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Wednesday, October 06, 2010
The Art of Creating the Future
In 2006-ish, when I started discussing the idea of a catastrophic global financial meltdown, many of who you are regular readers were understandably skeptical.
In 2008-ish, when I started discussing how the catastrophic global financial meltdown wasn't a humdrum recession--but a turning point for capitalism--many of you were understandably skeptical.
All of which brings me to today.
Lately, both here, on Twitter, and at my HBR blog, I've been discussing a set of new concepts. I have a hunch: many of you think they're self-indulgent bullshit. Purpose, perseverance, ambition, passion, wisdom, institutions, deeper values, meaning, significance--what good are these? How can they help me "profit", "win", and gain "advantage"? It sounds like a boatload of bullshit.
The answer is: they can't. At least not on yesterday's terms. What they can help you do is redefine "profit", "winning", and "advantage"--to create tomorrow's terms.
And that's the point. I'm suggesting in no uncertain terms that business as we know it is obsolete, that strategy is a commodity, that yesterday's sources of advantage are devalued and decrepit, that capitalism as we know it is on the precipice of transformation, and so--most of what you think, know, practice, and believe is going to have to be radically, dramatically unlearned over the next decade, if you want to survive and thrive.
Let me connect the dots, then. My position today, like it was yesterday, is challenging and uncompromising--it's about creating a better tomorrow. Like, if you note the short history of ideas I started this post with, it's always been.
Just like all the above probably seemed like self-indulgent bullshit when I raised it, so today's self-indulgent bullshit might just turn into tomorrow's conventional wisdom. Of course, by then, if you're still behind the curve--well, then you'll probably be history.
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