Category: MoneyCrashers

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5 Challenges for America’s Businesses in a Global Market

american-flag-businessFor almost 200 years, America has enjoyed global leadership in science, commerce, and government. As a consequence, the United States has become one of history’s greatest economic powers, dominating the 19th and 20th centuries. The ability of Americans to “think outside the box,” their courage to challenge conventional thinking, and their confidence to persevere despite numerous setbacks has inspired generations and continues to change lives around the globe.
 
Leaders understand that greatness is more than building personal wealth or power, but creating products and services that improve the lives of individuals and the overall human condition. But as trade barriers between countries have fallen, leaders are faced with new challenges, and America’s preeminent status as the world’s dominant economy has been and will continue to be challenged as never before.

21st Century Challenges for America’s Businesses

There are a variety of factors that may negatively affect the competitiveness of American firms in the coming years, including three identified in McKinsey Quarterly:
 

1. Dynamism in Emerging Markets

The world has become “flatter” with the disappearance of natural and artificial borders that protected local and regional markets. As a consequence, markets are worldwide and more competitive, as economist and “New York Times” columnist Thomas L. Friedman predicted in 2005.
 
Within the next decade, China will be home to more large companies than either the United States or Europe, with almost one-half of the companies on Fortune’s Global 500 list of major international players hailing from emerging markets – a 900% increase in 20 years. The emergence of nearly two billion consumers in the emerging markets will create markets in their home countries to support aggressive international growth.

2. Technology and Connectivity

Moore’s Law – a computer term professing that overall processing power doubles every two years – is alive and well, and may prove to be conservative. According to SingularityHUB, many computer scientists project that the world’s first “exaflop” computer will be available before the end of this decade. An exaflop computer will perform a quintillion operations a second – the inputting power equal to the human brain.
 
As a consequence of the anticipated quantum leap in computer power, businesses can start and gain scale with stunning speed while using little capital, value will rapidly shift between country and industry sectors to reflect the constant changes, and entrepreneurs and startups will have new advantages over large established businesses. The life cycle of companies is already shortening and decision making has never had to be so rapid fire.
 
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Medical Tourism – Reasons, Risks & Potential Savings

medical tourismImagine having major surgery at an internationally accredited hospital, performed by a board-certified surgeon, and then recovering with your spouse in a four-star hotel on the beach in Costa Rica. Add daily nurse and physical therapist visits to the mix, and all for less than the cost of the surgery, hospital stay, and rehabilitation in your home city. This is medical tourism—and many Americans have recently discovered it.
 
According to the website Patients Beyond Borders, an estimated 1.2 million Americans will travel overseas in 2014 for medical and dental services. It’s also estimated that, globally, six million people will travel across international borders for less expensive (though comparable) care to save money or avoid long waits for treatment. According to the Huffington Post, British citizens are headed “to Switzerland for things like face lifts, Botox and liposuction; the Czech Republic for boob jobs, lip fillers, and nose jobs; and Thailand for teeth whitening.” The Economic Times reports that the Indian medical tourism business is growing 30% annually, with 3.2 million visitors projected to spend $2 billion U.S. in 2015.
 
Major health insurers such as Aetna, UnitedHealth, Humana, and WellPoint are experimenting with cross-border plans, according to the New Republic. Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina has contracted with foreign providers for its high-deductible, low-premium plans. While Medicare does not currently cover healthcare costs overseas, the nonpartisan group Center for Medicare Portability predicts that it’s just a matter of time—retired Americans living overseas who paid Medicare premiums during their working years are currently denied medical care or must pay out-of-pocket. In addition, there would be substantial savings in the Medicare programs since comparable services overseas cost around 60% to 70% of U.S. prices.
 
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Are Online Degrees Worth It?

online degreeAccording to a 2014 Pew Research report, Millennials—those born after 1980—are the best-educated generation in the history of the United States. More than one-third have bachelor’s degrees, compared to one in four of their parents and grandparents.
 
This statistic may surprise many readers, considering the exponential increase in the cost of education during that period. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a graduate in 1979 incurred less than $10,000 in education costs (in 2012 dollars), including room and board. By contrast, according to CollegeData, a 2013 graduate spent almost $120,000 for the same degree and owed more than $33,000 in school debt as of graduation.
 
In an effort to stem the rising costs of higher education, colleges, universities, and for-profit institutions have turned to technology. Many now offer online classes, bachelor’s degrees, and even master’s degrees in which some or all work is done over the Internet. According to a Pew Research Report, 90% of public four-year colleges and universities and 60% of private universities offer courses online. And in 2011, one-third of all students were enrolled in an online course.

Perception of an Online Degree

The question of whether an online degree has less value than a traditional degree has smoldered for years. While online courses certainly have advantages and disadvantages as compared to their traditional counterparts, employer “gatekeepers” – receptionists, HR recruiters, and resume screeners – tend to be most concerned about the reputation and quality of the educational institution.

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Tell Your Story

write1During the last five years of my father’s life, he began a series of letters and memos to my younger brother and me about his life. Dad was not a famous man, nor a particularly accomplished man – at least, not by standard measures of success. Nevertheless, his letters chronicling a childhood during the Depression in the midst of the Dust Bowl, his experiences as a infantryman on the battlefields of Europe, and life in the 1950s were an incredible record of an extraordinary life and time in the history of America.
 
After his death, his writing was collected, organized chronologically for easier reading, and bound together for each member of the family, an incomparable legacy to his grandchildren and their descendants. As his son, I take great comfort in knowing that Dad will be remembered as a good husband, father, and friend for generations to come.
 
As my father used to say, “We come into and go out of this world alone, but the quality of our lives depends upon the people we touch along the way.” Blood and bones, and stones and steel eventually fade into nothingness, but the love between parents and children, siblings, and spouses endures forever. It is the stories of love that remind us who we are and why we are here.
 
Everyone has a story and an audience eager to read, enjoy, and remember the details of each narrative. Writing your autobiography is an opportunity to reach across the boundaries of time and space, set the record straight, honor the ones you love, and celebrate the journey you have taken. It is the chance to create your own time capsule; an opportunity to leave your handprints on the walls of human existence, and to shout to the world, “I was here and I mattered!”
 
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