Canadian Marketing Blog

Greed is Good

With all the turmoil in the financial markets, I can't help but think back to Michael Douglas'/Gordon Gecko pivotal speech in the movie "Wall Street".

Try as you might, there’s no escaping Gecko’s logic about greed…greed IS good. Its part of the reptilian brain. It spurs competition, innovation, evolution, revolution. Everybody understands greed. Its probably a more universal language than math.

Perhaps we need to turn to greed to address the short-termism problems we create in meeting the demands of the stock markets (see: Is it time we fired our shareholder's?). Rather than trying to correct it, we need to amplify it - turn it all the way up to 11 on the dial, completely embrace it with renewed vigor and have it permeate across the enterprise into every nook and cranny in pursuit of:

* A greed for innovation.
* A greed for profitable customers.
* A greed for investors that seek long term value creation.
* A greed for employees with a passion for customer centricity.
* A greed for customers that act/think like partners, not as buyers.

You see, greed IS good.

Me no think so. That's like saying the cure for a heroin addict is to blast him with more heroin.

If we want to return to our reptilian roots then lets do it. Wipe the thin veneer of civilization right off and go at it. Fittest, most ruthless guy wins.

But me thinks too much greed got us into this. We're going to need some good old fashioned, ruthless Eliot Ness-ness to get us out.

The 3 decades of anti-government radical gluttonous conservativism is ovah.

My $0.02.

Thxs for the input Terry

but I think you might reconsider. The point I am making is that we embrace:
* A greed for innovation.
* A greed for profitable customers.
* A greed for investors that seek long term value creation.
* A greed for employees with a passion for customer centricity.
* A greed for customers that act/think like partners, not as buyers.

I can't think how a pursuit of these goals would be a bad thing for anyone. If you can paint a scenario, I would be grateful.
Miro

Miro, I think you have to distinguish between greed and desire. Some desires - like the wish to have a happy family, the wish to contribute to society through innovation - are constructive, no matter what your political orientation is.
It seems to me that that we continue to misread Adam Smith, and cheapen fundamental ideas, to our peril.

Thank you for your viewpoint John.

there are 2 parts to my 'thesis'
a) the 5 areas that we need to pursue
b) the fervor with which we pursue it

Given the importance of the former, I think we have no choice but to purse this with the strongest impetus we have.

This has nothing to do with one's political orientation - it rises above that as it seeks to serve the long term needs of the consumer/constituent which can only be done from the foundation of a partnership.

Miro

I think whether greed (for the qualities you mentioned) is good or not depends on the context in which the greed is taking place. Innovation is generally seen as a good thing, but during the middle ages, many new "innovative" ways of torturing people were discovered.

In the same vein, a greed for more profitable customers could be good for you, but bad for your customers (case in point - addictive, toxic cigarettes that keep your customers coming back for years while slowly killing them). A strong desire for these things is definitely a goal, but the word "greed" seems to imply a certain lack of ethical consideration. I guess the question would be "greed is good...for whom?"

Regards,

Keith

http://www.trafficexplosion.wordpress.com

Keith

your point about ethical consideration can't be defined by any individual. Its formed by the ebbs/flows of the community it serves.

in any competition there will be winners and losers (in one form or another) the point being that we use this impulse to drive progress, innovation, customer centricity...

show me how this is a bad thing - even for the 'loser'.
Miro