Emerging Market Growth | Sustainable Supply Chain

Here's an interesting question... where are "Emerging Markets" emerging from and into what?

But before we answer that, what are they? "Emerging Markets" refers to countries in the world which have a less developed infrastructure. They tend to be those that are achieving economic growth, but are not as mature as the developed world.

Emerging Market Groupings

To illustrate this it is worth pointing out how Emerging Market Growth are often grouped together for investment purposes. While it is always possible to invest in an individual country if you know what you are doing, it is more common to group them.

For example:

• The "BRIC" countries include Brazil, Russia, India and China
• "Asia Pacific excluding Japan" means South East Asian countries like Indonesia, Singapore, China, South Korea, and so on
• "Emerging Europe" includes Russia and emerging Baltic countries like Ukraine, Latvia, Romania

Growth and Risk

Recent investment performance in EmergingMarket Growth has been better in many cases than in the developed world. However, these markets are politically and economically more volatile than their developed counterparts, and so investments are subject to higher levels of risk.

The opportunity for Emerging MarketGrowth comes from aspects like the greater investment in infrastructure (roads, water supply, etc.), availability of land and natural resources, and a growing "consumer society" wanting to improve their standards of living.

The risks come from things like bureaucracy which - along with corruption in some cases - hinders smooth development. Human rights records can act as a drag on development, while political instability and international friction can also dissuade investors. Economic experience in managing aspects like inflation is also less developed, although it could be said that banking systems are more stable than in the "developed" world since they have not developed the convoluted products and procedures which caused the credit crisis in 2008

All in all, Emerging Markets are increasingly significant for investors, and there are plenty of opportunities to invest when appropriate, both in equities of various types and in bonds (fixed interest issues by governments and companies). For more information - http://www.bellwether-institute.net

Consumer Product Company | Data innovation

The idea of Consumer Product Company was a thing of chance. Great Data innovation within corporations is rarely the result of sr. brand managers or others in the marketing department.

To succeed at this kind of innovative work, you needed to think like an administrator. However, nowadays those entrepreneurial people are forgoing the corporate world fully and starting their own ventures, or joining other start ups. These individual entrepreneurs prefer to beat the big companies than work for them.

For some reason, most think this is simply due to access to new types of technology, and these people are incorrect. Its present everywhere. In fact, let's look at home-cleaning products  a category that has not seen much innovation or one would assume has not seen much innovation. The founders of Method, a new cleaning products start up created by two college students in their dorm room, are a one hundred million dollar new company and is one of the leading products in this category.

Method cleaner is new, young, hip and succeeding at giving big companies a run for their money. They even manage to recruit the best talent due to their start up nature. All of the bright scholars at the nation's top schools including Yale, Wharton, Harvard, Berkeley and so on are going to the smaller companies where they have more impact and it's perceived to be a more sexier lifestyle. For more information - http://www.bellwether-institute.net/challenge

The Role of Returnable Transit Packaging in the Sustainable Supply Chain

The emphasis today across all industry sectors is ensuring a sustainable Supply Chain, with the key considerations of improving environmental and social impacts. This is achieved through the management of raw materials, products and services at all stages within the chain. Materials Handling Equipment (MHE) and the way in which it is used plays an increasingly important role in the drive towards sustainability and therefore developments in MHE can have a substantial impact on all areas of the supply chain.

The biggest impact within the MHE sphere over the last decade has been the increasing rate of introduction of Returnable Transit Packaging (RTP) fleets across all areas of manufacturing, engineering, food production and retail. Wooden pallets and crates, along with their plastic and metal counterparts are all RTP products, although some more suitable to the sustainable Supply Chain ethos than others.

In Europe, more complex RTP 'systems' were first developed on a large scale by the automotive industry nearly 20 years ago with the increased Japanese influence in JIT manufacturing, production and supply chain techniques. Automotive RTP solutions at first were mainly basic engineered load carriers (pallet base boxes and panelled steel stillages or racks), carrying the primary packaging which contained multiple "loose packed" parts and components. Although the load carriers were counted as RTP, the primary packaging was often one trip disposable plastic or cardboard packaging.

With the introduction of JIT production techniques, as well as more components being painted and finished prior to shipping into plant, the requirements for a more disciplined approach to production planning and receiving and handling parts at line-side, dictated the move towards more component dedicated and surface protective MHE. This in turn resulted in primary packaging being replaced by fixed inserts and dividers, (known as dunnage), holding the component and parts in the outer load container, and thus RTP systems were born. For more information - http://www.bellwether-institute.net/

Co-creation

It is a common trend to be in favor of open innovation and co-creation. We have all heard about the wisdom of crowds, bringing the outside in, and we all trust in "none of us is as smart as all of us”. Collective wisdom considers “multiple opinions and forms of smarts. Wisdom in groups is demonstrated by insight, good sense, clarity, objectivity, and discernment rooted in deep caring and compassion”. We connect on political, social, and economic strategies and understand psychological, spiritual and cultural roots.

Co-creating and collective intelligence/wisdom are forming a hybrid forces, a calling to reclaim the participation of people in groups as positive, useful, healing, life affirming. We alter the way that we see the world in order to solve problems together.

It is a fact that humans today love to participate in problem-solving online, to have a voice and to express themselves, to be a part of the story-telling of new media, and to be a part of the collective intelligence process. The cultural, economic and political changes brought on by online intelligence sharing, via different media, have been truly amazing and reflect extraordinary cultural shifts in the 21st century. There is a huge opportunity out of there, people feel right to collaborate to solve higher issues, higher order of problems or matters. 

Enabling is one thing, participating quite another. Mass dialogue just does not simply happen. There are many reasons why people feel restrained to freely engage and exchange ideas. Tech by itself will not overcome these obstacles. Captivating your audience requires purpose, encouragement and reciprocity. We need to create a context for mass dialogue and co-creation, unleashing the tacit knowledge and passion of people around brands, products and organizations. For more information - http://www.bellwether-institute.net

Emerging Market Growth

Since the Federal Reserve's recent round of quantitative easing, developed and Emerging Market Growth opportunities are beginning to see more attractive to U.S and foreign stockholder. In fact, the Fed's actions have prompted a small resurgence of confidence in economies overseas. U.S. Stockholders have really been more attentive to what specific actions the U.S. central bank is taking and less so on the consequences of the bank's decisions on the global economy and, moreover, on investment portfolios.

With the second round of quantitative easing, or QE2, well on its way, the economic advantages and investment opportunities have certainly tipped on the side of the Emerging Market Growth. So here's how to play on this theme to reap some rewards. But first, we must understand the overall shape and health of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy is in pretty bad shape more than it has been in some time. The primary economic factors dragging the economy down are record level unemployment rates and poor consumer consumption which have contributed to the overall slowdown in the U.S. GDP.

Another worrying concern is the steep decline of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies over the past year. Chine, for instance, is creating a Yuan-heavy currency basket to go against the global reserve currency. If it gets some support from the Emerging Market Growth it can avoid currency wars among its colleague markets, which, if works, would resemble a coalition similar to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. China's attempt at an organized effort can lead to that type of coalition among emerging market nations. For more information - http://www.bellwether-institute.net