Robert Smith

How To Sell Coke To People Who Have Never Had A Sip

Robert Smith — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 07:34:00 +0000

For years, there were only three countries in the world that didn't officially sell Coca-Cola: Cuba, North Korea and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Now, after 60 years, Coke is back in Myanmar. Sanctions were lifted last year on the country. Just this week, Coca-Cola opened its new bottling plant outside of Yangon. Now all the company has to do is figure out a way to sell all that Coke to people who may not remember what it tastes like.

The Myanmar people missed out on billions of dollars of worldwide advertising during those 60 years.

In A Single ATM, The Story Of A Nation's Economy

Robert Smith — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:38:00 +0000

Nan Htwe Nye works at an elementary school in Yangon, Myanmar. She started trying to use ATM machines a few months ago, and things haven't been going so well.

The machines are often broken, she says. "But," she adds, "we hope it will better in the future." This is, more or less, the story of ATMs — and of banking in general — in Myanmar.

She's visiting the headquarters of CB Bank, at the first ATM in the country that was connected to banks all around the world.

The lobby of the bank is packed with people, many of whom have brought cash from their businesses in giant rice bags.

Can This Man Bring Silicon Valley To Yangon?

Robert Smith — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:18:00 +0000

Like a proud father, Nay Aung opens up his MacBook Air to show me the Myanmar travel website he has built. But we wait 30 seconds for the site to load, and nothing happens.

"Today is a particularly bad day for Internet," he says. This is life in Myanmar today: Even an Internet entrepreneur can't always get online.

Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money

Robert Smith — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:12:00 +0000

When you arrive in Myanmar, you can see how eager the people are to do business. At the airport in Yangon, new signs in English welcome tourists. A guy in a booth offers to rent me a local cellphone — and he's glad to take U.S. dollars. But when I pull out my money, he shakes his head.

"I'm sorry," he says.

He points to the crease mark in the middle of the $20 bill.

The Trick To Selling Fancy Wine From New Jersey: Don't Say It's From New Jersey

Robert Smith — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:07:00 +0000

Halfway between the New Jersey Turnpike and the Atlantic City casinos is a little slice of France: Amalthea Cellars. There's an old farmhouse, and a field full of grapevines.

Lou Caracciolo, who founded Amalthea, is walking through the field. "Here's something I put in the ground in 1976," he says. "You have to have a feel for it, and after 30 years I have a pretty good feel for it."

Caracciolo calls himself a hopeless romantic.

Inside An Amish Trade Show

Robert Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:46:00 +0000

The Buckeye Tool Expo in Dalton, Ohio, is held in a massive hall filled with bearded men in black hats and women in white bonnets. A few horses and buggies are tied up outside.

The Amish have chosen to forgo many of the delights of the modern world, but they still need to drill, sand and cut wood. This trade expo shows off all the loopholes that let the Amish get their hands on power tools.

Should The U.S. Import More Doctors?

Robert Smith — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:18:00 +0000

People around the world want the same thing from their doctors. First, do no harm. Second, take a look at this weird bump and tell me if I should get worried.

The job is basically the same in many countries around the world. But the pay is wildly different. The median salary for U.S. doctors is about $250,000 a year. In Western Europe, it's less than half that.

A Union Vote For Chinese Workers Who Asemble iPhones

Robert Smith — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:43:00 +0000

The Chinese workers who assemble iPhones, iPads and tons of other electronic devices may soon be able to elect their own union representatives, the FT reports.

Labor unions technically do exist in Chinese factories, but they're typically controlled by management and the government. So a union run by democratic vote of the workers would be a huge shift.

The workers in question are employed by Foxconn, a giant company with over 1 million employees in China.

Will A $1.9 Billion Settlement Be Enough To Change Banks' Behavior?

Robert Smith — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:28:00 +0000

If a kid does something bad and you want to discipline him — give him a timeout, say, or take away a toy — there are some basic principles that seem to work.

New York Moves Polling Places Hit By Sandy

Robert Smith — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Lynn Neary talks with Robert Smith, who was covering Election Day in New York.