Business World in the New Millennium

"One must accept that the business world in the new millennium is totally different from those in the 20th century."

Every business is now operating in a global environment. All are attempting to be internationalized, being one of the tops in the field, expanding their coverage in both the physical location and e-Business.
I had the opportunities to attend seminars and learned about the competitive markets in Europe. Therefore, I’d like to share the knowledge of how competitively markets operate in the new millennium.
The success of American business is very interesting and worth loooking into. Take an example of giants in the automobile industry such as GM and Ford, they now expand their market worldwide.
Fast food : I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how successful this business has become, especially McDonald’s. Their outlets are just everywhere in Paris, and their business is doing so well. These might be the reasons behind the Golden Arches’ popularity :
- Convenience; Customers can either dine in or take the food out.
- Pricing; Although all items in McDonald’s menu cannot be considered downright inexpensive, dining at McDonald’s still cost less than other commercial dining facilities.
- Unique service and style; McDonald’s service and standard are the same everywhere in the world.
While the fast food chain stores such as McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut are popping up everywhere, the local French restaurants still exist and doing quite well.

Retail business: From the business news, we hear about European retailers such as Tesco/Lotus (British), Carrefour (French), Makro (the Netherland), BigC (Casino-French), TopsSupermarket ( Central Retail Corporation & Ahold-The Netheland), have come to Thailand and have taken over almost all retailling corporates usually owned by Thais, leaving the remaining local retailers with nose-dived sales and less competitive advantage.

England and Germany, with their widely acknowledged strong economic backgrounds, are now being threaten by retail competition from the US as well, France, on the other hand, is still carefree.
- In Germany, Wal Mart has acquired large-sized supermarkets and retail chain stores, and has been an active competitor in the market for the last 2 years and today the Metro group has already acquired all Wal Mart store .
- In England, retail stores such as Sainsbury’s, Mark & Spencer and Tesco and still popular and well-prepared for the competition. Last year, Tesco has just came to competition with the largest BIG BOX store in USA.
Moreover, I also found that safeway is now opened in England.
- In France, Au Printemps and La Fayette’s businesses are still running in this business warfare. Carrefour, Casino and Auchan in the surrounding areas around Paris are still doing business as usual. Still, some of these retailers could not make it in the Thai market.

Bookstore business: This is one business consumers pay little attention to, especially in Thailand because of our reading habits. The business only gets in the limelight once in a while such as when we heard that DokYa and Duang Kamon were facing problems and on the verge of closing down and nowaday they come back again.
The Interesting point is the bookstores play a critical role in educating people. Languages, cultures, and trends across boundaries can be passed on through the channel of book stores.
- The French are one of the most nationalism people in the world since they only speak French. In France, kiosk bookstores are everywhere and they open and close at certain hours. The only weakness of these kiosks is that they hardly carry English-language printed materials. The same thing happens even at larger stores.
- Most of the British like to read. Free newspapers are handed out at subways and train stations. In England, Charing Cross Road is the center of both local and world-class bookstores such as Borders. Oxford Street is also a counterpart of Charing Cross. Borders is a giant in American bookstore business. Apart from books, each of their outlets contain sections for music books, records and CDs, and a café’, all in a huge 4-story building similar to a large retail superstore. At the same time, local store such as Books, etc. and WH Smith are trying to fight back. WH Smith has over local branches and a few in France. We, can see now that bookstore owners are facing fierce competition. For example, the local stores in England cut prices and come up with event promotions such offering customers to buy a new novel at the price of 1 pound each, or campaign of buying three books at the price of two. They also give discounts on text books and trade books, but not as much.

What is the secret of American businesses’ success? The basis of American business is the strong belief in free trade (anyone could buy anything) and a revolutionary break-away from the old ways. The followings are some of the basics that have made American businesses successful:
- Technology : Technologies are used to better the business/products in every aspect; production, marketing, servicing and transportation.
- Human resources development : American business owners encourage people to come up with effective performance. American businesses seek to provide its people more valued-added positions, and giving them pleasure in doing their job. The result is that they provide better services and the customers keep coming back.
- Incentive : Basically, American incentive schemes are based on individual performance. Due to high wage rate in London and Paris, in other words, 180-300 bhts/hr, most businesses, especially department stores, only operate on certain hours. They close on weekends and open for only 9 hours on weekdays, and most employees are senior citizens rather than adolescents. Anyway, the interesting point is that everyone is eager to serve and work in the multi-skilled system.

The United State of America is quite young comparing to the Europeans countries. Still, they are great achievers and now the Europeans are following their footsteps. Holding an American passports is now considered a privilege.

Dr.Danai Thieanphut
Managing Director
DNT Consultants Co.,Ltd.