PeteM
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2002
- Location
- West Coast, USA
Seems with all the angst about pandemic and recession, it might be useful to list long term positives that could come out of a few months of business-not-as-usual. Really looking for your ideas here.
When businesses face tough problems, the reexamination can sometimes make them stronger. "Never waste a crisis" is the attitude of leaders.
To start:
1) We've been talking about remote working for decades now. It could ease commutes, save energy, let people buy homes in affordable areas, rejuvenate rural areas, etc. But most companies aren't very good at it. With necessity the mother of invention, maybe this will be a chance for more companies to figure this out? Anyone's company doing something useful or clever in this respect?
2) There's this huge debate about the future of healthcare. My own thought is the cheap stuff where best practices are known should be available to all our citizens. Get 'em back to school or work. Keep the rest of us from catching whatever they've got. Could be this crisis will help us move towards a limited version of affordable care for citizens - testing, vaccines, maybe patch a broken arm or catch an easily treatable disease when it's easily treatable? It's just stupid, for example, that poor people can't afford testing or vaccines - that's a good deal for all of us. Could we sell universal healthcare, if the universal part were cheap and sensible and private insurance, Medicare, etc. took care of the heart transplants, cancer treatments, etc.
3) There's another debate about sealing our economy, borders, culture etc. off from other countries. Not sure how this ends up, given the present partisanship, but it does seem to me that past pandemics show that international cooperation to deal with problems at their source (maybe whether drugs, terrorism, tyrants, or viruses) works better?? Are we learning any lessons?
4) Along with the "financialization" of most everything, we've eagerly pushed our supply chains to the cheapest parts of the globe, with little concern for how that affects longer term issues like resilience, employment, supplier outages, etc. I can recall thinking how stupid companies (clients at the time) kept moving production from the US to Mexico to China. Quality always tanked for a while and the cost savings were minimal to non-existent. What really happened is that CEOs got a bonus for taking costs off the books (paying them to suppliers instead) and our tax laws gave them a bonus for doing it. Anyone have concrete examples of major companies bringing their supply chain back into the US?
5) In a similar vein, maybe more small manufacturing businesses get another shot at being suppliers to major companies?Given relatively affordable automation (CNC etc.) and rising wages for skilled labor everywhere, suppliers closer to markets really should have an advantage in responsiveness, shipping costs, and flexibility. Three smaller US based shops, splitting up the part numbers, might well beat a shitload of parts delivered by cargo container from China? Anyone see an opportunity to grab good new business, despite a likely downturn? Similarly, are smaller companies about to lay off skilled workers or invest in something longer term?
6) State, local, and Federal agencies might also streamline the various licenses, regulations, etc. required to start a business. I've long thought that each medium size city or larger should have one place where an entrepreneur could get every license needed, regardless of government level, and that the process should be designed to streamline both the time and costs involved. Those regulations are ostensibly to keep businesses from screwing customers, the environment, etc. -- and could surely be easier to understand and cheaper to comply if the three levels of government cooperated?? Bonus for the town and state would be keeping the revenues and jobs local. Anyone live in a town that's doing something like that?
7) I don't watch much TV, but will miss some sports over the next month or two -- March Madness, some EURO games, etc.. Might not be all that bad if I got my old bones up, put up a hoop, and my son and I got reacquainted with H-O-R-S-E? Main point being that being active > beats watching others play > beats betting on which others win > beats betting on which others composite fantasy teams win. Already do some sports each week, but those hours watching games could be better spent actively. Could we reverse being a nation of we and our kids as couch potatoes, gamers, and fantasy XXX players?
8) We're already throwing money into the financial system. How about high ROI infrastructure? What infrastructure investments will help get things back on keel and really pay off in the decades ahead?
9) What else? How can we as individuals, professionals, small shop owners, etc. make best use of the months ahead?
When businesses face tough problems, the reexamination can sometimes make them stronger. "Never waste a crisis" is the attitude of leaders.
To start:
1) We've been talking about remote working for decades now. It could ease commutes, save energy, let people buy homes in affordable areas, rejuvenate rural areas, etc. But most companies aren't very good at it. With necessity the mother of invention, maybe this will be a chance for more companies to figure this out? Anyone's company doing something useful or clever in this respect?
2) There's this huge debate about the future of healthcare. My own thought is the cheap stuff where best practices are known should be available to all our citizens. Get 'em back to school or work. Keep the rest of us from catching whatever they've got. Could be this crisis will help us move towards a limited version of affordable care for citizens - testing, vaccines, maybe patch a broken arm or catch an easily treatable disease when it's easily treatable? It's just stupid, for example, that poor people can't afford testing or vaccines - that's a good deal for all of us. Could we sell universal healthcare, if the universal part were cheap and sensible and private insurance, Medicare, etc. took care of the heart transplants, cancer treatments, etc.
3) There's another debate about sealing our economy, borders, culture etc. off from other countries. Not sure how this ends up, given the present partisanship, but it does seem to me that past pandemics show that international cooperation to deal with problems at their source (maybe whether drugs, terrorism, tyrants, or viruses) works better?? Are we learning any lessons?
4) Along with the "financialization" of most everything, we've eagerly pushed our supply chains to the cheapest parts of the globe, with little concern for how that affects longer term issues like resilience, employment, supplier outages, etc. I can recall thinking how stupid companies (clients at the time) kept moving production from the US to Mexico to China. Quality always tanked for a while and the cost savings were minimal to non-existent. What really happened is that CEOs got a bonus for taking costs off the books (paying them to suppliers instead) and our tax laws gave them a bonus for doing it. Anyone have concrete examples of major companies bringing their supply chain back into the US?
5) In a similar vein, maybe more small manufacturing businesses get another shot at being suppliers to major companies?Given relatively affordable automation (CNC etc.) and rising wages for skilled labor everywhere, suppliers closer to markets really should have an advantage in responsiveness, shipping costs, and flexibility. Three smaller US based shops, splitting up the part numbers, might well beat a shitload of parts delivered by cargo container from China? Anyone see an opportunity to grab good new business, despite a likely downturn? Similarly, are smaller companies about to lay off skilled workers or invest in something longer term?
6) State, local, and Federal agencies might also streamline the various licenses, regulations, etc. required to start a business. I've long thought that each medium size city or larger should have one place where an entrepreneur could get every license needed, regardless of government level, and that the process should be designed to streamline both the time and costs involved. Those regulations are ostensibly to keep businesses from screwing customers, the environment, etc. -- and could surely be easier to understand and cheaper to comply if the three levels of government cooperated?? Bonus for the town and state would be keeping the revenues and jobs local. Anyone live in a town that's doing something like that?
7) I don't watch much TV, but will miss some sports over the next month or two -- March Madness, some EURO games, etc.. Might not be all that bad if I got my old bones up, put up a hoop, and my son and I got reacquainted with H-O-R-S-E? Main point being that being active > beats watching others play > beats betting on which others win > beats betting on which others composite fantasy teams win. Already do some sports each week, but those hours watching games could be better spent actively. Could we reverse being a nation of we and our kids as couch potatoes, gamers, and fantasy XXX players?
8) We're already throwing money into the financial system. How about high ROI infrastructure? What infrastructure investments will help get things back on keel and really pay off in the decades ahead?
9) What else? How can we as individuals, professionals, small shop owners, etc. make best use of the months ahead?