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My new library arrivals review

Here are some new books that I have been traveling with lately

Dark Money

Interesting at the beginning, but then too detailed and repeatative. An account of when, how and at which cost Koch family financed Trump’s ascent to power. From an outsider, it was interesting to learn the know-how of modern intronisation.

The Narrow Corridor

Ouf. Still reading it. Too disturbing for me. Quite a frank representation of societies, cruelty, agression, subjugation. The midieval notion of Leviathan as the state, realised in the book of Thomas Hobbes analysed and applied to the 21st century world.

The conclusion is rather interesting. The Leviathan represents state absolute power and violence and repression is a natural part of the state’s essence. However, there are 3 types of societies today. The stateless, the autocratic and the democratic ones. Therefore the Leviathan can be “chained”, restricted, managed. Or “unchained” in the likes of autocratic and repressive regimes.

I would recommend this book for those, interested in the social contract theory. What are the norms and how they evolve. Why certain things are acceptable and others aren’t. This book is about it.

And the narrow corridor means the path from autocracy to democracy. The reasons why most post colonial world has failed to transform into the Western liberal model explained.

Owning the Earth.

My book of the year. Definately.

Modern history, key world events, transformation of society into what we are today explained by focusing on the 2 main ideas of how we own the earth (privately or collectively).

Slavery, serfdom, England’s industrial revolution, colonial world conquests, Russian and Chinese territorial expansions, American war for independence, all these events carefully analysed and reviewed from the land ownership perspective.

Fascinating.

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of “world history,” but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die…

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Red Queen’s Race

Red Queen’s Race

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”, 1871.

***

To get yourself in the 2020 context, just substitute the word “country” above with “industry” or “job” and read the text again.

Running fast gets you nowhere these days. It is running twice faster then the others that you will excel.

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Change!

As long as I remember myself, the world has been changing. The fall of communism and consecuitive rise of cleptocratic regimes, whose looting appetites would throw my country from one crisis to another. It was like the storm in the sea. Unpredictable, unstable, menacing. So I had to change, to adopt daily. And then one day when the sea was calm I moved to what looked like the perfect world. Just to discover that it was standing in the same stormy sea. Unprepared and relactant to change. In this new world I see mainly two types of people, the ones that “stiff their upper lip and carry on” and the ones that panic and break down. It is only the minority of people, those who have been through storms in life and survived them that embrace changes. 

Everything changes and you cannot step in the same river twice said Heraclitus 2,500 years ago. 

Change yourself to fit the new world!

#embracechange 

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Enough is enough!

Enough is enough! I am devastated to see disturbing images like this. The dark side of consumerism is now manifested in the greatest extinction ever. As consumers we should demote single-use packaging. And as professionals in retail or industry, we should advocate for healthier and sustainable solutions. What are the best practices you know or have around? How do you personally contribute to your children’s future? Can we literally go for zero waste? Should our governments overtax plastic as nicotine or sugary drinks to demote consumption? If you have rapturous ideas, talk to me. I’m looking for ways to go above and beyond conventional wisdom.

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The real bosses

“The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers”. Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises, 1944, Bureaucracy

Full quote:

The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers. They, by their buying and by their abstention from buying, decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. Their attitudes result either in profit or in loss for the enterpriser. They make poor men rich and rich men poor. They are no easy bosses. They are full of whims and fancies, changeable and unpredictable. They do not care a whit for past merit. As soon as something is offered to them that they like better or that is cheaper, they desert their old purveyors. With them nothing counts more than their own satisfaction. They bother neither about the vested interests of capitalists nor about the fate of the workers who lose their jobs if as consumers they no longer buy what they used to buy.

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Cocooning

This is the stage the brick&mortar industry is in.

Will there be a beautiful butterfly 🦋 or an ugly moth at the end of the transformation? We’ll see.

For what I am certain, not everyone will survive this painful period. I can even bet that Amazon killer is already born. Jeff Bezos himself believes that Amazon is doomed to die.

Steam engines transformed hand-made textile industry, computers transformed book keeping. Mobile phones transformed us all as species. If online is part of our being, shopping online is a force that will transform our twenty five trillion dollar cocoon into something gracious and beautiful.

Gamification, social recognition and instant gratification are the key drivers to “lock” consumer in, to build loyalty. Augmented reality, virtual advisors, live chats with experts should be the new “norm”. The big box is an educational, experiential platform seamlessly linking off and on-line worlds.

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Auchan and life change

Finally happy to settle back home after three months of back-to-back kick-off sessions, meeting great people, seing great changes in the world’s leading FMCG retail companies.

Here are some thoughts to summarize what I’ve seen, heard and shared from Lisbon to Shanghai:

– brick&mortar is not dead. It changes, like you and me, we change. Some get old, some die, some get born. Normal, never-ending process. Organised retail is only 60 years old and it follows customers like no other sector.

– big box is not dead. Hypermarket is the most product-to-consumer efficient model. People love surprises, we love gratification. More fun, more quality engagement with shoppers will be the next global trend. Spending time off mobile is great!

– every single country has its own rules of the game. There are no two identical countries, not even identical markets. French trends don’t mean much in Spain and China is a world of its own.

– finally, I have seen lots of great examples of how Auchan changes. Scores of local initiatives in different departments to make shopping convenient, attractive, seamless and fun. Whether it’s flying baskets or queueless check-outs or virtual advisors, I have seen passion and affection to customer.

We can only win when we put customer first, close to the heart.