Here’s a remarkable 40-second video from Bangkok. More after the jump…
Flexibility. Ingenuity. Adaptability. Nimbleness. Overcoming obstacles. Working outside the box…
- What are the built-in inconveniences in your market?
- Compared to your competitors, how good are you at working around those difficulties?
- How nimble are you, as measured by your ability to exploit opportunities that are less than optimal?
- What would it cost you to become more nimble?
- Who will carve out a foothold in your market if you don’t?
- Can you spot interstitial business opportunities in your market — meaning opportunities that lie in the gaps between conventionally obvious openings? (Remember, Ted Turner earned his bones in outdoor advertising — which is to say, highway billboards — not a traditionally sexy category. Today CBS is in that business too).
- Are you — literally or figuratively — leaving money on the table because of inconvenience (as distinct from irredeemably high cost of sales)?
- Who can you ask to join you in praying for the vision to see opportunity where none exists?
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There is another way to look at that video. That scene shows how urban planning has been terribly neglected in that part of Bangkok, thus forcing human beings to be nimble and innovative at the risk of their own lives. It’s a testimony to the lack of biblical love in the institutions that oversee city development. That same problem is apparent now in Haiti, where, as CNN reported, the government either doesn’t have or doesn’t enforce any building codes. Wouldn’t it be better to create environments that don’t force people to endure the kind of "innovation" demonstrated in this video?
Glenn, the Bangkok video is posted with metaphoric intent but I take your point nonetheless.
In a literal sense, it seems clear that leaders and policies in megacities around the planet—and I think Port Au Prince qualifies by scale if not by rule-of-thumb head count—are destined to chase population migration into and around their environs for the foreseeable future. They are obligated to plan and regulate expansion and density for the common good but I don’t think anyone anticipates a sudden obsolescing of gray market enterprise in demographically volatile circumstances—and certainly not without generating equilibrium in rural and small town populations to reduce the pressure to migrate in search of a living wage.
I think it’s a case of ‘Yes, and…’ Both literally and metaphorically, innovation is what clever, motivated people do. All the time. I suspect it’s a reflection of God’s image in humankind. Most of us are reasonably clever.I think the question for many of us in business is, How are we motivated, and how motivated are we?
I also liked the metaphorical point of the video. It is amazing how those people can take what little they have and through innovation make business happen. But, there is the sad side of that video. Here in Brazil they use the term "jeitinho," which basically means doing whatever is necessary (moral or not) to survive in a country where the infrastructure is broken. This survival mode type of innovation has an aura of desperation built in that is sad to see.