tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12018970.post113277401172196301..comments2024-03-01T13:43:30.234+00:00Comments on LeverWealth: In Memory of Peter F DruckerDavid Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10460585131936991211noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12018970.post-1132836285668339992005-11-24T12:44:00.000+00:002005-11-24T12:44:00.000+00:00Hi David. You asked me to comment on this post, a...Hi David. You asked me to comment on this post, and I am happy to do so. Reaching back to my old economics classes, I have a few observations. <BR/><BR/>First, one has to be careful about using the term "money" to define how companies measure value, for instance. There are, in fact, a variety of definitions of money. When we say a company is "worth" so many dollars or pounds, we are indeed adding up much more than a simple monetary value (how much cash in the bank, net profits, etc.) This dynamic value or worth can be best expressed in a market, where much more than cash in the bank, for example, determines how much shares are traded for.<BR/><BR/>Recognizing that traditional measures of worth or value leave out important intangible assets (how much is clean air worth? clean water?), environmental markets (if I can call them that) have been created to trade permission to pollute. Through market mechanisms, some value of a unit of pollution is reached.<BR/><BR/>Clearly, our markets today don't match economic models which assume full flow of knowledge (transparency?), but they are the best we have at the moment to coming to some collective measure of worth or value.<BR/><BR/>And clearly PR has a strong role to play in the creation of this value, as its tasks, whether you call it network building, relationship building, or old-fashioned message dissemination, have an effect on the traded value of a company.<BR/><BR/>When we start to talk about information or knowledge as the basis of some kind of valuation, you run into a problem. At its simplest, money derives its value from its scarcity (and the trust that it will be honored, backed up by gov't guarantees). As you talk about here, information is anything but scarce these days!<BR/><BR/>Our most difficult task is to decide what information is important and what isn't to the decisions we have to make.<BR/><BR/>Jerome Glenn and Theodore Gordon, through the work of the Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University, have stated that the question, "How can the capacity to decide be improved as the nature of work and institutions change?" as one of the 15 Global Challenges for our world in their 2005 State of the Future Report. Related to this is another Challenge, "How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?" These questions acknowledge that the sheer amounts of information, combined with rapid rates of change and a need for a global ethics, among other items, are increasing the complexity of decision making. Learning to deal with this is an absolutely critical task for our leaders, our societies.<BR/><BR/>These needs open up new spaces for professional communicators to extend their influence and improve their practices. <BR/><BR/>Also running through these challenges: learning how to cooperate across boundaries of religions and cultures.<BR/><BR/>We need new ways of determining value. Maybe demonstrated, consistent good decision making will become the scarce resource we base future worth on. Food for thought anyway!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com