photo courtesy of Bloomberg.com
According to a recent article published by Bloomberg.com, there might be light at the end of the tunnel as far as the Japanese economy is concerned. The stock market actually made significant games for the first time in a week or so and many of the concerns that were surrounding inflation and the credit crunch appear to be at a low point not just over the course of the week, but also over the course of the whole recessionary period we have been in.
Now, you might be wondering why I would bother writing about the Japanese economy for a blog that deals with business, home business and business in the United States. Well, the simple reason is that things are very connected globally nowadays and that means that what affects one part of the world ends up affecting other parts of the world through these chain links. If Japan, a first-world economy very similar to that of the United States, is experiencing a general easing up of concerns, then it is quite possible that similar things might happen in this country with business as well.
This is by no means suggesting that we might be on our way out of the tough times, but rather that we might be approaching an eye in the storm. Keep your eyes on the economic indicators that most affect your business in order to see if this turns out to be true.
Japanese shares rose for the first time in a week after crude oil dropped, relieving inflationary pressure, and as credit-market concerns eased amid speculation Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. will receive an investment.
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While many of us are heaving a sigh of relief on the recent events that saw oil prices going below $115, it is still far from normalizing to the prices that we had enjoyed some months back. Apparently a lot of political issues have been the cause and bordering nation disputes have likewise made oil prices to where it is today.
There are two points for discussion here. Let me enumerate them regarding the current oil price frenzy.
Russia’s invasion of Georgia
While we are celebrating, turn around and look at the oil price in the market. They are not slowly spiking up and a lot of it is due to the current conflict between Russia and Georgia. For the record, Russia is one of the contributing nations towards oil needs in the world and apparently they are now in semi-war with the United States.
With that said, we are slowly getting the feelers. The oil prices are spiking up in preparation for another crisis and if the dispute with Russia is not settled, we may just see another round of oil price increases. Something we do not like but a reality we must face.
Who are responsible for Oil Price?
Oil companies command prices but not depending on supply but more on how they negotiate through contracts. Similar to business, negotiations and set prices are agreed upon depending on how much and how many barrels of oil will be exported from one destination to another.
Unlike what most of us think, oil price hikes are not always signs of oil shortage. Sometimes you have to audit the oil companies closely to get the real score. Sad to say, this is a reality and it is something that we can say that has originated from our own selfish professions in depicting business and focusing on making money.
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In an earlier post on this blog we discussed different strategies for making your business energy efficient as a way of cutting down on costs and in doing so helping your company stay afloat during the economic crisis that is currently unfolding. However, just as energy can be wasted, so too can technological infrastructure.
Most of the technicians that you meet will purposely build redundancies into key parts of a network in order to ensure that a failure at one key point within a network will not affect the whole network in a way that can not be reversed. However, technicians by their very nature are trained to be on the safe side when they are setting up these networks because being on the safe side means a higher customer satisfaction level at the end of the day.
If you hire a technician to reduce redundancy within your network infrastructure however, they will most certainly do it. This is not recommended for most companies and especially not for companies that rely heavily on electronic data, but it is something to consider if you are desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but these measures only become desperate if you actually experience a technological failure of some kind. It is a real life example of the ends justifying the means.
Networking is usually the first thing that is eliminated when a business starts cutting back on its expenditures. After all, since networking by definition is something that is done above and beyond with other businesses as partners, it would not seem to be that integral to the average business.
However, if you are looking for an innovative way to get through an economic downturn that does not involving massively laying off your employees, then networking with another business might be just what the doctor ordered. After all, when you network with other businesses, you pool resources in order to create a final product that is more than the sum of its parts. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that doing such a thing during an economic downturn could be bad for the finances of both businesses, but the far more likely outcome is that such projects could stimulate growth in both businesses at a time when growth is hard to come by.
This does not mean that you should snap up the first networking opportunity that comes along however. You should evaluate each potential joint venture and then choose the one that is most likely to provide in areas that your company is lacking. Try to find a company to work with where you can reciprocate this need as well as such a partnership will benefit both parties enormously.
