A despairing and disparaging picture of global trade has been painted in which globalization inevitably means that the working stiff is victimized in an unequal contest for opportunity and jobs. I will not join the already crowded debate about the pros and cons of global trade and inequality. I see something else occurring which is overarching of inequality, racism, bias and I trust, demagoguery. Such US corporations as Uber, Amazon, Walmart have taken the lead in creating global sales, opportunities and jobs in e-commerce throughout the world. Alibaba, Amazon and Walmart demonstrate the promise of the Internet, a promise of liberation and egalitarian opportunity, income and wealth. Third party manufacturers, sellers, SMEs and entrepreneurs are able to sell their goods on Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba. Providing a one-stop-shop, a comprehensive global trade platform from which global trade software and services can be leased or subscribed to, will change the game.

 

Amazon has created a new model for the spread of e-commerce through Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is leasing software-based capabilities to friend and competitor alike so that startups can access such capabilities as card issuance, processing, compliance, money storage. Startups will soon be able to provide the capabilities of multinational financial institutions as their clients conduct cross-border trade. AWS does not provide the full gamut of services necessary to create a one-stop-shop for global trade, but its BaaS or Banking as a Service model is a start. 

 

In order for startups to succeed, Linda Rottenberg and Chris Bierly of Making Entrepreneurship Contagious fame, have amply researched that the guidance and direction of experienced entrepreneurs is crucial in nurturing startups to success. This has been studied in such diverse places as Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Chile, Colombia, etc., etc.

Somehow, when the intermingling of disciplines is discouraged, when noise and signal are conflated, when the older and wiser are encouraged to retire and to become superfluous, a great deal of valuable expertise and hard-won business acumen is lost. The US is engaged in a national debate as to what constitutes a "good, competent business person." Trump, Buffett, Bloomberg do not agree.

Business is not necessarily an exercise in which principles are sacrificed for "efficiency" or synergy (another word for  layoffs). A reverence for what the battle-wisened and experienced have learned provides a foundation of mutual respect and a reckoning with the fact that no one knows everything.

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