Here is an interesting note on culture from Dvorak Uncensored:

As part of efforts to transform Abu Dhabi into the cultural lodestone of the Middle East and expand libraries there, the emirate’s Authority for Culture and Heritage has chosen the first 100 books to be translated into Arabic under a new program.

Among them are Alan Greenspan’s memoir, “The Age of Turbulence,” John Maynard Keynes’s “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money,” and Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom.” The goal is to translate 100 titles every year.

The authority, known as Adach, has formed a nonprofit organization called Kalima, which is Arabic for “word,” to undertake the translations and expand Arabic-language publishing in the United Arab Emirates…

The first 100 titles draw from history, science and fiction; Kalima is still securing the rights to most of them. More than half were originally written in English, and they include a Pulitzer Prize winner, “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright, which examines the origins of Al Qaeda, as well as the best-seller, “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini. Classics in the first group of books to be translated include Milton’s “Paradise Regained.” A number of works by Jewish writers are on the list, including “Collected Stories” by the Nobel Prize recipient Isaac Bashevis Singer…

“Good books are like penicillin,” said Jumaa Abdulla Alqubaisi. “They fight against hate, segregation and misunderstanding.”

Here is an interesting quote from"The Corner Office":

"News that Vikram Pandit will be the new chief executive officer of Citigroup, joining other Indians such as Pepsi’s Indra Nooyi (a woman) at the top of major U.S. corporations, comes at the same time that we learn that Tata Motors may buy Jaguar from Ford Motor. The Indians are on the move in several important respects and they clearly are ahead of their Chinese, Brazilian, and Russian counterparts, all members of the so-called BRIC club (Brazil, Russia, India and China.)"

My perspective on a special advantage Indians may have in a global economy relates to Emotional Intelligence: I think many Indians have is a more highly developed emotional intelligence -- derived, perhaps, from the Hindu tradition that intelligence is the gift of the mother goddess. This tradition links to Emotional Intelligence qualities such as empathy, patience, compassion, and nurturing. These skills are vital to compete successfully in a global economy and very undervalued in much of our Western world. Antoine de Saint-Exupery says (in "The Little Prince") “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” He could have been from India!

Do You Have Emotional Intelligence?

I agree with Geoffery James that success in life is related to the ability to "sell" - and "selling" is related to cognitive and emotional intelligence. The challenge is this: do intelligence tests actually measure "contemporary" intelligence?

We can all learn to do better at test taking - but that does not mean we are "more" intelligent. The problem, it seems to me, relates to test design. Emotional Intelligence is an aspect that was not measured by standard intelligence tests - does that make it a "new" intelligence or simply one that we did not know how to measure? There is a strong school of thought that suggests we cannot "improve" our EQ (Mayers, Salovey). But that doesn't mean that we cannot improve our emotional abilities and function "better". I may have no sense of direction, but I can learn to use a GPS system and find my way around.. Geoffey quotes an excellent article from the New Yorker which makes the point that current thinking among IQ experts is that even IQ can change, often substantially, over time, The New Yorker magazine.

Human Capital and the Value of Institutions

A comment by Peter Gordon at USC on "human capital" caught my eye because of the reference to Mexico. Gordon is quoting from a WSJ article by Ron Bailey commenting on a World Bank study entitled "Where is the Wealth of Nations?" Here is the quote:

"A Mexican migrant to the U.S. is five times more productive than one who stays home. Why is that?

The answer is not the obvious one: This country has more machinery or tools or natural resources. Instead, according to some remarkable but largely ignored research -- by the World Bank, of all places -- it is because the average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican's intangible wealth is just $34,000.

But what is intangible wealth, and how on earth is it measured? And what does it mean for the world's people -- poor and rich? That's where the story gets even more interesting.

Two years ago the World Bank's environmental economics department set out to assess the relative contributions of various kinds of capital to economic development. Its study, "Where is the Wealth of Nations?: measuring Capital for the 21st Century," began by defining natural capital as the sum of nonrenewable resources (including oil, natural gas, coal and mineral
resources), cropland, pasture land, forested areas and protected areas. Produced, or built, capital is what many of us think of when we think of capital: the sum of machinery, equipment, and structures (including infrastructure) and urban land.

But once the value of all these are added up, the economists found something big was still missing: the vast majority of world's wealth! If one simply adds up the current value of a country's natural resources and produced, or built, capital, there's no way that can account for that country's level of income.

The rest is the result of "intangible" factors -- such as the trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective government. All this intangible capital also boosts the productivity of labor and results in higher total wealth. In fact, the World
Bank finds, "Human capital and the value of institutions (as measured by rule of law) constitute the largest share of wealth in virtually all countries."

The world does not revolve around the United States

Michael Milken, the junk bond billionaire turned philanthropist is quoted as saying:
"Today the strength of the world's economy is helping America and the United States, and I think that will soften the blow of our downturn in housing,'' Then he makes a comment relative to global mindset:``We have to realize, similar to the time of Galileo, that the whole world is not necessarily revolving around the United States and the amazing story of America.'' Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California goes on to mention the importance of human capital: "The most important asset and the largest asset category in the United States or any country is human capital,'' . "The cure of cancer is worth $45 trillion to the U.S. economy. The elimination of heart disease as a cause of suffering and death is worth almost $50 trillion to the U.S. economy. The solution to those two problems far outweighs any other economic discussion which we could have today.''

International Customers

I saw a BNET blog this morning written by Geoffery James. He quotes a list from sales guru Jerry Acuff called “13 fundamental facts about human beings (especially customers).” Geoffery suggests that his edited list pretty much contains everything that you need to know in order to be successful at sales, at least when it comes to customer relationships. I completely agree -and because personal relationships are so important with international customers I have edited the list somewhat and pass it on to you.

• International Customers want to feel that they’re important.
• International Customers want to feel and be appreciated.
• International Customers are interested in you - in most of the world, some personal relationship is the basis for a sale.
• International Customers want the same two things in life as you: success and happiness.
• International Customers want you to truly listen.
• International Customers want to know that you appreciate and respect their culture.
  
• International Customers will only connect if they feel valued by you.
• International Customers buy emotionally and defend both logically and emotionally.
• International Customers’ attention span is very short, most especially when you are not on their cultural wavelength.
• International Customers with common interests have natural rapport.
• International Customers want to feel and be understood.
• International Customers are drawn to those who show genuine interest in them as persons.
• International Customers love to teach you things they know.
• International Customers want to associate with others who can help.

Do you have a global mindset?

Having a global mindset means the ability to scan the world from a broad perspective; always looking for unexpected trends and opportunities that may constitute a threat or an opportunity to achieve personal, professional or organizational objectives.

A global mindset is described by the Global Entrepreneurship Institute as a way of being rather than a set of skills. It is an orientation and a state of mind able to understand a product, a business, an industry sector, or a particular market, on a global basis. The executive with a global mindset has the ability to see across multiple territories, focusing on “commonalties across many markets.”

Over 63,000 or 77 percent of all the companies involved in exporting from the United States had fewer than 100 employees. A global entrepreneur seeks out and conducts new and innovative business activities across national borders. These activities may consist of exporting, licensing, opening a new sales office, or acquiring another venture.