Wealth, Speed and Deming
Paqqqrt 3 of A Marshall Plan for the World
How Insurers Came to Dominate Global Trade
In a word ...speed.
There is no finer example of the efficient and effective delivery of goods and services from conception to shelf than Inditex/Zara.
First- A Little History
How France Won America - Again
I first became aware of the discounting of export trade receivables on the basis of export credit insurance in 1979, when my friend Richard headed TradeCard's business development efforts. During one of our many lunch conversations, Richard responded after I inquired as to how TradeCard was able to discount export receivables that were unsecured. "They are insured," Richard said. Richard explained with "Coface," in anticipation of my next question which was by whom.
Fast Forward
Coface, an insurer of both domestic and export receivables is now BPI//France.
Back to the Future
I have been curious about military history, socio-economics, political philosopgy, comparative government and the various forms of trade finance ever since I sat in a rocking chair next to my father as he taught me about the basics of global trade more than 66 years ago.
How do I remember the details? Through Music! I was taught as a child to associate music with my education.
Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band
"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'Into the future Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'Into the futureI wanna fly like an eagle To the seaFly like an eagle Let my spirit carry meI want to fly like an eagle'Till I'm free Oh, Lord, through the revolution
Feed the babies Who don't have enough to eat Shoe the children With no shoes on their feet House the people livin' in the street Oh, oh, there's a solution I want to fly like an eagleTo the sea Fly like an eagle Let my spirit carry me I want to fly like an eagle'Till I'm free Fly through the revolution."
Some 25 years after my father taught me about global trade, my friend Richard and I conversed about Guy Tozzoli of World Trade Center Associates. Tozzoli had intriguingly described his automated engine for matching trade invoices with purchase orders and the settling of these matches in an automated fashion - with what he described as a settlement "engine," once the receivables were insured. I was intrigued not only because I worked in the same building as Tozzoli, (One World Trade Center);
but also because I have long been curious about alternative trade finance and settlement methodologies.
Tozzoli's nascent efforts turned into TradeCard. TradeCard, where Richard worked after World Trade Center Associates, grew into GT/Nexus which was purchased by Infor. The financing of trade receivables based on insuring the risk of non-payment for political and commercial reasons, is now a multi-billion business. Institutions like Factor's Chain have been exchanging information and engaging in KYC since the Middle Ages and long before SWIFT/ICC established their joint KYC database.
Curiously, Charles Koch now privately owns Infor/Nexus, the most dominant financial institution involved in financing SMEs in America.
Energy
Daniel Yergin;
Jeremy Rifkin;
Vaclav Smil;
and now Bill Gates;
exhort that access to cheap energy and Science hold the answer to the advance of Civilization and they are right to a degree; with several significant footnotes;
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of Vision, for the limits of the World" ~ Schopenhauer
Inditex/Zara
Speed and perseverance are the keys to the advancement of process.
6/6/15 8:09 AM
Amancio Ortega: a practically unheard-of billionaire, just blew past household name Warren Buffett to be the second-richest man in the world, according to Bloomberg. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is worth $85.5 billion, remains first.
Oretega, who has amassed a net worth of $71.5 billion, is the founding chairman of the Inditex fashion group, the world’s largest apparel retailer. Inditex is best known for its chain of Zara clothing and accessories shops, which had sales of $19.7 billion in fiscal 2014.
Deming, as a result of his experiences in Japan, conceived of a new idea about work.
There is joy in work. Applied to Strategy, there is joy in winning.
