When Patriotism Clashes With Capitalism

by Michael Keane

In the United States of America, it is generally accepted that there is a high level of both patriotism and capitalism flowing through its citizenry. With the China trade issues like forced tech transfer taking more of a center stage, how to answer the question of what to do when patriotism and capitalism clash has been laid open and the country's business leaders are not stepping up, but are selling out.While there are many layers to the issue, corporate behavior has been less than stellar if you have a lens of citizen first, investor second.

There is an informative Frontline episode by Laura Sullivan on the China trade issues (link here). A central theme of the piece is how corporations have found themselves having trouble explaining the issues while also not wanting the solutions (aka tariffs and other action items) taken because of ramifications to profits, products and services from China. A recent letter from the shoe retailers industry (here) conveys this behavior. Granted, not all of the retailers are based in the US.

This is continuing a trend where corporations are willingly choosing capitalistic desires over the patriotic requirements necessary. This is likely because billions of bonus dollars and stock appreciation is at stake. The tax cuts was another item of corporate misbehavior. The Trump administration were all but assured that corporations would repatriate more revenue when they received their tax cut. That did not happen to any extent the administration was expecting and now our deficits are much higher because of it.

The China tariff standoff will not end until the government of the United States does some honorable, but profit costing actions. Our future competitive advantages are being monetized and sold by the current generation of business leaders in this country. If corporations are allowed to continue to influence government officials to create policy for profits over patriotism, we all will be in trouble. 

Massive Influence of Wikinomics Series

by Michael Keane

Recently, I revisited Macrowikinomics, by Dan Tascott and Anthony Williams. This book was written in 2010, as a follow up to the successful 2006 book Wikinomics. They speak about how to get the world rolling again after the crash using massive upheaval techniques in specific areas including Finance, Industrialization Processes, Education, Healthcare, Media and Communication, and the public's involvement and manipulation of government. I originally picked up the book years ago as notes were given by many important heads of business and government including Mark Parker (Nike), Eric Schmidt (Google), Noel Tichy (University of Michigan), Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), and others. With a recent revisit to the book and think back through the development of business processes, it seems that a lot of people took this book to heart. There is massive development in almost all areas covered in this book either by existing companies/organizations at the time, or by newly created businesses/organizations. The one element that seems to be evident in most of the improvement is that there is a high level of collaboration (vertical or horizontal) within each space.

Is there something in your business that corresponds with this collaboration thought pattern. Would using technology and collaboration have a disruption within your industry in some way. Would a small change create the possibility for an even larger change?

I fully recommend MacroWikinomics. There is a new book on blockchain that will be on the list of books to check out. Bankers beware. You are next in the line of disruptors.

This is an opinion article. The opinions were fully unsolicited. Please do your own due diligence before acting on this article.

Week In Review for Bitcoin, Wearable Tech

As always, check out the hashtags of each of the topics to get up to the minute information.

Bitcoin
- Guardian article (link here) on the democratic disruption of finance. Thanks for the tweet @howardlindzon. 


Wearable Tech
- Nike drops Fuelband, Marketwatch story here.

Nike Fuelband Not A Failure, Neither Is Wearable Tech

This week, Nike announced that they are stopping production of the Fuelband. In a few articles, there is a sense that because Nike stopped producing the Fuelband, wearable technology is on the downturn. See Yahoo! article here. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nike stopped because the Fuelband doesn't fit into its classic business. There are also other competitors that have a far superior technological expertise in the wearable tech space than Nike. When you have companies like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Polar, and others generating these products, it makes the case that Nike should not be in the space.

If you think are wondering if the Wearable Tech revolution is dead, go on twitter and hashtag wearabletech and see what you find.