in this issue
the new normal
The world is trying to adapt to the new normal. It’s marked by many mixed signals, with fresh outbreaks and cautious, but hopeful, reopenings worldwide. In this era, some trends have emerged. One is the speeding up of the already fast pace of digitalization of pretty much everything. As physical contact has diminished, innovative new digital means of doing business have emerged to fill the gap. As a media company, live events are a signature offering from Forbes Asia. To complement our live events, our first webinars have been launched the past two months. The Forbes Under 30 Asia Webinar “Adapting And Evolving: U30 Startups Lead The Way” was held in late May, followed by two Forbes Asia Next Frontiers Webinars, “Navigating the Pandemic” in late June and early July. These…
better health care at bargain prices!
“With all thy getting, get understanding” Can you imagine the United States having a health care system that delivers better outcomes than those we get today at a cost to our economy that is 75% less? That number is not a misprint or a fantasy; it’s the reality in Singapore, where there is universal coverage. Life expectancy is 85, more than five years better than in the U.S. Decades ago, Singapore seriously lagged the U.S; now, infant mortality is lower and other medical metrics in the city-state are also better than they are here. Doctors and health-care practitioners are every bit as good in Singapore as they are here, or just about anywhere else in the world. Many get trained in the U.S. or at top-flight schools elsewhere. The nation is always…
age of agility
Here at the midpoint of 2020—a modern-day annus horribilis—there is much we don’t know. Is Covid-19 on its way out? Or will it make a deadly return like round two of the Spanish flu? Will the global experiment in modern monetary theory lift whole economies or just boost asset prices? Will it sow inflation or will recessionary deflation continue? Other trends are clearer. Here are five: 1. Technology is accelerating From my Silicon Valley perspective, the biggest global business story prior to Covid-19 was a brisk acceleration of the rate of technology evolution—and it is still undergoing a transformation that ensures the industry’s continued growth. Relatively new companies such as ServiceNow and Atlassian have rapidly emerged. Big tech was strong heading into the Covid-19 crisis and remains so. Customers of enterprise tech…
a world awash in debt
The great lockdown needed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak has been economically devastating. The longer the lockdown, the worse the damage. In response, governments have thrown fiscal caution to the wind and increased spending at unprecedented levels, either to help businesses keep workers on the payroll, as in Europe, or to directly compensate the unemployed, as in the U.S. Consequently, a public sector debt tsunami is coming. If not dealt with effectively, it could do even greater damage than Covid-19. Making matters worse is the fact that governments in the developed world had allowed their debts to rise in the decade after the global financial crisis despite record-low interest rates. For example, government debt in the U.S. rose from 40% of GDP in 2007 to 89% in 2019, from 44% to…
fighting on
Ramon Ang In May, his San Miguel Corp., owner of the Philippines’ largest brewery, donated swabbing booths and test kits to 17 local governments in Metro Manila. The company also said it would set up its own laboratory to test its 70,000 employees and extended workforce. In March, San Miguel said its plants had produced 642,000 liters of ethanol for disinfectant use by hospitals and health authorities. It said it would also give more than 800 million pesos ($16 million) worth of sanitizer, food and protective medical supplies to frontline health workers. Ang personally donated an additional 100 million pesos to relief efforts for Manila’s most vulnerable. San Miguel has also provided free expressway passes for medical workers and fuel for their shuttle services. Adrian Cheng Cheng said in May that his company's…
accelerating disruption
Forbes Asia NEXTFRONTIERS WEBINAR 1 On June 23, Forbes Asia held a webinar titled “Navigating the Pandemic.” This event was the first in a series of Next Frontiers Webinars. FIRST PANEL: Triangulation—Business Gets Its Bearings One of the major themes that emerged from this webinar was how the pandemic has sped up the digitization of global business. New World Development CEO and executive vice-chairman Adrian Cheng described how his K11 division, which focuses on retail, has been coping with the sudden decline in physical shopping by launching an e-commerce platform in Greater China. “We were able to shift around 10% to 15% of our sales online within just two months because of Covid-19, and Covid-19 helped us accelerate this O2O [online-to-offline] omnichannel platform,” said Cheng. Being hit by lockdowns in early March, Blue Bird,…
