Global Trade Base Trends
February 2, 2009 - Who is Responsible? - Patrick Donnell, President.
- It is an amazing event to watch when consumers blame companies for the problems in our economy while the companies blame consumers. It is almost prophetic nonsense when both entities turn to an external third party with their hand out looking for help to a situation that they are responsible for creating. Neither party seems to accept responsibility for their role in getting to this economic situation and further blame external circumstances for their own actions. As an employer, it is amazing to watch the average employee in this country and the way that they work. Somewhere along the line it became acceptable for an employee to expect rewards without effort, pay raises while being undependable, loyalty while cheating their employer and promotions while doing the minimum they have to just to stay employed. Then we wonder why our economy is in such a mess. On the other end of the spectrum we have executives who do not know how to sell their company's own service or product, cheat their employees while receiving pay commensurate of many fortunes, downsize thousands of employees but do not take a paycut and get free money from the government to bail out the problems they do not have the skillset to mend but choose to reward themselves for getting the hand out.
- Now, our options for economic recovery are extremely limited. It is critical that we, as individuals and business leaders, do all within our sphere of influence to make a positive impact into the economy. The majority of solutions being passed around all involve incurring dept to be repaid at some future point with the hopes of an improved economy in place to fund the solution. Who is willing to take responsibility for fixing the problem in place? Does anyone have a better solution? The answer is 'Yes!' The best and fastest solution is to export more U.S. produced products. This means that companies who have never considered exporting as part of their core business model must change. This means that these companies must reach out to expand their market to include other countries. They must either expand into better markets and bring foreign dollars into our economy or suffer the result of outdated business models that are no longer effective. This point is not to be alarmist in nature. However, it is a fact that our current economy demands different actions to get different results. The short-sighted companies who do not include international markets as part of their core business models are gambling against a declining future domestically and putting their company on the line as the cost of the bet if they are wrong.
- Many companies are outside of their comfort zone when it comes to international business. The simple answer is to outsource that which we do not want to do or do not know how to do. It is time to step outside of old business models and comfort zones to take responsibility in fixing our economy by making each company stronger. I challenge you to do this. This is for your sake and the sake of our economy.