Business leaders gathered in Ames today to discuss the future of the global economy. Hard professor and author Todd Buchholz says there isn’t a producer or businessperson today who can fight change. The way he says it is “we can’t hide” from the changing demographics that have produced more golf courses in the country than McDonalds restaurants. But it’s not an aging America that’s the biggest challenge, it’s a worldwide market, says Buchholz.He says the Pentagon doesn’t have as much buying power as Asian-Americans, black and Latinos, so we have to figure out how to use technology, build businesses and identify target markets. The Harvard professor says the “UN-sexy” part of a business is the most important. He gives this example; Nike stock fell 23-percent in an hour because they couldn’t find their orders, and he says the important part of running a business is the unseen work behind the scenes. And Bucholz says there has been more radical change in agriculture recently than in all the dot-coms that went up in flames the last year or two.From genetically engineering crops to bar-coding dairy cattle for the right feed, farming’s seen more important changes than all the high-tech firms featured in Business Week. Attendees at the annual Global Iowa Conference heard from a host of speakers on conducting business in the international market.
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