Grow Global: 10 Tips From Leading Women Entrepreneurs to Help You Make the World Your Business

Re-visiting an article I wrote back in early 2009 that is still relevant to today's times:

Growing Global: 10 Tips From Leading Women Entrepreneurs to Help You Make the World Your Business

The launch (November 2008) of Women Entrepreneurs GROW Global (WEGG) was based on the work I did for on the article. Realized a need and went after it to satisfy.

Enjoy and have a great weekend. Back with you on Monday.

Posted by: Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog

Global Expansion Boosts Profits for Zara Parent Inditex

What can an entrepreneur or small business owner learn from Inditex (owner of Zara), the world's largest clothing retailer? Plenty.

First, Zara delivers new models of clothing to its stores twice a week (lesson: depending on the industry, speed counts).

Second, emerging market consumers will account for sixty percent (60%) of global luxury goods sales in 2020, up from 40 percent in 2009, according to an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein (lesson: emerging markets are worth a look).

Lastly:

The goal for every luxury company, wherever their clients are, “is to keep people coming back into stores with new products,” analyst Farren said. “That’s what consumers want.”

(Lesson: To get and keep global customers you must continually hit the refresh button on your product and service offerings. Are you?).

Read more here. Related articles here and here.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

Graphic source here.

AABE President Discusses Renewable Energy Stardard

American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) President Frank Stewart discussed in a National Journal article some key flaws with the current Renewable Energy Standard (RES) proposals before Congress, and offered some suggestions for improving them. These improvements included:

Change the RES to a CES, or Clean Energy Standard, including clean coal and nuclear power, thereby strengthening our national energy capacity and encouraging more rapid development.

Develop a clean, safe, and timely way to develop America’s shale gas resources to promote energy security, stability, and reliability.

Finally, legislation ought to consider strengthening federal investment is research, development and deployment of technologies to improve energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings and in industrial processes.

According to Stewart:

Frank Stewart

"America needs all types of energy, from oil and gas to solar and wind. In addition, we need to be able to manage these multiple, dispersed and variable generating capabilities with speed, accuracy and reliability. Our nation needs a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We need policies that encourage innovation, that promote fairness, that improve security and that lay the foundation for the future. America needs a CES, not a RES."

Acting Globally

In this case, a state helps small, midsized companies target the China market.

Local small and midsized companies have experience and technologies that can be attractive to Chinese companies, but a lack of resources to explore the international market can hold them back. That's why the state is taking a role in helping these companies identify the right market and find the right partners.

Read all about it here.

Joints Center Hosting Smart Grid Forum

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is inviting the public to a Technology Policy Forum co-sponsored by the Media and Technology Institute and the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change:

THE SMART GRID PROMISE: IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND ENHANCING QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL AMERICANS

Join them as the U.S. Department of Energy releases their new report concerning the future of the nation’s Smart Grid technology. Smart Grid technology is an example of energy and broadband technology coming together to solve a major infrastructure challenge. Leaders from the policy, industry and advocacy arenas will respond to the new report, and engage in a dialogue about the potential of Smart Grid technology to improve our nation’s energy system, and enhance the quality of life for all Americans.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

CAPITAL HILTON, Federal B Room, 1001 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Keynote Remarks: Scott Blake Harris, Esq., General Counsel, U.S. Department of Energy

Opening Remarks: Ralph B. Everett, Esq., President and CEO, Joint Center

Panelists:

Jeff Brueggeman, Esq., Vice President, Public Policy, AT&T
Calvin Butler, Esq., Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Exelon Corporation
Charles Davidson, Esq., Director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute, NY Law School
Dean Garfield, Esq., President and CEO, Information Technology Industry Council
Betsy Mullins, Senior Vice President, Policy and Political Affairs, TechNet
Bret Perkins, Senior Director, Public Policy, Comcast
Larry Plumb, Ph.D., Executive Director, Emerging Issues and Technology Policy, Verizon

RSVP at smartgridRSVP@jointcenter.org by October 1, 2010. For questions or press inquiries, please contact Betty Anne Williams at (202) 789-3505.

Can China Move Into the Exclusive Club of High Per Capita Income Countries?

The 1992 Nobel economics laureate Gary Becker -- professor of economics at the University of Chicago and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution -- writes a magnificent opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, "China's Next Leap Forward."

Quick insightful snippet here:

Global markets allow poor countries to grow rapidly for a while, but it is far more difficult to grow beyond middle-income levels. Much has been made of the fact that a month ago China's aggregate GDP surpassed that of Japan. But all that means is China's per capita income is about 10% of Japan's, since China's population is about 10 times that of Japan. Despite its great economic advances, China still has a long way to go to become a rich country.

Don't overlook it. Blog is equally fascinating.

Cartoon credit here.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

Chloramine+Lead Pipes+Fluoride=Contaminated Tap Water

From an  article by Olga Naidenko, Environmental Working Group Senior Scientist

American water utilities are increasingly switching to chloramines, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, for final disinfection of drinking water. Chloramine was supposed to be a "safer" water disinfectant than chlorine because it reduces formation of toxic chlorination byproducts. A 2005 survey by the American Water Works Association found that approximately a third of all utilities now use chloramines. Water disinfection byproducts are associated with increased risk of cancer and possibly adverse effects on the development of the fetus, so minimizing their levels in drinking water is a good thing. Yet, chloramines drastically increase the leaching of lead from pipes.

Two thirds of the U.S. municipal water supply is artificially fluoridated in an effort to prevent tooth decay. But fluoridation additives in tap water are not the same form of fluoride as found in toothpaste. Typically, water is fluoridated with fluorosilicic acid (FSA) or its salt, sodium fluosilicate, collectively referred to as fluorosilicates. In contrast, fluoride in toothpaste is usually in form of simple sodium fluoride salt, NaF.

Fluorosilicates have a unique affinity for lead. In fact, lead fluorosilicate is one of the most water-soluble forms of lead.  When fluorosilicates in water pass through lead-containing pipes and metal fixtures, the fluorosilicates extract high levels of soluble lead from leaded-brass metal parts. Researchers have found that the mixture of the two chemicals: disinfectant (whether chlorine or chloramine) with fluorosilicic acid has a drastically increased potency, leaching amazingly high quantities of lead. This lead goes into our drinking water and right on into our bodies, where they wreak havoc by poisoning our heart, kidneys and blood, causing irreversible neurological damage and impairing reproductive function.

Chlorine and chloramine are probably here to stay for some time. On the other hand, fluoride, or, specifically, water fluoridation with fluorosilicates, is quite dispensable. There is clear evidence that fluoride dental products significantly reduce the incidence of cavities. In contrast, a substantial and growing body of peer-reviewed science suggests that ingesting fluoride in tap water does not provide any additional dental benefits other than those offered by fluoride toothpaste and may present serious health risks.

In case of fluoridation and chloramines, what emerges at the end of the pipe (our faucets) is a potentially highly hazardous mixture of fluorosilicates, lead, and residual levels of disinfectants. To protect the health of our families today, we can buy a water filters to remove heavy metals and disinfection byproducts from my drinking water with a simple pitcher filter.

Water treatment chemistry is still insufficiently understood by scientists and specific water quality outcomes depend on the particular chemical interactions found in each water treatment and distribution system. To protect the health of the entire nation, we really need to consider if our current methods of water treatment can withstand scientific scrutiny, or whether they should be re-assessed so as to provide safe, healthy tap water to all Americans. (EWG EnviroBlog, 7/13/2009)