Consulting firms specialized in this discipline are already sweeping regions like Hong Kong. Its principles (harmony and balance) oppose the euphoria that has reigned in the markets in recent years with the aim of creating a harmonious environment from the business point of view. A true fever that extends beyond the Asian world.
Facing the crisis, harmony and order. The classic recipe of Feng Shui focuses in the opposite direction to the unleashed euphoria, the excessive ambition and the little rigor that have presided over the markets in recent years.
Perhaps for this reason it is having a warm welcome among Asian businessmen and investors, especially in Hong Kong: hit by the global financial storm, many magnates from the former colony who suffered a dramatic drop in the value of their portfolios are now betting on this age-old technique – of Chinese origin- that pursues balance and harmony between people and the world around us.
It is not a new phenomenon. Feng Shui has ruled life in Hong Kong and other Asian countries since forever. But now this fever has also reached the financial sector. A few days ago, some 170 premium clients of ABN Amro Private Banking attended a lecture by a well-known Feng Shui master, Alion Yeo, in a Hong Kong hotel. In this year of uncertainty, one question rose above the rest: how will the financial markets evolve in 2009? For hours, Yeo shared his cabals and prophecies with a dedicated audience.
The demand skyrockets
With the discredit of economists from financial institutions and fund analysts, the demand for the services of Feng Shui consultants has skyrocketed. “When markets began to crash months ago, our analysts warned, not necessarily jokingly, that not only had investors stopped believing in fundamentals, but they were only answering calls from their Feng Shui consultants” , says the consultancy CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in its Feng Shui Index report, which every year prophesies about the evolution of the markets.
According to said report, based on the art of geomancy, volatility will predominate in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during the first half of 2009, falling in the summer before starting to climb in the last months of the year. “Investors are desperate and need hope. From the Chinese perspective, Feng Shui is a very useful indicator,” they point out from CLSA. In Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, with either a majority or strong Chinese demographic, such consultancy has always had a loyal following. But now the business lives an enviable moment.
“With an expanding economy, many spend extra money on Feng Shui consulting. And in times like today, when many people feel lost, they hope to see some light with the help of our masters,” says Chui Khim, Director of Way on Net Group, an industry company in Singapore. Liu Qiao, an expert in financial behavior at Hong Kong University, says that investors have stopped believing in banks and investment funds. “Now they see bankers making stupid mistakes, which is why so many people go in different directions, from Feng Shui masters to supplication in temples,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
A superstition that turns into a fever
Feng Shui fever has even spread to China, the place where it originated. But, paradoxically, it was banned during the Cultural Revolution until today, when the communist government still does not tolerate it and considers it a superstition. Despite this, it has many followers – including investors – below the surface: “There is a significant demand for this service in the market,” says Dana Elraviv, founder of A Matter of Chi, a foreign company that offers Feng Shui services. in Beijing for almost four years.
Official obstacles, from the blocking of its website in China (www.amatterofchi.com) to attracting customers through word of mouth, do not prevent the growing fascination of geomancy among the Chinese population. “There is a lot of interest, but no one talks about it openly,” Elraviv insists. In addition to courses and residential consulting (redefinition of the place of work or residence), his business provides services to multinationals and companies: from choosing a name or the day of registration, through advice when closing mergers and acquisitions.
useful in mergers
“The time factor is crucial in Feng Shui for mergers and acquisitions. If the timing is not good, the company decides not to continue with the planned plans,” says the expert. The heyday of Feng Shui in much of Asia infected even the West years ago, where it is considered very attractive. “In Spain it has been very fashionable for a couple of years and it is an innovative product,” says Ángel García, a consultant at the European School of Feng Shui (www.fengshuieuropa.com), which is why a dozen companies already offer services related.
From a business perspective, its mission is to transform the business trend by redefining places, explains García. “It’s about creating a harmonious environment,” she specifies. But while in the East corporations announce Feng Shui as an added value, in Spain there is still a certain modesty at the business level, despite the fact that the results -explains the same expert- are unquestionable in the form of business increases of 20 or 30 percent. percent, decrease in unpaid debts or deduction of expenses. “Customers keep coming because it works for them,” warns Ángel García.
Although in Spain it is not common -as in Asia- to use Feng Shui for financial consulting, the business model is on the rise in these times of crisis.
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