I am off to the worlds only operating car museum or Cuba as it is more commonly known. I will be gone for a week. We are spending two days in Havana, two days in the town of Trinidad and three days on the beach in Veradaro. I am even going to try and stay away from my computer for a while… don’t know if that is possible!

So I went to a China Access 2008 seminar this week. They have a mandate to build business relationships for foreign firms with China around the 2008 Olympics. The stats about China and what it is looking to become are just amazing. Like they said; everyone should have a China strategy for the future.

So I am trying to figure what my strategy should be. The financial markets are not developed enough there for me to be able to trade them. The Chinese stocks have already blown through the roof. I can’t move there to take up the torch myself. It really leaves me in a pickle to find a way to capitalize on this growing behemoth.

The best I have come up with is to focus my search for Angel Investments with companies that are looking to operate in China. China seems to have some huge state run enterprises, but will need small and medium size businesses that are able to operate locally within the country. So maybe this can be my niche.

Send me an email if you have ideas on how to grow with China!

Some people need to put a lot of thought and energy into what they prepare when they are speaking and others seem to be able to make it up on the spot. Bill Clinton was one of those people who seemed to be at his best when he left his notes behind and just engaged his audience. This was one of the things he was famous for as president and he did not disappoint.

Another place that I was truly impressed with was how he really took his time to think before he answered his questions. At times being slow to respond can come across as a lack of intelligence, but Bill was able to pull it off with an air of well thought out knowledge. And once his thoughts were gathered there was never any humming or hawing, never any filler words, just clear thought out answers.

The message was something I think we could all use; how to balance social responsibility in a capitalist world. As a huge proponent for free trade and globalization he never strayed from his beliefs, but instead he gave arguments for how corporations could be profitable while providing benefit to the largest number of people as possible. A great example of this was taking the model for supplying Aids drugs in Africa and changing it from a high margin low volume product to a low margin high volume product and take advantage of economies of scale to be able to make money while servicing more people at a lower price.

It was a great reinforcement for the idea that if we are going to have a great future then we need to be focusing more on the future as citizens, countries and corporations.