Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
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Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#2Outline for those who are paywalled - https://outline.com/4Vk8VW
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#3> These internal barriers mean Europe has many smaller firms operating at national, not continental, scale. Each country tends to have its own banks, utilities, airlines and supermarkets. (Europe has over 100 mobile operators, compared with a handful in America or China.) These lack the economies of scale and opportunities to grow quickly enjoyed by firms plying the American or Chinese markets.
This is a huge advantage for US(and China). A company started in either has immediate access to a massive population with relatively common culture, language, laws, and infrastructure. A company can smoothly scale its reach to 100’s of millions.
The EU, although it has a bigger population than the US, is divided into multiple much smaller countries, many times with their own language, culture, laws, and infrastructure.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#4Would have been nice if they had given a serious mention to some of the positives. Sure, Europe ahs hundreds of mobile operators but we also have cheaper plans than any I could find in America. We also have serious competition with our internet providers so I can actually switch to a better service.
Anyway it is sad that we can't seem to grow as many new large companies. Hopefully we can improve at that while keeping worker protections and climate protections.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#5The graphs seem to me like they were selectively showing data which makes europe look bad. E.g. only showing the market cap of big companies or showing the decline of the european share of gdp but not the US one (which I assume was also falling), etc.
Of course they made it to support the argument but to me it made their case much less valid.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#6> These internal barriers mean Europe has many smaller firms operating at national, not continental, scale. Each country tends to have its own banks, utilities, airlines and supermarkets. (Europe has over 100 mobile operators, compared with a handful in America or China.)
But all of that is a tremendous bonus for Europeans, not a penalty.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#7The graphs seem to me like they were selectively showing data which makes europe look bad. E.g. only showing the market cap of big companies or showing the decline of the european share of gdp but not the US one (which I assume was also falling), etc. Of course they made it to support the argument but to me it made their case much less valid.
Fair. From ~40% share of global gdp in the 60s to ~25% now
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#8Why are European companies so unambitious? My whole civilian career I've had to work for North American companies because the European alternatives aren't even attempting to be competitive.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#9The opening paragraph:
In 1984 a besuited 20-something American executive on a visit to France offered Europeans a few tips for corporate success. Entrepreneurs needed to be given a second chance if they failed and government bureaucrats made for lousy investors, he told a television interviewer. His advice was sage. But European companies ruled the global corporate roost alongside those of America and, occasionally, Japan. Why should they take advice from this uppity Californian newcomer? Nearly four decades later the company founded by that young upstart, Steve Jobs, is worth more than the 30 firms in the German blue-chip dax index combined.
As someone who grew up in the California Bay Area and programmed Macs and other computers my whole life, reading that gave me great enjoyment.
Re: Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?
#10> These internal barriers mean Europe has many smaller firms operating at national, not continental, scale. Each country tends to have its own banks, utilities, airlines and supermarkets. (Europe has over 100 mobile operators, compared with a handful in America or China.) But all of that is a tremendous bonus for Europeans, not a penalty.
There's benefits to larger companies, such as being willing and able to fund bigger research and development projects. There's opportunities at companies like Google that just aren't available at any European company.