World Politics and the entrepreneur

A lecture, last month from Thierry Garcin, a commentator on the French Radio, boasted my interest in world affairs. We listened daily to world news; perhaps we may tender a soft ear to these world occurrences. As I am quite keen on world affairs, I need to document more on the subject. With the internet, it is possible and convenient to read the worldwide media there on.

Much like a jig saw, the small pieces of news diffused everyday fit in a larger frame that in time draws the world wide trends. More so, in the globalised economies of different countries and the speed of transmission of news, geopolitical events and for that matter any large events affect any country fast. Thus an entrepreneur cannot turn a deaf ear to world news and needs to constantly updated and analyse the impact of ourselves.

As we are not on the fore front of world economics, we have the time and more interestingly the advance knowledge of seeing the impact of world happenings reaching our shore. We saw few months ago, the impact of the financial crisis and its delayed effect on us. The crunch on world travel and its repercussions on Tourism are now felt.

I have to deplore the reaction time of us Mauritians to deal with these situations. I must admit that in the case of the tourism sector, the industry reacted reasonably well. A smart operator will thus be able to bank on the slot of the changing time to maximise on his profits. I must admit that I was not smart enough to review my portfolio of investment the last time to minimise my book lost.

The wish and deployment of China in building their infra structure of their country in the last decade has put on pressure on the price on building material, petroleum products, coal and even shipping chartering. As a businessman, the strategy deployed on your market is different depending the way you perceive the trend of the market. In a recession, whilst demand is on a decrease and the prices are going up, the entrepreneur needs to readjust his actions. As recently as 2years ago, an entrepreneur who was in building material in Mauritius, was in a euphoric expanding market with the depression in prices of materials. It was possibly to maximise his profits in turning around his stock fast. The global scene has suddenly changed now, a quick readjustment is required.

Thank you Thierry Garcin for opening my mind and giving my tips on analysis world happenings.