“Give me a country that is at war because the last President has been shot and I’ll figure out something to do to make money,” says Smith who is author of RICHES AMONG THE RUINS—Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy.

In this new book, Smith recounts his experiences risking not only his money, but his life, in war zones, dictatorships, and crime-ridden capitals in countries like El Salvador, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia and Iraq.

Smith sounds like he has a risky life, risking not only his investments but his life. But he doesn’t see it that way. He says he is risk adverse which he defines as always having an exit strategy for most of the bonds he invests in. He suggests that any time you invest in something that looks like it’s going bad, you should head to the exit. You’re better off taking a loss and living to fight another day.

For Smith that strategy has served him well except when it came to Russia. He rationalized that Russia was too big for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to let fail. In turn, he invested $20 million in Russian Government Bonds. But then on August 17, 1998 Smith says, “Russia gave the middle finger to the financial world and I was at the top of the finger.”

That lesson taught him to never bet on something just because it seems “too big to fail.” He contends that nothing—no company, business or country—is immune to failure. As examples in the United States he cites General Motors, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The first thing Smith will do when arriving in Damacus will be to try to identify a local partner he can trust. To find that person who can provide him with local insights he talks with everyone including the cab driver on the ride from the airport. But he says you need to be careful because resumes are more fraudulent today.

The countries that Smith predicts will be the rising stars for investors are Brazil, China, India and Russia in that order. He suggests if you’re buying a mutual fund you should look to see if those countries are included.

You can follow Smith’s thinking at www.richesamongtheruins.com

Article By Paul J. Welsh

Interview conducted by Jay Liebenguth

Have you heard the one about the residential realtor, the commercial realtor and the general contractor at a business networking event?

The residential realtor says to the commercial realtor, “When are you going let me sell you a house? “

The commercial Realtor says, “Not until you figure out how to sell mine.”

The general contractor shakes his head and says, “I couldn’t wait for 2008 to get over until I saw 2009.”

This is a true story from October of 2009 Chamber function. It’s not funny like those priest, rabbi and Baptist minister stories. No, there’s been little to laugh about in the real estate and construction industry for the past 18 months.

So why is general contractor Gerry Crawley upbeat? His company, ARC General Contracting, currently has 19 jobs in progress and he declared “The recession is over” on March 6 while his business was at a low point that paralleled most of the construction industry.

“When the whole world went off its axis, nobody knew what the fallout was,” Crawley said. “You get immobilized by fear. It makes you reactionary.”

What’s more, employees can smell fear and then they become immobilized according to Crawley. They worry about what is going to happen.

Soon, however, he realized during last year’s decline that he was not facing a business crisis but rather a crisis of faith. Even though ARC was listed as a Top 25 General Contractor in the Kansas City Business Journal he began to question how good they really were.

He surmises that the economy caused every entrepreneur to do that kind of soul searching and begin to understand that the ground rules have changed.

“You can bury your head in the sand or make a commitment to change,” Crawley says.

He cited Dan Lowe of RED Development as saying, “This is the time to make relationships.”

For Crawley, change began when he brought in a business coach named Caroline Smith. She helped Crawley examine who ARC was as a business which led to a one-page strategic business plan that he refers to regularly. This streamlined document made the company’s objectives more clear. He now shares the Plan and the company’s financial results at least quarterly with all of his employees. That diminishes fear and builds trust.

“You work to build trust,” Crawley said. “It’s hard to make a profit without it.”

“Once we decided not fail, things got better,” he said. “We kept people working and that’s something good.”

Crawley has a business philosophy that has become the company’s motto: “Service Over Self-Interest.”

“Whatever we do, I’m simply a steward of the client’s money,” he says. “We’re just like a big ATM machine.”

Now that’s a funny line. It’s easier to laugh when your company is stronger. Crawley has discovered that. And ARC is stronger.

Article By Paul J. Welsh

Interview was conducted by Jay Liebenguth

Two thoughts came to mind before I even got through the Forward and Introduction sections of The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World by Bruce Piasecki.

1. Is this book is going to be preaching to the choir about addressing environmental and social issues? Will it be a studied treatment of the issues or a piece of propaganda?

2. It takes a bold author to first thank the Forward writer Darryl Vernon Poole for comparing him to Rachel Carson and Malcolm Gladwell. Then, proceed to compare himself to George Orwell. If he’s that good I need to read on.

This book is the latest update of a book called World Inc. (2007) which has received significant acclaim. And, as president and founder of the American Hazard Control Group, Dr. Piasecki has been consulting with major corporations on environmental corporate strategy since 1981. So his opinions are worth hearing, worth reading.

“Competition has created an industrial underbelly of pollution, climate change, resource depletion, new forms of economic imperialism, and regional wars over water, clean air, and trees,” says Dr.Piasecki.

He contends that today’s businesses must take responsibility for leading in the areas of social and environmental reform.

You can almost hear businesses asking, “What’s in it for us?” And Dr. Piasecki has an answer for them. He explains how responding to social needs will open markets, generate profits, and win investment capital. The examples he profiles in this book are from consulting he has provided to clients like Toyota, Suncor Energy and Hewlett-Packard.

Dr. Piasecki is very pro-capitalism. He just sees the need for capitalism to change, saying that traditional capitalism may be getting a bit senile. He believes that both corporations and individuals will need to adjust their bearing in a new terrain. Competing on price and quality alone are not sufficient anymore. Businesses, large and small, must also put social needs into the equation.

He talks about The S Frontier which he observes is already here. It includes the severity of market conditions, the swiftness of information, and social response to capitalism. And according to Dr. Piasecki, if companies don’t adjust, he predicts that the top 300 multinational companies will undergo tremendous change, and only a minority will be in business a few decades from now.

This is a surprising book because the radical changes Dr. Piasecki describes actually grow out of strong business fundamentals. It’s an uplifting book that defines the future of leadership. And the arrogance that seemed to jump out of the book before the first chapter may be justified based on the thinking the book advances.

Article By Paul J. Welsh

Interview was conducted by Jay Liebenguth