Let It Be (P2)
Businessworld
The middle class’ economic strength drives progress with their large numbers and spending capacity compared to the upper class’ large spending but limited size, and the lower class’ large size but limited spending. The Administration’s good governance, specifically the responsible husbandry of our Filipino Expats’ talents and their remittances helped form an economy resistant to the Economic Meltdown’s ravages.
To some extent the Financial Crisis was exacerbated by corporations’ archaic business strategies, increasingly unfit for a market that, battered by the Subprime Crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices, virtually changed their preferences overnight. I say, either they adjust to shifting economic settings, or “let them bleed to death.”
Business is Darwinian: it’s survival of the fittest. The towering T-rex was eclipsed by smaller raptors’ speed and strategic thinking – proving that agility, not size ensures survival.
Asia’s Middle Class Rising (P1)
Businessworld
The writing is on the wall for Filipino Entrepreneurs to catch the spending deluge coming from Chinese, Indian and other newly-prosperous Asian middle-class markets.
The global middle class is experiencing unprecedented growth, from 43% of the global population in 2000, to 50% in 2006. Of this population, Asian countries’ middle class comprises 60%. China’s middle class population swelled from 15% (1990) to 62% (2005), an estimated manpower of 815 million. India, Asia’s third-largest economy is estimated to have a 50 million middle class population seen to grow tenfold by 2025.
Definitions of “middle class” differ widely. The developing world’s middle class earns about $2-$13 daily – a stark contrast compared to America’s “middle class”, earning $91-$151 daily.
Spreading Wealth
Businessworld
There is a trend towards a socialized Capitalism, qualifying Milton Friedman's simplistic definition that corporate social responsibility (CSR) meant corporations maximizing value for their stockholders. Today profit-minded business is converging with social service/value, the former finding validation in the latter.
It’s an emerging rethink on how Entrepreneurs are doing business. If John Gokongwei's donation (some Php10 billion), or hotel magnate William Hilton’s pledging 97% of his $2.3 billion fortune to the Hilton Foundation is any indication, it is related to the businessman's total view, something we are only beginning to understand.