„India has changed tremendously in the last fifty years : having seen students learning in Delhi at night using the light of electrical lamps at public places in 1973 because they did not have it at home – India has become in the last twenty years one of the world’s leading resources for IT-specialists whose services are used by the internet as a tool globally around the world. By its GNP and by Sector Competences like IT all India has moved from the status „developing country“ towards high ranks of G-global. Having taken part for several years in the Indian Retail Forum (IRF) in Mumbai and getting to know entrepreneurs like Kishore Biyani from the Future Group and his competitors the author of this contribution knows how powerful Indian companies have become and how Indian Business Schools and Universities have contributed to the excellent performance of those entities.“ Prof.Dr.Hallier says on the occasion of the Annual International Seminar in New Dehli.

„On the other hand, travelling through India shows that the different regions have their own cultural approaches and tastes – and that a uniform behaviour cannot be expected all over such a SubContinent. This fragmentation is part of the charm of India (like the different mix of curries) but in times of pandemics like Covid 19 sometimes more central power could lead to more efficiency. But judging long-run perspectives like Consumption 2050 also myths and religions play an important role: even death is seen in India as part of a new start into the eternity of a never-ending cycle of lives. And exactly this mentality might be the Strength of India despite all the present problems of Covid 19. Buying shares at the Stock Exchange my advice would be: Buy now at falling prices – because India has still a bright future to come !“
 

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"Taken Global Marketing it is not only important to look at the figures of total population per area as a market - but to analyze where is the greatest potential of growing income as a target-group" Prof.Dr.Hallier described strategies for 2050. "The development of middle-classes internationally for example is biggest in India followed by China and other Asian countries - topping the old and affluent societies of the EU and the USA" Hallier added.

"We should take now the Corona Lock-downs as time for reflections about future markets - and check potentials for the restart of activities in new markets : compensating old fields of business" Hallier explained his strategic orientation."We should also in this case apply Knowledge Competence Sharing : not doing all processes by own staff but to cooperate and to concentrate on own competences like in the Ricardo theory" referring also to last month's Indian Business Focus.
 

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In the beginning of the 19th century Opium became a drug for parts of the Chinese society like in the 21st century Cocain, Heroin or Crystal Meth in parts of the affluent Western societies. Especially British smugglers earned a lot by this trade : one shipload of opium did have a value of 200.000 Pound Sterling silver at those days. The smugglers could be compared with the drug-cartels of today. To fight that illegal trade the Chinese Government appointed a national coordinator in 1839 who so successfully disturbed the smuggling that the opium-traders asked the British Crown to send battle-ships for protection . The dispute ended with the Peace Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) granting the British trading houses access to Chinese cities and handing over the Hongkong Island to the British Crown from 1842 onwards.

The two British merchants who mainly had initiated the intervention and who after meeting first in Mumbai/India had founded in 1832 the Canton (Guangzhou) based company Jardin, Matheson & Co at the Pearl River now bought land in HK and established in 1844 their company HQ at the harbour side : being in the end of the 20ies century the skyscraper Connaught Center. Over the time William Jardin (1784-1843) and James Matheson (1796 -1882) and their families had established a global company acting in more than 20 countries and beeing the biggest Trading House of Asia in the end of the 20ies century also being called the British Commonwealth Century. One of its roots of success was a very intensive network of Chinese merchants : the first and most important of them Wu Ping-chen Howqua II from the Canton-area.

In 1997 the company moved its HQ to the Oasis for Taxes of the 21st century : the Bermuda Islands in the Carrebean Sea. Insofar the character of the actors remained the same over the two centuries. - In literature the history is according to the impressions of the trade-historian Prof.Dr.B.Hallier very well described as the back-stage by the two-part epos „Taipan“ and „Noble House“ by James Clavell. „A phantastic intro about the history of HK, of gaining competences, of fraud, mergers, take-overs - and also indicating that back-stage of all business there always remains also a glimpse of emotion which surely is also true in real life“ . The owner-family of Jardin, Matheson and Co. belongs also in the 21st century to the group of millionaires : they still own big farm-areas in Scotland and England; also as hobbies they keep on going the more feudal life-style of the past : horse-riding and hunting.
 

Unanimously the Board of ERA approved a proposal of Prof.Dr.B.Hallier to elect the Peace Nobel Laureate of 2006 Prof.Dr.M.Yunus for the Hall of Fame. Professor Muhammad Yunus - born in Bathua/Bangladesh - got his BA and MA at Dhaka University/Pakistan and his PhD at the Vanderbilt University/USA. He was teaching as an assistant professor of economics at the Middle Tennessee State University. In 1971 Prof.Yunus joined Chittagong University at his old home-town. In 2006 he got together with the Grameen Bank the Nobel Peace Prize for the idea of micro-credits/micro-finance and its application (more at Hall of Fame).

Professor Hallier got to know Professor Yunus when both visited several times the Astana Economic Forum in Kazakhstan. Especially after the Corona Pandemic and its effects on all business along the international total supply chain in 2020/2021 Professor Hallier sees a need of micro-credits/finance for the poor countries which become the loosers in the widening gaps between oversaturated markets and developing countries. "We need Lighthouses like Professor Yunus to focus an equilibrium between economics, ecology and ethics for global harmony" Prof.Hallier stated at the nomination of Professor Yunus for the Hall of Fame 2021 of the European Retail Academy. "Also studying and teaching at different places in the world and looking for applications in business Prof.Yunus and his brother with his foundation is a hope and benchmark for young people" Hallier added.
 

In 1977 Germany's first pioneer of scanning the Suedmarkt/Carl Doderer informed by a letter its suppliers about the possibility to use in future the EAN bar-code. Accidentally B.Hallier at that time received a copy as an assistant of the Board of Brinkmann Cigarettes responsible for automation/innovation. He immediately started a dialogue with the CCG (today GS 1 Germany) management to analyze the system and to take action from the side of the Branded Goods Industry to integrate the bar-code into the product-design of the brands because the print at the products saved costs at the store-levels for the manual instore-merchandise by staff of industry as well as retailers. The bar-code helped to identify products immediately at the cash-zone by scanners and decreased costs in inventories.

In 1984 Hallier changed from industry to retail becoming CEO of the ISB Institute for Self-Service, merging in 1988 ISB with RGH which owned 50 percent of the shares of the predecessor of GS 1 Germany. By this Hallier could follow very closely for 25 years the next development : the generation of chip-codes which enabled with bigger data-capacities and in connection with RFID optimizations in the distribution like shelf-management/ECR etc. "Also the METRO FUTURE STORE was pushed by a booth of more than 2000 squaremeters at our EuroShop exhibition" Prof.Dr.Hallier remembers. Since 2019 Hallier is now involved in the QR-code development of the Two-dimensional Code Industry (ZIIOT) in China. "It will be an essential tool for AI and also revolutionize distribution by the link with the Internet of Things " Hallier forecasts. "I am thankful for nearly 50 years to be able to be so close to decision-makers at the different sides of the table" he summarizes his long-run experience.
 

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