Latest read: Hot Property

Its all in the timing.  The global economic crisis has placed my latest read Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization into a pretty unique light. Regardless of the delay in the US economy the impact of globalization, technology and good old corporate espionage has impacted the world’s stage in manufacturing and distribution.

From aspirin to automobiles with computer technology stolen right in the middle. Author Pat Choate, an economist was the 1994 University of Oklahoma Arthur Barto Adams Alumni Fellow.  He has also written Agents of Influence: How Japan Manipulates America’s Political and Economic System.

The core arguments focus on the use of historical legal patents and technological advances of foreign companies competing against American interests by stealing.  Today its known as corporate espionage.  The end result: the US government does not protect companies in today’s global marketplace.

This book will leave most Americans frustrated.  Globalization has changed the way people and business must evolve to simply stay in business.  The auto industry is a timely example of how America lost this business to global competition.

The old assumptions in American business do not work today. When you innovate and invent, patents will protect your dedication and hard work against competitors around the globe.  How wrong Choate proves this idea is today.

Hot Property will quickly show you how far from the truth the real-world works … against you.  Reminds me of T-shirts I see around the Univ. Wisconsin-Madison campus:  “Don’t let school get in the way of your education”.Choate illustrates how major American companies like GM, Microsoft and Cisco are powerless to stop Chinese counterfeiters. To remain a “favorable company” in the Chinese market, American companies sacrifice their own development, technology and employees while trying to gain business in China.  It is somewhat amazing to see the RIAA use it’s legal arm against elderly Americans for downloading an MP3 file but turn a blind eye to the stunning levels of piracy in China.

Hot Property should be on the required reading list at business and engineering schools. Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization opens by documenting how Eli Whitney did not invent the cotton gin … but rather stole the idea (framework) and perfected the process.  Choate also includes Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, laying out how America transformed itself into a manufacturing and technological world power.  And in order to continue to hold its grip against foreign competitors Choate shares how more patents and to a smaller extent copyright were developed to protect American business in the global marketplace.

Choate goes further illustrating how the German government worked with German companies in the development of chemical compounds to give them a unfair advantage against American companies including Dow Chemical and DuPont.  How unfair? German companies hired American law firms to put their American competitors through long legal ‘dances’ in order to gain an unfair advantage in the American marketplace.  If you believe we really entered WWI against Germany because they sank the British ship Lusitania — Choate will leave you thinking otherwise.
BTW: Owners of the Lusitania announced in December 2008 that the ship was carrying over 4 million rounds of ammunition for the British army.

The same holds true for Japan as their government forced American and European companies to share their technology with Japanese firms in order to gain access to the Asian marketplace. The military wing of the Japanese government used this technology for weapons development leading up to the second world war.  The reader should not be surprised Choate shares how the Chinese are using those same requirements for companies to gain access to their markets today.

Finally this book will leave you shocked when you learn how much advanced military technology developed in America – for America – has been purchased by the Chinese.  Consider the production of “Smart-bombs” otherwise known as Precision-Guided Munitions. American media has played video tapes of smart bomb attacks since the first Gulf War.  Smart bombs continue to be a critical component for our military.  But don’t ask the company in Tennessee who first manufactured the ONLY core components for Smart-Bomb munitions, they went out of business three years ago…and the Chinese outbid all other American companies for the right to ship every manufacturing tool and instrument back to China.

If you think the current economic recessions is keeping you up at night, try thinking about the long term security of America.