Navigating The Global Business Arena

The year started with trade terms; export, import

, deficient, global economy, trade barriers, subsidy, tariff, and such. Stories were told to emphasis each area of study. I brought a selection of clothing and household items and we learned where all these things came from, it was pretty eye-opening.

The second lesson I taught was about emigration and immigration, people moving about for economic, religious, culture, and safety reasons. Studying the migration of people though resent history proved fascinating. The face of Europe has changed due to unrest in the Middle East and Africa. Studies show that there will be more of these groups of people in Europe in 50 years than there will be native Europeans because of the low birth rate among the European countries.

We studied competition, production resources, natural resources, wages, quality of life of the workers. The world is not a fair market place, where labor is cheap, goods are produced. The first world countries thrive off the the horrific working and living conditions of the third world countries. It is a sobering study.

The most interesting lesson I taught was on doing business with a world community. We talked to the kids about cultures, customs, tastes, and business practices . You couldn't open a hamburger fast food place in a vegetarian dominated country. You wouldn't want to sell American style clothing to a Muslim country. We studied protocol for doing business. Some countries use business cards, some are formal, some very casual. Some bow upon greeting, others shake hands, some air kiss. You have to have a product or service that is not offensive or unwanted in the country your trying to open business.

The largest obstacle to overcome is, of course, language. If you don't speak Japanese you are going to have a hard time selling your frozen sushi cuisine. Fortunately, technology is catching up with our global economy and translator software is widely available. This is helpful for a myriad of needs, especially for internet communication and web sites. Since so much business is conduction via the internet the translator software would prove invaluable.

We are a big, global community. We need to be aware of the needs, conditions, customs and cultures of our friends throughout the world. What better time to start teaching these concepts than in the elementary schools. Everything we have comes from somewhere, it is paramount that we understand where it all originates and who it is produced by.

by: Art Gib

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