, cartons, cases, and pallets have all carried unique identification numbers tied into the Digital Authentication, Track and Trace (DATT) system from Verify Brand LLC.
"DATT emerged from the pharmaceutical industry, where certain drugs have to be tracked every step of the way. It's an extremely effective defense against diverters and counterfeiters," says Rick Goldberg, IN Directing Manager.
A Verify Brand solution will help detect and deter counterfeiting and diversion, isolate other unauthorized activities and support improved forward and reverse logistics management, e.g. recalls, returns and warranty claims. A Web-based brand protection solution for product authentication and improved product tracking can identify and isolate the location of counterfeit, adulterated or diverted products, isolate an issue and support real time responses to these events. This dramatically increases barriers to entry for both current and potential counterfeiters and diverters. In fact, the mere presence of this system can deter would-be counterfeiters or drive current offenders away.
Item level unique identification of products, grouped through parent-child relationships for distribution efficiency and easy access to Web-based authentication will provide a currently unavailable level of visibility into the movement of products throughout the supply chain, up to and including the point of use and when returned to the manufacturer for whatever reason.All system are constantly monitored, logged, analyzed and viewed or reported dynamically. This enables Verify Brand and the brand owner to dynamically and in real time:
- Identify and locate counterfeit or diverted product
- Identify less than trustworthy supply chain partners
- Verify returned product authenticity
- Manage contract manufacturing
- Track product movement
- Initiate or manage product recalls
- Measure system usage patterns and frequency
- Determine who is using the system (or not) and where
- Measure and monitor customer buying activity and patterns
- Adjust or increase system usage where needed
- Pinpoint system usage abuse or problems
- Obtain valuable data and feedback from the supply chain and customers
- Improve non-security related supply chain management activities, e.g. inventory management
- Disseminate targeted brand and marketing messages
- Provide data for a regular and quantifiable Return on Investment
More info: Verify Brand and Intelligent Nutrients
Marketing applications for information found in stock indexes and ETFs include locating new public companies, researching supply chains, finding partners for collaboration, and tracking industry niche growth or shrinkage. Public companies are required to release information broadly to the public...so they need marketing communication services, too. And with infusion of stock investments, many new public companies are good sources for job searches or client services.
NASDAQ® Clean Edge® Green Energy Index (CELS) Components
The NASDAQ® Clean Edge® Green Energy Index (CELS) is a modified market capitalization-weighted index designed to track the performance of companies that are primarily manufacturers, developers, distributors, or installers of clean-energy technologies. An exchange traded fund (ETF) is based on the NASDAQ® Clean Edge® Green Energy Index and is sponsored by First Trust Advisors L.P. To learn more about methodologies, up-to-date performance, and licensed products, click here.
NASDAQ OMX® Clean Edge® Global Wind Energy Index (QWND) Components
The NASDAQ OMX® Clean Edge® Global Wind Energy Index (QWND) is a modified market-capitalization index designed to act as a transparent and liquid benchmark for the global wind energy sector. The Index includes companies that are primarily manufacturers, developers, distributors, installers, and users of energy derived from wind sources. An exchange traded fund (ETF) is based on the NASDAQ OMX® Clean Edge® Global Wind Energy Index and is sponsored by PowerShares. To learn more about methodologies, up-to-date performance, and licensed products, click here.
Learn more here: http://www.cleanedge.com/ceindex/
Certified
businesses go beyond compliance with local environmental requirements
and implement pollution prevention efforts in their work sites.
Businesses are certified through an intensive application and
evaluation process. During the certification process, businesses are
evaluated in the areas of:
- Hazardous waste management
- Air quality and pollution
- Spill prevention and response
- Product and waste storage
- Cleaning procedures
- Purchasing/inventory management
- Recycling procedures
- Employee involvement and training
- Drainage Systems
- Energy And Water Use
THE PROGRAM
Learn more at http://www.ecobiz.org/becomebiz.htm
Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, Better World Books is a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all their stakeholders.
Better World Books is also the winner of the 2009 Business Week Most Promising Social Entrepreneur Award and a founding B Corporation. Social and environmental responsibility is at the core of their socially entrepreneurial business.
The company has partnerships with more than 1,800 college campuses and 1,500 libraries nationwide, and has generated more than $6 million for its non-profit, library and college partners, donated 1.3 million books to literacy programs globally, and diverted over 22 million books from landfills.
All books are available with free shipping to any location within the United States (or $3.97 worldwide). And in case you're concerned about your eco-footprint, every order is shipped carbon neutral with offsets from Carbonfund.org. Their five primary literacy partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Invisible Children.
And it gets local, too. Online Sidewalk Sales allow you to type in your zip code and browse a selection of titles in the Better World Books inventory that comes to them from a library near you. The best part is that proceeds go directly back to your local library.
"We've put aside roughly 5% of the company for use in stock option grants to an initial group of five literacy partners (with potential to add others in the future)", says Xavier Helgesen, one of the organization's leaders. He puts the philotophy best: "We created Better World Books to show that it is possible to do good while at the same time run a successful company. Our literacy partners are essential to our mission, and we want them to flourish."
Advertising bikes are a new medium of communication. Bicycle billboards are designed to be fun, exciting, eye catching and respected by the public for the human power required to ride all day long.
One company in Australia has developed Bicycle Billboards as a sustainable form of outdoor advertising they can be directed to a wide variety of markets.
www.spaceads.com.au
But... sustainable isn't just about the fuel used in the vehicle that drives around town. Or the vehicle. It is also about how the signs are made -- do they use environmentally and socially responsible materials and processes? It is also about the safety of the bikers and the other people on the street. And it is about the messages on the signs.
If all those considerations are also carefully and thoughftfully taken into account, bike advertising could be considered respectful messaging.
The California Green Economy map features more than 2,200 businesses statewide in four categories--energy generation, energy efficiency, green building and transportation--that are likely to grow as California transitions to a low-carbon economy.
Companies on the map can be sorted by city, county and congressional district. The top five California counties are:
Los Angeles County - 398 companies
San Diego County - 208 companies
Orange County - 202 companies
Santa Clara County - 173 companies
Alameda County - 131 companies
"To our knowledge, this is the first time that a map of California's green companies has been published online, creating a visual dynamic resource for people to better understand what a green economy looks like," said Tim O'Connor, an attorney and California climate change analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
Southern California alone has more than 1,000 green companies, according to the Los Angeles Greenprint report, which details how the implementation of Green LA and Solar LA initiatives proposed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are expected produce high-quality green jobs for people living in the Los Angeles area.
Green LA by the LA DWP
Implementation of Green LA will be overseen by the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, the largest public power utility in the
country and the utility that uses the most solar energy nationwide. The
plan calls for fighting global warming by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions 35% below 1990 levels by 2030 through the use of renewable
energy, conservation, new green building standards and strategic land
use planning.
Solar LA
Solar LA calls for growing the region's green economy by adding 1.3 gigawatts of solar power by 2020, enough to meet 10% of L.A.'s energy needs and more than is currently available nationwide.
"Los Angeles and Southern California are uniquely vulnerable to climate change because of existing pollution problems, our coastal setting and overstretched water supplies," said Erica Fick, an EDF clean energy fellow based in Los Angeles, who co-authored the report. "Green LA and Solar LA will be a shot in the arm for the entire Southern California economy, creating a lasting upswing in the manufacturing, construction, technology, and "green" service sectors."SOURCE: Sustainable Business and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
