Women candidates kicked ass in the recent US elections. From hog castrator, National Guard lieutenant colonel, and former Hardee’s biscuit-maker Joni Ernst’s rout of Bruce Braley in Iowa, to that funny thing that happened in Utah, where Mia Love, the Mormon daughter of Haitian immigrants, became the first black Republican female elected to Congress.

Like women in business, women in politics may soon become routine and not noteworthy at all.  But there are differences specific to women in both finance and politics.  These are worth noting and do not often appear in resumes for the Miss America contest.

Katie Bennan writes:  1.  Women wait to be asked.  2.  Women tend to be civilzed and graceful (think Elizabeth Warren).  3.  Women are cautious.  4.  Women are more interested in doing the job than getting it.  5.  Women have difficulty asking for money.  6.  Women try to play nice with others.  7.  Women have a better chance of winning when people know them better.

Put politely, the cannabis business in the US is finding its footing.

Drug dealers aren’t what they used to be. In Colorado, which in January became the first place in the world fully to legalise cannabis, buying a joint feels more like visiting a trendy craft-brewery than a drug den. Dispensaries along Denver’s “green mile” are packed with young, bearded men earnestly discussing the merits of strains with names like “Bio-Jesus” and “Death Star”. Some varieties claim to be inspirational, while others say they promote relaxation, or “couch-lock”, as the tokers call it.

Colorado’s pot industry expects to rack up sales of $1 billion this year. Across America the market is reckoned to be worth about 40 times that much. Most of it is still illegal, of course. But slowly, entrepreneurs are prising it out of the hands of crime gangs. Nearly half the 50 states permit the sale of marijuana to medical patients, which in practice may include anyone willing to fake a back problem. This week Oregon and Alaska joined Colorado and Washington in legalising it for recreational purposes, too. If other countries legalise, as Uruguay already has, it could open up a global cannabis market worth perhaps $100 billion a year (by the best guesses, which are stabs in the dark).

Who will corner that market? In Colorado a gold rush of excitement has seen hundreds of tiny firms sprout up. Just as everyone in San Francisco seems to be designing an app, everyone in Denver has an idea for a canna-business. Pot-friendly ski-chalets, taxi services and wedding planners are taking orders. Non-smokers can sign up for cannabis cookery courses. For the truly lazy, there is the option of lying back and being rubbed down with weed-infused massage oil.

Despite the boom, no big force has yet emerged. Even Colorado’s biggest retail chains, such as LivWell, Strainwise and The Clinic, have fewer than ten branches each. No firm has much more than about 7% of the cultivation or retail market, reckons Mike Elliott of Colorado’s Marijuana Industry Group. At first sight this fragmentation is odd. Cannabis-farming benefits from economies of scale just as any other form of agriculture does. And you might think that when taking a mind-altering and potentially harmful substance people would prefer a trusted brand over a small upstart, as they overwhelmingly do with cigarettes.

What would it take to build a Marlboro of marijuana, then? Most of the obstacles are regulatory. Until recently Colorado’s dispensaries were obliged to grow at least 70% of the cannabis they sold, and cultivators had to retail at least 70% of what they grew. The idea was to make it easier to keep track of the drugs—“from seed to sale”, as the state government puts it—and avoid creating excess supply, which could feed the black market. But one consequence is that firms have been unable to specialise. Some companies are good at farming but not at selling; others have nice storefronts but lower-quality products. No company has grown as fast as it might have, were it able to focus on one thing.

Cannabis businesses have been financially hamstrung, too. Getting a bank account is difficult, since even local banks must obey regulations laid down at the federal level, at which cannabis is still outlawed. About one-third of the industry is completely unbanked, according to Mr Elliott.

The federal ban also makes it hard to do business in more than one state.

It may not be long before these obstacles fall. Even without inspiration from a drag of Bio-Jesus, it is not hard to imagine a future in which the federal ban is eased, now that voters in so many states have backed liberalisation. The innovative pot entrepreneurs in places like Denver would welcome that.  But should they?  Alcohol after the end of Prohibition, and also tobacco came to be dominated by a few giant corporations.

Would household names really consider selling cannabis? They already have. In 1969 a Philip Morris executive wrote to the Justice Department, requesting a sample of marijuana for testing. In 1970 British American Tobacco put together a blueprint for a “cannabis-loaded cigarette”. Cannabis is certainly controversial. But then so is lung cancer. It may well be that the executives best placed to make a mint from marijuana, once it is fully legal across America, are the Marlboro men themselves.

A weak domestic econmoy has encouraged Japanese businesses to exapnd abroad.  Japanese investment in Southeast Asia doubled to $24 billion last year.

Jaan focused on the automotive and electronic sectors of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore during the 1980s and 90s.  japan moved its focus to China’s cheap laobor market at the end of the century.  But now relations between Japan and China have soured and Southeast Asis looks good again.

QE and newly created money under Shinzo Abe’s policy has left Japan with money to invest abroad.  But if this policy changes, that market will dry up.  Abe wnats Japanese firms to invest more at home.  A weak yen makes it possible to do this.  Canon is trying to shift production back to Japan, but Mitsubishi is building a new plant in Indonesia.  Impovements in corporate governancce have forced Japanese firms to look for profits they overlooked in the past.

Japan risks becoming a rentier economy, living off profits made in other countries and failing to getbroad-based wage growth at home.

The prospects of sanctions against Iran ending and the opening up of that market are enticing to entrepreneurs and business people the world over.  Familiar faces are returning to the country.  Peugeot, which once had 20% of the car market, is coming back.

Sanctions have depressed the GDP by 25% in the last three years. Iran has $1.8 billion in purchasing power and is by that measure 18 on the world list.  The population is well-educated.  Its oil and gas reserves are huge.

The Teheran stock exchange is seond biggest in the Middle East.  Turkey’s stock exchange is 50% owned by foreigners; Iran’s 0.1%.

Among attractive investments for foreigners are manufacturing and retail.  The country has a need also for bankers.

Iran’s oil reserves are the world’s largest and yet it has only 1% of the world market.

At first, entreprise in Iran will be cramped by their limited capacity to handle foreign capital.  Privitization and economic reforms have to happen.  Many important areas of the economy are controlled by the Revoutionary Guard, part army and part intelligency agency.  Its presence has been expanded in business over the past several years.

Family firms are flourishing around the world.  37% of firms with over 1 billion in assets are leading the ermerging markets.

In the US, family  firms are treated favorably by legislation   Families can keep their money and reinvest it in the business with favorable consequences.  Ford weathered the economic downtrun without borrowing money from the govenrment.  Almost 40 famiily members are connected to Ford.

Walmart, Volkswagen, Glencore, and Samsung are still controlled by families.

Special classes of shares, allowing family members to run the company, liike Ana Botin and Abigail Johnson,and maybe even genetics come into play.

Family firms are less likely to lad up on debt they historicaly have had better labor relaitons, and they tend to have a superior corporate culture.

Warren Buffet likes to buy family firms. Helzberg Diamonds has been discussed on this site.  Buffett plans for succession in his firm include his son.

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