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Wed..back from the Finance advisers
2008-01-23 17:08:00
I have heard this pitch so many times from young start up's, if we only we get 1% of the market in China, our revenue will be $200m easy, have a read at this article from the GO big network. Avoid the Lame % of the Market ApproachTell me if this pitch sounds familiar:we could capture just 1% of the market for this product, we could do over $500 million in sales! And that's with just 1% of it! It's the basis for the all-too-popular and far-too-lame % of the market approach. The suggestion, used by overzealous (and inexperienced) entrepreneurs is that 1% of a market is so little, that it couldn't possibly be hard to capture.And let's face it, 1% is awfully small!1% of a pizza is about two bites. 1% of your mortgage payment probably means you can pay it with the cash in your wallet. 1% of a typical business book is only two pages. Boy that sounds ridiculously easy.Yet 1% of the market for a particular product ain't a slice of pizza or few pages of a book. It's what entire multi-...
More About: Finance , Back

Writing an Executive Summary
2008-01-22 12:36:00
Writing a Compelling Executive Summary From how to change the world blog:http://blog.guykawasaki.com/By now, you?ve probably already read several articles, web pages?even books?about writing the perfect executive summary. Most of them offer a wealth of well-intended suggestions about all the stuff you need to include in the executive summary. They provide a helpful list of the forty-two critical items you should cover?any entrepreneur worth his or her salt should be able to address these points in less than 100 pages?and then they tell you to be concise.Most guides to writing an executive summary miss the key point: The job of the executive summary is to sell, not to describe.The executive summary is often your initial face to a potential investor, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression. Contrary to the advice in articles on the topic, you do not need to explain the entire business plan in 250 words. You need to convey its essence, and its energy. Y...
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A new start up company "WearMoneyNow.Com"
2008-01-21 10:38:00
I would like to start a business , but where do I get the ideas ?I have been asked many times about where can I get a good idea for a business, I have to admit, if I have a great Idea for a new business I probably wouldn't be trying to help start this one I am with at present. If you have the same problem as me then have a look at these site from time to time and see if it can stimulate your creative juices http://www.trendhunter.com/ & http://www.trendcandy.com/ , this would also be a good place to get your company noticed also, it's viral marketing at it's best. I have a friend who has a novel company and I thought it may get your creative juices flowing and get thinking out of the box, please have a look at her company.Farrah Grant owner of WearMoneyNow.com http://www.wearmoneynow.com/Farrah Grant, owner of WearMoneyNow.Com, is a young entrepreneur who brings fresh, unique fashion accessories to the world with her exotic designs. She specializes in creating exclusive piec...
More About: Company , Start-Up , Start

Dragon's Den
2008-01-18 09:48:00
This is a post which talks about one of the most feared Dragons from BBC's Dragon Dens soap opera. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/ . This specific dragon is Deborah Meaden, she launched her own glass and ceramics export company straight out of business college and has since made her name in the holiday park business and she drives a smart car, fast.Fearing the Dragon ladyWho?s the person you?d least like to go to, cup in hand, when trying to raise cash to start your business?Is it your parents, who are still annoyed you stepped off the corporate ladder, and ?safe? career path to pursue some harebrained business idea? Perhaps a well-off mate who clearly has the money, but who?ll make you fell indebted long after the last repayment has been made.Apparently not. According to a survey by Business Link, the person budding entrepreneurs would be most scared of pitching their business to is Dragons? Den panellist Deborah Meaden.The poll questioned 720 aspiring entrepreneurs, and Meaden r...

Planning your time at exhibitions and conferences
2008-01-17 13:09:00
Planning your time at exhibitions and conferences:This is a short post today, and too the point I hope. I have been in companies where the, sales, marketing and R&D guys see the attendance to these events as mandatory, and a "jolly", where manning a stand or exhibit is to be avoided and every night is one big party ? does this ring any bells. I suggest a strategy to get as much value from these events as possible, I have heard engineers come back from these events and be asked by the rest of the staff, so how was it? and they get a 20min discourse on the beer , wine and women, and 5min on the content of the event. These events are primarily a major networking event, and information gathering, you never really make any big sales or sign any deals at these events, the purpose changes when you are a multi million business where , you need to be there, for presence, our you could just break the mold. PreparationBefore the event you have a "campaign meeting" set the ground rules, dre...
More About: Time , Planning , Conferences , Exhibitions

Some new Ideas on performance grading
2008-01-16 09:07:00
What Is Forced Ranking?by Jennifer AlseverGW (Taking the H out of HR )Forced ranking is a controversial workforce management tool that uses intense yearly evaluations to identify a company's best and worst performing employees, using person-to-person comparisons. In theory, each ranking will improve the quality of the workforce. Managers rank workers into three categories: The top 20 percent are the "A" players, the people who will lead the future of the company. They're given raises, stock options, and training. The middle 70 percent are the "B" players, steady-eddies who are given smaller raises and encouraged to improve. The bottom 10 percent are the "C" players, who contribute the least and may be meeting expectations but are simply "good" on a team of "greats." They're given no raises or bonuses and are either offered training, asked if they'd be happier elsewhere, or fired. Why It Matters NowAlthough most large organizations refuse to publicly discuss or even confirm wheth...
More About: Ideas , Performance , New Ideas

Presentation techniques up grade
2008-01-15 09:40:00
Presentation techniques up grade:I have a copy of Garr Reynolds definitive book about making great presentations: Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter). I have started to flick through it and found it to be one of the best books on the subject matter, if you can get a copy. Presentation is the one skill that we will never perfect, there is always something we can learn and implement to make our "performance" better.Here are ten questions (really thirteen) with the author that I picked up from Guy Kawasakis blog:http: http://www.blog.guykawasaki.com/Ten Questions With Garr ReynoldsQuestion: Who indexed your book? I know I?m in it, but I?m not in the index . Of course, it does say something about me that I would look for my name in the index. :-)Answer: I was horrified when I saw that! A thousand apologies. I since learned a good piece of advice for new authors: Always do your own indexing or at least be very involved in it. The indexe...
More About: Presentation , Resent

Setting goals
2008-01-14 10:47:00
Setting goals:If we don't set any goals for your life, how are we going to make progress in the direction you want to go ? I have spoken to a lot of friends and colleagues and the successful ones are those who have set goals and strategies to achieve them, these range from financial goals, to personal relationship goals, or even just I am going on a vacation this year. I ask my self the questions, am I doing the same things in my life now as I was last year ? am I doing the things I wanted to be doing now ? if not what went wrong ?I then assess what do I want to be doing in my life and then plan how do I get there. I find writing these things down make them more solid, and posting them somewhere public/ online if you can, strengthens that even further. Share them with one or two close friends, this helps to validate your goals, and it may even allow them to support you in achieving them.Short Article By Graeme Nichol of Arcturus Advisors. Please visit their website at http://www.ar...
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There is no quick fix in business
2008-01-11 11:51:00
There is no Quick fix in business:I am working through some challenges at work at present , and on my way in to work this morning it was crystal clear to me , we live in an age that we want everything now, the "instant generation", fast food, fast coffee, fast service, super fast broadband, instant messaging, we want instant fixes to everything. As I was driving back from the doctors, and mulling through how the years off working in high stress jobs as the doctors sees it, have taken a toll on my body, also I was thinking about diets and wouldn't it be nice to have an instant diet or something to help loose weight faster etc etc, and there are pills, potions and smell things that can help but they usually have side effects, and it came to me we people expect the same when they are in business. There is no substitute to hard work, and quick fixes in business will have side effects.SlainteGordonThe daily challenges of an Entrepreneur living in the North East of England
More About: Business

Some lessons to be learnt about Sales from the best
2008-01-10 09:00:00
I lifted this from Industry Week, interesting article, been a mixed week so far, should be feeling good about it but, I feel crap about it all, but that's life...God is a Sales man:Learning from the most successful salesman, God, companies can maintain a loyal client base.Jan. 9, 2008 -- In his new book, God Is A Salesman, author Mark Stevens explains that first-class salespeople should emulate the "ultimate salesman" by quietly and invisibly demonstrating why customers should believe in them and in turn buy from them.IndustryWeek posed some questions to Stevens based on the principles of his book. Q. You advise that it is important for companies to treat the people they sell to, as well as their employees, as family members. Can you explain?A. When companies think of the people who buy their products as "customers" they treat them as numbers. And no one wants to be a number. We want to be valued. We want to be surprised by gestures of thoughtfulness. Thinking of the people who supp...
More About: Lessons

A test to see how good your knowledge is of Entrepreneurship
2008-01-09 09:34:00
The Illusions of Entrepreneurship : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live ByDo you understand the reality of entrepreneurship or do you believe the myths?Answer each question by clicking on your answer to each of the questions below. Your final score will appear at the bottom of the page. If you have a low score, don?t worry? Illusions of Entrepreneurship provides the answers to these questions and much more.Good Luck!http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/e ntrepreneurshipquiz.aspFollow the link to the Quiz, you will find it very interesting and informative,SlainteGordonThe daily challenges of an Entrepreneur living in the North East of England
More About: Knowledge , Test

Some humor for a Wednesday
2008-01-09 08:47:00
Some humor for a cold and windy Wednesday morning by the sea, I have a lot going on at present and am juggling a few mental balls, I need to get back in to the groove of moving forward, and this project is a struggle at present. So I have found some humor and here it is, I saw this post on http://foundread.com/ it is some serious humor wrt the VC's , I wonder if any of my friends can pick out the Scottish Enterprise Chiefs amongst this lot, so to the post:9 VCs You?re Gonna Want to Avoid1) Mr. Armchair. He?s a Friday afternoon Chairman. He knows exactly what he?d do as board member of facebook, Google, MySpace.,YouTube. Too bad his portfolio company?s don?t get the same enthusiastic coverage.2) Mr. One-Hit-Wonder. Yes he sold Postage.com for $200 million (and kept $15 million) so if you wanna hear war stories from the ?90s, take this GSB alum?s money.3) Mr. Spray-n-Pray. He cites being founding CEO as his Operations experience. (Translation: He was a interim CEO for his last ventur...
More About: Humor

Maxims: Lose the Devils and keep the Angels.
2008-01-08 09:55:00
Maxims: Lose the Devils and keep the Angels .Anybody who?s read my maxims for any length of time knows that I am a fundamentalist on pricing and abusive customer relationships. Maxims that recommend leaving the unprofitable customers for the competitors are among them. I have an ally who has actually created a business theory around these concepts: Larry Selden of Columbia University?s Graduate School of Business. What professor Selden found was there is a direct correlation between a company?s stock price and its ability to develop a profitable customer portfolio (like ? duh ? isn?t this basic business theory that stock valuations are related to profits?). More importantly, he has developed a theory that a company should break its customer base up into quintiles based on their profitability. The top 20%, the angels, are to be developed; the middle 60% held; and the bottom 20%, the devils, dropped. He has another view that is interesting as well: a company should not view itself as a...
More About: The Devil

A trap we sometimes fall into as Entreprenurs
2008-01-07 11:35:00
A trap we sometimes fall into as Entrepreneurs:I was thinking this morning about all the things I "Know" about running a business and actually what I am using at present to build this company. As you build a company you go through different phases, you are active in different tasks, different skill sets are brought into use, and the edge comes off some of the other skills you have. I have found myself buried in the tactics off getting this project off the ground, financial modelling, forecasting revenue, design of factory layouts, etc ,etc, supply chain management, but you don't work on the high level planning and strategy as much as you should be, you miss the sutler nuances in communication, it is only afterwards that you pick out gems from the conversation, and you remember a skill that you hand once honed to world class, but has dulled slightly, as it has been stuffed in the back of the cabinet due to other skills being the focus. This is something that we need to stop happenin...
More About: Trap , Fall

I have to give a talk, what now, skills for an Entrepreneur
2008-01-04 09:27:00
I have to give a talk, what now ? Skills for an Entrepreneur I have posted an article on how to prepare and give a speech, a book that is coming out this month that I was recommended to get is "Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery" (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds, for some of us it comes naturally, being able to speak to large groups, but there is a difference in speaking and making sure your message is taken on board bu the target audience, hope these tips help. Parts of Speech: Transitional, Transactional, or Transformational:By Dan CoughlinMary, a vice-president of operations, had to give a 30-minute speech at her company's annual conference. She asked if I would discuss her presentation with her. I asked her the first question I always ask a professional about a speech, "Is this a transitional, transactional, or transformational speech?"She said, "Why does it matter what type of speech it is? I've been given 30 minutes to talk. I thought I w...
More About: Talk , An Entrepreneur , Give

My Thoughts for getting ready for the Newyear
2008-01-03 10:04:00
....So you will have made it through the first day, after the break, you will be finding things in other companies possibly slow, well once you have done what you can do, take time out to plan the year. This is the time to set your "plan for life" for the next 12 months, what, when, where, who, and Why ?, this should encompass all the areas of your life, and as James A. Michener is quoted saying:"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both."So start to plan accordingly, did you take a holiday last year ? if not plan two this year, do it know, look at the year and pick the dates, set them in stone and communicate them to those who need to know, if...
More About: My Thoughts , Thoughts , Ready

Happy New year to one and all
2008-01-02 11:28:00
I hope you had a good break over Christmas and New year....I did, both in the Body and the Mind ....But I must admit, I am back at my desk with a little less passion than I had before the holidays about this project...but I need to give it 100% for a while to see where this goes....part of me gets excited about the prospects for this business, but I just do not feel the "flow" developing.... and it's when I experience that I know that I am in the correct place......at the correct time...So I thought I give you some material to think about...I miss teaching...these would be excellent case studies for class..they are short videos on successful entrepreneurs:http://www.bnet.com/2422-13 721_23-178567.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e 713Smart Strategy:How do you make money despite a down market? Eric Fleiss knows. As a partner at Regent Properties he's not just an opportunist, but a strategist, taking a long-term look at the housing market. It's a game that Regent knows well, having been aro...
More About: New Year , Happy , Happy New Year , Year

Coming to the close of the year
2007-12-24 09:35:00
The year has only a few days left to run, and if you are like me, then you will be struggling to get anything done with the financial community, and most of your western partners will be shut for business, there is still traffic from the east, but again, more and more I am finding that they are starting to synchronise there shut downs with us in the West. I thought this morning as it will be my last post for a while, I would throw a few gems out to you:Drive thy business or it will drive thee.Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.David M. Ogilvy Good design can't fix broken business models. Jeffrey Veen,The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.Theodore RubinThe important thing to ...
More About: Close , Year

Intel shares it's Investment Strategy
2007-12-21 10:02:00
VC Economy: Spotting the next big VC thingBy Ashish Patel, European Managing Director of Intel CapitalThe VC environment is currently in vibrant mode, with lots of liquidity in the market. We are seeing a lot of activity, and the deal flow is as high as it?s been for a very long time. Some of the big European exits have happened and will continue to happen.The market challenge is that there are not as many VCs as you would have liked, and a lot of attention is being given to late stage buyout houses or late stage investing. So perhaps there isn?t enough capital going into early stage. There is economic pressure as well: I don?t think many VCs have been successful in making great returns from venture investing. So they?re now under pressure to do things where the returns have been shown to be better, and of course, that?s driving them to later stage deals.Competition creates opportunities, We?ve made high returns on early, mid and late stage opportunities. Sometimes however, it?s jus...
More About: Strategy , Investment , Shares , Investment strategy

How to answer the question "how much are you worth ?"
2007-12-20 10:04:00
So how much are you worth, this question is asked time and time again with the VC's , whats your valuation ? I was reading some smart answers from a menlo park VC, Stu Philips at Ridgelift Ventures. I would suggest you remember them.Never answer the classic VC question "so, what valuation are you looking for?" with a specific number. Got that? Never!Sure you've got it? I find myself going over this issue a couple of times a week with entrepreneurs starting their first company as well as seasoned serial-entrepreneurs who have been around the block many times! I get a lot of inspiration for writing relevant blog posts from covering these kinds of issues ? this is the hot button of the week.Whatever number you give in answer to this question, you wind up negotiating with yourself (a fool's errand in anybody's book of strategy):If you give too high a number, the prospective new investor might start thinking "boy, these guys are being totally unrealistic?" or worse. Many VCs don't r...
More About: Question , Answer , Worth , Wort

Some thoughts for the new year
2007-12-19 10:17:00
Hi Guys, Soon you will have closed the door on the old year..and opened the door to the new one....what does it have in store for you? have you got your plans together ? I like to enter the new year with excitement and enthusiasm, that I don't repeat the mistakes of the previous year and I look forward to making new mistakes in the new year....If I don't make them, I won't learn...I do want to exit this year, having moved on from where I was last year... that is the essence of living, you do not want to stay still, have you learned new skills, have you made new friends, have you strengthened old networks....there is still time...give an old friend a call and catch up. Exit this year with a renewed passion and vision for your own future and your family and friends. Picked this up from BNET the HBS asking a few questions Seven years into the 21st century the world of business and management is certainly going through, if not revolution, at least evolution on a speedy scale.Traditio...
More About: New Year , Thoughts , Year , Some

A Christmas stocking filler
2007-12-18 16:54:00
There are few books I have read that give me goosebumps. Presentation Zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery is one of them.By means of context, everything about the book is a "sweet spot" of my interests and attractions. I adore photography, and the images used in the book (from my favorite image source istockphoto) are truly stunning. The ideas on presentation and communication fit squarely with my taste and experience. And the author, Garr Reynolds, has a wonderful narrative voice, which is all at once calm, wise and powerful.Here is a taste from the introduction:"A teacher for one who seeks enlightenment would say the first step for the student is to truly see that life is somehow out of sync or off-kilter, that there is "suffering" if you will. And that this "out-of-kilterness" is a consequence of our own attachment to things that are inconsequential. Likewise, the first step to creating and designing great presentations is to be mindful of the current state of w...
More About: Christmas , Stocking

Customer service....a Profit centre
2007-12-17 10:55:00
Music, money and customers:Well I hope you all had a great weekend, and have got most of the Christmas shopping behind you now, and it's just the matter of one or two last few pressies to buy. I was at the church Christmas party on Saturday (http://www.newlife-morpeth.org.uk/) and played guitar to help my mate Mike, as he sung a a few songs for his wife....all in good fun...and I love to play guitar ...and even better when in a band...you get an amazing magic developing around you, it can be the same in the management team of a start up, if the correct chemistry is there. I have a passion to start a small recording studio, even manage a few bands, help them get started, not for any glory but for the music and for God.I love music, specifically I love Celtic folk music, progressive and traditional, and at the weekend, Candyrat ( www.candyrat.com) an online folk music retailer, that supports some of the best folk music around, sent there newsletter, I saw some new music releases and ...
More About: Customer Service , Service , Customer , Profit , Centre

Sales a science not an Art
2007-12-14 09:49:00
I read this post below yesterday while waiting for a taxi, interesting cut on the Sales process, I believe, that showmanship is a big part of the mix for a senior sales guy as much as the science, but due process and technique is a must. I have worked with some of the best my friend Gerry who is a Director with STS, was an x-applied materials sales guy, he has a few techniques up his sleave, learned from the old school of sales, you know what I mean if you have ever dealt with AMAT. Andy Blackstone had a great comment to my post yesterday on Atul Gawande's New Yorker article about explicit behavior (in the case of the article, doctors using checklists). I've edited the comment slightly for clarity.An important concept in the article is that the checklists are not aimed at a specific condition but at an overall process in the ICU. One of the objections I often encounter in my consulting practice is "my business is different" - I'd contend that at the process level that's most oft...
More About: Science

Playing the start up game well
2007-12-13 09:52:00
Finding your Milestone Leverage PointsA little bit of magic happens every time your startup company hits another growth milestone. Sometimes it's hard to put your finger on it, but you can tell when it happens.It's that moment when your Web site launches and your product becomes real for the first time. It's the moment when your first customer actually writes a check for your product. It's that moment when that big idea you kept talking about begins to turn into an actual company that you walk into every day.Those milestones aren't just reasons to celebrate and have a beer (although that's always a good idea!) They are also key points at which you can create some leverage in your business.For example, you may not have much leverage with an investor when you're sitting with nothing more than a business plan in your hands begging for capital. Yet the second after a key customer confirms a massive purchase order for your new product, your leverage increases significantly with in...
More About: Start-Up , Start , Game , The Star

Outsourcing your holy grail ? take another look
2007-12-12 17:33:00
When the Chicago aerospace giant set out four years ago to build the fuel-sipping jet, it figured the chief risk lay in perfecting a process to build much of the plane from carbon-fiber plastic instead of aluminum. Boeing focused so hard on getting the science right that it didn't grasp the significance of another big change: The 787 is the first jet in Boeing's 91-year history designed largely by other companies.....read on here at the Wall street journal, parachute me in for a few months :)http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1 19698754167616531-lMyQjAxMDE3OTA2NjkwODY3 Wj.htmlSlainteGordonThe daily challenges of an Entrepreneur living in the North East of England
More About: Outsourcing , Holy , Holy Grail

The Choke Factor: How Stereotypes Affect Performance
2007-12-12 11:34:00
An Interesting article below to stimulate the brain on a Wednesday morning, interested in some feed back, Guy Kawasaki does a post on the same article have a look at his analysis, to me his summary is common sense, and does not do the article real justice. I look forward to your comments.How Stereotypes Shape Perform ance By S. Alexander Haslam, Jessica Salvatore, and Thomas KesslerUniversity of Exeter, UKEvery sports fan has vivid memories of key occasions on which a favorite team or player has 'choked' under pressure. And every student who has ever taken a standardized test knows what that kind of pressure feels like. What makes for high-pressure situations, and how do they influence performance? In the last decade such issues have been explored by social psychologists researching the phenomenon of stereotype threat. Their work shows not only that pressure can compromise performance, but that this dynamic is more common among members of negatively stereotyped social groups. Why?T...
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Deconstructing a Struggling Start-Up: MyCarpoolStation.com
2007-12-11 09:47:00
Interesting story for a cold frosty Tuesday morning:My name is Philippe and I?m the co-founder and CEO of My Carpool Station International Corp. I believe it?s time to share the story of our struggling start-up with the blogosphere. You see, things are not going as planed. I?m not a millionaire lounging in my umpteenth apartment, downtown Bangkok. I?m not mingling with fellow captains of industry, preparing to launch my own venture fund on the side. Instead, I am quietly distancing myself from my pet project, my baby which I poured my heart and soul and mind into. Why would I do such a thing to something I hold (or held) so dear?No more money (and none coming in).We invested 30,000 US$ of our own capital, excluding an estimated 50,000 US$ of sweat equity. With that, we built a working prototype but did not manage to get a customer-ready product out the door. No customers equals no revenues, and since we have not yet secured additional funding, we are officially stuck. Clearly, we ne...
More About: Start-Up , Start

The smart way to start a business
2007-12-10 17:08:00
"Do what you love, focus on a niche, find a viable business model, and work for yourself"Google announced the winner of the Adsense Story Contest today: Hometips. This is a site that features free content concerning home improvement, remodeling, repair, redecorating, and do-it-yourself projects. For example, here are tips for hanging Christmas lights.According to the owner, Don Vandervort, the revenues generated by Google Adsense went from paying for coffee to paying for lunches to paying for all salaries, overhead, and business development. The site's traffic is moderate--something like one million visitors a month or less if you believe Compete.The company started in a backyard clubhouse. Don converted the bottom floor of his sons' two-story treehouse. "Two-story" treehouse? How cool is that?The site has a clear focus: content for homeowners. There's nothing that I can find that smacks of "Web 2.0 social media" at all. This is just so refreshing: All you can do is find informat...
More About: Business , Smart , Start , Sine

Day two at Semicon Japan 2007, From the desk of etc etc....
2007-12-06 01:11:00
I can just see the outline of Mt Fuji from my hotel room window, I am on the 17th floor, you can just see it peak up over the far side of Tokyo Bay, it just breaks out into the skyline, showing off it's new white coat, from the base smog that is always present around Tokyo and the suburbs , just like Phoeniz, Az. Mt Fuji. is mentioned in Japan ese literature throughout the ages, Mt. Fuji also houses a warrior tradition: ancient samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area, near the present day town of Gotemba. As of 2005, the Japan Self-Defence Forces and the United States Marine Corps operate military bases near Mount Fuji, this mountain is a symbol of tradition and culture in this country, but it is a country that has lost it's way forward, it still has a strong technological base and workforce, but it does not have the entrepreneurial heart that China , India or other South Asia countries and it is showing. I spent a while here when I worked out here, and I wa...
More About: Desk , Mico