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Articles from The Business Forum Journal

Tomorrow's News

By John Hathaway-Bates

2000 AD Predictions

The Pacific States of North America

The History of The Business Forum has allowed us to witness enough Change to be able to guess at the future quite well these days.  Twelve years after we first established The Business Forum in California in 1982 we launched into the States of Washington (1984) - Oregon (1985) - Arizona (1986) and Nevada, Utah and Idaho (1987), which means that eighteen years after that first Business Forum Luncheon was held in Beverly Hills in 1982, we have grown to become the only ongoing program with meetings and members the length of the Pacific coast of America from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Line. 

In fact this year's version of "Tomorrow's News" predictions have much to do with the fact that our input of senior level intelligence has grown also and once again, it would appear that our growth has preempted by pure chance what we would have done, had we had the intelligence to know what to set out to do in the first place. In other words, in hindsight we can state "we have done, what we should have done, and would have set out to do, had we but known what we were actually doing when we started our venture for information sourcing!"

One can only imagine what Tomorrow's News will be in 2010!!!

As ever, as we expand our operations we discover that many others are being led along the same evolutionary business path as we are, however they are not always aware in most cases that they are following this natural path in tandem with others, until we discover it for them. Who would be able to do so, unless they traveled throughout the region and had lunch and conversation with as many people as we do every month? What we have discovered this year is that the Socio-Economic Revolution we predicted back in the late 1980's, against the commonly held views of all the pundits and economists at the time, is happening world wide slowly, but it is happening on the west coast of America at almost break-neck speed.

In 1995, while we were working with a group consisting of Jet Propulsion Laboratories, NASA Far West Technology Transfer Center, Northrop-Grumman, Rockwell International, Ciba-Geigy, and the State of California's Office of Strategic Technology and the Economic Development Department of the State of Oregon, on the possibility of creating a Composites Industry Consortium we cut corners on type setting when we coined the phrase "The Pacific States of America" that we had been using in-house for a decade. This seemed at the time, a lot easier than saying California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. It was also far more descriptive than saying, the Western States, or the States West of the Rockies, etc., etc. During the last year or so however, we have seen others beginning to use the term, just as our term "socio-economic" (which we coined back at the beginning of the 1980's) is now even appearing in the Wall Street Journal. It is getting to be fun when you can invent a term and a few months later everyone is using it. Much like when we first coined the term "forum" back in the early 1980's, when most people needed us to explain what we meant by it, and now of course there are more forums being put on than you can shake a stick at, although most of them could never meet our definition of the meaning of a true "forum".

During the last year or so we have seen others using the term "the Pacific States of America", the way it is common to refer to the northeastern states as New England, and we are also noticing some trends in corporate development, community loyalties, politics and even industry location, that seem to be supporting the fact that the PSA is fast becoming a true region of it's own. The Federal Government recognized the fact long ago, by putting the Federal Reserve Bank headquarters for the region in San Francisco. Many others also now deem these states as a separate region, with most national insurance, big accounting firms, law firms and banks, even distributors, seeing these states as the western region of their operations. As far as the computer industry, defense industry, composites industry, entertainment industry, aviation industry, and even the oceanic exploration industry are concerned they obviously agree with this concept also, as all of them have located a major part of those industries and most definitely the majority of their research and development, within the Pacific States of America.

What we are seeing my friends may well be the creation of an Economic Zone, if you will, brought about by natural market forces and innovative entrepreneurs, individual and corporate alike, that, if it were an independent nation, would make the Pacific States of America the most successful economy on Earth. It's standard of living would be second to none; it's Gross National Product would make it not only completely self sufficient, but would in fact provide a surplus in its balance of trade every year for decades to come with probably every trading partner it has ever, or could ever have. In fact if you were to scour the world for the perfect place to establish a world leading economy, even culture, for the 21st Century, you would be hard put to find any geographic, political, cultural, technological or situated region on Earth to match the attributes of the Pacific States of America.

Culturally and politically the Pacific States of America has already established all the advantages a technological trading nation could wish for. Our population is already made up of just about every nationality, race, religious persuasion and cultural mix to be right now essentially what the world's leading philosophers are predicting will one day be the norm for our planet. There is not a language on Earth that is not recognized as the natural and home language of at least one group within our population, and despite the political posturing of would be leaders and exploiters, we all get on together pretty well for the most part in the educated sector of our society. I have lived or worked in forty one countries and I can assure those of you who have not traveled extensively, there are few places on Earth where people are judged more often upon their ability as the major factor in their acceptance than right here in the Pacific States of America. 

Strangely enough there are many educated, qualified and ambitious people living all over this planet who would feel more comfortable, safe and secure living in the Pacific States of America than they do living in the country of their birth.  Imagine you were an alien from another world looking to establish the world's leading culture and I will bet that you could never find a place to compare with the Pacific States of America to lead the human race into this new millennium.

We need to overcome the crime problem and ensure the physical safety of our population, however with cooperation between our law enforcement authorities and the introduction of the technology already available we are already reducing the crime rate greatly. We also need to build more efficient north-south rail links (say a mag-rail link running from Anchorage in Alaska to Cape San Lucas at the tip of Baja), but other than that I think we have already established the Pacific States of America as an economic entity, perhaps without even realizing it.

I just wish every Governor of every State in what we call the Pacific States, would install a topographical map of the whole region in their office. If they did so, they would soon see the logic of working together as an economic  region as far more important than they presently seem to.

But this of course, is only my opinion . . .

John Hathaway-Bates
President & Executive Director

               . . . . and next?                                                   

About the Author:

On February 14th, 1982, John Hathaway-Bates founded The Business Forum in Beverly Hills, California. At the time of establishing The Business Forum John was recognized as a Commercial Tactician with wide experience on four continents having served as President, or Corporate Vice President, for several multi-national Corporations. He was elected a Fellow of the British Society of Commerce, the Institute of Buyers, the British Institute of Directors, the British Institute of Administrative Accountants, the Institute of Purchasing and Supply; and was elected to be a member of the Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Management and the Institute of Journalists. He has written many articles and several books, including :"Tactics". "How to Promote Your Business", "How to Organize Your Marketing" and "Fast Track Marketing in a Global Economy", he also wrote the "Contract Procedure and Specification Advice" sections of the Architect's and Specifier's Guide Series for A4 Publications, Ltd. and innovated and wrote for The Office Planner published by Benn Brothers of London; he has also had published several articles on "Color, Texture & Design", and he wrote the "Executive Guide to Office Space Planning & Design" for the American Management Association. John has had published many other works in Europe and America and has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, at Universities and to professional audiences on subjects that have ranged from multi-national accounting practices, international business development, office management, industrial, interior, product and commercial design to tactical and strategic international marketing and management. He has also written and lectured on etiquette and business ethics.

Articles from The Business Forum Journal