Resiliency vs Efficiency
Yes, it’s been a hot minute since I posted anything here. I’ve been busy w/ two new product line launches and some advisory work - and the rest of life. Enough excuses, though. I’ve been thinking a lot this last couple of months about the foolishness of economic efficiency as preached by the MBA class.
At least the shallow expression, far too often put into practice, is that every supply chain and every manufacturing line has to be maximally efficient. We saw how well that worked for the auto industry, with the globe-spanning JIT (Just In Time) systems: when the pandemic shut down global shipping, there was no spare inventory to keep operating. This happened to a lot of companies. And now that the pandemic is over, companies are “returning to normal” inventory levels, that is to say a few weeks of input and output.
Optimized for the present.
Not optimal for a future where supply chains are just as brittle. As anthropogenic global heating continues, the fires and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes are just getting worse. Heat waves mean you can’t work sometimes. And then there is all the political disruptions. Between climate and war, for instance, I’ve got customers that are paying stupidly inflated prices for basics like olive oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil - and all the derivatives from those in almost all personal care products.
This little post though is about how that mindset also seems to have seeped into our personal thinking and behavior. Optimizing everything in life for efficiency and productivity seems to me to be the opposite of having time for joy, family, friends, volunteering, and a social life. Personally I delete anything in my inbox promising a life hack or efficiency trick. Inbox zero is stupid - there are more pressing priorities in every day than just reading every interruption in email.
So I want to recommend to all a read of this most excellent essay I stumbled upon. “Against Optimization” by Brian Klass is superbly refreshing. Which is the end of this blog post, please follow the link for the good of your soul and your profits.