India Rising

The honorable governor of the state of Maharashtra, a state in India in which Mumbai (Bombay) is the capital, speaks at the 2005 WTC Global Meet (World Trade Center General Assembly).

Several interesting speakers at this year’s WTC Global Assembly, taking place this week in Mumbai (Bombay). Also, along the same note, several issues getting patched up between India and the US, as well as India and China. As the world’s second largest population and (some would argue) the world’s largest and oldest democracy, India provides a glimpse into an accelerated rise of a huge middle class.

The MBAs I’ve met here are sharp, very sharp, and eager to show that they can serve as well as lead. One in particular, Rajesh Radhakrishnan, is interested in expanding relations with companies from the US that use AS/400 computers for central-office and back-office work, but want to add a kinder, gentler front-end interface in the form of a web browser, rather than completely redesigning a system that’s already working.

Is this work menial compared to most of today’s new client-server work? Yes. Is it a market segment that will soon die away? Yes. Is Rajesh and his team willing to give it the best effort they can over the next few years? Yes.

A Fool's Errand?

A group from Tri-Cities TN / VA (northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia) venture out to Geneva, near  the Swiss Alps, to make the case for a seat at the table of global trade.

Representing our region at the World Trade Center 2004 General Assembly are (L-R) Jerry Petzoldt, Tim Siglin, Roger Lowe, Sharon Hayes (reporter), Anne-Marie Stone and Liesa Jenkins.

Sometimes you go with your gut instinct and find out, much later, that you were absolutely wrong. Other times you go with the same instinct and trust it implicitly. Such was the case for a group that went to Geneva this week on what many have called a fool’s errand: making the case for a seat at the table of global trade, requesting an equal standing alongside major cities with World Trade Centers (WTC) such as Taipei, Shanghai, Mumbai, New York, Rome, London and Atlanta.

Once the WTC’s board hears the presentation, and meets the team, the option for a license is granted, and the real work can now begin: convincing the folks back home that the region is being taken seriously when it comes to the potential of global trade. That challenge is left for another day as the group celebrates a spectral shift, from cynicism and doubt to elation and confidence.