Getting Used To the New Threat

When one views the asymmetric threat we no face and will continue to face one is struck by the stark differences in methods of engagement. All through history nation states have engaged in combative activities that have pitted nation state against nation state. The forces involved engaged through predictable and usual modes of assault and defense. The sides were identifiable and usually had long battle histories and honors associated with the units involved. It could have been the Roman Legion vs. Hannibal or the flower of France against Henrys bowmen at Agincourt.  Each unit involved was well known and had distinguished themselves many times in the past. Our own military is rich in the traditions of different units and their battle honors. We have our famous Army airborne units, the 82nd and 101st. The 101st having been of "Band of Brothers" fame. Why is this of significance?  Because the enemy we are engaged with today can site no such path.  How can you continue as an organization when your goal is to blow yourself up or in some other fashion martyr yourself to achieve your objective.  Think how it would sound to be the Osama martyrs brigade with our only legacy being that we all blew ourselves up. Besides the above implications what will be the profound take away from understanding this paradigm shift. ?

Basically it means getting used to focusing on the enabling technology not the cold war model of the platform and numbers being the key. The intelligence community and state department analysis indicates we are involved in a one hundred year struggle with the asymmetrical model. This means always having to re tool your capability to react and respond. The key component of this approach will be the enabling technology of sensors and all the related software. Key standards to be aware of will be DO-178 & DO-254. These standards are the basis of safety critical environments and besides the software bolstering them there is associated sensor hardware that will collect, transmit and process critical information for situational awareness and relevant ISR information. It is also important to understand that given our continued dependence on energy and the worldwide demand that drives the need will make the protection of the entire eco system key. This would start with energy acquisition of all types and move from acquiring it to transporting it, processing it and distribution of it. With all stages of this process come requirements for sensors that are becoming increasingly smarter.

Bringing UAV Capability to the Littoral Space near You

Several years ago I started attending the first Sea Land Air Space Conferences since it was known affectionately as “Navy League”. In the era of “Hunt for Red October” this show was all about sonar and all things ASW. Now in the new asymmetric era the Navy and various worldwide security forces are looking at the littoral space and wondering how to deal with the exponential threats that environment presents over simply a land border. A company that has drawn from its vast experience with UAV activity and is now as Hydronalix manifesting significant technical breakthrough in the area of maritime robotics that will demonstrates many concepts through videos at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hydronalix/169291093108569

Having worked on the original DARPA autonomous land vehicle program in the mid 80’s it’s rewarding to witness the full coverage of autonomous capability with first the ground space, then air and now water both surface and sub surface. Several key technologies such as infrared vision, power through such capabilities that fuel cells can present and swarming behavior will be among the top challenges. One can only wonder had the Cole been protected by such technology would the terrorist act that occurred have happened.

A Great Combination For Total Situational Awareness

Ultra Electronics Measurement Systems Inc. HUMAN-CENTERED, DISMOUNTED, PORTABLE SURVEILLANCE & FORCE PROTECTION SYSTEM http://ow.ly/7YU09

Digital Signage for Surveillance & Security Applications

The area of Digital Signage is a brand new area of interest and focus within the area of surveillance and security applications, especially when addressing tasks dealing with transit infrastructure, all types of critical infrastructure and protection of major public events. Made possible by the melding of high-end computer graphics with crisp high definition LCD displays operating wirelessly which can automatically update information on safety issues, directions and threat situational awareness. An excellent event that features leading edge technology and methodology is held on an annual basis. See:

http://www.digitalsignageexpo.net/

Two publications that cover the market are:

http://signagesolutionsmagazine.com/

http://www.proavmagazine.com/digital-signage/turf-wars.aspx

Think about the potential scenarios of another 9-11 type event and reflect on the potential to assist people to gain an orderly exit or find treatment for injuries sustained.

What Would Currant Surveillance & Security Systems Have Accomplished on 12-7-41

How similar is the world now in 2011 to what was happening in 1941? Financial issues worldwide, check, the rise of religious fascism substituting for political fascism, check, the U.S. seeking to reduce defense postures, check, dangerous leaders, check. Seems pretty similar to me ? We can’t help but wonder as another Pearl Harbor Day comes around what is next in store in terms of a terror type attack. While certainly there are similarities in surprise between Pearl Harbor and 9-11 the key fact is that the Japanese attacked in traditional fashion and with traditional weapons and tactics. That was not the case with 9-11 and must be fully and continually articulated and mentioned as we in the west tend to minimize and marginalize the true deceptive and clandestine approach of our terrorist adversaries. One can not help but wonder what the outcome at Pearl Harbor would have been if today’s technology in Surveillance and Security would have been utilized. Early warning as to the approach of the Japanese fleet could have come from UAV’s or satellites. Harbor defense systems would have certainly detected the mini subs seeking to enter the Ford Island channel. While that type of scenario could have played out then and now it is far harder to detect and counter the intentions of the asymmetric threat.

RQ-180 UAV

One constant though is the professionalism and bravery exhibited by our service members yesterday and today. In 1941 we had just months prior to Pearl Harbor instituted a draft. The Navy afloat at Pearl Harbor though were volunteers, many seeking a way out of the hard economic times that dogged the 1930’s. While countless books and movies cover the actual attack it’s interesting to focus on a theme exhibited by the actions of one ship that was in the harbor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Orleans_ . The crew shaking off the initial shock of the attack rallied around their Chaplin Howell Forgy. From his actions the famous WW 2 song that captured  a generations’ true feelings was born. “Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition” was developed in the forties to help lift sprits and sell bonds but it could have equally demonstrated the bravery of another Navy crew early in the war on terror when  on  10/12/2000  the  Cole was attacked by Islamic terrorists. For additional details    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing  . Just as at Pearl Harbor with the New Orleans, the Coles crew saved their ship and persevered. One again can’t help but wonder had Surveillance and Security techniques and technology available now been used then would the outcome have been different. For example using video biometrics could have proven an early warning as the day before the attack the Cole was boarded by local merchants seeking to sell their wares. In reality they were probing for weakness and latter reporting back to the terror cell planning the attack. Would a micro UAV stationed overhead when the Cole made port call been able to beam pictures of the fishing boat parked outside the terror cell’s house several miles inland and not the usual location for such an object. We can only prepare for the next attack leveraging all our technology while confident that just as with the New Orleans and Cole our service personnel will rise to the occasion.

No One Can Take a Bite Out Of This BIG APPLE

NYPD realizing they have been hit twice by terror attacks and have uncovered multiple plots that did not transpire have formed their own Counter Terror Team.  The video does and excellent job of reviewing it’s formation and uncovers a compelling topic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgJJTZ76LzI&sns=tw

With the worldwide terror community knowing that NYC is a tough target might they not start looking at other major U.S. cities? This means each city will need to form a like task force and when formed all units will need to keep updating and morphing technology to fit the new asymmetrical threats generated by terror cells of all persuasions . In essence every major city will need to have a DOD type surveillance and security plan. In the past a city would think of new squad cars and perhaps a radar device. Now these organizations will need to be up to date and thinking about cameras of all types, video analytics, video servers, chem/bio sensors,UGV’s,UAV’s,helicopters and Human Social Cultural Behavior schemes. One company that provides enabling technology for these types of applications is D-TA Systems (www.d-ta.com). Started by industry legend, Dr. Dipak Roy this group has a vast amount of enabling technology for the types of surveillance applications that will be required to support the standing up of municipal counter terror groups.

D-TA Systems pioneered 10 Gigabit Sensor Processing – a new network-centric approach to sensor processing applications such as COMINT/SIGINT/ELINT, software radio, radar, acoustic, RF Test & Instrumentation etc.  These are indeed the building blocks for establishment of a municipal counter terrorism force

Benefits of this architecture:

·         Multiple 10 GigE links forms a digital backbone that provides scalable digital output at line speed and hence high bandwidths and channel counts 

·         Coverage of the RF/IF frequency range from 20 MHz to 6 GHz with instantaneous bandwidths from 40 MHz to over 1 GHz per channel.

·         Internal architecture for multi-channel reconfigurable and programmable RF, IF and digital processing

·         Very high level of scalability of RF/IF channels and recording storage – from a single channel to 100s of channels, eg  phased array radar.

·         Separation of analog and digital functions yields much better signal performance than bus-based systems

·         Channel synchronization is assured as well as precise channel alignment – multiple channels in single unit and across multiple boxes

·         Applications Ready Modular Subsystems gives you a turnkey development environment

·         Very fast scalable data recording at over 1600 MB/sec sustained for a single unit –scalable to higher transfer rates for larger systems

·         Customizable for deployment

An Embedded Graphics & Video Tracking Treasure House

If you want to find the best one stop shop for your graphics and video tracking needs check out the offerings from Vision4ce

http://vision4ce.com/

My personnel favorites are solution sets targeted at sea,land,and fixed sites for 360 defense scenarios.Think if the U.S.S. Cole had been deployed with  Ship Sentry

http://vision4ce.com/?solutions

If you were a GE Embedded Computing / SBS Technologies G-2 user or any of the graphics capabilities presented by Radstone or the companies acquired by Curtiss Wright please consider and upgrade. Today’s threats require an even more robust degree of situational awareness and scalability. The modular approach of Vision4ce products allow for this approach.

Alternative Power: Potential Green Wave Plays

Much has been written about Alternative Power sources and the promise of a less oil dependent world. Great attention both politically and environmentally is paid by the media and society in general.  Despite the hype some scientific facts exist.  When you combine fuel with oxygen you can chemically generate electricity without combustion. You do have power tough which ultimately is the end game. One group that is leveraging the concept of allowing their fuel cells to run off of available fuels such as coal, JP-8, and diesel is CellTech Power:

http://www.celltechpower.com/technology.htm

The advantage of this approach is profound for military applications and commercial ones where devices need to run on portable power devices. A feature of this approach is being flexible as emissions regulations evolve and technology scales to those metrics. Their website listed above provides a great tutorial on fuel cells in general. It’s one of the best I’ve seen.

Another group that is coming at the fuel cell game a little differently is Lynntech. They are creating electrochemical power supplies and hydrogen generation modules for a variety of platforms including UAV’s, and medical devices. See a description of their work at:   http://www.lynntech.com/company.htm

Embedded Computing Provides Foundation & Path to Deployment

In order to deploy the types of systems that would revolve around fuel cell power in any form embedded computing resources would be a must. Whether they control the medical, military or industrial device or platform taking advantage of the alterative power scheme the advantages and need for energy management and harvesting will be manifested by various types of embedded computing schemes. These forms could be data acquisition ,graphics,dense processing or even cloud based. Certainly in many cases very rugged packaging of the computer platform would be an asset. One such group with a very versatile product line that lends itself nicely to alternative power applications is Arbor Embedded Computing.  See their portfolio at: http://www.arbor.com.tw/as/product.aspx

In order to manage these fuel cell applications within their designated platforms visual user interfaces will need to be created. This is especially true for any vehicle related “dashboard” . The aircraft industry with their “glass cockpit” smart display approach as taken great advantage of graphics and animation. These schemes are now moving into ground based vehicles both military and commercial. As they manifest themselves a greater and greater dependency on graphics and video will naturally occur. Think about the timeline from the car radio to the eight track to the DVD to now social media via cell phones and smart devices plugged into the vehicle. The acceleration with each breakthrough has been profound. One group that brings a force multiplier to this vetronics space, http://proceedings.ndia.org/3570/session6/Vetronics by virtue of past experience in cockpit and ground vehicle support applications is, Animated Media Inc. through their versatile  VGK package  http://www.animatedmedia.ca/products/vgk-platform  offers platform systems integrators on the commercial side to develop an ecosystem for revenue generation and on the military vehicle side a way to enhance situational awareness through the combination of sensor inputs in real time with stored data enhanced with social media aspects that leverage the www.   This link touches on some of these issues.

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/index/display/article-display/0866344659/articles/military-aerospace-electronics/volume-22/issue-9/special-report/high-value-ventronics-robotics.html?cmpid=EnlMAEOctober52011

Surveillance 360

I posted recently about a great real time world feed on various types of incidents around the world.

http://www.globalincidentmap.com/threatmatrix.php

Gets you to the site where you can see great interactive maps related to all types of events.

Surveillance 360

I discussed in a past post

New Buoy Seeks To Boost Security

New Buoy Seeks To Boost Security

Drug Cartels : The New Player

The 1920’s & 30’s was an era of prohibition and the growth of organized crime in America. The new millennium has spawned a larger threat that revolves around the  organized Drug Cartels. A must read that covers this topic thoroughly has hit the street. Ms. Sylvia Longmire a former USAF officer and government intelligence analyst has leveraged her experience to spin a compelling story.

Go to the Amazon link below and order this book now.

This blog would appreciate comments on how one would look to leverage technology for the detection and containment for Cartel activities.

Embedded Computing Drives Science Fiction Book Plot Development

Authors come from various backgrounds which usually provide some if not all the material they turn into their creations. Mark Twain traveled to Alaska and rode the riverboats. His works based on events he experienced are classics.

In my embedded computing career I have been blessed by interacting with numerous technical individuals who have played the role of applications engineer or solutions developer. These individuals are very technical and all have creative and multi faceted personalities. In my sales career I have been blessed to have worked with several individuals who played the role of the classical high tech applications engineer. One individual is now a budding published science fiction author. Ron Townsen whom first was a customer of mine and then a colleague as we pursued various sonar applications for digital signal processing is now leveraging his embedded experiences by developing a series of exciting science fiction novels. The Watcher In The Fall series is out now. See the specific website for details:

http://watcherinthefall.com/index.html

Order a copy by going here or just clicking on the Amazon link on this blog

http://www.amazon.com/Watcher-Fall-Connections-Ronald-Townsen/dp/1467038067/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319752093&sr=1-6

How to Win In China and Greater Asia in the New Millennium

Name a market that has a growing base of sophisticated and disposable income oriented consumers that is larger than the Pan Asian market. Europe is expensive, tired and broke. Africa and Latin America are years behind. Asia powered by China still looks like the next and closest continually promising market.

Author with GE associate Robin Ma touring the Great Wall near Beijing

With that said would you like to know, and have advantages in building a successful attack plan to grow and sustain business in China. Tremendous lessons are covered on this topic by, Stephen Turner, founder of Bing Fa Consulting , a group dedicated to building and driving business growth in Asia with a special emphasis on China. The book “How to Win In China”, a recent publication I just reviewed is a very incisive look at skills you will need to hone and utilize if your quest is to be a success.  Mr. Turner addresses the subject as if it were a sequel in the “Indiana Jones” series where clues are given, CULTURAL TANSLATORS, are introduced and a history lesson serve as the backdrop. It’s unfortunate that more works on this type of topic don’t take that approach.

This effort gives the reader a game plan to follow for conducting new missions or sustaining old ones in China. For example if I were a multinational executive looking after China and I read this book I’d want to quickly scrub my currant and ongoing plans against themes of understanding cultural motives , the importance of ,Keqi,Renqing,Guanxi,and Mianzi.

I viewed the book through my perspective of having sold in Asia with several multinational companies including a role as Product Leader in High Speed Computing, Imaging and Graphics for General Electric’s Embedded Computing Group. In my role I supported sales teams in Asia & India. My preference was to support my sales teams in China because of many points made in “How to Win in China”. My sales team in China respected knowledge and experience in selling high technology products vs. inexperience and an MBA in an irrelevant area. They appreciated an understanding of their customs and approaches to eating and building trust. Topics such as these are well defined and reviewed using examples by Mr. Turner.

During my time that GE I collaborated with my team to generate multiple design wins in China. The wins were combinations of working through reseller channels to selling directly or selling directly to the Chinese government. Each sales situation I was involved in had themes that surfaced in “How to Win in China”. Several memorable ones revolved around two scenarios.  I had made presentations to a government lab and in my opening discussions introduced myself using my Chinese name as given to me by my GE associates, Jimu, James or Jim. In addition to the name reference I showed a slide of the Chinese leader Qin Shihuang, one of my favorite military men. Both these efforts allowed me to gain extreme face and thus respect and a foundation for trust with this group. Additional conversation followed after the business meeting and I later learned that my clever sales person having noticed the dynamics of the meeting had arranged a weekend event where he would take me and our two government customers to the Summer Palace for a day of sightseeing. He explained to me the reason he had done this was to have the customers determine I was not the normal western business guy sent by a multinational company. He further explained that the usual western person would not want to take their weekend time up with a sightseeing trip they didn’t think up and let alone with customers to boot. He knew that I would be different and by passing the various tests which would include eating nontraditional” western “oriented Chinese food and discussing Chinese history and tradition allow him to gain great face with his customers. Our approach went well and with my sales person acting as cultural translator we  achieved our goal of him creating great Mianzi and by default transferring some to the two government employees who were able to tell their supervisors how they had spent the weekend with a GE executive viewing culture at the summer palace. My second scenario deals with ceremony and testing; which are touch point themes in Mr. Turner’s book.  China during the Cold War period mentioned in the books timeline was extremely close to the Soviet Union. What never appeared in our U.S. history books is what this meant in cultural terms to China. All you need to do is attend a convention in Beijing at the old auditorium and trade fair center close to the zoo that was constructed by the Soviets to support cultural events and business expos during the “friendly” era between the two superpowers. Next to the convention center you will find a fantastic restaurant serving only Russian food and staffed by Russian speaking wait people. The building décor is of course right out of the Stalin Era and makes you think you are in Prague or Sofia not Beijing. It was in this environment I participated in my first Chinese Trade Show. In addition to participating with the trade show booth duty my GE Team had also made arrangements for me to conduct several seminars where they had invited attendees from numerous government labs, research groups within key companies , reseller partners as well as the Chinese PLA apparatus as the event was an Aerospace & Military tradeshow. I prepared a technical presentation and delivered it several times the first day. Also arranged was for a delegation of the senior PLA leadership to stop by the GE booth for a private discussion and demonstration. Upon the conclusion of the first day the exhibition company invited all the “favored” exhibitors to attend the welcome ceremony dinner which was intended to allow companies to meet each other and more key ---make contacts with government players. Of course the “favored” exhibitors got that way through process explained in Mr. Turner’s book. I also learned that seated at each table would be government officials mixed in with the various exhibitors. The venue for the gathering was an original Chinese Tea House, itself symbolic of the old China and the process of colonial development. What transpired at the dinner could have become a case study in “How to Win in China “from the perspective of “tests”, ceremonial positioning, and the creation of Guanxi, and Mianzi. Needless to say it was a target rich environment for the cultural translators.

Based on the foundational work of this topic I look forward to a deeper dive into these topics and perhaps hearing from the community.

Morph Plays?

With the sophistication of the Chinese community both in and out of China one has to begin thinking that many of the traditional and long time plays will be slightly morphing based on familiarity with the west. It’s hard to believe that the era of the internet, DVD’s, the blackberry and I pad and I pod won’t greatly alter how Chinese companies will interact. This means an even great challenge for the cultural translator and identifies an even greater need for assistance from a group such as Bing Fa Consulting.

Caring For Elders?

A topic touched upon in “How to Win in China” was the great premium the Chinese place on eldercare responsibility. This is something that has no traction in the U.S. and actually as time progresses may become either a great or weak negotiation position. Here is a scenario to ponder. Let’s say the Chinese company in probing learns that many of the people with whom they are dealing with at the U.S. or western company have elder parents. It stands to reason that they are being looked at very differently than the Chinese would view things. That said might the Chinese company wonder how they could trust people who would not care for their elders. The flip side of this would be for the U.S. Company to understand this dynamic and prepare against it. Or for it whatever the situation dictates.

Fast Food Ideas?

Yogurt

Tex –Mex ( Taco Bueno)

Italian

Sports Apparel

All of the above ideas could be great potentials to open the Chinese market to. As Mr. Turner pointed out in his book “How to Win in China” Food and ceremony play a pivotal role in business negotiations. Western and especially U.S. based companies have little feeling for this. This is driven in general by the American attitude on eating fast and not understanding the art of conversation at meal time. I can recall numerous times in China when attention deficient disorder managers simply wanted to eat quickly with our Chinese counterparts or customers so they could go check e mail. Of course during the meal they were always playing with their phones. It was amusing to watch the reactions of my Chinese customers and associates as they must have wondered how serious these guys were to detail when they could not even focus on the conversation at hand. Ceremony too is a big aspect of understanding how to deal with the Chinese culture. Again as a country and within our business leadership we are challenged. Mr. Turner gives sage guidance in the book and reminds me of countless stories around this topic.  The below picture is one example. My GE Sales team in China was impressed with my grasp of Chinese history and not only the fact that I knew about their culture but was able to map it into sales strategies they could use. One of the richer areas to take lessons from was the campaign waged by Mao both against the Nationalists as well as the Japanese. Knowing that I appreciated all this my team made arrangements to take me to Mao and Madame Mao’s favorite restaurant, the Red Capital Club, http://www.redcapitalclub.com.cn/ . It’s of course the Chinese version of a theme restaurant along the lines of 94^th Aero Squadron or TGIF with the emphasis on the early years of China’s rule by Mao. The wait staff is all in appropriate costume and the music reflects a martial theme. During our team meeting there I was able to outline the upcoming campaign patterning it around Mao’s Long March. The group loved it and we were there for seven hours. When is the last time you had a seven hour business dinner in the U.S.?

And Now The Other Shoe

In early 1997 I was looking to ride the explosive dot com & computer telephony wave and left the world of high speed computing for Intel/Dialogic. After several years of selling Texas Instruments based RTOS SW packages, tools and telephony boards I joined Maxwell Technologies I-Bus Industrial Computer group. My task was to leverage my signal processing and telephony experience into packaging schemes I-Bus could sell. It is in my capacity as Business Development & Channel Manager I began collaborations with Mr. Matt Brandt who directed Asian Sales. I was impressed with Mr. Brandt’s grasp of the Asian marketplace and for the first time started thinking of Asia in terms of the applications I understood and liked to pursue. Now Mr. Brandt who is located in China and has participated first hand in a variety of financial transactions and market building there has an exciting blog and relevant blog that focuses on aspects of the Asian market. The interesting thing is it is keyed on the exact opposite theme of “How to Win in China” in that the players are Chinese groups wanting to do business in the West vs. Western groups wanting to do business in Asia. Please hit this link and make it one of your favorites as it looks like many rich factoids will be regularly appearing :

http://globalchinacapital.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/chinese-firms-are-their-own-worst-enemies/

How to Win In China and Greater Asia in the New Millennium

Name a market that has a growing base of sophisticated and disposable income oriented consumers that is larger than the Pan Asian market. Europe is expensive, tired and broke. Africa and Latin America are years behind. Asia powered by China still looks like the next and closest continually promising market.

 Author with GE associate Robin Ma touring the Great Wall near Beijing

With that said would you like to know, and have advantages in building a successful attack plan to grow and sustain business in China. Tremendous lessons are covered on this topic by, Stephen Turner, founder of Bing Fa Consulting, a group dedicated to building and driving business growth in Asia with a special emphasis on China. The book “How to Win In China”, a recent publication I just reviewed is a very incisive look at skills you will need to hone and utilize if your quest is to be a success.  Mr. Turner addresses the subject as if it were a sequel in the “Indiana Jones” series where clues are given, CULTURAL TANSLATORS, are introduced and a history lesson serve as the backdrop. It’s unfortunate that more works on this type of topic don’t take that approach.

This effort gives the reader a game plan to follow for conducting new missions or sustaining old ones in China. For example if I were a multinational executive looking after China and I read this book I’d want to quickly scrub my currant and ongoing plans against themes of understanding cultural motives , the importance of ,Keqi,Renqing,Guanxi,and Mianzi.

I viewed the book through my perspective of having sold in Asia with several multinational companies including a role as Product Leader in High Speed Computing, Imaging and Graphics for General Electric’s Embedded Computing Group. In my role I supported sales teams in Asia & India. My preference was to support my sales teams in China because of many points made in “How to Win in China”. My sales team in China respected knowledge and experience in selling high technology products vs. inexperience and an MBA in an irrelevant area. They appreciated an understanding of their customs and approaches to eating and building trust. Topics such as these are well defined and reviewed using examples by Mr. Turner.

During my time that GE I collaborated with my team to generate multiple design wins in China. The wins were combinations of working through reseller channels to selling directly or selling directly to the Chinese government. Each sales situation I was involved in had themes that surfaced in “How to Win in China”. Several memorable ones revolved around two scenarios.  I had made presentations to a government lab and in my opening discussions introduced myself using my Chinese name as given to me by my GE associates, Jimu, James or Jim. In addition to the name reference I showed a slide of the Chinese leader Qin Shihuang, one of my favorite military men. Both these efforts allowed me to gain extreme face and thus respect and a foundation for trust with this group. Additional conversation followed after the business meeting and I later learned that my clever sales person having noticed the dynamics of the meeting had arranged a weekend event where he would take me and our two government customers to the Summer Palace for a day of sightseeing. He explained to me the reason he had done this was to have the customers determine I was not the normal western business guy sent by a multinational company. He further explained that the usual western person would not want to take their weekend time up with a sightseeing trip they didn’t think up and let alone with customers to boot. He knew that I would be different and by passing the various tests which would include eating nontraditional” western “oriented Chinese food and discussing Chinese history and tradition allow him to gain great face with his customers. Our approach went well and with my sales person acting as cultural translator we  achieved our goal of him creating great Mianzi and by default transferring some to the two government employees who were able to tell their supervisors how they had spent the weekend with a GE executive viewing culture at the summer palace. My second scenario deals with ceremony and testing; which are touch point themes in Mr. Turner’s book.  China during the Cold War period mentioned in the books timeline was extremely close to the Soviet Union. What never appeared in our U.S. history books is what this meant in cultural terms to China. All you need to do is attend a convention in Beijing at the old auditorium and trade fair center close to the zoo that was constructed by the Soviets to support cultural events and business expos during the “friendly” era between the two superpowers. Next to the convention center you will find a fantastic restaurant serving only Russian food and staffed by Russian speaking wait people. The building décor is of course right out of the Stalin Era and makes you think you are in Prague or Sofia not Beijing. It was in this environment I participated in my first Chinese Trade Show. In addition to participating with the trade show booth duty my GE Team had also made arrangements for me to conduct several seminars where they had invited attendees from numerous government labs, research groups within key companies , reseller partners as well as the Chinese PLA apparatus as the event was an Aerospace & Military tradeshow. I prepared a technical presentation and delivered it several times the first day. Also arranged was for a delegation of the senior PLA leadership to stop by the GE booth for a private discussion and demonstration. Upon the conclusion of the first day the exhibition company invited all the “favored” exhibitors to attend the welcome ceremony dinner which was intended to allow companies to meet each other and more key ---make contacts with government players. Of course the “favored” exhibitors got that way through process explained in Mr. Turner’s book. I also learned that seated at each table would be government officials mixed in with the various exhibitors. The venue for the gathering was an original Chinese Tea House, itself symbolic of the old China and the process of colonial development. What transpired at the dinner could have become a case study in “How to Win in China “from the perspective of “tests”, ceremonial positioning, and the creation of Guanxi, and Mianzi. Needless to say it was a target rich environment for the cultural translators.

Announcement of Authors Speaking Engagements at Trade Events during Military Aerospace Shows

Based on the foundational work of this topic I look forward to a deeper dive into these topics and perhaps hearing from the community.

Morph Plays?

With the sophistication of the Chinese community both in and out of China one has to begin thinking that many of the traditional and long time plays will be slightly morphing based on familiarity with the west. It’s hard to believe that the era of the internet, DVD’s, the blackberry and I pad and I pod won’t greatly alter how Chinese companies will interact. This means an even great challenge for the cultural translator and identifies an even greater need for assistance from a group such as Bing Fa Consulting.

Caring For Elders?

A topic touched upon in “How to Win in China” was the great premium the Chinese place on eldercare responsibility. This is something that has no traction in the U.S. and actually as time progresses may become either a great or weak negotiation position. Here is a scenario to ponder. Let’s say the Chinese company in probing learns that many of the people with whom they are dealing with at the U.S. or western company have elder parents. It stands to reason that they are being looked at very differently than the Chinese would view things. That said might the Chinese company wonder how they could trust people who would not care for their elders. The flip side of this would be for the U.S. Company to understand this dynamic and prepare against it. Or for it whatever the situation dictates.

Fast Food Ideas?

Yogurt

Tex –Mex ( Taco Bueno)

Italian

Sports Apparel

All of the above ideas could be great potentials to open the Chinese market to. As Mr. Turner pointed out in his book “How to Win in China” Food and ceremony play a pivotal role in business negotiations. Western and especially U.S. based companies have little feeling for this. This is driven in general by the American attitude on eating fast and not understanding the art of conversation at meal time. I can recall numerous times in China when attention deficient disorder managers simply wanted to eat quickly with our Chinese counterparts or customers so they could go check e mail. Of course during the meal they were always playing with their phones. It was amusing to watch the reactions of my Chinese customers and associates as they must have wondered how serious these guys were to detail when they could not even focus on the conversation at hand. Ceremony too is a big aspect of understanding how to deal with the Chinese culture. Again as a country and within our business leadership we are challenged. Mr. Turner gives sage guidance in the book and reminds me of countless stories around this topic.  The below picture is one example. My GE Sales team in China was impressed with my grasp of Chinese history and not only the fact that I knew about their culture but was able to map it into sales strategies they could use. One of the richer areas to take lessons from was the campaign waged by Mao both against the Nationalists as well as the Japanese. Knowing that I appreciated all this my team made arrangements to take me to Mao and Madame Mao’s favorite restaurant, the Red Capital Club, http://www.redcapitalclub.com.cn/ . It’s of course the Chinese version of a theme restaurant along the lines of 94^th Aero Squadron or TGIF with the emphasis on the early years of China’s rule by Mao. The wait staff is all in appropriate costume and the music reflects a martial theme. During our team meeting there I was able to outline the upcoming campaign patterning it around Mao’s Long March. The group loved it and we were there for seven hours. When is the last time you had a seven hour business dinner in the U.S.?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbGUnush-YHIUMWbhGrpgw4KiY8l3BFbhjbz3yR1eWzDcxhtKi49ocCcr-J3geM8EJ_fuKpv2mCAFPRpHDCCSabWtnIQoYRBaSHGf0YMFXmwoOKfwAvz7b-SdIlykmCjBFCZYfSE79Pg4u/s1600/wall.JPG

Author at the Red Capital with a themed wait person

And Now The Other Shoe

In early 1997 I was looking to ride the explosive dot com & computer telephony wave and left the world of high speed computing for Intel/Dialogic. After several years of selling Texas Instruments based RTOS SW packages, tools and telephony boards I joined Maxwell Technologies I-Bus Industrial Computer group. My task was to leverage my signal processing and telephony experience into packaging schemes I-Bus could sell. It is in my capacity as Business Development & Channel Manager I began collaborations with Mr. Matt Brandt who directed Asian Sales. I was impressed with Mr. Brandt’s grasp of the Asian marketplace and for the first time started thinking of Asia in terms of the applications I understood and liked to pursue. Now Mr. Brandt who is located in China and has participated first hand in a variety of financial transactions and market building there has an exciting blog and relevant blog that focuses on aspects of the Asian market. The interesting thing is it is keyed on the exact opposite theme of “How to Win in China” in that the players are Chinese groups wanting to do business in the West vs. Western groups wanting to do business in Asia. Please hit this link and make it one of your favorites as it looks like many rich factoids will be regularly appearing

http://globalchinacapital.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/chinese-firms-are-their-own-worst-enemies/

How to Win In China and Greater Asia in the New Millennium

Name a market that has a growing base of sophisticated and disposable income oriented consumers that is larger than the Pan Asian market. Europe is expensive, tired and broke. Africa and Latin America are years behind. Asia powered by China still looks like the next and closest continually promising market.

Author

Author with GE associate Robin Ma touring the Great Wall near Beijing

With that said would you like to know, and have advantages in building a successful attack plan to grow and sustain business in China. Tremendous lessons are covered on this topic by, Stephen Turner, founder of Bing Fa Consulting, a group dedicated to building and driving business growth in Asia with a special emphasis on China. The book “How to Win In China”, a recent publication I just reviewed is a very incisive look at skills you will need to hone and utilize if your quest is to be a success.  Mr. Turner addresses the subject as if it were a sequel in the “Indiana Jones” series where clues are given, CULTURAL TANSLATORS, are introduced and a history lesson serve as the backdrop. It’s unfortunate that more works on this type of topic don’t take that approach.

This effort gives the reader a game plan to follow for conducting new missions or sustaining old ones in China. For example if I were a multinational executive looking after China and I read this book I’d want to quickly scrub my currant and ongoing plans against themes of understanding cultural motives , the importance of ,Keqi,Renqing,Guanxi,and Mianzi.

I viewed the book through my perspective of having sold in Asia with several multinational companies including a role as Product Leader in High Speed Computing, Imaging and Graphics for General Electric’s Embedded Computing Group. In my role I supported sales teams in Asia & India. My preference was to support my sales teams in China because of many points made in “How to Win in China”. My sales team in China respected knowledge and experience in selling high technology products vs. inexperience and an MBA in an irrelevant area. They appreciated an understanding of their customs and approaches to eating and building trust. Topics such as these are well defined and reviewed using examples by Mr. Turner.

During my time that GE I collaborated with my team to generate multiple design wins in China. The wins were combinations of working through reseller channels to selling directly or selling directly to the Chinese government. Each sales situation I was involved in had themes that surfaced in “How to Win in China”. Several memorable ones revolved around two scenarios.  I had made presentations to a government lab and in my opening discussions introduced myself using my Chinese name as given to me by my GE associates, Jimu, James or Jim. In addition to the name reference I showed a slide of the Chinese leader Qin Shihuang, one of my favorite military men. Both these efforts allowed me to gain extreme face and thus respect and a foundation for trust with this group. Additional conversation followed after the business meeting and I later learned that my clever sales person having noticed the dynamics of the meeting had arranged a weekend event where he would take me and our two government customers to the Summer Palace for a day of sightseeing. He explained to me the reason he had done this was to have the customers determine I was not the normal western business guy sent by a multinational company. He further explained that the usual western person would not want to take their weekend time up with a sightseeing trip they didn’t think up and let alone with customers to boot. He knew that I would be different and by passing the various tests which would include eating nontraditional” western “oriented Chinese food and discussing Chinese history and tradition allow him to gain great face with his customers. Our approach went well and with my sales person acting as cultural translator we  achieved our goal of him creating great Mianzi and by default transferring some to the two government employees who were able to tell their supervisors how they had spent the weekend with a GE executive viewing culture at the summer palace. My second scenario deals with ceremony and testing; which are touch point themes in Mr. Turner’s book.  China during the Cold War period mentioned in the books timeline was extremely close to the Soviet Union. What never appeared in our U.S. history books is what this meant in cultural terms to China. All you need to do is attend a convention in Beijing at the old auditorium and trade fair center close to the zoo that was constructed by the Soviets to support cultural events and business expos during the “friendly” era between the two superpowers. Next to the convention center you will find a fantastic restaurant serving only Russian food and staffed by Russian speaking wait people. The building décor is of course right out of the Stalin Era and makes you think you are in Prague or Sofia not Beijing. It was in this environment I participated in my first Chinese Trade Show. In addition to participating with the trade show booth duty my GE Team had also made arrangements for me to conduct several seminars where they had invited attendees from numerous government labs, research groups within key companies , reseller partners as well as the Chinese PLA apparatus as the event was an Aerospace & Military tradeshow. I prepared a technical presentation and delivered it several times the first day. Also arranged was for a delegation of the senior PLA leadership to stop by the GE booth for a private discussion and demonstration. Upon the conclusion of the first day the exhibition company invited all the “favored” exhibitors to attend the welcome ceremony dinner which was intended to allow companies to meet each other and more key ---make contacts with government players. Of course the “favored” exhibitors got that way through process explained in Mr. Turner’s book. I also learned that seated at each table would be government officials mixed in with the various exhibitors. The venue for the gathering was an original Chinese Tea House, itself symbolic of the old China and the process of colonial development. What transpired at the dinner could have become a case study in “How to Win in China “from the perspective of “tests”, ceremonial positioning, and the creation of Guanxi, and Mianzi. Needless to say it was a target rich environment for the cultural translators.

Global Situational Awareness and Embedded Computing

Since the first time man threw rocks at other men location, geography, weather and the dynamics of an indigenous population have played a role in history and conflict. Today we are faced with all the old themes mapped into a digital age of international proportion. In the past sensors have been used by military and civilian organizations to collect and analyze data from which decisions were made. This approach has been costly and required much special design and packaging. In the world of today’s asymmetrical threats it’s key for everyone to be aware of the potential for threats and the ramifications of those threats to not only personal travel but the business climate one is involved in.  The embedded computing market is an ideal candidate to take advantage of the information generated by various sources both social media and in real time. One good if not great aggregation of real time information can be found at this site:

http://www.globalincidentmap.com

Kudos to the group that has developed and is presenting this information. They have done an excellent job of not only aggregating data but also displaying it through a variety of interactive maps that are not only works of art but allow granularity in gaining actionable intelligence. The potential for augmenting the existing information with displayed with real time Video, Acoustic, Seismic, and CBRN sensors would be profound. All of these modalities represent Embedded Computing and related data acquisition and display themes.

Top Dog Recruiting Is In The Embedded Space

Top Dog has a focus on the Embedded Computing space.

Top Dog Recruiting

301-530-9694 (voice)

888-860-0349 (fax)

chris@topdog-inc.com

www.topdog-inc.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cshoulet

If you hit this link and are involved in various aspects of  FPGA design,DSP,RTOS, Etc. you will find some great positions.

http://topdogrecruiting.hiringhook.com/JobSeeker/SearchResults.aspx?runsearch=1&featured=1&defaultsearch=1

IDIQ Contract Is The In Tool

The multiple award contract is becoming a way of life in the federal government. Many large, federal multiple award contracts have been awarded this year; several of them carrying ceilings of more than $1 billion. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Federal contacting offices are severely understaffed so the government is necessarily awarding more multiple award contracts to make purchasing quicker and less staff intensive. Multiple award contracts are becoming so prevalent that it is almost a prerequisite to have one or more to do business with the federal government.
For companies new to the federal market, the concept of a multiple award contact can be confusing. This type of contact is called an Indefinite Duration Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract and the liberal use of the acronym "IDIQ" adds to the confusion. The following describes a typical scenario:
A large (often several billion dollar) multiple award contract opportunity is posted.  The result is a number of  "pricing only" awards to from 3 to 100 companies for periods ranging from 3 to 10 years. Meaning that the government agency agrees on each vendor's pricing but does not commit to future purchases.The contract with each individual contract holder is not funded until individual orders are competed among all or a select group of the companies holding the contract (a "mini competition"). The winner of the mini competition is then funded to perform the order in what could be called a "mini contract."
Multiple award contracts reduce competition. Free and open competition (a public bid) is inefficient and the government would grind to a halt without multiple award contracts. Public bids typically take an average of 270 days to award while purchasing under a multiple award contract can be achieved in a matter of weeks or days. In some cases, a subgroup of awards under a particular multiple award contract is set aside for small businesses while other opportunities are open to businesses of all sizes. As a practical matter, large businesses usually win the open, public bids, particularly the multiple billion dollar deals. This is not necessarily true with multiple award contracts.
Many types or flavors of multiple award contracts exist as a result of the following factors: the types of products or services being purchased, the number of vendors selected, the master contract's duration, the restrictions on which agencies can use them, the sizes of businesses that are eligible for award, and how competitions are held among the winners for individual orders. There are approximately 3,000 multiple award contracts currently active for the acquisition of everything from military material to professional services. They are particularly popular for the acquisition of information technology products and services. Such contracts may be available for use by a single agency, several selected agencies, or all federal agencies.

I have been very involved in the development of IDIQ Contracts   Most recently having secured a position for Textron Defense Systems on a large Army IDIQ with 6 partners. My team and I secured the addition of our sensor products for the application areas involved with Integrtaed Base Defense

New Word On Navy Carrier Groups

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=2150975&item=65018568&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn


See my resposne to an AOL non News Story regarding the Navy Carrier Groups
This group continues to run negative DOD themes.

CBRN New World Order for Sensor Design

CBRN largely is still locked in the thought process of Cold War scenarios. By and large our available sensors where designed when we felt we would face the Soviets in traditional CBRM attacks. Namely their Brigades would fire shells full of toxic material at our massed brigades or their camps or they would launch a toxic cloud and it would float towards us. It would all be done “gentlemanly” or as “gentlemanly” as one can be in CBRN warfare. Our counter would be sensors designed to detect the presence or launch of these materials. The logistics train and the need to take samples back to the lab were ever present. The bottom line is this approach is behind the curve as was the entire FCS thinking. That process evolved around our feeling that pre 9/11 we would simply fight an extension of WW-2 only instead of the Germans we would face Soviet formations in European scenarios. The advent of jihad and 9-11 has profoundly changed that thinking. The new Muslim threat has no organized unit structure with a process of operation on a classical scale. The threat for chemical or biological attack is still there. It would come from a clandestine plan though and not the process of ordered doctrine.   In order to detect these new threat scenarios new approaches and new enabling technologies will be required. The new enabling technology will be based on next generation sensors that are small and allow for the fusion of data from various modalities not bulky cold war designs that required data be taken to a lab for analysis. Even the thought process for cold war hand held sensor technology that allowed for sample collection to occur won’t be valuable in terror driven asymmetrical CBRN based attacks. I have found that the traditional CBRN publications have largely stayed clear of picking up on these themes. While it is an obvious trend at the conference sessions at the CBRN events it isn’t one the publications or media that covers the CBRN space wants to explore. The answer as to why can probably be best stated as economic. At present the CBRN space in terms of products has been and continues to be dominated by the same players providing bulky equipment as has always been the case. These players don’t really want to change as their world revolves around the economy of today for them. The longer they can maintain status quos the longer they can generate predictable revenue.  Unfortunately Mr. Nasty isn’t bound by this process and only cares about creating an event that will cause maximum damage.

Fortunately several things might assist hitting the big currant contractors and the traditional program offices that have been running the programs along with an overall rethinking of military force posture. The beginning of this trend was hastened by the cancellation of the out of date FCS Program and its potential lighter weight BCTM follow on.

Another potential assist in right minded thinking can be found in the packaging of data from the CBRN arena by the publication http://www.cbrneworld.com/ Out of all the publications covering the CBRN area I believe this publication and its associated ecosystem seem to have an excellent grasp of the new asymmetrical paradigm. Let’s hope moving forward they will continue to look to how to craft and shape the message that unless we change our thinking we will be eroded by multiple CBRN 9/11’s on a regional basis

Great CBRN Site