Information abounds and both buyers and sellers start on the Internet. The seller asks, “Can I market and sell this myself,” and the buyer asks, “Can I find this myself?” The seller is thinking they can give the buyer a better deal and still make more themselves as a result of efficiency and cost saving and the buyer is thinking the same way. What percentage of U.S.conferences were held off shore last year and is that increasing or decreasing? How many “virtual meetings” are taking place on-line due to newer and higher speed internet connectivity? How will these trends impact you and your organization?

Last year Coca-Cola Co earned 68 percent of its profit outside North America. Today KIA, a South Korean…not a European, Japanese or American car manufacturer is gobbling up the US automobile market. Beware; ignoring technology and the global economy to either purchase from or sell to is foolhardy. Competitors you’ve never even thought about are taking steroids and attacking your markets.

Information abounds and both buyers and sellers start on the Internet. The seller asks, “Can I market and sell this myself,” and the buyer asks, “Can I find this myself?” The seller is thinking they can give the buyer a better deal and still make more themselves as a result of efficiency and cost saving and the buyer is thinking the same way.

What percentage of U.S.conferences were held off shore last year and is that increasing or decreasing? How many “virtual meetings” are taking place on-line due to newer and higher speed internet connectivity? How will these trends impact you and your organization?

A transparent world pumped up by the Internet is allowing for instant transfer of data and information worldwide. Closed-circuit cameras in public places, satellites eavesdropping over every part of the globe and GPS systems are tracking both us and the products and services we produce and distribute.

Don’t like transparency? Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, said “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.” Cheap access to information and digitalization have created the opportunity for “virtual meetings” while leveling the global playing field and creating a competitive environment never seen before.

Historically governments and large companies were the only ones with the resources to gather and evaluate huge amounts of information. As the Gutenberg printing press enhanced information flow and changed the world forever, the Internet, digitalization and transparency form a new Gutenberg press that’s on steroids.

Now an average individual, anywhere in the world, has as much power as big business or government to watch what’s going on. With the proliferation of technology, digitized information is instantly available to almost everyone.

With information and images able to span the globe in minutes and the need for multinational corporations to bring their people together, how will this technology change your business? How will your organization both take advantage of and protect itself from the competition created in this new reality?

For generations, incumbents have been defending themselves against insurgents, who are trying to take away their market with better, cheaper, faster and easier to use products and services.

Recently, 2 billion new insurgents have entered the competitive race. These literate Asians are ambitious and believe that most Americans are obscenely overpaid and already play a significant role in our domestic hotel industry. They want what we take for granted and are willing to work for it.

While lower-cost manufacturing, telemarketing, and call center jobs have been exported for years, highly skilled programming and IT functions are now leaving our country. Over two million US tax returns will be prepared overseas this year and it’s only a matter of time. Are the products or services you offer vulnerable?

Remember when, in 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue super-computer beat the world’s best chess player, Garry Kasparov? Any task that relies on crunching numbers or following a routine process, or whose job can be broken down into a set of rules that can be replicated is in jeopardy.

Are we witnessing the end of the meeting and event planning industry as we know it? Verizon, using Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) hopes to be able to feed signals to 3 million homes by next year granting instant access to any and all video or audio content ever produced anywhere, at any time.

What impact could the same technology, Internet Protocol TV, have on you? Forrester Research predicted that 40 percent of U.S. homes will be using it to by 2009 and, almost with certainty; businesses will use it as well. Beware of fierce and inexpensive competitors on steroids, both technological and foreign insurgents.

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