In a recent Commencement address at Duke University, Zakaria observed that in 1979, only 30 countries were growing at greater than 3% annually; contrast that with today, where even after the global recession, over 90 countries have annual growth rates greater than 3%. Some countries which had never been part of the global economy are now growing faster than many of their developed world counterparts and are flexing their economic muscles.

But rather than “the rise of the rest” diminishing the role of America, Zakaria extols Americans to adapt to the new dynamics of an increasingly global economy and embrace the emergence of other countries and their economies.

There are a number of trends and characteristics in this “post-American world”:

1. Continued growth of emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Russia)
2. American recognition of its own capability for energy production
3. American policy goals that focus on greater openness and collaboration
4. America seeking greater diversity for responses to global crises
5. American business interests growing in emerging market economies

So with these points in mind, is there opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses in America to learn and to thrive in the post-American world? In the next four weeks, I will share my views on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for American business and reflect on its place in the new global economy. I hope you will find these posts interesting and enlightening from a business perspective, and welcome your thoughts or comments.

According to Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan, the 2004 Moffatt Prize in Economics winner:

“India has to concentrate on five important areas or things to follow to achieve this goal: technological entrepreneurship, new business openings for small and medium enterprises, importance of quality management, new prospects in rural areas and privatization of financial institutions…

There will be new prospects in rural India. The growth of the Indian economy very much depends upon rural participation in the global race. After implementing the new economic policy the role of villages got its own significance because of its unique outlook and branding methods. For example food processing and packaging are one of the areas where new entrepreneurs can enter into a big way. It may be organized in a collective way with the help of co-operatives to meet the global demand.”

In his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, author C.K. Prahalad examines how companies that innovate products and services targeting the world’s poorest populations can find economic gains. He indicates that companies in China and India are doing this better than others. The premise in his book is that companies that innovate products and services targeting the world’s poorest populations can find economic gains. He offers some examples:

1. India’s Hindustan Lever invented a low-cost water purifier for India’s rural population
2. Godrej’s refrigerator for $60 targeting people living in villages. The low-cost refrigerator keeps the water and vegetables cool but does not produce ice, which is not important for the rural population.
3. Airtel created a business model to produce cheap wireless minutes for the growing Indian population and became the largest telecom provider in India.
4. China’s Haier invented a washing machine for rural customers that is capable of washing both clothes and potatoes. Haier also invented rodent-proof refrigerator that keeps food rodent-free for their rural customers.

By combining innovation, technology and products aimed at fighting poverty in the world, countries like China and India are taking advantage of new economic opportunities that can be mutually beneficial to the consumer and the company.

The panel was on Thursday, May 3 at 10:30 am in the Raleigh Convention Center. Other panelists included Leah Brown of A10 Clinical Solutions, Inc., Jennifer Dunleavy of Accuro and Chas Scarantino of Magnus Health. James Vann of Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law will moderate the panel.

Said 2012 Business Expo Chair, Jeff Tippett, “The Expo Committee selected Dr. Shih because of his track record as a successful entrepreneur. He has built a global business, and we believe our local entrepreneurs will learn from his successes. We feel fortunate that Dr. Shih accepted our invitation.”

China has a development process that is providing advantages to its economy and its place in the global market. While the US economy has expanded by tenths of one percent during the recent economic crisis, China has seen its economy expand by over 10% each year in that same time period (recent reports estimate growth to slow to 8% in 2012). There are multiple reasons and theories for why this is the case, and Barry Naughton, professor of International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego, in his seminal text, The Chinese Economy, points to three important aspects on why the country’s development process is different:

1. China invests more than other economies
2. China concentrates more on manufacturing than other economies, and
3. China has grown more rapidly than other economies.

China’s economic growth does present challenges and opportunities both within and outside of its borders, but as it has recently surpassed Japan as the world’s second largest economy (second only to the United States), one cannot ignore or be threatened by this emerging economic superpower. Rather, it is imperative that those outside of China continue to engage with this vast country and move forward together.

BRI’s co-founders, management team and business partners have been engaging with China in some form or fashion since the 1980’s, building bridges between our two countries. It has not always been easy or straightforward, but it is those early and continual investments in building relationships with the Chinese that will pay off in the long run.

I am reminded of a sign I saw during one of my first trips to Beijing, China. As I rode down the escalator at Beijing International Airport to claim my luggage, I saw a sign in Chinese and below its approximate English translation “Be Careful.” While the message was more geared toward reminding tourists to be mindful of their own safety, it could also be interpreted as a warning to business leaders to be mindful of the risks and benefits as they enter into China.

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Robin Cohen, in the second edition of his, Global Diasporas, lists several mutual characteristics of diaspora. I highlight four of these that most apply to the global market:

1. Those who have left a homeland in search of work, in pursuit of trade
2. Those possessing a collective memory and myth about the homeland
3. Those with a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time
4. Those with a sense of solidarity with co-ethnic members in other countries

Immigration and entrepreneurship are connecting the global economy and emerging economic markets. In light of those identifying with a diaspora, it is a matter of maintaining ties to a home country and identity, balancing that with conducting business in more traditionally established economies. In his 1994 book, Tribes, Joel Kotkin asserts that ethnic identity and connectedness is a critical player in the global economy. More recently Kotkin has published a paper, The New World Order, in which he looks at the world through a cultural lens. His primary point is that diaspora remain together in the global economy through a feeling of belonging or togetherness. This goes beyond cultural awareness to ties that create trust faster and make communication easier. Simply stated – we gravitate towards people like us and we care about the culture we identify with most.

So what about that start-up company that my immigrant Father and I started? We are doing pretty well, slow economy notwithstanding, because of those “global diaspora” links. It was those links that allowed us to raise capital from similarly minded investors who related to our immigrant “by the bootstraps” story; those links that got us in front of institutional investors in Asia; those links that subsequently helped find our Taiwan suppliers when we needed to scale up production. The old adage in business being about “who you know” not “what you know” holds true – and in this age of global entrepreneurship, I believe we will see global “tribes” continuing to drive business even more so than country or geographic affiliations.

So, what describes an emerging market, and which countries constitute the leading emerging markets?

According to Investing Answers “an emerging market economy describes a nation’s economy that is progressing toward becoming more advanced, usually by means of rapid growth and industrialization. These countries experience an expanding role both in the world economy and on the political frontier. Emerging markets have lower per-capita incomes, above-average sociopolitical instability, higher unemployment, and lower levels of business or industrial activity relative to the United States; however, they also typically have much higher economic growth rates.” Previous examples of emerging market countries are former Soviet Union countries, as well as others Eastern bloc nations.

In 2001 economist Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the term “BRIC” to describe the emerging economies in Brazil, Russia, India and China. In 2011, the World Bank stated that BRIC countries will lead the world’s economy with more than a half of all global growth by 2025. (China and India are considered the largest of the BRIC economies and will be the focus of upcoming blog posts in this series).

As emerging markets grow, their increasing appetite for food and natural resources also grows, which creates new markets for companies in established economies like the United States,. For BRI, we have embraced the opportunities created by emerging markets around the world as we seek innovative ways to meet global food production demands.

BRI CEO Dr. Giles Shih said, “BRI is proud to be a sponsor of this conference at NC State University and focus attention on how life science innovations can address challenges in global sustainability.”

According to the Stewards of the Future website, the conference featured “internationally recognized scientists and policy makers discuss(ing) the imperative of leveraging research partnerships in the agricultural and life sciences to meet urgent challenges to human health, the environment, social well-being and the global economy.” Keynote speakers were Nobel Laureate Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Institute Professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Mr. Juan Enriquez, Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, Chair and CEO of Biotechonomy LLC, and Co-founder of Synthetic Genomics.

“Economic ‘globalization‘ is a historical process, the result of human innovation and technological progress. It refers to the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through the movement of goods, services, and capital across borders. The term sometimes also refers to the movement of people (labor) and knowledge (technology) across international borders. There are also broader cultural, political, and environmental dimensions of globalization.”

Globalization suggests that information, knowledge and opportunity are decentralized and shared, such that people who once did not have access to each other now do. Thomas Friedman states it this way.

“[T]he inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before . . . . the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world ” (Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999, p. 7-8).

As the marketplace expands, resources and opportunities grow as well. This results in more labor competitiveness and production efficiency. It also increases potential markets for customers and economic gains. Ideally, as globalization accelerates there will be increased opportunities for collaboration between nations, multinational corporations and communities. As new products and services, as well as additional capital are integrated into the social fabric of communities, those communities benefit from the development of better educational and healthcare systems, among other things.

So why the focus on globalization in the BRI blog?

When we first started BioResource International, Inc. in 1999, we intentionally included “international” in the name, with just a vague notion that there would be some sort of international aspect to our business. Fast forward 13 years later and we see “fingerprints” of globalization all over BRI – we have venture investors from Asia, Taiwanese suppliers and a logistics office there. And through our partnership with Novus International, we are starting to see sales growth of Versazyme and Valkerase all over the world. We joke that wherever they grow chickens, that is where BRI wants to be. And since poultry production is a global business, our business has taken us all over the world, from Lima, Peru to Beijing, China and many places in between. So in the next few weeks, we hope to shed some light on this multi-faceted topic and offer some of our personal insights on how globalization has impacted us and how it might impact you as well, if it hasn’t already. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions throughout this series.

On the downside, industrial farms do concentrate the use of natural resources and pesticides. A post from Chris Ripps of Building Sustainable Lifestyles describes this perspective further:

“Until very recently, the world’s food systems were run by small farmers (less than 10 acres). Most large commercial farms are in the tens of thousands of acres. With this combination of resources; land, equipment, facilities, infrastructure, come inherent weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Crop failures due to flooding, insect infestations, molds and disease are only the beginning of the risks facing mega farms. The more decentralized the food system, the more capable it is to withstand these devastating events.”

While we can point to local community farms and collaboratives as a means for creating sustainable local food cycles, the reality is that large scale industrial farms are here to stay and will continue to play a key role for meeting the food needs of our country and the world. So while local buying habits are important, there is still a need for larger industrial farms that make food production more affordable and healthier for everyone.

We previously discussed the “Double Burden” of malnutrition on the global scale. The global population of 7 billion people includes 10% who are obese and 10% who are facing food shortages. These both comprise a malnutrition epidemic. At BRI we believe that technology and innovative solutions will provide options and solutions for addressing these critical challenges. At BRI we are driven by what we call the “Big Green Chicken” concept – developing products that help farmers grow healthier chickens in a more sustainable manner!

As the founder and CEO of  BRI, I have found it very rewarding to be part of a team that has turned a laboratory insight into a product that provides real value for consumers worldwide. But we are not resting on our laurels – moving forward, BRI plans to expand on its current product lines and introduce new products and develop other technologies that will help promote economic and environmental sustainability. Keep up with the latest developments at BRI by visiting our website www.briworldwide.com.

One strategy food producers have adopted to address the challenges associated with rising food costs includes embracing innovative new products and practices. This type of innovation is less about packaging and more about creating better nutrition and performance at lower cost. When the population has access to affordable, healthy foods, their quality of life increases. Healthy diets lower medical and insurance costs by addressing health issues associated with high fat and high sugar foods. Healthy foods contribute to healthy diets by delivering nutrient dense, protein rich products to the human body. In addition to financial quality of life issues, there are also benefits that come through better energy, focus and activity at home and work. There is growing research that a healthy diet contributes to better mental health as well.

We at BRI want to be part of the solution. Our products help lower food costs and provide increased profits for producers. We view this as a win-win situation. We invite you to read one story about a company, Natural Nutrients, who found better performance and lower costs, benefitting both the producer and consumer.