Why blog?

I'm off to London shortly - got a networking evening and then meeting a friend.

I began blogging for the simple reason that I can type faster than I can keep a journal - and although I take notes by hand, I tend not to compile them in type as frequently as I spend time digesting the information.

A big reason is that the digestion of information into knowledge is often prompted by experience.
So info, meets event catalogue in the the shape of a journal - and then there is a limbo period.

I'm not ready to take action on this new thought process. I'm not ready to articulate it externally to friends as its based on an uncertain hierachy of thought. Its also not worthy of being commited to a document - which I consider as a digest of wisdom... so I needed something inbetween.

It seems electronic capture of information and events, allow knowledge to settle before it sets into wisdom that can be commited to an official authored document.

This page is a limbo - I don't want to get into the philosophic/linguistic nightmare of considering what happens when you print a page as a source of authority. Damn print screen function.

I am to attend an MBA - its official now. Its in Creative industries management.
For me to allow myself to view the information I get in as broad a context as possible I'm rephrasing the title as managing Creative initiatives and processes. I'd love to put in values led management but thats just making things up (although there is a social/good governance component to it).

Been considering how this affects my identity. Now I'm not going to roll into the rabbit hole of deliberating over 'WHO AM I?' - I know I'm not Jackie Chan.

n.b - there may be some obscure references - if something grabs your attention that makes little sense, better to skip it than try to integrate it, classify it or ascribe a meaning - its normally just a blip on my mental radar that needed a voice.

The networking I shall attend this evening will be many SMEs establishing their identity. I was reading a document about how they will react in facing the current economic climate.

Okay okay - things seems to be changing on the streets more dramatically than I thought they might. Watching the long foreseen swell in markets, then the waves, then the wrecks on the shore - surely some analysis should have made its way to me. Perhaps the mainstream media isn't offering an enjoyable, or compelling option for the unsteady footed entrepreneur.
What concerns me is that I'm letting this affect me - its early symptoms seem to be awaiting more information. I am reminded of a rabbit I once knew that awaited more blinding light to see if it really was a car.

So - possible reactions: I suggest picking up any magazine, newspaper or speaking to economists for that form of punditary (that the activity of being a pundit?). Their better informed in this area. What I want to know is what is the most resourceful state to be in during this shtstorm - should it indeed turn out to be a shtstorm (honk honk - BAM!).

What is the SME strategic positioning equivalent of a missile silo or a farm with ample agricultural land in Algeria? What is going to be the safest place to set up shop?

Now risk management would imply that this was a calculation everyone would have done prior to start up. Its in their SWOT - I remember reading the paragraph saying... 'and in a possible recession the luxury products may not be valid within the market' - this was in an example business plan regarding furniture. I thought.. "I'll just leave that bit out - I'll be fine".

Petetre (French for perhaps... perhaps I should learn French before sounding like Del boy).

My concern is with the mass encouragement for the Social enterprise movement and also general entrepreneurship - what happens now?
Are these minibusinesses - the businesses that have cookie cuttered and defined their market incredibly tightly in order to be top of their field - going to discover that the geek god and Karma queen outlined in consumer reports, suddenly become average Joe public. And they don't want to learn yoga through their accountancy reports.

Thats just fine - we see survival of the fittest. We see absurdist innovation consolidate towards the market of... not prospective future consumer groups... but an identified solid pack of businesses serving what the market has evolved into.

What we are as stakeholders to the world is often established through our wants - it is then Government's job to identify what is the discrepency between the wants, the 'what can government provide' and the needs of the people.

Hopefully the three align - then we all get material splendour, have our internal core desires met and government ideally has surplus to fund innovation, progression and strategic foreign policy to the mutual benefit of all.

I'm not certain we'll have that as a result of the impending squashed rabbits of the SMEs.
However I am going to step out of the road.

Whether the economic downturn is as devastating as implied by recent events and speculation, there are indicators that something is coming. I'm happy to be mocked whilst standing at the side of the road after a paniced escape from an oncoming bicycle - so long as it grants me greater perspective.

That way... my next move won't be hysterical - maybe I get to climb in the car and ride it somewhere with unexpected accelaration due to the disengagement from activity, seeking of clarity and then reengagement with profitable, productive activity upon a distanced insight into the character of the new market.

There will still be needs, there will still be wants, there will still be - something to do.
Whatever that enterprise is will be conducted by those who have the sense to acknowledge and adapt prior to change arriving to deliver tyre tracks across the face of their business.

Why blog?

Its to interact with the great limbo of thought that also hasn't hit its mark. Concerns, excitements, paranoias, hysteric joy - all those emotions linked to information and events that aren't fully settled. That way, we're not settling into our new knowledge, our new understanding of the market, the world, our identity - in the middle of a superhighway.


p.s - the intention with these is to improve clarity, how concise my delivery is, focus of thought, unity of actions and the ability to disengage one line of thought and pour full attention into the challenges at hand.

Judging by the first two posts - I'm good at disengaging but not fully engaging with single line, narrow pointed thought. Bear in mind the blog is a semi-indulgence.. its a place where I can assume attention. However, I also acknowledge I need to work on digesting the information, or the fragments may as well be information shrapnel or sand in you eye - I'd rather it was a little more nourishing and provided you with the kind of perspective I think is so valuable now.