Xie Qihua: I came back, I conquered
2023-07-07Yale Professor - "Tiger Mom Education"
2023-07-07
As Somali pirates become more and more prevalent, they are often portrayed in the media as ruthless thugs: taking innocent people hostage and demanding huge ransoms before releasing them. This month, a group of pirates hijacked an oil tanker bound for the United States;1Later in the month, another group of pirates killed two Filipino crew members after a botched rescue operation failed. But there is another way to assess these pirates: as businessmen, they are smart enough to figure out how international trade flows and how they can get a piece of the action.
"piracy"The boom is a vivid metaphor for economic globalization. The daily battles between cargo ship captains and pirate skiffs in the Somali Basin distill the story of how money is made and how it is lost.
First, understand the customer. One of the key things to understand about modern multinationals is that they don't like to be embarrassed. Keep in mind that when challenged in any way, whether it's in the face of a lobbying group, a government or aTwitteron some teenage geek, their instinctive reaction is to give in. And then imagine what they would do when confronted by poor people with guns: surrender without a fight. Not surprisingly, most shipping companies don't even allow their security guards to carry weapons. All the pirates need to do is hijack a ship, drive it back to port, and release it with word that they have received a multi-million dollar ransom. They understand that a modern multinational company is always willing to shell out money to put things right.
Secondly, remain flexible and ready to transform as the economic landscape changes. Somalia has not always been a hotbed of piracy; in the Puntland region, where the pirates are concentrated, the mainstay of the industry used to be fishing. After the collapse of the Government, however, the inability to protect its territorial waters led to the entry of vessels from other countries to poach fishery resources. But, as the old saying goes, there are always other fish in the sea. During the same period, the most economical route for shipping large quantities of goods to Europe was through the Suez Canal(Suez Canal), which means huge cargoes are passing in front of former fishermen in Puntland. All they had to do was claim a tiny fraction of it, what bond traders call a quarter of a basis point. So these fishermen swung into the role of toll collectors.
Thirdly, equip yourself with sophisticated tools. Piracy, like any other profession, is fundamentally an information business. If you hold a shipload of wheat or cement hostage, I'm afraid you can't extort much in the way of ransom. Fortunately, ships today are fitted with automatic ship identification systems(AIS)This computerized system records detailed data about each ship and the crew and cargo on board. This is undoubtedly helpful to customs and ship managers, but unfortunately, savvy pirates can also hack into it. They know exactly which ships are worth targeting. And if the hacking fails, they can also get the ships standing by in Dubai and Oman to"detective"Figure out which ships are worth getting into. Any insider in the City of London will tell you that only insider trading is worth doing. The pirates have long since learned this the hard way.
Fourth, pay your employees reasonably. The economics of a single pirate attack are as organized as a McKinsey study of movement and time. The cost of each pirate attack is about6000Dollars. This money was used to pay for information, speedboats, guns zhi, and powerful narcotics that pirates often chew on--khat. The rest of the profits will be divided equally among all the pirates."commando unit"The youngest members of the team are often only14age, they will be the first to board the ship. It's a dangerous mission, with the highest probability of being killed, but it's a great way to get an extra30%The share. Find some daring young men and let them take huge risks that could be fatal, with the promise of huge dividends if they miraculously come back alive. I'm afraid investment bank bosses are familiar with this business model.