Bruce Piasecki: The Ben Franklin Solution for the Coming Age of Scarcity
[Bruce Piasecki, president and founder of the management consulting firm AHC Group, is the author of several books on corporate strategy. This essay is based on his forthcoming book, "Doing More with Less: Another Way to Wealth."]
...[W]e must embrace a spirit of competitive frugality in the service of less. "Doing more with less" must become our mantra, aim, and rallying call to become more frugal, inventive, and diplomatic. It may seem like a radical concept, but it's simply the modern version of what Benjamin Franklin preached – and what most Americans practiced – three centuries ago. "Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry easy," Franklin reminded us. "He that rises late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him."...
Franklin's wit and wisdom about self-determination and competitive frugality amount to much more than self-help talking points. They offer nothing less than a road map for national and corporate renewal – and a cleansing regimen for the modern soul made toxic by the relentless logic and lust for more.
Look around our small, spinning planet. Despite global economic slowdown, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and some Asian nations are thriving by being frugal and inventive at the same time. In the corporate world, Federal Express is prospering by moving more cargo with fewer trucks and planes. In both arenas, the willingness to do more with less is a winning formula. Indeed, as our world becomes defined by scarcity, the arts of competitive frugality may well become the defining feature of top-tier nations and global firms....
In our post-World War II era of abundance, our brightest minds in business aimed for growth by selling more and more to the public. Today, in an era of scarcity, the brightest minds in business are generating value by using less water, less carbon, and creating less industrial waste. "Lost time is never found again," Franklin admonished. Likewise, natural resources and fossil fuels lost to waste are seldom found again....
Read entire article at CS Monitor
...[W]e must embrace a spirit of competitive frugality in the service of less. "Doing more with less" must become our mantra, aim, and rallying call to become more frugal, inventive, and diplomatic. It may seem like a radical concept, but it's simply the modern version of what Benjamin Franklin preached – and what most Americans practiced – three centuries ago. "Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry easy," Franklin reminded us. "He that rises late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him."...
Franklin's wit and wisdom about self-determination and competitive frugality amount to much more than self-help talking points. They offer nothing less than a road map for national and corporate renewal – and a cleansing regimen for the modern soul made toxic by the relentless logic and lust for more.
Look around our small, spinning planet. Despite global economic slowdown, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and some Asian nations are thriving by being frugal and inventive at the same time. In the corporate world, Federal Express is prospering by moving more cargo with fewer trucks and planes. In both arenas, the willingness to do more with less is a winning formula. Indeed, as our world becomes defined by scarcity, the arts of competitive frugality may well become the defining feature of top-tier nations and global firms....
In our post-World War II era of abundance, our brightest minds in business aimed for growth by selling more and more to the public. Today, in an era of scarcity, the brightest minds in business are generating value by using less water, less carbon, and creating less industrial waste. "Lost time is never found again," Franklin admonished. Likewise, natural resources and fossil fuels lost to waste are seldom found again....