If this election is to be a national vote on the role of government versus markets to advance our nation’s wellbeing – as pundits suggest it is – it’s best that we step back to discuss what markets can and cannot do. In the process we will hopefully remember that we all benefit from a vibrant private sector and that government plays a vital role in its creation. Economists rightly applaud the role of markets and price in particular as the invisible hand that aligns demand and supply. Compare the economies of West Berlin and East Berlin before the fall of the USSR and you can see the power of price and free markets versus a planned economy in creating an economy that responds to people’s needs. Yes there is beauty in the invisible hand, and it generates significant national wealth. But the…
Four practices for creating an authentic brand
As an experiment, I followed the world’s twitters during the first Obama-Romney presidential debate. Amidst the flurry of messages passing by my eyes, I finally understood in my gut and not just my head how social media has changed the balance of power when it comes to controlling brand image. In an era when everyone single one of your customers can shout their opinions from an easily accessible “bloody pulpit,” how do you influence what these customers will say? They certainly aren’t going to copy messages from your mass market advertisements! The answer lies in making sure that your company’s actions live out the brand image you want to build. That is the only way to have an authentic message that will be repeated by customers you cannot control. How do you do that? Lessons about leadership apply. Leaderhip gurus Jim Kouzes and…
The yin and yang of business model innovation
The following quote (courtesy of a blog post by Esther Dyson, savvy internet investor) should be posted on billboards next to every large company, especially in Japan where once-great electronics giants face the Herculean challenge of reversing an accelerating decline. “Without order, planning, predictability, central control, accountancy, instructions to underlings, obedience, discipline — without these things nothing fruitful can happen, because everything disintegrates. And yet — without the magnanimity of disorder, the happy abandon, the entrepreneurship venturing into the unknown and incalculable, without the risk and the gamble, the creative imagination rushing in where angels fear to tread — without this, life is a mockery and a disgrace.” ~ E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful Chico Harlan’s recent Washington Post column describes the “free fall” that Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and Toshiba are experiencing. They “once controlled the industry, outclassing and outselling their U.S….