Which is a good thing, since U.S. unemployment is at its highest since 1945.
Remember, we’re headed into an unprecedented global talent crisis as well. It sounds like a paradox, and it is. But it still means that lots of well-educated and skilled people will be available to start new lives, think new thoughts, and explore new directions.
Chaos mean opportunities.
If you look through the last several posts on this blog, you may ask yourself, “Is this guy a total drag at parties, or what?” Most of the blogposts these past several weeks indicate a world in traumatic transition, and I guess I can’t apologize for that. The world is evolving quickly and is shaking off old, useless institutions like a golden retriever getting rid of fleas. It’s quite scary and often painful.
I’d just like to say that we here at Competitive Futures are actually more positive than we’ve been in some time. People are just as smart and savvy as they ever have been, the world is in fact more peaceful, and we have a new global system of information exchange that is probably the coolest thing humanity has ever built. The institutions will fall if they don’t match reality, but the future of people, communities, and business is as strong as ever.
That’s not to say that all of this new business and effective government will come easily. In fact, people are going to have a difficult time adjusting from old ways of thinking to new (dare we use the word) paradigms.
We believe that that name of the game in 2009 will be business development in a complex, changing world. There are infinite new ways to profitably serve customers – especially while your competition is at least as confused as you are.
So, banks blowing up? Great. Housing market in disarray. Fantastic. Global warming still progressing? Wonderful. This chaos will be useful to those who are paying attention and starting new businesses – lean, mean, high-speed, low-drag businesses.
I hope that’s a more fun, positive message at parties this Christmas season. It’s what we will be discussing all through 2009.
You know, we spend our time on the long-term future here, but it seems like everybody needs to pay attention to the next few weeks.
Today, several American mayors went on record saying their finances are in shambles, and now THEY need a bailout too.
Did the bailout plan really take none of these repercussions into account? Can we maybe stop and do a little scenario planning about what the next two months could look like before acting with $700 billion in our pockets?
Note to the Treasury Dept: we’re only one block away.