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>Well, no it doesn't. Italy and Greece are extremely different to Scandinavia. At least regarding to things like temperament and culture. They are much more lik

>Well, no it doesn't. Italy and Greece are extremely different to Scandinavia. At least regarding to things like temperament and culture. They are much more like Bulgaria and Turkey, though they may not really be willing to admit that. You can't really sell to Italians by operating in Denmark. Really? As I Greek (with Italian acenstry), I really doubt this BS. Italians, for one, do plenty of business with European companies operating outside their country, be it Denmark of whatever. You know, companies like Nokia, Skype, et al. >So no, you can't generalize. You will be wrong every single time. Which doesn't matter at all, the only thing that matters is if you'd be closer to being right, with less effort, in _aggregate_ than when non-generalising.

jacquesm 14y ago
> Really? As I Greek (with Italian acenstry), I really doubt this BS. Well, you can doubt it, but it isn't BS, it's the truth. I've been looking into the kitchen of a large variety of companies in size, product type, turnover and so on. The vast majority of intra-eu trade stays within the countries themselves with only a relatively small portion going to other countries, usually direct neighbours. Big trade partners within the EU are typically pairs dictated by geographic proximity (for instance the Netherlands and Germany, Germany and Poland and so on) or by the possession of some vast natural resource (eg. Germany - Russia in the case of natural gas). Generalizing doesn't help at all because it will lead you astray every single time. Companies normally do not deal in the aggregate, they make deals one at-a-time which eventually you can aggregate. But on a case-by-case basis if you used that aggregate information as your inputs you'd get just about all of them wrong. When in Rome...
- loxs 14y ago
  Also, I explicitly mentioned that I exclude international mega corps from the equation. When you are big enough, you can open offices in neighbouring countries, or on other continents and you can sell globally. My point is about small-to-mid corporations, which was also the OP's point (as far as I understood)
- pretoriusB 14y ago
  >* Big trade partners within the EU are typically pairs dictated by geographic proximity (for instance the Netherlands and Germany, Germany and Poland and so on) or by the possession of some vast natural resource (eg. Germany - Russia in the case of natural gas).* I'm not sure what you mean by big trade being between "pairs dictated by geographic proximity". For example, Germany is the largest exporter to lots of countries in the EU, including Greece. I don't think we trade much with any of our "geographic neighbours". And Italy and France do quite well in exporting inside EU too. Most importantly, I don't think he means this kind of industrial, agricultural trade, in his post. It's mostly about entrepreneurs in the tech field and new style businesses. It should be also obvious that he knows what he's talking about (the original article that the post criticizes), because, unlike the critic, he has already created and worked with several companies in Europe.

jacquesm 14y ago

> Really? As I Greek (with Italian acenstry), I really doubt this BS. Well, you can doubt it, but it isn't BS, it's the truth. I've been looking into the kitchen of a large variety of companies in size, product type, turnover and so on. The vast majority of intra-eu trade stays within the countries themselves with only a relatively small portion going to other countries, usually direct neighbours. Big trade partners within the EU are typically pairs dictated by geographic proximity (for instance the Netherlands and Germany, Germany and Poland and so on) or by the possession of some vast natural resource (eg. Germany - Russia in the case of natural gas). Generalizing doesn't help at all because it will lead you astray every single time. Companies normally do not deal in the aggregate, they make deals one at-a-time which eventually you can aggregate. But on a case-by-case basis if you used that aggregate information as your inputs you'd get just about all of them wrong. When in Rome...

loxs 14y ago
Also, I explicitly mentioned that I exclude international mega corps from the equation. When you are big enough, you can open offices in neighbouring countries, or on other continents and you can sell globally. My point is about small-to-mid corporations, which was also the OP's point (as far as I understood)
pretoriusB 14y ago
>* Big trade partners within the EU are typically pairs dictated by geographic proximity (for instance the Netherlands and Germany, Germany and Poland and so on) or by the possession of some vast natural resource (eg. Germany - Russia in the case of natural gas).* I'm not sure what you mean by big trade being between "pairs dictated by geographic proximity". For example, Germany is the largest exporter to lots of countries in the EU, including Greece. I don't think we trade much with any of our "geographic neighbours". And Italy and France do quite well in exporting inside EU too. Most importantly, I don't think he means this kind of industrial, agricultural trade, in his post. It's mostly about entrepreneurs in the tech field and new style businesses. It should be also obvious that he knows what he's talking about (the original article that the post criticizes), because, unlike the critic, he has already created and worked with several companies in Europe.