A View from the Heitz

I’ve coined a new term over the last month or so to describe what I perceive the real economic outlook for 2009-2010: the capital-less recovery.

In 2002-2003 we had a jobless recovery created by productivity gains fueled by capital spending.  My prediction is that we will have a capital-less recovery fueled by the innovation of managers and executive leaders.  These leaders will have to use time as the resource of choice to fuel innovation.  I think that the businesses that grow during this time will grow because management will be forced to retrench and work 80+ hour weeks to produce the innovations needed to move their companies forward.  Without capital large and mid-size corporations are not going to be able to test innovations and ideas by funding pilot projects.  Rather they will have to test them with ingenuity and management commitment well beyond the 40-hour work week.

Now if this sounds scary, check to see if your in a cushy corporate job where you can just coast along without providing real, bottom-line value day in and day out.

Innovation without capital happens all the time in America, and it happens ever day in small and micro businesses.  Small business owners all across the nation have been innovating without capital for long, long time.  They know how to do it, and they typically don’t create the over-sized organizations of corporate America that are too big to actually respond swiftly to market needs.  And they typically devote the majority of their time to the business.

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Business.