All You Have To Do Is Dream

I have been working on a number of projects this year, some for clients and some for our own account. Nevertheless, in the current environment, even those most seasoned entrepreneurs, of which I am considered one by the silent majority, have a rough go of it. Innovative startups still generate a lot of excitement and an outlet for our creative technical juices, so long as some sage advice is followed as demonstrated by Rosalind Resnick and yours truly.

During the last several years, in particular, I have seen the focus of the business world shift from the States to China, where the market for goods and services keeps pace with the burgeoning middle class. While many folks read about it, I live it firsthand. For example, seemingly, not so long ago, many Chinese companies were interested in a US listing when they wished to go public. Yet, with all the corporate misdeeds well documented, and the avalanche of revamped rules and regulations that were there in the first place but never enforced, it is no wonder that the prestige of listing on NYSE or NASDAQ lost much of its hard earned luster to be much more company friendly that exists in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

What that has meant for my company has been a required change in strategic direction and a rebranding of sorts; we have been in business of awhile now and have managed to survive, if not prosper, as China grew. Blessed with some early insight and luck to boot, we were fortunate to be ahead of the curve, advising eager multinationals in their venture into the right way of doing business in China. But, with the downturn in the US economy, many of the client companies are now well established while the competition for comparable services offered by us is greater than ever. We were never big in terms of numbers of professionals and we remain, thankfully, well regarded and equally well connected. Yet, we are not there physically any longer, having closed our Beijing office several years ago when the air pollution in that city did not seem like it was going to get any better as we got older.

Thus, the turn to reinvent ourselves back into the startup advisers has proved to be daunting. Attracting new members to the team is also a challenge to deal with, as I have discussed here. While we had served numerous startups to success when we first started this venture more than 20 years ago, the Internet had not yet been invented by Al Gore and the Bay Bridge had just fallen down or at least a part of it. Of course, reinvention is different these days as you have so many more tools to get to a larger audience. For sure, the world is smaller, thanks to the internet and our technology friends at HP, Intel, Yahoo and Google, just to name a few of the game changes. In response, then, we (or I, since I am not sure my partners wish to be associated with my observations) opted (not necessarily by choice) to try to find new ventures at various stages that needed our advice.


More importantly, we could offer a source of capital, albeit not VC type money, and better still, a network of professionals with successful track records and who would take our calls. I must say that's a key point. Getting an audience with the right person saves an enormous amount of time and effort, both of which are highly value commodities on both sides. We do not make our network of relationships listen to endless pitches nor do we call ever without a reason. I should say that now they respond to our text as clearly, landline phones are destined to join the VCR world. Let's see what we can find out if my new idea has any legs to stand on.