Global Village and The Economy

About the Book

No, time has not ceased and space has not vanished, but life does seem to be moving rapidly that way. Telecommunications, satellites, computers, and fiber optics taken together are halving the cost of processing, storing, and transmitting information every eighteen months. The global village even has its own market square in the shape of the internet—a forum for commerce, information, entertainment, and personal interaction that makes previously undreamed of access to information available almost instantly and at extraordinarily low cost. Estimates suggest that 250 million people around the world use the internet already, with the number rising every day. Global Village is not only the internet and telecommunications, but it is also the more traditional fare of economists—trade in goods and trade in assets. The theoretical case for free trade is that it permits countries to concentrate on activities in which they enjoy comparative advantage and subjects firms to the healthy discipline of foreign competition. This means higher productivity and increased living standards while consumers enjoy access to a wider variety of goods and services at lower cost. This is true not only in theory, but it is true also in practice. Our post–World War II prosperity is based in large part on the rapid expansion of international trade in goods and services, which year after year has grown more rapidly than production. The theoretical argument for the free movement of capital is essentially the same as the argument for free trade in goods: Money can be channeled to its most profitable uses worldwide, financing productive investment opportunities even where domestic savings are scarce. However, the recent crises have made that a more controversial proposition. Scholars argue that academic publications promote myths like “Globalization leads to one healthy world culture,” “Globalization brings prosperity to person and planet,” or “Global markets spread naturally.” They argue that globalization ideals represent primarily Westernized perspectives. They further assert that management educators have given little thought to the fact that not everyone wants to be a member of a global village. These experts argue that it is important for scholars and citizens to balance unbridled enthusiasm for capitalism with evidence of its results. They call for an open and egalitarian dialogue among those who promote globalization and those who believe it has negative consequences.

About the Author

I was born before in the city of Shimla, the official summer capital of the British Raj in India. My father had moved there just before India secured independence from a small village called Nalagarh to start his own business as a textile merchant and to provide a better standard of living for his young family. Shimla was more like urban area. After completing my school education in Shimla, my parents moved to the capital of India called Delhi, and I moved with them to the capital New Delhi to attend Delhi University, graduating in 1966. After completing my studies, for two years I worked for a major investment bank in their international trading division as one of the senior officer, but the reward wasn’t good enough. I decided to move, and after leaving, I started an export/import business in textiles with very limited capital. In this business, there was a great deal of travelling to the Far East and Europe. By the late 1970s, I owned a number of retail shops in Regent Street, London, which led to my business expanding to import/export retail products internationally. Simultaneously, I started a care home business in the UK, which at its peak, comprised of six care homes with £5 million turnover. I have built up a small property portfolio for rental purposes. Thanks to the management team that I have trained over the last few years, today I am able to overlook all my interests without having to be involved on a day-to-day basis. Since semiretiring, I have pursued my passion for golf, and in the interest of philanthropy, in 2005 I founded the annual Yash International Charity Golf Day in aid of Cancer Research UK and have been a successful fund-raiser for this charity ever since. This year we celebrated eleven years since its inception. Over the last four years, I have been awarded PHD from USA and never thought this experience would be the catalyst for this book. As you can imagine, all my business activities spanning the last four decades have required a great deal of commercial restructuring. With all that I have personally sacrificed over four decades, I decided to put my own experience in the public domain so people can learn and see how they can improve and restructure their businesses for commercial benefit and for the stakeholders. Today’s business world is faced with an increasing number of factors across a broad range of industries. Increasing competition, overseas production, technological change, and global economic change can all contribute to a crisis situation with serious operational and financial challenges. Restructuring I call it solution (a very viable tool) and it is always a win-win situation. In a situation where a company is going through complex business problems, it helps to boost their performance, also enhancing enterprise’s value and optimize their competitive edge. In the face of rapid globalization, the fundamental objective of corporate restructuring is to reposition an organization against the high tide of business failure and maximize shareholder value. I am sharing what I have learned in my own experience in the real world. Restructuring is a way to go forward; it is the survival kit. When the companies are heading towards failure.