My brain really starts whirring when I catch up on Umair Haque's blog. A few years ago when I starting reading his work at Bubblegeneration my head hurt, sort of like a brain freeze. But, hey, if you study it often and long enough you finally grasp it and the freeze thaws.
Umair for me revives that feeling I got from E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful too many moons ago. An economist who understands and advocates for the human dimension in economics? Rare indeed.
Here's a excerpt from a recent post leading into Google's release of Chrome:
Imagine what would happen if GM and Ford collaborated to invest in the components and architecture of a better public transport network -- and then licensed it for free to cities, states, and countries.
Imagine what would happen if pharma players directly invested in better hospitals and clinics -- instead of in trying to own the relationship with doctors, and furiously outspending one another when marketing blockbusters.
Imagine what would happen if Wal-Mart invested in town squares and parks -- instead of just in featureless warehouses draining what little vitality remains in already bleak exurbs.
Imagine what would happen if P&G and Unilever invested in people's opportunities for education, global mobility, and meaningful, authentic relationships with others -- instead of just trying to control distribution channels, and then push-market more stuff to you.
That's a radically different vision for a better kind of business. One where the value that's created is authentic, durable, and meaningful to humans; one where your "unfair advantage" isn't simply just the flipside of my disadvantage; one where that illusion no longer narcotizes an entire economy.
Hopelessly naïve - right? Wrong. Today's revolutionaries are already bringing this vision to life, and using it to topple yesterday's most powerful and privileged incumbents. Radically better is not just what business must - and will - become: it is what business is already becoming.
Who's breathing life into this vision? And why should anyone do so - isn't it irrational for companies to make moves like those above?
We're going to need economists and thinkers like Umair to challenge traditional mindsets around business management and the workings of new media.
Comments