International -- Readers Report
Don't Count the World Wide Web Out
"Rethinking the Internet" (Cover Story, Mar. 26) is based upon American views about the American problems that the Internet is now opening up. As an e-commerce consultant based in Hong Kong, I watch the errors of the West to make sure that the same mistakes are not made here. This is the evolution of business. Yes, we have to rethink, but this is part of the evolutionary direction we all have to go through. No one said it would be easy.
Callan Anderson
Hong Kong
German Managers Have Passports, Too
"The humbling of Germany's superbosses" (European Business, Mar. 26) neglects a valuable and already existing pool of international and interculturally versed management resources. There are quite a number of middle-aged, capable, and creative German individuals who sought their chances abroad and have performed successfully in an intercultural management environment.
In addition to the experience from project assignments, those managers know how to perform independently of the security and power deriving from an image-laden enterprise. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to place such "pearls" within the established management circus. There is the inherent hope that foreigners at least could easier be kept under control.
Winrich Neumann
Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany
The Xerox Hierarchy: Not to Be Copied
Where was the common sense of Xerox Corp. shareholders and board members in approving the arrangement that Paul A. Allaire would remain as chairman after being replaced as CEO by G. Richard Thoman ("Downfall," Cover Story, Mar. 5)? Thoman's performance can't even be judged except in one respect: He made a mistake when he did not say "either him or me"--up front.
Peter Lendvay
Budapest
Is Auctioning Off the Airwaves the Best Policy?
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, in an unprecedented act of mercantile conduct, set a trend for the worldwide auction of airwaves and put further strains on the operators ("Wireless: A little government meddling may not hurt," American News, Feb. 19). The quality of service in the Tokyo area is particularly atrocious. Here, however, the major operators continue to be highly profitable while enjoying a gift from the Japanese taxpayers of license-free airwaves. Competition and subscriber demand will drive the industry to improve the quality of service in mobile phones. Government meddling could boomerang and leave the market with only a few major operators. Back to monopoly days? That is certainly one way to keep the FCC busy, if not useful.
Kambiz Homayounfar
CEO
Genista Corp.
Tokyo
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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