STUDENTS' CORNER - 235

We will discuss two more quotes and then move on to other subject.  First quote: The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic. Second quote: The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.

Actually, these two quotes reflect not only excellent business acumen but also unparalleled wisdom about the very living itself. Of course we know that though we tend to forget very often business is a part of life itself though for businessmen it is the major part; understanding a part however deep it might be still cannot equal understanding the whole. This is not theory but the essence of living.

Ok. Let us go to the first quote and try to understand it with all its implications.

Two words demand full attention: turbulence and yesterday’s logic. Turbulence means an environmental disturbance so huge and pervasive that human mind cannot understand it; turbulence indicates, among other things, human limitations and incapacity to master the sources of turbulence. Unpredictability is its essence and business environment being a part of general living is perplexed and does not know what to do and how to  go about. Human intelligence and money power though they may be of immense help do not seem to match the unpredictable turbulence in its massive prevalence and potentials. But of course, business worldhas survived many turbulences;  recently, we saw the pandemic and its impact on the life in general and on the business realms in particular. We are still not completely out of it but we know how to deal with it. That is human intelligence in its totality.

Now, let us consider the second phrase; yesterday’s logic. Too deep a statement that sounds the very depths of living as a whole. Most of us tend to live in and from the past.  Memories form an integral part of our existence and they seem to guide our life. Actually, what is memory? To put a very complex thing simply, our experience leaves us with a memory of it and from that memory, we derive some conclusions and conclusions thus become past.  Memory is also past because it is dependent and derived from past experience. When we meet the present moment with the memory, we are meeting the new fresh present from the past; that is, we miss the present and past continues in the present as modified past.  Briefly, we live in the past and we are not aware of it almost all the times.

 Problems are always in the present; they are the present and we cannot approach them with yesterday’s experience. Logic is based on reason and the function of reason is within the experience which is very much limited and logic finds its ways from the individual who depends on his experience which he values most compared with the experience of others.  Your logic is your point of view and reality answers so many points of view.  A good example is two lawyers arguing about an event from their own points of view and both of them appear convinced of their arguments.

Turbulence is the result of some unknown forces and it is very much present and it cannot be understood through the experience of past turbulence. So, when turbulence happens, approach it as a new phenomenon; perhaps, past turbulence may have given you some knowledge about the turbulence but it is not enough to meet the present turbulence. So Drucker says meet the turbulence with the logic of the present and never with yesterday’s logic.

We will take the second quote in our next session.