One of the best statements to capture the nature of being between a rock and hard place is, “The beatings will stop when the morale rises.” Another statement appropriate to our economic difficulties is: “The poor economics of the day will improve when more good business is conducted.” Those of us who saw the film Glengarry Glen Ross may recall that the downtrodden salesmen are told that when they sell the impossible real estate leads, they will get the leads that are possible to sell.
The paradox is also expressed by failing businesses that say: “We’ll make it up in volume.” This assumes that by making more of a product, even a bad or badly selling one, companies will become profitable. Of course, this also is absurd.
Economic downturns and absurdities are not new. In the mid-1850s, America and Britain saw such a downturn. Charles Dickens published Hard Times in 1854 and blamed the Midlands industrialists and educators, among others. And in America, in 1855, the song Hard Times Come Again No More, by Steven Foster, who had just died in an accident at the age of 37, was published. Novels and songs may describe the condition, but they do not put an economy back together.
Despite a close reading of history, some of us think things were better in the good, old days. Obviously, the 1850s were no golden era, nor were times better 80 years ago, as we entered the Great Depression. Bad times may be cyclical (no one has proved this) or maybe they just occur more often than we would like to believe.
If we know anything, we know that, like New England weather, all things change. A ninth-inning home run may save the day or a small deficit can tip to become a small asset, changing by a fraction here and there. In another arena, access to funding for research may move slowly and gradually pick up speed. The economy may be constructed around money and credit, but it runs on intuition, emotion, and preference, as well as facts.
What we need more than a five-cent cigar or another bailout is investment in science, engineering, and manufacturing. We need to support these activities on all fronts: education (cradle to grave), research (basic and applied), planning, management by those who do, execution, and delivery. But we do not need to rediscover the Toyota Production System. We do not need to have Deming’s insights, as he has already had them. We do not need to build intelligent management principles because Drucker’s still read as if they were written yesterday for tomorrow.
We have incredible computer-based tools for analysis and construction. We need to work them harder, and we need to start with our children. Children should be weaned from myopic computer games to forward-thinking applications. They should learn CAD, Excel, Photo-shop, and other software applications. Also, they need training in physical skills, such as measuring, drawing, cutting, drilling, and soldering. Is it any wonder that courses and sessions in robotics are taking off with kids? Robotics connects to science, engineering, and manufacturing. We need to stress technologies that deliver. Let’s put away the gloom and doom. Let’s embrace the best that is in us and make it secure for the next generations. Possibly a songwriter can write Good Times Are Coming Real Soon.