Kaushal Chokshi speaks about his business and 21st century economic opportunities Wednesday.
Globe-trotter Kaushal Chokshi, who has a new Carson City firm, told business people here Wednesday the world now is just beyond the back porch for them.
Chokshi, from India but a resident of this country for years, was the featured speaker at a breakfast meeting of the Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA). NNDA Executive Director Rob Hooper, in introducing him, said Chokshi’s Scaale Group has several companies that includes the unit just getting under way here, one which eventually plans to locate in the private-sector Capitol Mall North project downtown.
Chokshi preferred to talk outside the box and Carson City, painting a tantalizing picture of a global marketplace.
“This century definitely can be ours,” Chokshi said, challenging conventional wisdom that handed dominance in the last century to the United States but now touts China as rising in the 21st.
“We could be the best low-cost manufacturing country in the world,” he said. He said the U.S. has the best universities and the best ecosystem to deliver an industrial/technological pairing to help drive a strong economy. He said he’s optimistic, becoming a passionate advocate during his talk for connecting dots worldwide with marketing that reaches beyond standard techniques.
“Remember: the whole world is your backyard,” he told the audience with his closing remark.
Throughout the speech, he gave personal examples of his on-the-move business style that began in his youth with hotels, moved to manufacturing and other firms, but in 2000-2005 morphed into his current group of companies relying on collective intelligence, technology and his tendency to “play the board” worldwide. He also said the U.S. has land, energy, capital, and human capital.
He said worldwide this country amounts to a brand that makes consumers elsewhere into a ready-made market for business people who understand how to work both “clicks and bricks” to grow where they are and everywhere.
“It’s a fantastic brand, you know, around the world,” he said of the U.S.
He predicted one of the four critical matters he mentioned — energy — is resurgent and again becoming a strength here: “I think by 2017, we are becoming energy independent.”
Chokshi, a self-styled cash flow fan and global nomad, said among the keys to his success is being nimble, “We have connected the dots much quicker, much faster,” he said.
Among those dots is his local business, which he talked with some people about after his speech. He told the Nevada Appeal he’s uncertain how many employees would be here, but projected perhaps as much as 20,000 square feet in Capitol Mall North when space is available. The proposed project was up for a Planning Commission review Wednesday night.
Lynn O’Mara, a Scaale Carson City business unit leader for Chokshi, said she has been working to get it up and running since the beginning of the year. Hooper, the NNDA chief, said the Chokshi business would supply workers and talent via “employee leasing” anywhere. He said it’s part of Chokshi’s Talent Anywhere approach and company. Hooper couldn’t estimate employees either, but said a back-office technology center for the firm was likely.
Scaale Group, based on its website, is a venture resource group of firms helping other businesses grow via sales, capital and talent.