What a courageous title especially when the world as we have comfortably gotten used to is heading for an unprecedented roller coaster ride no one has ever experienced before. With daily news of businesses going into administration, reducing the workforce, asking for government assistance or declaring bleak outcomes, everything seems far from great. This downturn is taking place at a grandiose macroeconomic scale as, for the first time since the First World War, we read of entire developed countries being on the apparent verge of bankruptcy. It makes us, the man in the street, wonder about the qualifications, foresight and abilities of the elite few who were paid millions in salaries, bonuses and perks to manage some of the institutions making the headlines. The same reasoning applies to those learned scholars who advised the decision makers that hard core globalisation, ruthless privatization and extreme capitalism were the in terms. Today some may want to reconsider the whole notion of how the stock market functions with the pressure on listed companies to declare a [short-term] profit every quarter irrespective of any serious [long-term] planning.
And now people like you and me will have to pick up the tab either directly because we will end up out of a job or indirectly as a result of increased taxation to fund those measures that will help reduce the effects of this economic devastation. A Great New World indeed!
But history tells us that humanity has made giant leaps in the quality of life after devastating events on the economic, cultural and political fronts. An example would be, the impressive strides humanity made soon after World War 2 came to an end or the cultural revolutions of the 1960s. From the rubble and devastation society ended up richer.
SELL is an acronym that I hope will become popular with everyone concerned when we get to the point where this world crisis is history. It is short, easy to remember and a verb associated with a market economy. SELL stands for
- Sincerity;
- Environment;
- Long Term;
- Lifestyle.
Sincerity
The world needs a framework in which half truths and creative accounting practices are frowned upon as vehemently as racism and intolerance. Accounting firms must give a true picture of the assets and liabilities of the organisation they are reporting on. Marketing strategies to project a failure as a plus point and trick investors and shareholders into believing a reality that does not exist must be dealt with severely. Legislation that relentlessly punishes those steering an organisation when misdoings took place is necessary. Countries that do not subscribe to this basic idea of righteousness should be economically disadvantaged. This will encourage countries that feel they have a lesser obligation to play on a level playing field to rethink their strategy. An environment in which any action by an organisation to unfairly tip the table in its favour would end up hurting the same must be the standard business model. Underhanded practices, unfair incumbent protectionism, bribes and cartels should all be considered as being things that would, sooner rather than later, do more harm to the perpetrator.
Environment
Societies must adopt the Waste Not, Want Not philosophy. Everything in the world is finite and we must strive to respect, appreciate and preserve what we have [or have been given]. By taking care of our environment and by striving to get more done with less, society will be better off since such measures will translate to an overall cost-effective solution in the long term. Choice is a fundamental right of anyone and those who opt to go for less long term efficient solutions must be willing to pay for that right. One can think of this as the Industrial Age of the Environment when creating environmentally friendly solutions is beneficial to those who can materialize and market them. Today we seem to be of the frame of mind that if something is environmentally friendly it must cost more. The reality is that many companies seem to have adapted a stance in which, if something is to be marketed as environmentally efficient, consumers would [must] be willing to pay more. Destroy that attitude, and environmentally friendly goods will suddenly go down in price.
Long Term
Today the impression is that a CEO is there until he or she is ousted by shareholders after the first or second bad quarters. A large number of benefits are bound to the [positive] performance of the company for that period. Impatient shareholders expect an ever growing return on their investment and will send the stocks of a company into limbo if the company underperforms. All these doings encourage an environment of short-term thinking. Mechanisms must come into place to address these issues while at the same time protecting investors from not knowing what is going on. The phrase “in x years time” needs to be added to the list of positive statements that add value to a company.
Lifestyle
In the last 50 years we have been told to reduce the amount of salt and sugar in our food, eat more fruits and vegetables, be active for at least 30 minutes a day, don’t smoke, take time to relax, don’t stay too much in the sun, keep warm in winter, use TV and internet in moderation, wash our hands, brush our teeth and many other similar guiding suggestions. Although we may not follow each and every suggestion, many of these have contributed to our increased longevity and improved quality of life. It is now time to add that we should not live beyond our means. Society must be helped to weight the benefit of always having the latest model against the cost of getting further in debt. Society must be helped to appreciate that disposing of an item carries a cost and that packaging adds absolutely no value whatsoever to how good or bad an item actually is. The notion that some things can be fixed or upgraded rather than be chucked out is another area we should seriously consider.
The different parts of SELL cannot be looked upon in isolation and each one will contribute to the others. For example, a Lifestyle change in which people are encouraged to repair and upgrade rather than replace would benefit the environment as well as create new opportunities for companies to provide products and services to address these needs. In a world in which companies can plan long term and in which unfair practices do not take place, existing and new entrants will come into play to challenge existing products and practices on cost, efficiency and functionality fronts. Shareholders will benefit from the dynamicity of such an environment. Yet another example would be the use of alternatives to the combustion engine or the improvement of the same. Different technologies would find an arena that is politically and operationally fair and with enough time to demonstrate their full potential. At the end, those solutions that prove to be the best in the long term will prevail.
SELL can indeed help us create the great new world for us and our children.
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