I attended a trade show in Las Vegas in the early this year. One of my duties as a V.P. of Marketing was to meet with the media, specifically various members of the trade press. During one of the conversations, a magazine rep was going over their focus on sustainability in 2010 and 2011. After listen to sustainability this, and sustainability that, I asked, “What does the term sustainability mean to you and your readers?”
The man was stumped. He knew the newest buzz word, but he could not articulate it into a defensible argument. Finally, he said something about “Using products and …….that are good for the environment…..?”To help the gentleman save face, I said, “I just asked because there seem to be differing opinions on what, exactly “sustainability" is.
The truth is even the U.N., the main proponent of sustainability, does not have a precise definition. The first sentence in definition from Wilkepedia seems to fit best. “Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure.” It doesn’t say much. That really doesn’t excuse anyone from chattering about something they know little about.
Lenin envisioned a world run by experts. We are there. Someone is touted as an expert, and most people’s minds shut down. “Someone smarter than me has already figured this out….” At one time Americans were very skeptical of “experts.” Newspapers were seen, and known, to be propaganda outlets for robber barons and bankers. Healthy skepticism was part of the American way of life. Maybe that was due to the wild days of snake-oil salesman, miracle devices and cures that simply did not work. Whatever it was, we need it back.The painful lessons of following the herd and succumbing to group think are evident in history, including very recent history.
The world’s financial “experts” did not see the crash of 2008 coming. The same experts told us that they are the ones to guide us out, we just have to hand over a few trillion dollars. (They were a little short at the moment.) Someone published a book called The World is Flat, and all the possible negatives of globalization were swept aside. Tom Peter’s wrote In Search of Excellence and “teaming” became the new business fashion. Only later did we find some parts of the book were fiction. Lean, Six Sigma, ISO9000, TQMS, web stores – you better have one, email newsletters, the list of ideas, trends, buzz phrases, paradigm-shifting (remember paradigm?) all at their time were the latest in forward-thinking business. There is a reason business books have the lowest value in the used book market - they have little value past their publication date. There are as many new ideas and experts to go along with them, as there are hairs on the heads of people who follow them.
Over and over again people fall into the trap of letting someone else think for them. If you hand over your brain, you might as well hand over your wallet too.
My personal eternal truths:
• Bubbles burst
• The more dollars in circulation, the less valuable they are.
• Government intervention makes things worse.
• Banks’, like casinos', goal is to keep your money.
• The majority is always wrong.
If there ever was a time that we need to "grow a pair" as a society it is now. If there ever was a time for original, creative thought in the business world, it is now. The great success stories of the first three quarters of the Twentieth Century did not happen because Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, went to a seminar, or read a business self-help book. Neither one had an MBA hanging on the wall. They were American originals.
Think for yourself.
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