When tough competition leads to innovative solutions and creative proposals, it's a good thing. When it leads to over commitment, false promises, and misinformation, it's unethical and dishonest. One tactic employed by one of my largest competitors was to promise anything and worry about delivering later. "Once we're in, we're in!"
This tactic is starting to resemble some of the statements and promises of the Obama campaign. Let's look at an example:
Obama says that if elected he will eliminate the need for foreign oil in ten years. He follows with another commitment by saying that he would have one million, 150 mpg electric vehicles on the road in six years. There are about 200 million vehicles on the road today in the U.S. However, most experts say that both commitments are extremely difficult to achieve if not impossible.
Time to ask ourselves some common sense questions:
- Obama is against additional drilling, nuclear power, and natural gas exploration. That pretty much leaves wind turbines, biofuels, more attention to proper tire inflation, and major investment in development of more energy efficient devices including automobiles. But will the combination of these tactics eliminate the need for foreign oil in ten years? The experts say it is nothing more than a fantasy.
- The price of regular gasoline in Germany is over $8.00 a gallon. Germany is the home of two of the world's most advanced automobile companies. If it were possible to engineer itself into energy independence, why isn't Germany doing that?
- If drilling does not make sense as part of a multifaceted energy strategy because it would take 5-10 years to deliver more energy, why do electric cars, wind turbine farms, and development of energy-efficient devices make sense when it is likely that it will take several years before they deliver more energy?
Is Obama just putting out feel-good commitments that he can't keep just to win the election?
This reminds me of a joke that's popular with people who sell for a living:
A decent man died and was immediately transported to the Gates of Heaven. St. Peter was waiting with a sign-in book and as the decent man was about to sign, the Devil, who was standing a few feet away, got his attention and waved him over.
"Hey, before you sign, let me show you what you will be missing out on." He led the decent man over to the Gates of Hell and swung open the huge doors. The decent man could hardly believe his eyes because spread out before him was the most beautiful view he had ever seen. Rolling hills and perfect weather, cascading water falls, sparkling lakes, prestine white-sand beaches, emerald golf courses, spectacular mansions, and beautiful people. After a few minutes, the devil swung the doors closed and asked the decent man to sign the admission book. The decent man, liking everything he saw, promptly signed.
The devil then swung open the doors again and much to the decent man's horror, flames leapt out and the screams of the inhabitants could be clearly heard. "What happened to the beautiful view, the waterfalls, the golf courses, the beaches?", our decent man asked the Devil. "Oh", the Devil responded, "That was just the demo."
Let's hope that this funny joke does not become our sad reality.
2 comments:
You make a very important point. But how can we tell if he is so dishonest?
A few observations:
1. I think Obama's campaign theme of "Hope" as well as the style of the democratic party, allow him more leeway in the eyes of the public to shoot for bigger, "hopeful" goals than are not assured. It does not seem to be hurting him yet in the polls. I don't think he has crossed a line yet into dishonesty, especially when compared to typical politics for both parties. Still, we the public have a responsibility to demand truth from our politicians and not just when it is a member of an opposing party.
2. I do not believe Obama is like your competitor that you mention, that once he gets in he will not care about these goals. I do believe he will be pragmatic and choose the most successful strategy to move towards the goal he mentions. He may change his strategy based on his advisors and the scientific and industrial community and that's a good thing.
If he changes it based on what's good for his campaign contributors, that's a bad thing.
In a way, I see the public as a Board. We shouldn't micromanage our CEO, but we should demand he keep aligned with the agreed broad goals.
Two Quotes:
"Mark my words, no new taxes"
"I'm a uniter, not a divider"
Guess the individuals that said them and the outcome of what they said. I'm sure McCain has said a number of things during his eloquent campaign speeches as well but I guess I'll have to pick up the Times to read about it.....
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