Open up
I like to consider myself up with the times. In college, we studied a book called "The Pacific Century" apparently revisited here. We discussed at length the impact of the Pacific Rim, as well as of India. We further went on to discuss the coming impact of these Nation States on the US and the World. Much of what was discussed 15 years ago, either has happened or is on the verge of it.
Yesterday I was talking to a friend, and he mentioned a video on You Tube 'Shift Happens', search for it. I have seen similar things wandering the web, but it reminded me that we are not the presumed center of the Universe. As Americans we are brought up believing that ALL major things around the world happen here, or because of us, and that cannot be farther from the truth. In my corner of the world that may be somewhat true, but go too far past the end of the block, and all that changes… FAST!
So how does this impact L2TC, our partners and clients. It all depends. We do not have to look to far past our TV or car or clothes, or food. I am not, and we as a company are not 'protectionist' as a rule. I make it a point to watch for items related to foreign investment and apply that across all our investments. We are looking into starting either a new division or spin off a company that will focus on technology, that while developed in the US by multi-national, but primarily US based companies, is now produced almost exclusively in foreign locales and imported to the US. The technology could be made practically anywhere, but the global marketplace has determined that Asia is the best place for production. Whether that is because of cheap labor or plentiful supply of materials, I do not know, but I do know that there is not currently a company in the US producing competing products, wholly on US soil.
As for our Partners and clients, this marketplace is dominated by technology, from end to end. Our clients are information workers, even if their business is manufacturing furniture; they make money from information and data. And all those systems are made in Asia and imported. We work hard to help our clients understand the impact of technology on their business, specifically how they can leverage that for the benefit of the company. Some people only look at their PC as a conduit for email, and their crackberry as an extension of that. There are so many factors on technology today, from the devices to the networks to the data delivered and analyzed. We help clients who rather than fear the technology, open up and start leveraging that as a key business driver in their success.