Tom Friedman's masterpiece Hot, Flat and Crowded is about how developing green technology is a win-win story. He says the world will be nicer because we'll have nicer air and water, for starters. We'll also live better because we will get more comfort for less energy expenditure. (like the newer air conditioners and refrigerators that cost less to run than old ones) Businesses will do better, too, because when you think about it, pollution is just good resources gone up in smoke or thrown out with the trash.
Here's the good part: What it takes to get new, improved green technology is not lawyers and politicians. It's engineers.
Japan has lots of engineers.
We have an annual quota on how many new lawyers can be certified. The number of elected officials also dwindles year by year as cities/towns/villages/prefectures consolidate. But the number of engineers always grows.
Shh... Don't tell, but I think Japan is winning when it comes to the newest industrial revolution, the green tech revolution. Japan's secret weapon is schools that teach math and produce lots of engineers, not to mention an abhorence of waste.
2009年3月28日土曜日
2009年2月6日金曜日
A Year of the Cow story
“Roads and bridges are attractive, but they create jobs only during construction,” said Shunji Nakamura, chief of the city’s industrial policy section. “You need projects with good jobs that will last through a bad economy.”
This is from an article in the online NY Times about Japan's bad example in stimulating the economy through public works projects. Construction companies like to be paid for pouring lots of concrete. They don't care what happens next. They get paid, but people are employed only as long as it takes to dig a hole and fill it with concrete.
Another idea: "...let people decide how to spend their own money..."
Here's the cow story:
A few years back, Japan gave a few hundred dollars worth of consumer coupons--from funds in the welfare budget--to low income families, the elderly, and children under 16. I remember a story about two boys who pooled their coupons and bought a calf. They raised it until it was big enough to sell, and used that money to buy more calves.
Imagine all the side effects from that original calf investment, starting with keeping the boys busy with a great out-of-school project.
Not everyone needs a cow, but how about if, say, instead of company bailouts, US owners of clunky cars got enough money back to buy a real car? Would the economy rev up a few notches?
This is from an article in the online NY Times about Japan's bad example in stimulating the economy through public works projects. Construction companies like to be paid for pouring lots of concrete. They don't care what happens next. They get paid, but people are employed only as long as it takes to dig a hole and fill it with concrete.
Another idea: "...let people decide how to spend their own money..."
Here's the cow story:
A few years back, Japan gave a few hundred dollars worth of consumer coupons--from funds in the welfare budget--to low income families, the elderly, and children under 16. I remember a story about two boys who pooled their coupons and bought a calf. They raised it until it was big enough to sell, and used that money to buy more calves.
Imagine all the side effects from that original calf investment, starting with keeping the boys busy with a great out-of-school project.
Not everyone needs a cow, but how about if, say, instead of company bailouts, US owners of clunky cars got enough money back to buy a real car? Would the economy rev up a few notches?
2009年2月2日月曜日
Staying in Business
According to the latest issue of The Economist, that's the definition of sustainability for 2009. The ultimate question for business leaders this year is a simple one: can we stay in business?
Here's another question. How many companies, worldwide, that are in business today were in business 200 years ago? Two hundred years' of survival, now that is sustainablity!
The answer is, in round-round figures, 5,000. There are none in the US (short history!). I thought there might be one, Paul Revere's day job as a silver smith, since the name Revere Silver is still around, but it's not the same company. The name has been bought and sold many times over.
But that's not the point.
More than 3,000 of the oldest firms on the planet are in Japan. Can you imagine? So many companies still in business after 200 years.
The reason, according to the magazine that did the research, is simple: people come first. They are all small to medium sized businesses that put their primary stakeholders first, and the primary stakeholders are the people who do the work.
Here's another question. How many companies, worldwide, that are in business today were in business 200 years ago? Two hundred years' of survival, now that is sustainablity!
The answer is, in round-round figures, 5,000. There are none in the US (short history!). I thought there might be one, Paul Revere's day job as a silver smith, since the name Revere Silver is still around, but it's not the same company. The name has been bought and sold many times over.
But that's not the point.
More than 3,000 of the oldest firms on the planet are in Japan. Can you imagine? So many companies still in business after 200 years.
The reason, according to the magazine that did the research, is simple: people come first. They are all small to medium sized businesses that put their primary stakeholders first, and the primary stakeholders are the people who do the work.
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