“I won’t give up. No, I won’t give in
Till I reach the end, and then I’ll start again.
No, I won’t leave, I want to try everything
I want to try even though I could fail”.

Try everything, Try everything.

Shakira. Soundtrack from the Disney motion picture Zootopia, 2016.

Try everything. Let’s commence our article by evoking the main chorus of our shared last song. Every time that you wish to invent something to sell (particularly using disruptive technologies), regardless of your position (if a CEO, entrepreneur, designer, researcher, engineer, tech guru, administrator, etc); please remember the chorus and the rhythm “DBR-Try Everything-Shakira”. Please, we encourage you to do it. That way you will slow down before launching your business modeling. We know Design-Based Research is not easy. It takes empirical people and academics. It takes a lot of back and forth. It takes to make tons of mistakes, fell down, and try. Try again. Basically, we have arrived at a point in our epoch that either we choose to use DBR before our business creations, or we will be directly involved to ruin industries and the hope of millions of people who still believe that working ethically hard is the way to go to the top.  

Regardless of the video images of the zoo-topic song “Try everything”, we have been trying to link the songs with our saga, with the determination to find a certain sticky song that you can consider every time you are applying design thinking. As far as DBR is a lovely tool, it is also time-consuming, and the iterations may take an era or a generation (more than 20 years). Moreover, please, don`t leave this framework to algorithms or AI. This is something that needs humans in the process.

Humans need to consider DBR as a “must” tool before business modeling from now and then. We have witnessed the destruction of beautiful industries that should have never been displaced or at risk of extinction. Because these human activities make us who we are. Without tollgates as the DBR before business modeling, the finance community, venture capitalists, and businesses will continue investing in creating stuff that hurts or may upset societies (people and communities’ relationships) for the long run. The usage of excessive NAIQIs _{(Nanotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Supremacy, and the Internet)} is taking us in reverse to times in which we are not using our brain anymore, but we are passing decision making to machines. We are not putting love and care for others and the environment at the core, but providing the omnipotent first stage to technology, sometimes as the “God” of our intentions. And that`s not good.

Today we will cover the subject. Growth Patterns matter. So let´s begin.

I would like to share some slides prepared for today. Please look at them, and if you wish you can print them too.

If you wish to download the document, click below:

Regardless of the graph that you wish to analyze, the exponential acceleration of the growth of technology started after World War II. And we have come upon a time in which the same technology is demanding new and more sophisticated modish technologies for the sake of replacing everything that human beings have been used to perform. And this applies to every single level of workers: to the bottom-line most basic non-skilled blue-collar workers, to the middle-managers white-collar workers, and even it has touched not just the top decision-makers who are advised by the gold-collar workers, but also to all types of artists (authors, writers, painters, musicians, play performers, dancers, singers) who sacrifice their revenues for the sake of being independent of any collar; or charity workers and people who do not charge a payment check for a living. Please see the slide below.

Do not misunderstand the latter explanation of the poor shirts with a classification of “workforce color wheel”. I am just trying to communicate that every single worker on earth (those from the low-working class, the squeezed middle class, and the decision-makers at the top, including the artists) are now being affected by the rapid exponential acceleration of disruptive and communication technologies. And we, as humans, can´t handle it. We won´t be able to handle all this, because free markets without regulation don`t work. Because free markets without integral strategists and design-researchers don´t function. Because the exponential acceleration of our productivity is making us crazy to the point that we are looking for machines to replace us, and finally because we also have some limits that we can´t cross to avoid future complications as wars, conflicts, and the end of our mother earth equilibrium.

Growth patterns matter. In this context of technological disruption, growth patterns matter more than anything. There is a mismatch between the rhythm of productivity growth that tech is forcing us to bear, and our integral wellbeing as individuals and as members of a larger community.  If humans want and will continue to be seen as productivity collar workers (of any type of color) at the same rhythmic pace that we have done since WWII, we will break down. Sooner or later.

We have no other choice than to slow down our inventions at every level, and the only way to do it is to elevate our standards when using tollgates (the regulatory controls), extending the design-research periods of time, that will allow us to test our products and services with a more responsible approach, and making a new DBR for equitable pricing. This means in addition to slow down our portfolio analysis time-frames and adjust/control how the venture capitalists and bankers think, through a Design-Based Research mindset.

All types of skilled workers need to slow down. That doesn´t make employees lazy, it makes them in some way a bit happy (at any level of the workforce color wheel). How can we do it: One way in which we can slow down our speed of innovation, is to stop innovating. To simply enjoy life. For instance, 30 hours working week for every single worker on earth is required, instead of 80 to 100 hours per week as it is right now for analysts in Wall Street. Why do we want to work more than what is required for a new moderate growth pattern? People need to have a family life. People need to do nothing and manage their well-being after working 30 hours every week, in order to think properly. People need to disconnect from Smartphones and Wi-Fi to learn to appreciate the environment and nature. People require to slow down and practice other things which are not working. People need to live a life of freedom to become better individuals, not to be slaves of the workforce time. I mean it. For example, working people (all the work color-wheel and the artists) can work from 8 to 3 pm, from Monday to Friday, then pick up their kids from school and go home, practice hobbies, play with the kids, or simply relax, read a book, listen to music, walk in the park, or do nothing, rest and stay with the family.

Growth patterns need adjustment. Another way to slow down is to help leaders of corporations to elevate the standards of the well-being of their workers by polishing our existing procedures. That requires more years of education and possibilities for acquiring a long-term lasting life education.  That is why we advised extending the traditional education including a doctorate degree to 10 years after high school.  Elevating our criteria to judge requires to be done at the regulatory bureaus of our governments, and to strengthen the strictness of evaluation to business models. In the case of financing entities, these have to be more rigorous and severe when it comes to picking up the “low-hanging fruits” deals. All the mergers-acquisitions corporate strategy recipe needs to be regulated as soon as possible. Regulatory competitive approvals must operate differently, to a point in which the qualitative aspects of growth should be more important than financial returns.

Qualitative and subjective aspects of growth are as important as financial returns. Qualitative criteria have to be people-centered. The reason to set up companies is to help our employees to live as middle-class individuals, not as a poor low-working class. These qualitative factors: the ethical quality of management, the transparency of the firm´s marketing, the correct long-term vision of respecting the little emerging entrepreneurs instead of acquiring them, a higher benchmark in investments tollgates, the level of integral education of every single worker of the entities, the capacity of each company to provide salaries between US$28,800 to US$175,200 dollars per year per family group of 4, the commitment of the entity with the protection of the environment, etc. Many qualitative factors that are aligned to the United Nations Development Goals are required.

It is absolutely true that quantitative elements as return on capital, reinvestment rates, profitable levels, revenue growth, and financial ratios are important. But we can’t continue supporting our technological dementia to finance NAIQIS at the same level of acceleration that we have procured it during the last 75 years.

In summary: The variable velocity for growth or acceleration in terms of a timeline will need to be considered when doing portfolio analysis. At the same time, all the qualitative standards must be considered as typical regulatory controls: degree of happiness-wellbeing of all human talent employed, middle-class lifestyle procurement for all personnel, caring for the environment, long-life education, community-society engagement, ethical formation, 30 hours a week schedule, etc.

Cheers for a slower world from now and then. Don´t worry, be happy. Things will need to change for the well-being and happiness of all of us on the planet. Thank you for reading to me.

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy