Build a Reputation Beyond Your Local Market

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Labels that get their start outside of major fashion hubs are leveraging their local identities and a strategic approach to wholesale to gain international followings.

Key insights:

• Brands outside of cities like Paris and New York often struggle to build a reputation beyond their local markets.
• Post-pandemic digitalisation, including the proliferation of Zoom and online shopping, has made it easier for designers to reach buyers, VIP clients and other tastemakers.
• Other effective strategies include targeting influential wholesale accounts and building a strong social media presence.

Learn how regional brands go global (full article requires payment).

Own the Change

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Business leaders know that it’s one thing to have an idea that works and can produce results, and quite another matter to get that idea adopted at a scale so that it can create impact. 

By empowering people to achieve their own goals, leaders can overcome great skepticism—and achieve great results. What worked for cookstoves in Guatemala can work for corporate cloud adoption.

Want people to embrace transformation?  Allow them to own the change.

Globalization Puts The World On Your Plate

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Want an example of how globalization puts the world on your plate?

When people hear the word “globalization” they probably think of giant container ships, wonky economic terms like “offshoring” and “trade deficit,” or geopolitical tensions and agreements. And, to be sure, Cato’s Defending Globalization project covers all of that stuff and more. Yet, as we explain in a new essay for the project, there may be no better symbol of real globalization—and its many benefits—than the restaurant down the street.

Access the essay here.

Today in Global Small Business: Changing How We See The World

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Changing how we see the world in all its beauty and bizarreness.
• Kylie Jenner:  from successful global beauty empire to soon to be fashion empire.
• Globalization is a funny thing, and McDonald’s today is a many-tentacled entity that morphs to fit the politics of the moment and the regions that franchises operate in.
• Quote of the week:  “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." – Archimedes
• Birkenstock has gotta get the growth after its IPO so China it is.
• Tory Burch has redefined American preppy with a global point of view, so it makes sense that her eponymous brand is now focused on expanding its global footprint.

The Bird Is Powered By Its Own Life

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation." –  A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

SMBs Level Up with AI

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November 2022 marked a mainstream shift in the release and adoption of various generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools and products. ChatGPT became the buzzword in the world’s boardrooms, on social media and at dinner parties, ushering in an AI divide, where a segment of the population fully embraced this technology, another was wary, and everyone else unsure.

As Sasan Goodarzi, president and CEO of Intuit, puts it, “AI presents the next tectonic shift in technology and will be the greatest driver of innovation since electricity and the internet—and generative AI is transforming the way humans interact with computers.” 

GenAI has democratized access to this information, and by using this technology, small businesses now have a resource that provides them with precise information collected from vast amounts of data that they can use to propel their business forward.

Global small business is the lifeblood of most economies, and as technology evolves, SMB’s need to become more competitive in order to drive growth in a digitally enabled landscape.  AI might just take them there.

Magical Morning To You (Jazz Music)

Collaboration Across Borders (Online Course)

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Gain the tools to set your global virtual teams up for success as you work through the weekly modules of this free online program offered by Yale School of Management (SOM) Executive Education. 

Guided by Program Convener Amy Wrzesniewski, an expert in how people experience work and make meaning of their work in challenging contexts, you’ll focus on the opportunities and challenges that global, virtual teams present. 

Here's the curriculum:

1. Orientation
2. Welcome to your Online Campus 
3. Designing teams and processes for virtual work 
4. Decision-making in virtual contexts 
5. Collaboration across borders
6. Power dynamics in global virtual teams
7. Creating connection and working sustainably
8. Working as a global virtual team

To register and learn more, visit here.

To Achieve Positive Export and Import Growth, We Must Remain Vigilant

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Economic impacts on global trade date back a few years, suggests Anthony Landry, a Wharton adjunct full professor of finance and deputy vice dean of the Wharton MBA program. “Until COVID, I would say that global trade was an efficient way in which companies, especially multinationals, were expanding,” says Landry, who specializes in macroeconomics and has worked as a senior economist and economic policy advisor. 

While the current trade slowdown may threaten the living standards of people around the world, a rebound is expected. Said WTO chief economist Ralph Ossa: “Positive export and import volume growth should resume in 2024, but we must remain vigilant.” 

Read more here.

Today in Global Small Business: Is Globalization In Decline?

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Is globalization in decline?
• Are you an American solipsist, blaming U.S. leaders for everything bad that happens in the world, denying foreigners any agency?
• Israeli-hostage families fear abandonment.
• Quote of the week:  “It is true that we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them.” – Golda Meir
• Why Israel must fight on (requires subscription).
• Bernie Sanders rejects calls to cease fire in Gaza.

Polish Independence Day Race in Chicago 10/29/23

The U.S. Economy's Vulnerabilities

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America’s smallest companies tell us a lot about the economy’s vulnerabilities. So far, they have been resilient in the face of rising borrowing costs.

Recession watchers should be careful about jumping to conclusions over the rise in small-business bankruptcy activity. 

Smaller firms' exposure to variable-rate debt may well make them a leading indicator for the American economy, but so far they're mostly sending a message of resilience. And that may well mean that the US economy can continue to stay afloat as well.

Read the entire article here.

The Beatles – Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song (Short Film)

IP Assets Are the Heart of a Tech Company's Competitive Advantage

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It goes without saying that intellectual property assets are the heart of a tech company's competitive advantage. So, you have to value them accurately to make informed decisions during global expansion.

Before scaling, you need to conduct a thorough IP audit first. By assessing the strength, uniqueness, and market potential of your IP assets, you can determine your value in a global marketplace. This should include, for example, new product designs, manufacturing equipment, and process recipes for making your new products.

The bottom line in any such analysis is to determine the financial benefits that your IP assets are expected to deliver to a new venture that you may license or otherwise partner with. 

As young tech companies set their sights on global expansion, the wisdom and guidance of an experienced IP investor can make all the difference.

Some Like It Hot and So Does wegg® at Its Next wegginar® 11/1/23

©2023 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.  All rights reserved.

We 🧡 Stacy Moritz, the owner of the Secret Aardvark Trading Company because she has a great sense of humor and knows a ton about exporting.  And her products are hot, too (they kick you in the mouth as her company claims)!  

We can't wait to hear her wegginar presentation on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at 11 AM CT on: "Exporting: Is It Just a Way to Get Free Travel?" – https://bit.ly/45cTavP.

In her wegginar, you will learn whether exporting is just a way to get free travel 😉 and ...

• How to do your research for global exporting
• The importance of running and embracing the numbers – metrics matter!
• How to be agile in an ever-changing market 

Please join us! To learn more, connect with others, and grow your business to the next level via global expansion, register here:  https://bit.ly/45cTavP

See you there!

Powered by: Associated Bank, FedEx, Bluedog Design, 1706 Advisors, and Union Pacific 

Today in Global Small Business: The History of Halloween 2023

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• The history of Halloween.
• Spooky Halloween traditions around the world.
• Halloween is gathering popularity around the world.
• Quote of the week:  "It's Halloween; everyone's entitled to one good scare." – Brackett, Halloween
• There's so much to talk about regarding Halloween.
• Halloween 2023:  unique traditions from around the world.

Really Takes Center Stage

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"One element of Madonna's career that really takes center stage is how many times she's reinvented herself. It's easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It's inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable." – Taylor Swift

Defending Globalization

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The Cato Institute has published three new essays for Cato’s Defending Globalization project:

1. Globalization and Growing Global Equality
2. The Reality of American “Deindustrialization”
3. Globalization Has Propelled India to Prosperity

To access them all, visit here.

The Breakout Year for Generative AI

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On the current state of AI, the latest annual McKinsey Global Survey confirms the explosive growth of generative AI (gen AI) tools. Less than a year after many of these tools debuted, one-third of their survey respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function. 

The expected business disruption from gen AI is significant, and respondents predict meaningful changes to their workforces.

The Rise of Global Business Services (GBS)

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Why is Global Business Services (GBS) becoming more popular?  While Shared Services has proven its worth in simplifying back-office support functions and maintaining them in-house, GBS takes the concept further and enhances it in several critical ways: 

• Global reach
• Integrated capabilities
• Cost efficiency
• Focus on customer-centricity
• Flexibility and scalability

If you want to achieve greater growth and excellence, GBS is the way forward.