Greed and the Race to Succeed in Business

Normally I would do a review of the skills and attitudes of resilience, yet I think it is important to talk about a driving force that will affect all of us. That force is greed. Now greed has gotten a bad rap. I will admit that I have done my part to give it one. Greed has much to do with the problems in our society, particularly regarding poverty, inequality, and racism. The present crisis has made these problems even clearer. That is the "bad."

So what could the good possibly be? To see the good, you have to not underestimate capitalism in a crisis, especially in a crisis that involves the development of a new product — a vaccine — that can be sold to millions and will make millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars for the business that owns the patent and produces the product. The world is in desperate need of a vaccine and so there is a race on to produce one. The Trump Administration has dubbed this Operation Warp Speed. The pharmaceutical company that wins the race will reap huge profits. And it is most likely that one of the large pharmaceutical giants will win the race, not one of the small competitors.

Greed may help us develop a vaccine. The ugly part of the "warp speed" rush to market a vaccine may be that a rushed vaccine could have side effects of which the pharmaceutical company may be unaware before its release.

Small businesses are not winning too many races these days either. They are being put out of business by large corporations that have the money and manpower to do everything online. It appears that in the future, the marketplace will be controlled by a very few large corporations. When we are able to go out to dinner again, we will most likely be going to a restaurant that is part of a large restaurant chain. Small shops and mom-and-pop restaurants may disappear. Fine dining may become a trip to the Olive Garden.

Do we really want to order everything from Amazon? Do we really want to owe our soul to the company store? When you place your next order on the internet, give some thought to the future that you are helping to create. Ask yourself, "What can I do now to ensure the survival of small businesses?"

In resilience work, we talk about "community resilience," which the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) defines as "the capability to anticipate risk, limit impact, and bounce back rapidly through survival, adaptability, evolution, and growth in the face of turbulent change." We are, indeed, in the midst of "turbulent change." What are you willing to do to keep your community viable?