Unnovation and How Not to Hummer Your Business

Loving Umair Haque these days and his excellently penned essays on the zombieconomy and how we got into this trouble in the first place How not to Hummer your business.

What is unnovation? It’s when your business eats its children and destroys the long term value it has been creating (if you’re lucky) by focusing on seductive, easy short-term profits. Great rant illustrated by the Hummer, but insert your value-destroying business move from the 90’s and noughts here.

To not fall into the Hummer trap, think constructively — how will you build a better tomorrow?*

The crisis of nihilism means: the numbers we utilize to make decisions today don’t reflect economic reality. It’s as true for banks as it is for cars. The Hummer is an economic weapon of self-destruction, for society, people, the environment, and, of course, auto-makers — yet, because it was chasing near-term ‘profit’, instead of authentic value, GM kept churning them out even as it faced a battle for its own survival.

Wow.