Disqus - Latest Comments for scottfromshanghai

Re: My Week With Bing

scottfromshanghai — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:00:18 -0000

this is nonesense. Bing and hotmail were recently blocked in China for over a week during the Tianamen anniversary, Google was not.

Re: Give Bing A Chance

scottfromshanghai — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:39:28 -0000

I've been using it since it came out and now its just a part of my online routine (like google was). However, the one area I go back to google for is maps, not sure if it is because I am in Shanghai but Bing defaults to Multimap.com which politely informs me it has no listings for Shanghai, China!

Re: Daniel Lamarre: Can Cirque come to China?

scottfromshanghai — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:03:07 -0000

I definitely think they could come here, the availability of talent should actually make it easier for them no? They already came here to Shanghai on tour at least once and I believe had quite an editorial hand in the Era production here.

Re: Oops! Twitter Reveals My New Job

scottfromshanghai — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:36:45 -0000

congrats! welcome to wpp!

Re: A Time For Assessing "Strategic Opportunities"

scottfromshanghai — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:06:27 -0000

Here in China we always have a 5 year plan! You don't have to stick to it religously, obviously things change but its a great annual exercise to step back and renew it.

Slightly off-topic but did you see the rather public way Pillsbury mishandled their layoffs?
http://abovethelaw.com/2009...

Re: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/thoughts-on-re.html

scottfromshanghai — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:51:56 -0000

Let me know if you make it to Shanghai, happy to show you round.

Happy New Year!

Re: How To Survive A Horrible Seat Assignment

scottfromshanghai — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:07:38 -0000

Fred, continuing the vein of trying to use comedy to make you feel better, you are lucky at least you didn't travel Yorkshire Airlines http://www.youtube.com/watc... (I'm from there originally!)

Re: What To Look For Next

scottfromshanghai — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:49:19 -0000

"We have yet to see the Carnegies, McCormicks, and Rockefellers of China, India, Russia, and the Middle East emerge as capitalists on a global scale."

Not sure I agree with that, guess it depends on your definition of global scale.

For the Indians I'd certainly argue that Ratan Tata has achieved this via Tata which is a huge global conglomerate, they have already picked up western companies/brands like Tetley Tea, Landrover, Jaguar, Good Earth etc. Lashmi Mittal's (who recently joined Goldman's board) Arcelor Mittal has been the global consolidator in the steel industry buying amongst others Corus which was the rebranded British Steel - as good an example of reverse-colonialism as I've ever seen! The two Ambani brothers at Reliance are also flexing their muscles globally, witness Anil's $1.5bn recent deal with Spielberg and Dreamworks. Vijay Mallya's UB group is the world's 2nd largest Spirit's group (and a major airline), foreign deals include the purchase of Whyte & Mackay Group and his Formula 1 Team. Naresh Goyal is building a global airline with the Jet Airways brand and whilst others such as Mittal at Bharti have been mainly domestically focussed he has built up partnerships with the likes of Vodafone, Singapore Telecom, AXA, Walmart, Del Monte etc

Russian Oligarchs (none of whose names I can spell) have also been consolidators in the world of natural resources.

For China whilst there aren't necessarily individuals who are have yet built global empires, there are certainly Chinese companies who have built global and regional businesses in many domains, Lenovo is the obvious example but there are many others, just look at the natural resources industries in Africa, Latin America etc many of these are owned by Chinese.

Finally in the Middle East don't forget that given the political structure of these companies the Sovereign Wealth Funds are in most cases personal investment funds for the countries' leaders. Funds from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait have invested heavily in Western Financial Institutions and taken major stakes in assets as diverse as P&O, Cirque de Soleil and Manchester City Football Club.

I do agree with you though that the current meltdown in valuations will probably see more players emerge and the existing ones become more aggressive and more aquisitive, assuming of course the Western economies do not head down the path of protectionism...

Re: The Globalization Of Facebook

scottfromshanghai — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:09:44 -0000

My own experieince backs up the Asian growth story. Around a year ago all my expat friends started using Facebook and more recenlty many of my chinese friends and colleagues have joined (although you still need to be able to speak English). I was in Mumbai a couple of weeks ago and almost everyone I met told me the same story that they were initially with Orkut but in recent months have transitioned to Facebook.

Re: Super Delegates Have No Place In A Democracy

scottfromshanghai — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:00:59 -0000

Its a sad fact but isn't it possible to make the argument that the person best able to do back room deals and convince the superdelegates is the best candidate and the best person to be president becuase thats what its all about? Need to change more than the democratic selection rules!

Scott (albeit posting from a country which doesn't worry too much about elections)

Re: You Had To See This Coming - MSFT To Buy YHOO

scottfromshanghai — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:54:55 -0000

Fred, your comments on delicious don't mask your disappointment with what Yahoo has done (am sure its likewise with a host of their other deals). That said if MSFT buy Yahoo that takes out one of the major exit routes for startups! Maybe people will have to build sustainable longterm businesses with revenue streams rather than products that they can flip to yahoo/google?