Taiwan Earthquake Cables Down & The Urge to Merge
I had a difficult time trying to post today. Apparently Telekom Malaysia's pipes to the US & Japan were down because of a massive 7.1 Richter scale earthquake in Taiwan. So connectivity to the US & hence Blogger was down all day. Its up now but very very slow. I had such a frustrating time trying to upload something to this blog bec of that. Gave up in the end & just trying again now at midnight.
Makes you realise how dependent we are on technology. One earthquake, many lives disrupted. Of course its nothing compared to the real lives of Taiwanese & others directly affected by the earthquake.
Just exchanged emails with an old friend in Indonesia (He's actually Canadian, American, but very Asian something or the other). He's been in Indonesia for a few years after quitting the entrepreneurial career path as his Internet venture closed down but looks like the Entrepreneur in him is itching to get back into the game. He believes that making money in Indonesia is not that difficult (I agree), except not in technology. He's thinking of the F&B (thats food & beverage for the uninitiated) industry. So I gave him my 2 rupiah's worth.
Don't do one of those single store ventures like a single restaurant. Go for the chain store concept like a Starbucks or San Francisco Coffee (which is actually a Malaysian venture despite the name). Build a few, maybe some on franchise, grow revenues, reach US$ 1 mil in profits, then merge with a few competitors, create a large entity & then list on a friendly market like AIM in the UK. This way with even a smallish US$1 mil profit company, merged with other profitable entities, you can list & create a US$ 100 mil venture and all this can be done in 5 years.
How do I know this? Well thats what the Americans & Europeans do. The 'urge to merge' is a very Western concept, not often practised in Asia. Thats why we have large entities in the West but only small ones in Asia.
But Asian's like to be "Chief's in their own small village", which explains why M&A activities are few & far between in Asia. But that is the way of the future.
Hope you had a great Christmas (or holidays if you are not celebrating Christmas).
Makes you realise how dependent we are on technology. One earthquake, many lives disrupted. Of course its nothing compared to the real lives of Taiwanese & others directly affected by the earthquake.
Just exchanged emails with an old friend in Indonesia (He's actually Canadian, American, but very Asian something or the other). He's been in Indonesia for a few years after quitting the entrepreneurial career path as his Internet venture closed down but looks like the Entrepreneur in him is itching to get back into the game. He believes that making money in Indonesia is not that difficult (I agree), except not in technology. He's thinking of the F&B (thats food & beverage for the uninitiated) industry. So I gave him my 2 rupiah's worth.
Don't do one of those single store ventures like a single restaurant. Go for the chain store concept like a Starbucks or San Francisco Coffee (which is actually a Malaysian venture despite the name). Build a few, maybe some on franchise, grow revenues, reach US$ 1 mil in profits, then merge with a few competitors, create a large entity & then list on a friendly market like AIM in the UK. This way with even a smallish US$1 mil profit company, merged with other profitable entities, you can list & create a US$ 100 mil venture and all this can be done in 5 years.
How do I know this? Well thats what the Americans & Europeans do. The 'urge to merge' is a very Western concept, not often practised in Asia. Thats why we have large entities in the West but only small ones in Asia.
But Asian's like to be "Chief's in their own small village", which explains why M&A activities are few & far between in Asia. But that is the way of the future.
Hope you had a great Christmas (or holidays if you are not celebrating Christmas).
posted by Dr. Siva @ 11:55 PM
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