Sustainable Business

Image via WikipediaWe are living in the 21st century with dwindling resources and rapid rise in costs of the inputs to business. How are we to work on these resources and how are we to deal with rising costs? 


The answers lie in the problem itself and as with all answers, we have to reword the question to get to the answer. First we begin with a question. What got us here? We came to the current place in the world due to the workings of the economic model of industry and rapid growth. We have to be thankful to this model for having gotten us thus far. But it wont take us to a great place in the future as this model is not based on sustainability.


What is the definition of sustainability? This answer can be best provided by the example of an agricultural farm. If we identify our Farm as a Industry, we provide all the inputs needed from outside, be it the seed, the fertilizer or the pesticide. So we assume that the farm as in itself is dependent on the outside to provide returns.


When we see it as a sustainable farm. A farm in which nature also plays its role. That there are natural fertilizers in the form of the earthworms, natural pesticides in the form of  birds and certain bacteria. Then the farm is an interdependent resource.This is sustainability.


All this talk of sustainable is fine but how in the living hell does it make a difference in business. It makes a lot of money sense. Assuming the first farm needs an investment of Rs 200000/- to make a profit ( reminder after outgo on the input costs) of about Rs 20,000/-. This profit is about 10% of the outgo.


Then what about the second farm, it will make a profit of 20,000/- but by only spending Rs50,000/-.This is because the farm is a sustainable model.


What this means is that less of the gross is needed to make more of the Net.


Makes a lot of money sense.


A business linked to this model will be highly successful. Particularly if it puts in a cash buffer to tide over the tough times. 

The Future of Mankind- The stars and Beyond Part 1

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There is a brilliant future for mankind and it lies in the development of
technology at large and the creation of a society of humans who embrace the
new and coming technology and the reorientation of our priorities as well as
the creation of a massive civilization the size of our solar system.

Kardashev scale and its implication

The Kardashev scale of which I have already discussed earlier in my blog has
tremendous implications for mankind. simply put as technology and the energythat drive it increase, there will be an impetus for our civilization to
seek resources from beyond the planet. It could be from our star the Sun and
finally to a level where we take resources from across the galaxy

Current technological trends
The current development of technology and the creation of smaller and minute
and even nano machines will continue to the future and we will see machines
that are a singular molecular size. So there is great potential in this
field for development of machines that can solve a number of problems- even
atomic level adjustments in the human body

The development of these machines will be challenged only by the development
of smarter and intelligent code and software to run these machines. Also
computing will enter into the quantum era where the spin of electrons canbe used to create machines that are infinite in capacity and as these
machines will use the logic of the universe, they will use the computing
power of the entire universe. So this will be the ultimate computer of the
future

Parallel to this will be the creation of bionic machines that can be used
a la the droids in star wars to explore other planets. The development of
stme cell medicine and the implications of this technology for the possible
creation of cyborgs is tremendous who can do a lot of difficult tasks
replacing humans
The development of new enery sources is still not exhausted so we humans
will still stay on earth for the next 500 years till we have discoverd and
perfected fusion technology as well as the other technologies like quantum
computing, space travel at close to the speed of light and other such
discoveries
Current economic trends and their implications for the future
The current economic slowdown is a miniscule when seen from the vastness of
the universe and its potential for resources. We would add a trillion times
more for every resource on the earth if we were only to travel to all the
planets and asteroids in the solar system and access them
The development of the globalised earth will be replaced with the creation
of a system of universalisation of economies in the world where there would
be no forex market but a uniform currency that circulates.
Present focus of economics is on sustainable development, an issue that has
been highlighted by the current economic failures created by some rogue
elements

The creation of an universal economy depends great on the empowerment of the individual in the civilization as well as the creation of a massive scale of infrastructure for delivery of the economic goods to all parts of the human kind. The creation of communities that are sustainable will go a great length in establishing a trans global economy that is robust and one that will deliver the goods

Economists like Jeffrey sachs will create a new framework that will change
the way we see the distribution of wealth

Changes in the Polity
For the universalitation of the economies of the world, which will be a
bulwark of the civilization, the present differences of the nations, races
to disappear, there will be a lot of effort needed to eliminate differences
which I believe will be caused only by creating sustainable communities on
the model of Jeffrey sachs, E.F Shumacher and other economists before them.

We will need another Gandhi to create the circumstances for the development of a Universal Earth that is free of opression and shortsight

Nobel Prize in Economics 2009

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My bet for the next year`s Nobel Prize in Economics is Prof Jeffrey Sachs. His End of Poverty is seminal in its ideas and his prescriptions for a better future involves Technology and Inclusive growth. His book breaks a few myths about poverty and the measures needed to get the economic engine puttering in a number of economies.

His ideas are sustainable and they have a lot of hope for the poor nations of the world

Here is an early toast to the Mighty professor and his ilk