Financial Perspective

I just saw a news segment featuring some unusual jobs and investment opportunities. One example: a dog waste cleanup business. More and more Americans are too busy to clean up after their own pets, and I’m starting to see this trend in Taiwan too — people are willing to pay a little to have others handle cleaning tasks. While routine cleaning is still done at home, annual deep cleans are increasingly being outsourced. ...

Every now and then BusinessWeek profiles a company they consider outstanding at the time. The strange thing is, stocks featured prominently in the magazine have a curious tendency to become duds in the short term — not because the companies are bad, but it has a contrarian-investment flavor to it. You know Nike, right? The legendary stock trader who, after decades of navigating the markets, casually drew a swoosh and founded the company. The name means “endurance and perseverance” — stay patient and things will turn around. Pretty apt. But I’ve gotten sidetracked! ...

BusinessWeek Issue 1035 — Lead Story: Joining forces with e-commerce’s army of ants, Terry Gou sets his sights on becoming an internet “flying tiger.” Taiwan’s most globally powerful manufacturer is undoubtedly Foxconn. To build a new strategic layout, Foxconn has been in negotiations to cooperate with Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce platform — leveraging internet commerce to capture what matters most in the digital age: information and personalization. Four years ago, Foxconn expanded upward from its original three C’s (Computers, Communications, Consumer Electronics) by adding three more (Automotive Electronics, Channels, Content). Now, by bridging the gap between virtual and physical worlds, Foxconn has officially entered the internet industry. ...

The key to rapid M&A: make personnel decisions swiftly, and avoid internal power struggles. Priority order for an insurance company’s development should be: → Introduce and innovate products → Build a more efficient organization → Expand distribution channels → Improve risk management → Pursue M&A The real key to winning in M&A is respect. Price matters, but the real secret is not overpaying — the true value of an acquisition is realized in long-term stock performance. ...

Since high school, I used to buy computing magazines like PC DIY or gaming magazines — always chasing the latest trends: building a PC, playing games. Then, in my fourth year of university, a younger student was reading BusinessWeek, and I curiously asked why. He said he’d been reading it since high school, just out of interest, and that it offered many diverse perspectives. After that, I started buying a copy here and there — partly still following trends, I suppose. ...