"It is
impossible for ideas to compete in the marketplace if no forum for
their presentation is provided or available." Thomas Mann, 1896
Letter from the
President
August 15th, 2001
John Hathaway-Bates
President & Executive Director
Today I heard a phrase that has been missing from the business vocabulary for several years now, "right sizing". It was uttered by an "analyst" on a television "business channel", just proving that the media obviously pick their "spokespersons" more for looks and the confidence projected by their voices, than they do for actual knowledge of what they are reporting. It also proves, methinks, that most "news writers" after leaving journalism school never actually "worked in" the manufacturing or service industries.
Most business people, the successful ones that is, that I know, constantly consider what is the "right size" for their operation to aim for. Yet no-one ever talks about "right-sizing" to take advantage of a rise in demand for products and services in an expanding market. That they call "growth" or "expansion".
"Right Sizing" is what business does day in and day out every year, no matter whether the market is going up and down. The Media just likes to make something that is quite natural sound extraordinary and dramatic, as if no-one would notice that organizations were merely doing what they should do, if the media were not there to explain it to us.
Let us face it my friends, the cycle turned. The market for everything had been growing too fast for a while, so now it has to slow down. That is all that is happening. It has always been this way, and it probably always will be this way, as long as markets are allowed to regulate themselves by supply and demand. If everyone goes out and buys a new house, a new car, or a new computer this year, chances are they will not go out and buy one next year. That is just how it is.
And yet . . . . we buy food and security on a day by day basis, because we have to, and we buy power and we wash and we dress and we eat, every day of our lives.
Now that we have entered the Technology Age, we just may have changed things and the market (as yet unaware of just how much technological improvement is now important to us) may find that trying to hold back technological advance for the sake of making this quarter's numbers, or year end targets may very well be impossible.
My prediction is that before Christmas the demands for up-dates, the latest version and the labor reducing investment in technology coming onto the market as we speak, may just explode in a mass of new budget demands and actual expenditure.
But do not worry - whether it is just the way of things or not, the media will spin it to us with a new set of buzz words, designed to make us think that we should be surprised by something that is as certain as the Sun actually setting tonight.
I hope that I will see you at lunch soon.
President & Executive Director
You can email me at john@bizforum.org
You can telephone me at 310-550-1984
or Fax me at 310-550-6121
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