Free Water

I recently came across this video which showed me how a small simple idea can grow into a multi-million dollar non-profit organization. The video above pretty much explains the whole story. Anybody would be awestruck by such an ingenious plan to help so many people. Let me go into more depth.

Scott Harrison founded “charity: water” in 2006 when he was 31 with the motive of wanting more out of his life. Having previously been a NYC club promoter, he committed 2 years of his life studying the poverty situation through volunteer services. By tracing problems surrounding these situations, he deduced that a lack of clean water was a key factor. After which he began using his network to garner as much support for his cause as possible. As mentioned in the video, he started using the simple idea of giving up his birthday presents and asking people to give him a small sum of $20 instead.

When I first watched this video, I could only think how innovative this man was. How many people could honestly change so many people’s lives just by this simple idea? The truth is almost everyone. By creating awareness, the organization has raised over 40 million dollars as of July 1 2011 and this number continues to rise. The idea has struck so many people over the last 5 years that donations have been received from over 50,000 individuals and served about 19 countries in the world. People’s attention was captured since it was founded. So ask yourself, how do you start from scratch and grow to a multi-million dollar organization in such a short span of time?

Obviously if I had the answer to that above question, I wouldn’t be talking about it but rather getting on with the answer. The truth is that it’s easier said that done. However this example here shows us the importance of drive and passion when you’re trying to grow your company. Scott Harrison found a cause he believed in and it pushed him to “never stop” contributing to his organization. By aligning thousands of peoples interests with his own, he managed to do something huge for the people who require that simple resource that we take for granted everyday.

Inspiring don’t you think?

The end of bookstores?

During the past months there has been a lot of speculation about which e-book reader technology would become the most popular. Let us change gears for a moment and take a closer look at the book industry itself and at the future of independent bookstores more in particular.

Not only now do these independent bookstores experience significant competitive threats, but this has been the case for several decades. The first threat arose with the surge of large bookstore chains, which offered a larger selection of books. Afterwards, readers had the possibility to purchase their books cheaper via the internet. Consecutively, large brick and mortar companies started selling books at discounts. And most recently, it is e-book technology which challenges the existence of independent bookstores. What made these independent bookstores survive during the past decades and how can they remain competitive?

Identify your shop as a community cornerstone

The first option independent bookstores have, is to identify their shop as a key asset or centre point of the local community. To create community involvement, independent bookstore owners should organise book club meetings and arrange for appearances of bestselling authors. This larger community involvement will convince customers of the added value of paper books compared to e-books and will create a larger footfall to your shops and potentially drive sales.

Increase your product range to other products

If your core products, books, are in danger, leverage this exposure by offering other products. You should include convenience products, such as stationary products, near the counter so shoppers can look at them when they are queuing up. There even exist independent bookstores which offer almost completely different product lines next to their traditional ones. Other shop owners make their shop look unique or put nice sofas and coffee stands in it – assets which internet shops can’t offer. If your shop focuses on comic books, you can sell miniature versions of comic book heroes.

Control your costs

The major operating costs for an independent bookstore are labour and rental costs. It is important to control these costs as much as possible in difficult times. Next to this, take a closer look at costs related to your inventory and your book range. Define your shop image by determining the optimal inventory level and your selection of books by answering the next question: Will you attract more customers by offering titles which cannot be found in larger bookstores or does it make more sense for your shop to create a certain image by focusing on a particular genre of books?

Determine your optimal store format and image

It is funny how a decade ago, large bookstores out competed independent smaller bookstores because of their larger offerings and that now the situation has turned around because of the new competitive threats coming from large brick and mortar shops offering books at a discount, the internet and e-book technology. In this new competitive environment, it is not just the mega format which will be successful. As an example here is the bankruptcy of Borders earlier this year; this large bookstore chain operated with too large retail space while losing customers to e-book versions of many books. Clearly, nowadays there is also room for smaller store formats. In this way independent book stores can identify themselves as vendors of specialty books to attract a certain niche, while book stores in city centres still can afford to have a larger store format. What kind of niches are there? Basically all professions, hobbies and pastimes are documented in books. Organise your shop towards that particular niche.

In a nutshell, facing fierce competition of the book industry, independent bookstores can remain competitive by leveraging their importance to the community, by carefully assessing their location and its impact to the store size and lastly by identifying their shop as a specialty store focusing on a certain niche.

Finally it is useful to understand that the loss of independent bookstores will be detrimental for societies because they function as a cornerstone for general education and for social contact between community members. Next to this, I am sure that many of us have had the experience of wandering in a bookstore and, unexpectedly, finding a particular book which captures your strongest interests. Checking book titles on the internet can’t provide you with such a feeling. It is important for bookstores to emphasize these qualities in order to remain competitive. 

Occupy Wall Street

A recent Hagar the Horrible comic strip shows Hagar, our Viking protagonist, walking into a bar, where he meets a man who dressed like Robin Hood – green tunic, green hat with a feather stuck in it, and a quiver of arrows. “So what do you do for a living, stranger?”, Hagar asks. “Well,” the man replied, “I rob from the poor to give to the rich”. An incredulous Hagar retorts - “What kind of business is that?

“It’s part of the banking business”, the man snaps back, taking a patrician sip of wine.

It’s amazing how public perception of bankers have soured in recent years, especially since the Lehman Brothers saga. The recent – and ongoing – Occupy Wall Street movement, which brought a taste of the Arab Spring uncomfortably close to Uncle Sam’s own financial heart, captures this sentiment perfectly.

The movement has been portrayed by its advocates as a protest by an increasingly disenfranchised ‘99%’ against the current form of capitalism and its elite Brahmin class on Wall Street. But it is so new that the media and its pundits, from ignoring it in its early days, still can’t make head or tails of this sudden outburst. Much less the general public. Or even the protestors themselves. It’s definitely not just about making the rich pay more taxes. The overall sense is one of a general malaise within the system that no one is yet able to put a finger on.

And what we can’t diagnose properly, we can’t treat properly. The importance of keyhole economics, instead of vague, reactionary measures, cannot be stressed more – not unlike effective surgery on a very sick patient. It would be naïve to presume that there are simple solutions to complex problems, much less problems we cannot even clearly identify yet. We know something is wrong, but what exactly? And is there a better alternative that we can turn to?

President Obama hit the nail on its head when he spoke of the frustration of the people at a recent press conference, and this is perhaps the closest we can come to making sense of the movement, in a single, simple word. Frustration.

Looking at fresh developments of similar protests sprouting up in major cities around the world, against a backdrop of growing economic uncertainty in the global economy and rather deep-rooted shortcomings in the US and European economies, one can’t help but wonder, if Marx had been right all along, that this system is increasingly unsustainable?

The feeling of frustration is perhaps one arising out of a sense of being stuck in a rut – that we are stuck with this system as far as we can see, with its increasingly obvious shortcomings. The sentiment that there is no proverbial light at the end of an increasingly long, and dark tunnel.

The real question that this movement raises is quo vadis, America? Where to, America? Less importantly (to us, but maybe not to the millions of Americans), can America, and the American Dream, continue to provide leadership and inspiration to the rest of the world into this new century?

This is a worrying question. The problems of the system are perhaps glaringly obvious, but can we come up with an adequate solution? Can we fix it through keyhole economics, or is an entire systemic overhaul needed? And is there a political will to see it through, above the pragmatic, short-term interests of partisan politics? Change, we can?

There already is a growing sentiment – and body of evidence - that change is a must. Real change, not superficial change. And within any change is both opportunity and risk, which have to be managed carefully, and conscientiously. Then there may be light at the end of the tunnel – we just have to plan critically, tread carefully, act decisively, and keep our fingers crossed that it is not a speeding train.

There goes the competition

The first thought that popped into my head when I heard about AT & T making a bid for T-Mobile a while back was “Uh oh, there goes the competition”. In recent days, however, it seems that the pending merger has since been blocked by the Department of Justice due to antitrust concerns. They claim that the merger would create a duopoly market, which would result in consumers facing “higher prices, less product variety and innovation, and poor quality services due to reduced incentives to invest”.

Many governments and consumers flinch at the words “monopoly” and “duopoly”, and understandably so. Monopolies and duopolies have been given a rather bad name in economic textbooks all over for being static, inefficient and basically lazy. Once in a monopoly position, organizations tend to slack off and be less innovative. In order to raise or maintain profits, they pump up prices rather than invent new methods to reduce costs – simply because it is the easier way out. Consumers have little choice but to accept anything that the organization throws at them, especially if the service it is providing is essential. Hence, the Department of Justice’s fears of slipshod service and higher prices following AT&T and T-Mobile’s merger are not unfounded. Still, can nothing good come out of it?

Contrary to popular belief, AT&T and T-Mobile’s merger may actually benefit consumers and increase competition rather than stifle it. By merging with T-Mobile, AT&T will acquire a lot of equipment and resources that are vital in helping them widen their network coverage and improve signal strengths. Since regulatory bodies often block moves by these types of carriers to expand their network bases, such a merger will help them move forward with improving service for their customers.

The merger also seems likely to spur innovation and create competition rather than suffocate it. AT&T aims to use this opportunity to drive the implementation of a nationwide 4G network that would be a strong competitor to landline broadband services.

Or so they say? Can’t blame the Department of Justice for being doubtful! As AT&T gears up to fight back against the lawsuit, it will certainly be interesting to see how things pan out. 

Is the answer to print?

Looking at America’s debt figures always comes as a shock. They are truly staggering and rather incomprehensible to a normal citizen. To date, America’s debt stands at approximately $15 trillion, and has topped 100% of GDP. Amazingly, these numbers look set to keep on rising. Some analysts predict that American debt will increase to $19 trillion by 2015. I thought to myself – How in the world are they going to pay up?

At present, America’s economic outlook is grim at best. Stubbornly high unemployment figures, a recent credit rating downgrade and shaky unconfident markets do not exactly paint a very pretty picture of the current state of the US economy. In the meantime, while their economy is spluttering along, other countries are coming up from behind looking to catch up.  Frankly speaking, they look very ill positioned to pay off anything.

Despite this, America still has an ace up its sleeve. When the time comes for America to pay its bills, it can actually just print more of the dollar. Of course, the Fed would not just churn out $15 trillion worth of currency, as the fact remains that paper money has to be backed by gold. Doing so without increasing their gold reserves would cause the greenback to become banana money – completely worthless. However, by printing dollars in a controlled manner, America will be able to pay off some of its debt, because it’s denominated in USD. Going by the basic demand and supply principles of economics, increasing the supply of the dollar would cause it to depreciate relative to other currencies. Although holders of American debt would be getting their money back, its true value would have decreased.

As it would no longer be as favourable to convert American currency into other currencies, the best way to make full use of these dollars would be to spend it in America. Its export markets will start to grow again, which will hopefully stimulate its economy further to generate more cash to pay up.

Obviously, printing obscene amounts of money is not a long-term solution, nor is it enough to pay off everything. Congress needs to start rolling out a series of policies and plans that will make the American economy structurally sound. Without a firm foundation to back it, even this ace will not be able to save them.

London Burning

Following the fiasco over the US debt ceiling, its subsequent credit rating downgrade, as well as the uncertainty over the Eurozone crisis in recent days, markets have been thrown into a panic. The British economy, although fraught with its own problems (such as tough austerity measures), was viewed as a sanctuary of some sort – strong in its credit ratings, comparatively liquid and hosting a relatively promising property market.

Unfortunately for the struggling British economy, this perspective has now been tarnished by the violence and unrest that was sparked off by the shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29 –year-old black man. The videos and images online are shocking – people in hoods looting shops, cars vandalized, windows smashed and fires ablaze. The riots have hit London especially hard, with violence and crimes not only occurring in the poorer areas of Tottenham, but also closer to the heart of the city – Camden, Hackney and so on.

The opinion of many is that the shooting had broken the floodgates of frustration of many impoverished Londoners. The austerity measures put in place in a bid to control Britain’s crippling debt have left many struggling to make ends meet, or even put a roof over their heads. After all, the riots began in Tottenham, which has the highest unemployment rate in London. Despite the speculation, the true cause of why the rioters are causing havoc has yet to emerge.

Whatever the reasons may be, it is time for the government to step in and put a stop to the chaos. The city plans to host the Olympics next year, and certainly cannot afford to have people lose confidence in the ability of the Metropolitan police to keep the peace. With its debt problems and hints of a double dip recession approaching, these riots could seriously damage Britain’s economy if not swiftly dealt with.

Should the root cause of the problem be poverty, how is the government going to help the frustrated and suffering while reining in its debt at the same time? Outreach programs and unemployment benefits all cost money that the British economy may not be able to come up with. As David Cameron puts it – “It is clear that there are things badly wrong in our society.” Question is, how are they going to right it and restore order to the once vibrant city of London?

The Importance of Tolerance

I admittedly frequently take tolerance for granted. I grew up in Singapore, a cosmopolitan and mostly harmonious city populated with a web of people of different colours and backgrounds. Growing up in such an environment has made it easy for a young Singaporean such as myself to forget that my country once struggled to achieve racial harmony as well – which is why I am often shocked by the level of prejudice there is all around us. 

Take the recent attacks in Norway for example. On July 22^nd, anti-Islamist Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo and proceeded to murder 69 people attending a summer camp on a nearby island. Although horrific on a multitude of levels, the sad thing is that the event was simply one of the many that has occurred over the history of humankind that showed that in spite of the human ability to love, much narrow-mindedness and hate exists in the world.

Although Singapore is a peaceful city, upon closer examination, we too are often guilty of intolerance (though no one has gone on a killing spree because of it). For instance, Singaporeans kicked up a massive ruckus over the building of a temporary dorm for foreign workers near a residential estate. As much as we like to proclaim that we believe in racial harmony and what not, a lot of underlying feelings of xenophobia were exposed during that episode.

We are now living in a shrunken world, where huge distances no longer have the same meaning as they did in the past. Air travel has allowed millions to criss-cross the globe and experience a variety of cultures. Countless businesses have operations in various countries, and it has become ever more imperative that we express tolerance and build acceptance to build strong working relationships with overseas clients.  

So the next time that you experience a negative feeling towards someone else because of a superficial quality such as the colour of his skin, or the sound of his accent, take a step back and rethink it - because the world could use a little more tolerance.