Apfelthaler: Will COVID-19 end globalization?
By Gerhard Apfelthaler It is the year 1000. Traders are crossing oceans to Arabia, East Africa, India and China. The Vikings are sailing to Canada, and the Maya are exploring lands as far as Colombia and today’s Mississippi River Valley. This is when globalization began, asserts author Valerie Hansen in a book published this year. Read More →
Read More →Apfelthaler: Trade war is bad for the economy
By Gerhard Apfelthaler It’s back! After months of negotiations with China, the pause button has been released and the nation finds itself back in the trade war. Fact is, it never went away. Ask, for instance, the folks at Volvo’s plant in Ridgeville, S.C., which is running at a fraction of its capacity. Or ask Read More →
Read More →How pirate tactics built an entrepreneurial ecosystem
By Reneé Rock “It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy.” When Steve Jobs uttered this phrase, he was speaking to the Mac team, which had become a kind of splinter group with its own identity within Apple. Jobs knew what he was up against at fast-growing Apple and intuitively understood that Read More →
Read More →Embracing trade does not make you a traitor
By Gerhard Apfelthaler On a recent trip to Iran, I couldn’t help but notice the difference in the public narrative regarding the lifting of the sanctions against Iran. While many people in the United States — at least according to mainstream media — seem to think that they got the short end of the stick, Read More →
Read More →Tap the potential of international trade
By Gerhard Apfelthaler I have been in international business for most of my life. My multiple and often parallel careers as an educator, a university administrator, a diplomat and an entrepreneur have enabled me to look at the same topic from a variety of angles. When I discuss the landscape of global trade with my Read More →
Read More →Diversity makes businesses better
An American entertainer, a Japanese businessman and a British nun walk into a bar… A lot of jokes used to start like this. In today’s global economy, such a diverse scenario has become the new normal for companies worldwide. And yet, we haven’t moved much beyond clumsy attempts to resolve awkwardness with humor. Diversity in Read More →
Read More →