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PUBLISHER’S NOTETIME TO START PUSHINGLet’s keep our wits about us and stick with a sensible planby JON ROHRJON ROHR is publisher ofExchange Magazine forBusiness, editor of exchangemagazineonline andpresident of Exchange BusinessCommunications Inc.email: jon.rohr@exchangemagazine.comJust as quickly as I get back to writing, exploring thebusiness condition from a business owner’s perspective,I get side-swiped with a worry that is shared bymost business owners and vested business leaders.Where will the money come from?Only indirectly do my concerns relate to the currenteconomic woes. Because I know that business ownersand entrepreneurs and senior managers are workingaround the clock to balance their books, grow marketshare and please shareholders. To achieve this, someprovide less for more, others stay true to their price andothers give away services in the hopes of establishing alife long relationship. Not much has changed – exceptfor the times. Businesses everywhere are feeling theaffects of the global valuation correction. Most hadnothing to do with its creation – they rode the wave up,are in a solid boat, still undersail, and in rough waters.As a country, Canada is positioned better than mostG20 countries. Our credit crisis is a concern, but nothinglike that of our US neighbors or the EU. Moreimportantly to Exchange readers, Waterloo Region is ingreat shape. Just because RIM stock falls, our sky is not– RIM’s a solid company, employing innovative people.Let’s keep our wits together and push forward. Wehave a plan, one that continues to respond to the samechallenges communities face world-wide – increasebusiness in a way that increases a community’s ROI.The region is actively looking for new customers,actively addressing the issues facing a changing workforce and actively soliciting solutions to problems thatarise. The recent trade mission to Brazil is an exampleof how Waterloo Region, its businesses, entrepreneursand institutions continue to respond to global change.In focusing on direct, two way trade, the Regionopens up opportunities. Business is doing everything itcan to maintain a strong supportive infrastructure thatwill continue to serve all the social needs of a growingcommunity. But there are limitations. With growingcost of everyday businesses expansion, social infrastructurecosts must be kept in line. In affect, governmentexpenditures must be trimmed. Spending for thesake of spending is no longer a viable strategy.Financial institutions around the globe have overvalued stuff, Canada included. Governments havebought into these high valuations, as have bureaucratsand unions. For a country to rebound from financialruin, like Greece, it must devalue itself and not beWe are born intelligent beings, but over time we learn to be stupid.asked to meet unrealistic goals. There will be more ofglobal instability – especially in Europe. And it’s ourelected officials and rational bureaucrats that areaccountable to respond to the situation as intelligentlyas possible.And that is where the state of my worry begins.My worry stems from what is known as GroupThink. Wikipedia defines it as “A psychological phenomenonthat occurs within groups of people. It is themode of thinking that happens when the desire forharmony in a decision-making group overrides a realisticappraisal of alternatives.”I believe we are all born intelligent beings, overtime we just learn to be stupid. As it turns out, themore we learn, the more we realize how little weknow. What worries me is that individually we learnfrom our past, but as groups we seldom put whatwe’ve learned to practice – unless pushed to do so. X8 | w w w . e x c h a n g e m a g a z i n e . c o m