Slow, Crappy and Expensive

Welcome to our new normal

Those who have followed my work realize that I am often critical of the executive suites of large organizations. I think the people that get elevated to those corner offices either forget about their early life struggles to succeed or have lived the gifted life of never failing. Like politicians, C-Suite denizens quickly lose perspective once they win their coveted seat because the organizations they are in charge of are so massive that no one person can grasp all its complexities. As such, managing large companies, like governments, is more social engineering theory than rational profit management through reasonable human relations. A small ship simply acknowledges the the distant lighthouse and steers the boat clear of the rocky shore. A large ship, upon approaching the bacon, holds multiple meetings, loops in marketing, legal, I.T. and financial only to conclude the best course of action is to order the lighthouse to move 15 degrees to the south. Since our economy has emerged from a self-imposed pandemic lockdown hellscape, inflation and supply shortages that were predicted but grossly underreported, are upon us. And, in dealing with our current economic situation, the disconnected C-Suites are in full lighthouse relocation mode.

Our group recently developed and open two new restaurants. Straight up, the costs were up 40% and buildouts took twice as long as our pre-Covid development environment. Did we get a better product for our extra money and patience? Not remotely, to the contrary, we paid more for inferior work and products. For example, a particular plate that is a signature part of our restaurant designs, though it was more expensive and took more lead time to arrive, had defects. About 10% of the plates had spurs on the bottom that cause scratches on the tabletops when slid about. But the tabletop company is not fully blameless as they delivered tabletops that had been finished only seven days prior to install. For a wood product finish to properly harden, a 30-day curing process is desired. Were these two incidents isolated? Not even close. I could go on about stainless steel shortages and $150.00 per hour technicians so poorly trained that they were watching YouTube videos to learn how to do their job. Yes indeed, these techs were on-the-job learning on my hyper-inflated dime. These are just a few examples of shifting quality and competence in our “new normal.” I could write a book on the totality of insufficient work I have experienced and paid for post pandemic.

Our new normal is not just inefficiencies in the B 2 B environment, as most have experienced this reality in the retail markets as well. I recently attempted to purchase airline tickets for a spring break trip less than an 18-hour drive from home. Most of the summer those tickets were hovering around $450 for a round trip fare. Recent check, the tickets were up to $900 across all carriers. Will my 100% inflated purchase gain me any additional services or benefits? Hardly, I will still be forced to wait in checked bag extortion line. I will then be shuffled to the even longer and humiliating pants falling down, barefoot and groping line. Upon taking my seat in the plane, my knees will still be pressed against the seat in front of me while accepting my stale bag of pretzels and watered-down coffee. And to top off this expensive experience, if I wish to protect my exaggerated purchase from the whims of governments eager to show off their power to effect commerce, I must purchase flight insurance. However, if the airline cancels my flight due to their own inability staff the flight, thus stranding my family away from home, they bare zero responsibility. Welcome to the “new normal” in the (un)friendly skies!

If executives have not yet grasped the pitfalls associated with the government sponsored “new normal” pattern we are in, let me show you another American industry that was “normalize” by ideological government edict. Pre 2014, the American Medical Industry, though still heavily influenced by government mandates, maintained a mostly doctor/patient relationship where those two decided on the best treatment and the 3rd party insurance companies managed the financial arrangements between the two. The passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed that industry by inserting government directly into the mix. Don’t get me wrong, the United States does not have a single payer system of healthcare. Quite the opposite, we have the worst form of healthcare.

ACA interjected government into both side of the equation by being the major purchaser of health insurance through the subsidizing of disparate aggrieved political groups on the insurance side while also directing what and how treatment is to be dispensed on the hospital side. And, when it comes to a battle of who can spend more money, the consumer or our federal government, the government wins every time, even if it has to out bid itself!

The American people have now suffered eight years of this “new normal” medical system of injustice and are now merely a means to an end in the mockery that is the practice of medicine in America. The medical consumer has no competitive purchasing options regarding insurance or medical services and has no say in how medical treatments are dispensed on their behalf. They are merely hapless cogs in a revolving door to be fleeced at every rotation. Their only responsibility is to stay alive and employed to keep the true medical system beneficiaries’ country club dues and family vacation money flowing. For whom else could afford the 5K in airline tickets for a family holiday than the actual beneficiaries of the ACA?

Time and again I warned the C-Suites that their constant capitulation to workers’ demands to work less for more pay and their steadfast belief in the new holy trinity, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is going to sink their companies. In fact, the only way DEI worshiping ESG promoting companies survive is through the unholy collusion of public/private “capitalism.” Of course, in a different era, that system was simply called fascism and was proven immensely destructive to both citizen and country. But history seems too distant to remember so we will begin the learning this sordid lesson over again. C-level administrators must be told that the reason everything government touches results in slow, crappy and expensive is because governments do not make decisions for financial motive, they make decisions for political expediency.

Since worshiping at the alter of DEI is a politically motivated endeavor, naturally companies following their prophet, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum (WED,) will not be steering their companies towards better products and services. They will be emulating the inefficiencies of governments by perpetuating our “new normal” of offering slow, crappy, and expensive goods and services but feeling really good about themselves. DEI membership has its privileges, and I am here to remind business executives that it also come at a price. Here on Earth, the price is a stall on innovation and diminished returns. The price paid beyond is living an eternity, not with the titans of leadership and valor, but to reside among the burning masses who followed the low T – C Suite “new normal” crowd hell bent on “getting along to get along.”

For the propagators of slow, crappy, and expensive, as well as for the rest of us, there are only two courses to plot. One is growing the protection racket known as public/private partnership (collusion) to keep non ESG and DEI worshiping competitors at bay. The other is to unleash freedom of competition through making the tangible rewards of success the benefit the doers and not the governments that rule them. The former public/private collusion option places our sovereignty into the hands of a politically motivated and self-serving government protected industry titans and the behemoths of high finance. This option only works through heavy-handed control of the narrative by the enlightened elites. It must be noted, despite these giant marionettes casting shadows upon the cave walls to their captive audiences, eventually a prisoner escapes to the surface and experiences the warm light of Truth upon their face. Though our Truth seeker may be recapture and have the chains of political insurrection imposed upon him, the overlords can never extinguish that Light because the One who guards it is undefeated by time and political winds and is immortal.