Stopwatch Marketing Blog

 

 

 

 

The cartoon above, by Kevin Kallaugher, in The Economist, delivers with great humor, as he so often does, a key point of the moment: We should all be upset about the recent apparent collapse of the Doha Round of trade negotiations. This may all seem a bit arcane and esoteric to those who don’t focus on international relations, global poverty, or economics, but it is real: Only trade begets the necessary long-term foundations for wealth creation and only wealth can cure diseases, heal the environment, educate the poor, and address any number of other quite worthy objectives. For example, as the Olympics will make clear to all observers and as the opening of Eastern Europe did twenty years ago, only rich countries (that is, those steeped in free market capitalism) are capable of cleaning their environment. Drew McLellan’s blog has recently been addressing green issues for marketers and Mario Vellandi has established green issues as the very focus of his blog.

I am always surprised by comments from friends and acquaintances – people who are otherwise intelligent, educated, and logical – who choose to decry “globalization,” or “outsourcing” as some sort of evil. Putting aside, for the moment, that these acquaintances most likely drove to meet me at a dinner party in their Italian or Malaysian clothing at the wheel of a German car to offer me a bottle of French wine before heading out to see a movie filmed in Toronto, and so forth, it seems to me that we should always CELEBRATE trade as an ongoing and enriching experience. The columnist George Will, for example, has often pointed out that he runs a chronic trade deficit with his barber…and his wife is quite happy that he does so.

 

Anyway, for a more scholarly take on all this, I heartily recommend C. K. Prahalad’s 2005 book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. If you don’t want to read the whole book, the subtitle summarizes it quite well: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Prahalad is a spectacularly successful consultant and author…but I won’t let my jealousy get in the way of praising his efforts.
C. K. Kerley (no relation, I presume, to C. K. Prahalad) addresses this in her most recent post and draws out the critical point that even philanthropists, properly focused, understand that incentives work, that corporations and people must be shown the incentive to destroy poverty…charitable intentions are, quite simply, insufficient. As the past few thousand years should have taught us. Christina’s post goes on to applaud not only Prahalad, but Bill Gates and the work his (and Melinda’s) foundation is doing in this regard.

What is all this doing in a marketing blog? Well, to whom is it exactly that you expect to market products and services unless those markets are open and free?

Enough! Reverting to the topic at the top of this blog, Kevin Kallaugher is easily the greatest political cartoonist of his age, writing for the greatest newspaper, The Economist. I know, I know, The Economist looks like a magazine to us unkempt Americans, but the British owners of the publication insist on calling it, to this day, a newspaper. Below is Kal’s most famous cartoon – highly relevant in light of today’s chaotic financial market conditions. But, note it was first published in 1989, in the midst of that year’s financial crisis…and several meltdowns ago.

Finally, as always, our quiz: Which of the following is CK Kerley (no points for that one) CK Prahalad, Drew Mclellan, Bill Gates, Mario Vellandi, me, George Will, and Kal?

Tags: Uncategorized //