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Monday, May 08, 2023

Smart roads, practical goals, moving forward

 


Experimenting with historical material. Time to get active again. This comment refers to G, a previous client. And the cruiser pictured takes my thoughts to Tromso in Norway. More memory lane blogging to come.

Friday, October 14, 2022

War in Ukraina, European Energy Crisis, and Inflation


 Other disturbing and shocking developments shake European countries' foundations, economies, and security architecture. We wanted to know and understand what happened on a global scale but weren't sure how to go about it.

The analyst stayed silent for a moment. He looked thoughtful. He is not prepared to express his opinion. "I'm not that well informed," he said. "I have no idea if there is anyone who can come up with a reasonable guess. We're in the middle of a chaotic event, and politicians are working hard to find escape routes and solutions."







Wednesday, March 30, 2022

The end of globalization?

 


Pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the threat of WWIII, energy crisis, food shortage, the surge in commodity prices, the unpredictability of everything are now the new normal.

The year 2022 didn't start well. Commodities are up across the board. Oil, gold, and wheat have gone sky-high in recent weeks. 

The U.S. housing market cooled in February, and mortgage rates have spiked since the Fed's rate hike. New home sales have slipped for two consecutive months, missing forecasts, and lumber seems set to buck the trend of other supply-constrained commodities. 

Wealth managers say their investment portfolio includes fuel, agriculture, natural resources, and gold. 



Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Metaverse 2021

What the metaverse looks like today. All the big tech companies are planning to expand their reach to the next level of the Internet, Web 3.0. A lot will happen in two to three years. Facebook changed its name to Meta. 

Microsoft is in the game. What can we expect from Apple? Google hasn't said anything yet, as far as I know. There are hundreds of companies creating NFTs, gadgets, and content needed in the new spaces and real estate. 

I guess billions of consumers don't have a clue. Nor do we have the glasses and gadgets needed for the 3D experience. We are comfortable with Zoom and Teams, and the meta should be easy to use to attract billions to immerse themselves in the virtual worlds of tomorrow.


Thursday, November 25, 2021

Sawmills are often the most international companies in rural areas

 


This is true for Finnish, Nordic, European, Russian, American, and other nations. Medium-size wood processing companies deliver their products across the globe to 50 - 100 countries. 




Monday, June 22, 2020

Business Insider reporting

  • U.S. stocks slid Monday as investors focused on spiking global coronavirus cases, which offset continued economic-reopening progress.
  • Gold rose, nearing its highest level since 2012, as investors bought the safe-haven asset.
  • New coronavirus cases hit records in some US states, and continue to gain globally. 
  • Read more on Business Insider.

U.S. stocks slid Monday as investors focused on spiking global coronavirus cases, which offset continued economic-reopening progress.
New cases of coronavirus continue to increase in the US as the country reopens from lockdowns that began in mid-March to contain the disease. 
The US reported more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and Saturday, the highest levels since May 1, according to Johns Hopkins University data. 

Saturday, March 28, 2020

When in search for new markets


How to sell intelligent solutions, subsystems and components, primarily for industrial automation, and infrastructure, including solutions for artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, control systems, sensors, industrial networks and communication networks on a global scale.

Factories closed, ports idling, lack of containers, rising freight costs, and shipments on stand-by.  The coronavirus obviously does not spare the wood sector and in particular the specialized exporters in China.

A majority of companies are forced to change their strategies and look for new markets. However, this opportunity is not available to everybody.

Even more so because the restrictions caused by the coronavirus epidemic are not the first and potentially not the hardest blows on the export expansion of the timber industry, including to China.

As the world grapples with the widening impact and unexpected global consequences of the coronavirus, both stock markets, and lumber markets are getting hammered.

The Russian timber industry is in search of new markets.
Many exporters of the Russian timber industry are suffering losses because of the coronavirus.

Our customers operate mainly in the fields of pulp-, paper-, board-, and tissue processing. Also sawmills, CLT, LVL, MDF, board, and gluelam manufacturing.

Source:

Global forest products markets 




Friday, June 07, 2019

You need a clear growth strategy


It takes time to understand the most important drivers of an innovation culture, which include elements such as cohesion between staff, the debate of different ideas and perspectives being encouraged, and failure not being seen as a dirty word.

  • provide your team with time and a budget
  • carve out time for those involved to work on innovation projects
  • unless there is a budget dedicated to it, nothing will happen
  • you first need to have a clear growth strategy 
  • define the territories your business wants to innovate in
  • adopt any number of innovation methodologies to get you to effective customer-focused solutions
  • learn to understand what motivates people to create disruptive products and solutions
Source: Entrepreneur