Net Results Which formerly arrogant and now judiciously humbled marketplace of the virtual kind is marked by its tendency towards digital and electronic obesity? Answer: the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Why is the Nasdaq always "tech-heavy"? No other market suffers from alternative forms of heaviness. And yes, mea culpa, for I have used that annoying expression myself. It's been a while since I've read the expression anywhere, probably because, for the past three years, no one has wanted to recall that being heavy with tech was once a source of great excitement in the marketplace but now considered a liability.
Yet there it was last Saturday. Perhaps it is no coincidence that it has crept back into the business writer's lexicon just as the Nasdaq has had its longest sweep of gains in 3½ years. The Nasdaq Composite Index has risen for seven consecutive sessions for the first time since February 8th, 2000. Not an indication that we're out of the woods but certainly, as they say, a "further sign of recovery".
I read this all in one of Canada's main national dailies, the National Post, which carries a substantial finance and investment news section.
Tech stocks rallied in Canada, too, it was happy to point out; a rally led by Canadian telecoms equipment giant Nortel, which just signed a $1 billion (€899 million) deal with US network operator Verizon.
The National Post also runs a rather odd advertising campaign for the paper, consisting of pictures of various business people saying modest things about Canada. "People respect Canadians; people even seem to love us" says one, a comment by one Mr Gerry Schwartz, chairman and chief executive of a company called ONEX. Another advert features a different chief executive noting that Canadians are quiet, honest and likeable.
I'm baffled by the adverts. I'm not sure if this is all whimsically ironic and everyone's laughing along. If not, it is proof of what I had thought was another cliché: the polite, earnest, painfully modest Canadian.
If the biggest selling point of your national identity is a tendency to being pleasant, I'd invent something more racy just for the national PR.
Can you imagine an Irish campaign based on an Irish sense of identity? "Jaysus we don't care what ye all think because everyone ends up liking us anyway, and isn't it gas that it's because of , rather than despite, the blather?!"
Laugh all you want at Canadians campaigning for their superb ability to be quietly confident, but one thing the Irish aren't good at - at least within the tech industry ( that's where we started) - is sales and marketing.
There are exceptions, but talk to anyone with a good overview of where the Irish tech sector stands, and they'll say there's a gaping hole where solid sales and marketing acumen should be.
The last survey on the software industry by Irish consultancy Hot Origin underlined this weakness. While firms acknowledge sales and marketing are important, they spend little of their budgets on it, and it is an area where corporate outlay has been most severely curtailed since the economic downturn.
That weakness remains a major concern for many who try to bang the Irish drum abroad or help Irish firms move into international markets. In the past three years, this has been a recurrent issue raised by several promoters of Irish tech firms with a strong American perspective, in private conversation.
As one noted, Irish firms land in the North American market thinking they can glide on in and find a ready niche. Often, the firm is still run by a founder with little or no marketing, much less business, experience. These firms are not prepared for the sophistication of the international market, especially the US technology market.
And then, there's the pure Darwinian brutality within the tech sector in the US. "Irish companies get eaten alive," says one observer.
Glance over at the US and you'll see this is true. Few Irish tech firms have had any staying power within the US - downturn or no downturn.
Look in Enterprise Ireland's books and you'll see that few Irish firms have even considered heading across the Atlantic in the past couple of years - or even during the tech boom.
I'm thinking about all this because I'm in Canada before an Irish technology trade mission next month, to be led by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney. I'll be talking to firms in the Canadian tech sector and getting an idea of what economists, the Canadian government and companies think about Canada, business, the technology market, and where Irish companies could fit in.
But even if Canadians are all quiet, polite and likeable, they remain as hard-nosed in business as the Yanks. They'll want Irish business partners that can do sales and marketing till the caribou come home.
These international markets are there for the taking, but they need international business smarts.
It's simple, really: there's no such thing as self-evident brilliance for a product or service in the global market. Nothing sells itself. The hard part is figuring out how to do brilliant sales and marketing.
Budget and conviction are starting points, but the Irish tech sector needs to take it from there.
http://weblog.techno-culture.com
