Global Trade: "The world is your oyster. Get shuckin'."

"The world is your oyster. Get shuckin'."

The Bottom Line: The World Is Getting Smaller But The Opportunity Is Getting Bigger For Those Who Grab It.

Over many years, I've enjoyed getting to know countless individuals and the organizations they represent worldwide. As I've travelled and lived internationally, I've experienced the warmth of many welcomes and the sense that good people really do make the world a smaller, better place. From intimate conversations in a fellow lawyer's family kitchen in eastern Europe sheltering from bitter cold and snow, to the baking hot back of a van in the streets of sunny Manila on our way to see the President, and to the grand visage of the Nasdaq entertainment suite overlooking Times Square. And many more..

I've always had an interest in geography and international affairs. I was, candidly, a pretty rotten Geography student as I was (also) a rotten Physics student. But I enjoy people, places and the uniqueness of interacting with people. Perhaps that's my Irish soul coming through.

Like many perhaps, I was relatively shy in my younger days - small talk didn't come easy in early professional life. I think this is something that a lot of younger folks in business and professional life find hard - the art of making conversation - and starting it from scratch. It's fun once you get the hang of it - at least I find it so. I'm pretty direct in sticking out my hand to essentially anyone to at least say hi and get into conversation. You never know who you may get to meet just by saying hi.

I moved to New York almost literally overnight to be Chief Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer for the global headquarters of a major global bank - one of the largest urban regeneration projects of its kind then and even since. I subsequently ran several business support lines globally and that was when my curiosity became really piqued about global arbitrage. To run globally, we needed to think and operate globally - once you get that, the rest becomes plain. It's part enabling technology and part follow-the-sun labor arbitrage. Years later, an entire vocabulary and industry known as "outsourcing" grew from what we did in those early days. It was the springboard into looking at the world in terms of what is really out there and what is really possible if we leave our preconceptions to one side.

It is many years now since I first put my shoulder to the wheel in seeking to raise the profile of global trade dialog - collaborating with friends and peers early on in the formation of the Global Sourcing Council (GSC). The GSC was ahead of its time in speaking to the issues of sourcing, sustainability and social responsibility but all involved can be profoundly proud of helping to slowly but surely move the needle.

In a similar timeframe, and along the way, I got to know as cherished friends and peers many of the leading figures in international trade and government working for and with the Philippines, Indonesia, China, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Israel, the UK, and indeed Russia to name a few. Each country brings its own unique strength and characteristics to the table. The art of its representatives is to help others connect with this and these individuals do that so very well and so very graciously.

To the present day. The world continues to emerge from an unprecedented worldwide affliction - the pandemic that crippled people's movement, health and countries' entire economies. Few could possibly have seen how this devastation would strike and the vast global consequences it could muster.

Yet. And this is why I have such a passion for global trade and the people and organizations involved in it.

The world never truly sleeps - or stops.

As surely as the world was clobbered by the most horrible and vicious of plagues, it is rebounding back. The individuals and organizations I speak of - and those countries they represent and more - are starting to lean in again. They're ready for better days - and there are plenty ahead.

In recent weeks, I've had the great joy and privilege of connecting and re-connecting with many folks - juggling timezones, notoriously bad internet and cellphone connections and not enough sleep - to listen. Yes, to listen to what is happening, what is emerging, where the new energy is appearing in these economies. It's a little like the joy of watching the first buds of Spring - or the opening of rich green leaves on trees you know will provide shelter from the summer sun.

The harsh Winter of pandemic cost lives, health, wealth, happiness and more - but it couldn't stop the emergence of Spring. And I can say, with some emphasis, that Spring has sprung around the world. There is an abundance of energy, goodwill and opportunities breaking forth - and the sight is, frankly, a thing of beauty. The world, which sat in a state of sad darkness for many months, is open for business again.

So yes, as the saying goes: "The world is your oyster." It is ours. My advice to anyone reading this is, simply, "Get shuckin'." It's there for the taking.

DK '23

#hipcounsel #globaltrade #urbanregeneration