Crisis of imagination

So much of business in the past few decades has been a simple question of capital allocation.

Where do we allocate the most capital to garner the most returns? Typically this involves monopolies (legal or otherwise) that can extract wealth rather than create wealth.

Extracting wealth is the most boring way to get money. Neutering competition, cutting costs and pulling capital out of a corporation to pay exorbitant executive compensation and just enough dividends to keep the shareholders from storming the annual general meeting with pitchforks has had its day.

It’s exactly this retarded approach to wealth that has led us to our current crisis. More than a health crisis that has risked the lives and livelihood of billions of people, this crisis is a crisis of imagination.

We failed to imagine and act on what was entirely predictable and predicted. We kept relying on old ideas when only new ideas will save us.

It’s time to put capital allocation to rest. Time to start allocating new ideas.

Time to bring poets into the boardroom.