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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: energyplay who wrote (62003)	3/15/2010 1:51:27 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217866

Servant-Schreiber "The American Challenge". The first serious book I read. Bought it second had. I got a taste fo political economy with it and never stopped. The US size had ballooned out of proportion and his book opened the eyes of Europe for the fact that the second industry in the world was becoming the American industry in Europe.

To: energyplay who wrote (62003)	3/15/2010 2:30:28 PM
From: dybdahl	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217866

I usually say that USA is extremely good at scaling things from zero to huge, while Europe often focuses more on niches and businesses that are too complex for the CEO to understand. In USA, if the CEO says "run this way", everybody starts to run this way. In Northern Europe, if the CEO says "run this way", the employees start to discuss why the CEO wants to run in a wrong direction and then they return to do something more meaningful. Company culture allows cross-division communication and even cross-company communication without asking your boss, first, and many employees don't know the name of their own CEO. To me, Steve Jobs is a perfect example of a great leader of a great American company, whereas Novo Nordisk is a great example of the leading innovative company in my country (most patents). I know a lot of people who work for Novo Nordisk, but I have no clue who their CEO is. Who cares? He's just around to help the others produce value. Similarly, our local toy company, Lego, is often discussed in the media, but nobody would be able to mention the name of the Lego CEO. South Europe, on the other hand, is totally different. They were extremely late on eBusiness, some countries still have grid-locked labor markets, a huge language problem (rejecting English), and they don't seem to benefit a lot from the fall of communism. From being the center of (west)Europe, France is now at the edge of Europe. Many Europeans still believe that Mont Blanc, which is a 4810 meter mountain on the French/Italian border, is the highest mountain in Europe. That was said before the fall of communism, because back then "Europe" usually referred to west Europe. However, the tallest mountain in Europe is the 5621 meter Mount Elbrus, in Russia close to George. This is just one of many facts that Europeans are relearning during these decades, and some populations are better at it, than others.