From Passion to Structure: The Journey of Small Businesses

Wal-Mart started small. So did Microsoft. So did Apple. So did General Electric and Ford and almost every other company     1     made it big. They didn’t start by acquisition or achieve mass scale overnight. Nearly every company or organization starts the same way: with an idea.     2     an organization grows to become a multi-billion-dollar corporation like Wal-Mart or fails in the first few years, most of them started with a single person or small group of people who had an idea.

At the beginning, ideas     3     (fuel) by passion — that every convincing emotion that causes us to do quite irrational things. That passion drives many people to make sacrifices so that a cause bigger than themselves can be brought to life. Some drop out of school or quit a perfectly good job     4     a good salary and benefits to try to go it alone. Some work extraordinarily long hours without a second thought, sometimes     5     (sacrifice) the stability of their relationships or even their personal health. This passion is so exciting that it can affect others as well.     6     (inspire) by the founder’s vision, many early employees demonstrate classic early-adopter behavior. Relying on their courage, these first employees also quit their perfectly good jobs and accept     7     (low) salaries to join an organization with a 90 percent statistical chance of failing. But the statistics don’t matter; passion and optimism persist and energy is high. Like all early adopters, the behavior of those who join early says more about them than     8     does about the company’s prospects.

The reason why so many small businesses fail, however, is     9     passion alone can’t cut it. For passion     10     (survive), it needs a structure. A WHY without HOWs, passion without structure, has a very high probability of failure.

3 . In recent months, the U. S. media and politicians have launched fierce attacks on China’s new energy industry, claiming that China has flooded the world with too many clean products, including solar power, new energy vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, which have lowered market prices and hurt American workers and factories. However, experts’ data and analysis overturned the Western argument about overcapacity (产能过剩).

Exports do not mean overcapacity. In a global economy with a high division of labor and specialization, it is normal for a country’s productive capacity to go beyond its domestic demand. For example, about 80% of the cars produced in Germany are exported. Commercial aircraft giants Airbus and Boeing export most of their planes to other countries. While Chinese clean technology accounts for only a small fraction of China’s exports, about 4.5 percent last year, far less than Germany. In fact, the Global Electric Vehicle Outlook, released last year, claimed that the global demand for new electric vehicles will reach 45 million units, which China’s new energy products do not go beyond.

America’s new energy industry falls behind due to underinvestment in green technology and infrastructure (基础设施). Take wind energy for example. A recent report from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) shows that the United States is struggling in its development of wind energy. Building a wind farm requires huge turbine blades (涡轮叶片) and a lot of custom engineering to produce huge towers and foundations, which makes wind energy difficult to trade between countries, so the supply chain needed to run a wind farm smoothly faces great trouble.

China is the only country with enough supply chains to keep wind energy growing without difficulties. Chinese Vice Finance Minister Liao Min said green technology products in China will help the country meet its carbon emission targets and contribute to the global response to climate change and green development.

4 . For want of a chip, the factory was lost. On May 18th Toyota became the latest carmaker forced to cut production in a global shortage of microchips, announcing it would stop work at two of its plants in Japan. Other car makers have also had to send workers home.

The pain is not limited to the car industry, for the shortage spans all sorts of chips, from the expensive, high-tech devices that power smartphones and data-centers to the simple sensors and micro-controllers that have become a vital commodity (商品). This chip drought is the result of the covid-19 pandemic interacting with an industry that is subject to cycles of boom and bust.

“The most important thing”, says Malcolm Penn, who runs a chip-industry consultancy, “is that shortages are a natural part of the industry.” Chipmaking is a good example of a “pork-cycle” business, named for the regular swings between under- and over-supply in pork markets. As with pigs, the supply of chips cannot quickly react to changes in demand. Capacity was tight even before the pandemic, says Mr Penn, pointing out that investment by chipmakers in factory equipment has been below its long-term average for many years.

The pandemic arrived at the worst possible time. After an early crash, demand in several fields boomed. Locked-down consumers bought laptops and other devices. Cloud-computing operators added servers to deal with the wave of home-workers. The car industry was particularly badly hit by a decision to cut orders early in the pandemic-demand for cars has since recovered. But the complexities of the production process mean it takes time to recover. “I can cancel my orders in an afternoon,” says Mr. Penn. “If I want to start them up again, that takes months--and that capacity is now busy serving other customers.”

But the pork cycle is turning once again. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s biggest chipmaker, plans to spend $30bn on new capacity this year. Two other giants, have also decided on further investment. That will bring relief to the wider economy, but not immediately. The boss of IBM said he thought the shortages might last for two years. And, says Mr Penn, when the drought eventually ends, chipmakers may find they face a familiar problem on a bigger scale: a capacity investment in response to serious shortages today could well mean a sizeable surplus (过剩) tomorrow.

8 . For the past three decades, companies and consumers have benefited from cross—border connections that have helped to maintain a steady supply of electronics, clothes, toys and other goods so abundant that it has managed to keep prices low across the board.

However, as the pandemic and the Russia — Ukraine conflict continue to weigh on trade and business ties, that period of plenty appears to be undergoing a partial reversal. Companies are rethinking where to source their products and are stockpiling inventory (库存), even at the potential cost of lowering their efficiency and increasing their operation expense. If the situation lasts for very long, _________could have important implications for inflation (通货膨胀) and the world economy.

American economists are debating whether recent supply chain troubles and geopolitical conflicts will result in a shake-up of global production, in which factories that had previously been sent offshore or areas with fewer tax regulations, move back to the United States or into other more stable countries. If this happens, a decades-long decline in the prices of many goods could come to an end. We may even witness a slide backwards, meaning a potential boost in prices and overall inflation as a result.

The period of global integration before the pandemic made many of the things Americans buy cheaper. Computers and other forms of technology made factories more efficient, and they rolled out sneakers, kitchen tables, and electronics at a pace unmatched in history. Companies slashed their production costs by moving factories offshore, where wages were lower. The adoption of steel shipping containers and ever larger cargo ships allowed products to be transported from Bangladesh and China to Seattle and Tupelo and everywhere in between at astonishingly low prices.

Those changes, however, had consequences for American factory workers, who saw many jobs disappear. Katherine Tai, the U. S. trade representative, said that, while American consumers have enjoyed the “luxury” of low prices for imported goods for a long time now, the system upon which it was built has always been a very “fragile” one. Americans are not just consumers, but also workers who have to compete in a global marketplace for talent where globalization “has damaged opportunities and wages for average American workers”.

“Some returning is occurring — let’s make no mistake about that.” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala., the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, said in an interview. But the data shows that most businesses are reducing their risk by building up their inventories and finding additional suppliers in low-cost countries, such as Vietnam and Mexico. This process could end up helping more deeply integtate poorer countries in Africa and other parts of the world into the global value chains, said Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.

The intertwined trajectory (轨迹) of globalization, low prices, and inflation on the whole will be closely watched by economists over the years to come. “It would certainly be a different world.” Jerome H. Powel, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said when asked about a possible move away from globalization. “It’s not obvious how dramatically conditions will change,” he said. “But it’s clear that it’s slowed down.”

BEIJING — The 2024 Spring Festival box office (票房) in China, within the holiday’s first three     1    (day), has achieved 3.5 billion yuan ($492.7million), which marks a     2     (strike) increase of nearly 17 percent compared to last year.

Running from Feb.10 to Feb. 17 this year, the Spring Festival period traditionally serves as a profitable period for movie ticket sales. The extended holiday contributes     3     drawing more movie-goers to cinemas,     4     (ensure) a successful start to the Chinese film market in 2024.

On Feb.10, eight films were put on, eager     5     (draw) audience attention. Among them, the domestic comedy-drama YOLO, directed by and starring famous comedian Jia Ling, has appeared as the highest-grossing title so far, adding over 1.3 billion yuan to     6     (it) profit account until Tuesday morning, according to box office tracker Dengta Data.

This success narrowly beat the comedy Pegasus 2     7     earned nearly 1.2 billion yuan in the first period of release.     8     (write) and directed by writer-turned-director and racing driver Han Han, the film serves as a sequel (续篇) to his 2019 Spring Festival holiday hit Pegasus.

During the Spring Festival, the animation Boonie Bears: Time Twist     9     (enjoy) great popularity, winning the third place in the Spring Festival box office rankings and bringing     10     large amount of box office profit.

As the Year of the Dragon approached, sales of products with dragon elements have seen explosive     1     (grow) on major e-commerce platforms. Dragon, or long in Chinese,     2     (consider) as an important symbol of Chinese traditional culture, is believed to bring good luck and fortune.

Since January, products with dragon-themed elements, such as clothing, daily necessities and gold jewelry     3     (gain) popularity. Items such as red envelopes, mobile phone cases designed for the Chinese Year of the Dragon have also been favored by consumers, and    4     (they) sales have surpassed those in the Year of the Rabbit last year.

Chinese consumers who buy dragon-themed goods are hoping     5     (live) a better life in the new year and displaying a strong sense     6     national pride and confidence in Chinese culture. The rich cultural meanings and the good wishes     7     the dragon carries have not only stimulated people’s passion for buying, but also satisfied their rising demand for personalized and     8     (create) products with unique cultural symbols.

Spring Festival is the traditional festival Chinese people attach the most importance to, and it’s also     9     peak season for consumption. The shopping craze for dragon-related products ahead of Lunar New Year is essential for     10     (promote) the recovery of the consumer market.