
Why Traditional Recession Tactics Are Doomed To Fail this Time - Umair Haque - colortone
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/10/how_strategists_should_respond.html
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alecco
Word count:

    
    
      must 11
      could 2
      perhaps/maybe 0
      fail 1
    

Doesn't it sound a bit too know-it-all? I would like to believe it because the
idea looks good but the essay lacks evidence and observation. In particular,
it seems to expect a very rational response from society as a whole. A very
risky bet.

~~~
swombat
Exactly my feeling while reading this. There's not even the slightest
justification or argument for his declarations. Great claims require great
evidence. He may be right, but we have no way of even beginning to examine the
correctness of his arguments, since he didn't present any arguments.

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rgrieselhuber
Whenever I read Umair's work I find myself agreeing with many of his ideals
(sustainable, local business, etc.). But the way he presents them as the
necessary solution for today's business woes feels a little force-fed.

Let's see some data, some real research.

~~~
colortone
Unfortunately, to get real value out of his writing you have to do your own
homework.

Put another way: show us some data, models, or research that he's wrong.

Put another way: assume he's right about everything. What are the implications
for your business?

etc

HTH

~~~
rgrieselhuber
Kind of sounds like a religious discussion at that point.

~~~
colortone
Self-driven edification is a religious experience for me, yeah.

Read up on game theory, network econ, information econ, financial analysis,
and modern art criticism...it's totally spiritual!

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krschultz
His bottom line is that to succeed through bubbles like these you have to
create real value for people. A lot of companies and investments are too much
like get-rich schemes. A long term focus yields a product that truly helps
society, and the company will grow along with the society it is helping.

I also think that the point is well taken that it can not be on the backs of
other countries. The more people in the world with disposable income, the more
people there are to sell to. When so much of the world is in near poverty and
has 0 disposable income, the entire consumer focus of so many of our companies
seems a bit silly.

~~~
acgourley
"A long term focus yields a product that truly helps society, and the company
will grow along with the society it is helping."

There is a cooperation problem here, how do you prevent other companies from
free-riding and reaping the value your company injects into society without
adding any of its own?

Cooperation between human actors works because of an instinct for fairness. If
we want the cooperation at a more macro scale, we're going to need a cultural
sense of fairness to go along with it. I suppose we're seeing this now when
walmart plays ads about how earth friendly it is, but we're certainly only a
small fraction of the way there.

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lawrence
Umair is always thought provoking, and usually just a bit too far out there
for me:

"Tomorrow's sources of advantage aren't like yesterday's. They're not built on
being able to exploit, dominate, or coerce more strongly than others -- they
don't result from being harder, better, faster, stronger. They're about
exactly the opposite: being softer, better able to fail, having the ability to
be slower, gaining the capacity for tolerance and difference."

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tdavidson
Umair takes time to understand, but it's worth it: he's not giving answers but
asking questions. It's up to all of us to figure out the answers for our own
situations with a broader, questioning mind.

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bkj123
come on, don't take it for "all or nothing/black and white thinking". Grab the
overall view of it - that we have to think different to weather this storm and
have confidence that we can.

