
Run Your Business Like a Drug Lord (2015) - Tomte
https://www.business.com/articles/why-you-should-run-your-business-like-a-drug-lord/?q=Drug+lord
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fooza
The article completly ignores the fact the goods that were sold are highly
addictive and quick to build tolerance these combined properties are very rare
and really helped the syndicate success.

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jwdunne
Elasticity of demand. I was just reading a piece about mental models and how
having one or two is like the old hammer nail problem. I think this article
suffers of that a bit along with generalising to a set of principles anyone
can agree with.

What works when your product becomes a life or death necessity to people will
be much different than what works else where.

Run your business like a business that sells your product. If you're selling
cocaine, you should probably run it like a drug lord. If enterprise software,
run it like an enterprise software company.

Maybe there's a case again what I'm saying with disruption but let's be
honest: running dental practice like an actual drug lord will probably get you
struck off.

An example: "Run your business like a cockroach. You're the head: work to make
it run without your presence."

A template: "Run your business like a <type>. <insert positive attribute
generalised from type>"

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ftlio
Run your business like an unsigned int. There are no negatives!

~~~
jwdunne
Run your business like a monad. Remain pure whilst working with the real
world.

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hackermailman
A more profitable black market model is the gangster business model, where
your only inventory is tools of intimidation for extortion of the market.
Since you never need to manufacture or handle the product and just demand a
tax you avoid all the pitfalls of regulatory authorities closing your business
(possession/criminal conspiracy to traffic) and just need to be concerned with
recruiting staff to help you intimidate instead of building a complex supply
chain and network of sales associates. The US border criminal groups perfected
this model sitting on all the major border crossings and demanding any drug
smugglers give them a percentage to cross through their territory. Could title
that article, 'Run Your Business Like a Patent Troll' or 'Run Your Business
Like a Government'.

Here this model is usually practiced by taking over existing lines. Find a
popular dial-a-dope line and just kick down the door and take control of it,
insisting all drivers pay you 30% of sales in exchange for protection from
other extortion startups.

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IanDrake
Probably not the best comparison. Reality is more like:

\- Kill your competition, literally.

\- Assassinate politicians that won't work with you.

\- Murder anyone in the press that speaks ill of you.

\- Pay off regulators that might interfere with your business.

\- Slowly kill your client base as you ruin their life.

~~~
falcolas
All of these seem like they're just more brutal parallels to existing business
practices.

> Kill your competition, literally.

Buy them out or price them out of business.

> Assassinate politicians that won't work with you.

Buy them, or their competition. Call it "lobbying".

> Murder anyone in the press that speaks ill of you.

Discredit them instead with carefully planned leaks and press releases.

> Slowly kill your client base as you ruin their life.

Seems to work for the Tobacco and Alcohol industries.

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IanDrake
Haha, right. That is how the article should have read.

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dogg_nate
the phrase "shoe-horn" came to mind.

"what's a good article WE can write that can feed off the popularity of
NARCOS?!"

~~~
tossaway1
Seriously, I feel like you could just as easily write an article comparing
drug lords to poorly run companies -- like not betting your life and that of
your family on a hugely risky venture. Don't nearly all drug lords flame out
in a pretty short amount of time...?

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fuzzfactor
I'll never forget a cartoon in the back of a research magazine before the
internet where there were two scientists in lab coats with their beakers on
the bench, and over the intercom the boss says "Hey you all down in R&D, get
off your butts and invent something habit-forming!"

Anyway, it is so important where to draw the line when it comes to
ruthlessness, or whether it should ever be a consideration.

This could be said of registered pharma as well as unlicensed cartels.

With greed you can only divide the spoils, and therefore almost always returns
less than anticipated.

You're going to have to do the opposite to maximize your chances of returning
more than anticipated.

However you can see the author is pointing out some structural and marketing
observations and not advocating cartelism or gangsterism.

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arielm
I don't think you have to look at drug dealers to know most of the items on
that list... good product, the need for innovation, and ultimately the goal of
making money are all somewhat common sense in the business world.

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abvdasker
Articles like this are why people view the tech industry as predatory and out
of touch. No, we should not try to emulate an industry that operates by making
a product so addictive that it becomes self-destructive. Reading comments that
buy into this crap makes me ashamed to be a part of this industry.

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mixedCase
> Articles like this are why people view the tech industry as predatory and
> out of touch.

As opposed to what percentage of industries that are a paragon of social good
over profits?

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moomin
I think the title might just be the closest I've ever seen a click bait
headline come to art.

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joshuaheard
At one point in "Narcos", Escobar literally burned money to keep warm while on
the run from police. So, I would not take this lesson too far.

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FireBeyond
If you need to burn money to survive, perhaps a lesson.

I think the lesson there was that you need to always have another escape plan?

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pgt
Working link: [https://www.business.com/articles/why-you-should-run-your-
bu...](https://www.business.com/articles/why-you-should-run-your-business-
like-a-drug-lord/?q=Drug+lord)

~~~
Tomte
Damn! That worked for me just shortly ago. And I cannot change the URL.

Feel free to flag this submission away.

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leroy_masochist
TLDR: Starting a business is hard and entrepreneurs must be persistent in
order to succeed. Also, businesses that involve international, vertically
integrated supply chains resemble each other in several obvious ways.

