|
December 18, 2000—Can
We Get Together Again? Fomenting and Fermenting
Governor Bush now promises to unite us, to be a president
for all Americans. Maybe his theme is a bit trite. Maybe it is induced by
the politics of an incredibly close election. But it is the right idea.
More than a decade ago, major Japanese businessmen trumpeted the need for
all the developed economies to coordinate their growth, with collaboration
replacing competition as the driver of global economic development. They,
too, had the right idea: they simply couldn't pull it off.
Nonetheless, this is the trick for us now--linkage and harmony, no matter
where we sit in the political economy. We must manage relationships for the
common good, even though we lack economic or political leverage over most of
the players. Togetherness. All this depends on chemistry, process, reasoned
endeavor.
In other words, we must swim upstream. While most of the forces of the
moment are centrifugal, we must try to be centripetal. It is as difficult as
you can imagine. But achieving nuclear fusion is tough, too, even though it
has eminently more value for us at the moment than nuclear fission.
In corporate life, we label the bridges we must build, and we call them
strategic alliances. In fact, there's now an association of strategic
alliance managers that is trying to codify the rules of the road for
companies not linked by cross ownership but who want to march in lockstep
nevertheless. You will find it under entry #59 in the "Agile Companies"
section of our website (www.globalprovince.com/agilecompanies.htm).
If bonding is to become a way of life throughout our body politic, some of
our media will have to change. Today the national media gets ahead by
exacerbating discord. Neither broadcast executives nor newspaper publishers
at the major networks, the national news magazines, and a couple of major
newspapers put on the brakes in their recklessly divisive operatives, even
though, for instance, their performance may account for the decline in
network audiences and newspaper readership. Can we join together in a noisy
climate peopled by quasi-journalists and media-created quasi-leaders who
foment and ferment?
This week, on The Global Province, we talk about Metro--a
Raleigh, North Carolina magazine that is focusing on the best in its region
instead of the mediocre--and about the state of New Hampshire, which appears
to be the birthplace of a number of health initiatives that just might set
our national healthcare system on the right course.
Back to Top of
Page
Return to the Index of
Letters from the Global Province |