Ted C. Fishman

Smaller places can thrive in the global economy if they harness their best assets: strong community, committed boosters and close-knit networks. Ted C. Fishman explores how smaller places are uniquely poised to profit as the needs of large economies propel globalization. Fishman matches the strengths of smaller places with the needs of the world’s biggest economic actors.

While not all small places thrive, nearly all of the world’s richest places (per capita) are small-scale places, and nearly all of the world’s most globalized economies with highest skilled professional workforces, are also small places. Fishman’s talks build on interviews and research into the economy of his local audiences. He provides insights that can serve a vast array of organizations such as communities, local economic development bodies, workforce boards, educational institutions, chambers of commerce and local industries looking to provide thought leadership in their communities.

Two remarkable, recent facts separate our age from every other. Nearly everywhere in the world families are shrinking dramatically in size and people are living longer than ever before. Through story, statistics and keen analysis, Ted Fishman makes a powerful case that these two historic changes lie at the heart of nearly every major social and economic trend today, driving globalization and propelling the movement of money, goods and people.

The average age of people in the industrialized world is climbing, and worldwide, the population over 55 is vastly expanding. The populations of many countries at the heart of the world economy are shrinking. Workforces in Europe and East Asia will shrink by hundreds of millions of workers, and spur vast waves of immigration. Even the world economic crisis is inseparable from the big demographic shift. Understanding this immense, unprecedented change is essential to the stewardship of companies, organizations and communities that aim to endure and thrive. Fishman has traveled our grayer future and found what’s bright, what’s stormy, and he is creating a map we all will need to navigate a great change.

No country, since the rise of the United States, has ever challenged the rest of the world on so many fronts as the rise of China does today. Ted Fishman explores the dynamic behind China’s rise and how the vast changes in that country change life for the rest of us as workers, managers, consumers, citizens and even as parents.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, China has embarked on the most ambitious stimulus plan and infrastructure building effort in the world. It is also vastly expanding its education system to help push the nation and its people to the top of the world economy. The stakes are enormously high for people everywhere, and nothing about China’s continual rise is assured. Fishman explores the fundamental drivers of China’s push and what the rest of the world must do to insure that China’s drive creates prosperity at home, in the United States or wherever home may be. With urgency, humor and insight, Fishman brings China’s next stage vividly home.