Our economy and our future direction

Myself, much like many others, have been watching the series called "Addicted to Money" on the ABC in Australia. The series highlights serious truths about capitalism in our society and the price to be paid in having an economy based on darwinian assumptions of pure competition. However instead of merely criticising the economic system much of the world has relied on in the past centuries, the program presents a solution. This solution rests in infusing the capitalistic ideals into innovation and development of a better system of energy, food and resource efficiency.

Someone who has seen this opening is Shai Agassi, the CEO and founder of Better Place, a company that aims to promote green transportation through electric cars. And has been named as one of TIME magazines 100 most influential people of 2009. The direction of Better Place is going to be more and more common among organisations in the future decades as oil supplies (which have now reached peak levels and are only going to fall and fade to nothing in the next 40 years) diminish and create exponential prices. Companies need to be proactive in seeing the changing landscape and aim to be part of the solution to the problem and fund research into alternative methods and actively seek to support organisations that are focussing on that direction.

The next 40 years are going to be an interesting time as the world attempts to redefine its directions and ideas of consumption and usage of energy.

You can watch addicted to money streaming here

Road Accidents and OPSM

OPSM has taken its marketing strategy in a new direction from its usually light and cheery advertisements to using a social responsibility focus to now focusing on the dangers of driving without being able to see. I think this latest advertisement may be more effective in the short run, but I question how long they can continue with these sorts of advertisements without them becoming like many of the speeding adverts that are just depressing. This is definitely their best advert in my opinion, however it doesn't differentiate OPSM from any other glasses outlet in the market, and I think consumers are going to be left with the message but not the brand in their mind. You can check out OPSM's new commercial by BMF here

Morgan Stanley really published this??!!

Reading through some articles on marketing I noticed report published by Morgan Stanley research. I read the article due to the buzz it had created on the internet and marketing blogs, the main draw card is that the article was written based on insights given by a 15 year old summer intern working at Morgan Stanley. I am shocked that Morgan Stanley published this, although it may detail some relevant information from the perspective of the intern's own experience, it does little to give someone any sort of assurance that these are accurate assumptions.

Although I am shocked they published it, I take my hat off to Morgan Stanley for publishing this. I am currently conducting some of my own research for Morgan Stanley, using pre-school children to speculate anticipated currency movements between AUD and USD by drawing lines with green and blue crayons, this report will be published later this year.

You can read the non-sarcastic Morgan Stanley report here