Claudio Gonzalez, 72, is one of the few remaining members of a vanishing breed of senior business figures that have won both deep respect at home and a strong international reputation abroad. He served as the CEO of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico from 1973-2008. Here’s what Gonzalez has to say about the future for U.S.-Mexico relations.
We are told by the OWS crowd that the nation’s current economic problems are mostly due to the sinister machinations of the “1 percenters,” greedy corporate business leaders and Wall Street plutocrats who rig the system to their advantage and force students to take loans for their college education that they are unable to pay back. As with any caricature there are shadows that outline some truths.
In the real world of doing business in China, the landscape is shifting. Foreign companies can no longer do business in China today in the same way that they have in the past.
Think a company needs to be big to play on the world stage? Think again. Plenty of companies in the $10 million to $1 billion range are emerging as full-fledged international players by finding ways to move faster than their bigger competitors.
The merger vision of NYSE and Deutsche Börse management agreed to by their respective shareholders and US regulators has been thwarted by European regulators’ misunderstandings of the evolving financial system.
The Perils of Scientific Illiteracy“Apple employs 700,000 factory workers in China because we can’t find the 30,000 engineers in the U.S. that we need on site at our plants,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told President Obama. “If you could educate those engineers, we could move more manufacturing jobs here.” Jobs made the point that American competitiveness was being hollowed out by immigration policies that educate a growing number of foreign engineers at the best U.S. universities then immediately send them home. |
February 1 2012 | |
Capitalism Under Siege: What CEOs Are Up AgainstIs capitalism being threatened? One might think so listening to recent presidential candidates banging on about “vulture” capitalism and “asset stripping” private equity companies. And these are the Republicans talking! But let’s step back. What’s really going on? |
CEO Briefing Newsletter | January 25 2012 |
Declinism ReduxIs China cleaning our clock? In speech after speech, President Obama calls on the People’s Republic of China to stop [...] |
January 23 2012 | |
Declinism Redux: Will China Be the New Japan?Is China cleaning our clock? In speech after speech, President Obama calls on the People’s Republic of China to stop manipulating its currency. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney milks his favorite applause line about the first thing he’ll do if elected as president: Denounce China as a currency manipulator. |
Magazine articles | January 23 2012 |
The High Risk of a ‘Wait and See’ ApproachIn a world were the game is changing rapidly, failing to take action—deciding to “wait and see”—can quickly put you on a path of increasing irrelevancy or a rapid demise. |
Technology | December 9 2011 |