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November 15, 2008
Silver Lining Thinking. Fighting Back A Recession.
The economic news from this past week was abysmal, and next week holds the prospect of another monster layoff at Citi and continued erosion in Detroit. Now what?
Back on September 2, ComScore released study data on consumer spending in light of the housing meltdown and recession fears. In that report is a silver lining for those businesses with the ability to deliver on new options and points of presence for hard-pressed consumers.
"With consumers increasingly cost conscious, many are turning to the Internet for pricing information. The survey findings revealed that nearly three out of four consumers believe the Internet has made it 'a lot easier' or 'somewhat easier' to find better, more useful pricing information. "
Finding better prices is the tip of the iceberg. As in any time of great change, there will be technical, social and behavial inflections during this recession. One big widely apparent trend is that people are looking at how the Internet can help them...find jobs, shop smarter, learn new skills, etc., etc., etc. That translates into opportunity on the business side.
About two weeks, I did a Twitter posting spreading the word about a Seth Godin blog entry I though had some profound comments in it. With apologies to Seth, here are the words that caught me. (full posting is here)
"I believe that we're on the verge of some exponential increases in productivity. Productivity in marketing as the waste of reaching the masses goes away. Productivity in energy as we figure out how to make a renewable process that gives us incremental units of power for free (think about the impact of that for a moment) and productivity in group work and management as we allow the network to do more than let us watch stupid YouTube videos at work. The three biggest expenses of most endeavors (the energy to make it, the people who create it and the marketing that spreads the idea) are about to be overhauled."
This economic downturn is rapidly shaping up to be the most traumatic that many of us have experienced in our lives. But, getting out of the malaise takes positive action by lots of people and businesses. And finding the silver lining in the bad news is part of the positive action.
Posted by jcioban at November 15, 2008 10:19 AM
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