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Western European and Native American Business

Models: How do they differ and how can we practice

a more sustainable business model, e.g., how do we

become more American

Indian-like in our business

practices??

http://www.123rf .com/stock-photo/businessman.html River of Life 2013 HEP

Q1: What makes a tribal and western

environmental economic model

different from one another?? What

practices do you need for each

business model?

Q2: How does each model respond to

longer term climatic and social

volatility, i.e., boom-and-bust cycles

Q3: What elements of each model do

you think allow you to make

sustainable & environmentally

friendly choices??

Questions to be able to answer

after today’s lecture:

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Lets start by looking at

the western world

business process

NOTE: focusing on Environmental

Economic models

DISCLAIMER CLAUSE

Kristiina Caveat: I cannot cover both approaches to

business in just one class but just highlight

some of the differences that you can think about

later on.

OR – I am not responsible for any wrong ideas you

develop from listening to me!!

http://waterscape.co.nz/Chapters/Economics.html

Environmental Economics

Diagram: Note fluxes

(arrows) and the state

variables (squares, circle)

What does SOCIETY

contribute to the

ECONOMY?

What does ENVIRONMENT

contribute to the

ECONOMY?

What does ECONOMY

contribute to the

ENVIRONMENT and

SOCIETY?

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Figure 1: The ecological economics model, placement of economy in center reflects that it is contained by the environment, not suggestion that human activity is "center of the world." http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv07n05page8.html

Relationship between natural & human systems :

environment not merely a factor of

production (as portrayed in conventional

"circular flow" economic model)

but contains the economy

environment

source of all materials humans

use & "sink" into which all wastes go

wastes stay in the system & do not

go "away."

Short Comment on getting the

facts straight:

Before we look at the elements

of a tribal business model, it

helps to look at a little American history

to see how the western European

business model played out during the

colonialism period in the Americas

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FACTS:

Many colonies formed by European colonialists

principally as business ventures

England's success at colonizing in large part due to use

of charter companies: groups of stockholders

(usually merchants and wealthy landowners) who

sought personal economic gain

Private sector business men financed companies, King

provided each project with a charter or grant conferring

economic rights as well as political and judicial authority

Bus iness Investors - Invested

MONEY bui ld ships, supplies on ship!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co mmons/9/95/Rembrandt_-_De_St aal meest ers-_het _coll eg e_v an_st aa lmeest ers_(wa ardijns)_van _het _Amsterd ams e_la kenb ereid ersgi lde_-_Googl e_Art _Project. jpg; http://www.sunrealtync.com/files/images/m isc _painting%20of%20pirate%20ship.img_assist _custom-248x344.jp; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/com mons/7/7b/Eliz abeth_I_(Arm ada _Portrait) .jpg;

http://media.economist.com/sites/default/f il es/cf_ ima g es/20060506/1806BK1.jpg; http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uS_doJZ6lnU/VKxk2lT3aSI/AAAAAAAAC_k/JompPwR7j4U/s1600/new -england-shipbuilding.jpg.pagespeed.c e. evs34Ss1uk. jpg

Royalty gave Charter – no MONEY, but economic rights!

Common people harvesters of resources – No MONEY!

America here we come!

Investors build ships to take common people to New World!

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9

New York Times Book Review 2_24_13

The Isles at the Center of the World, ‘Unfinished Empire,’ by John Darwin, Book Review By ALEX VON TUNZELMANN

Very British image - scene f rom the 1939 f ilm "Gunga Din.“ http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7 KvN-ITOZDc/maxresdefault .jpg

“Abroad, Britons attempted to cheer themselves up by smoking hookahs, drinking half-pints of

brandy with dinner, frolicking with concubines — and, where

possible, making huge amounts of money.

There was nothing they

would not buy and sell: gold,

sugar, tobacco, booze, drugs, guns, people, cotton, coal, timber, coffee, rice, indigo, human hair

and something called isinglass, “a gelatine drawn from the bladders

of warm-water fish.”

Remember, British military in charge of conquering other countries

and resources. Everything could be sold! Money RULED!

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g04000/3g04200/3g04292v.jpg

Salem, Massachusetts and shipping in the 1770s

TITLE: Vuë de Salem. Salem - eine stadt in Engelländischen America, in der Grafschafft Essex, ... Salem - uneville de l'Amerique Angloise dans le Comte d'Essex, ... / gravé par Balth. Frederic Leizelt; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil e: Sa lem_shippin g_colonial _color. jpg

The colonies generally did not show quick profits. So the English

investors often turned over their colonial charters to the settlers.

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Euro-American economic development flourished - based on

collecting resources abundant in the landscapes that used to

belong to the Native Americans

Ownership of natural resources fundamentally changed: Euro-

Americans have different view of property rights compared to

Native Americans who view property as something that they

use but don’t own. Over-exploitation was the norm!

Native Americans were squeezed to a small fraction of their

former lands that they had to survive from, i.e., they were

decoupled from their former natural resource economic

opportunities

Impacts of Euro-American settlers conquering

America:

FACTS:

In 230 years US grew to huge, integrated, industrialized

economy that makes up nearly a quarter of the world

economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic _history_of _the_United _St ates

KEY: Abundant natural resources because Native

Americans had not over-exploited their resources

like what occurred back in Europe

This approach seemed to work!

WHY did it work??

Major factors in this growth included a large unified market, a supportive

political-legal system, vast areas of highly productive farmlands, vast

natural resources (especially timber, coal,

iron, and oil), and an entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to

investing in material and human capital.

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Westward Migration: Covered Wagon of the Great Western Migration. 1886 in Loup Valley, Nebraska. Family poses with the wagon inwhich they live and travel daily during their pursuit of a homestead.

Date 1886 Source NARA - ARC Identifier 518267http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil e:Hom est ead er_NE_1866.png

Native Americans lost their lands and resources as the colonialists

arrived in America and as the settlers moved out west.

For the Yakama

Reservation lands

represent ~11% of

the ceded land area (www.yakamanation-

nsn.gov/docs/CededMap0001.pdf). -blue line demarcates the current Yakama Reservation boundaries - red line demarcates the ceded area in Washington State.

Ceded landReservation

boundaries

today

The ceded land area compared to the current Yakama Nation reservation is shown on the map

In the West, many tribes relocated to reservations on greatly reduced land areas

River of Life 2013 HEP

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Euro-American settlers

wanted lands that the

Colville tribes lived on

because of their

agricultural values.

These were traditional

food-gathering sites and

prime agricultural lands

for the incoming settlers

These were the first

lands to be taken.

http://www.goia.wa.gov/tribal_gov/documents/Tribal_Cedres.pdf

http://www.icbemp.gov/spatial/pubdoc/ueis/img/col_int.gif

Colville

Reservation -

created in 1872 [retained 2.4% of their customary lands]

http://www.icbemp.gov/spatial/pubdoc/ueis/img/uma_ced.gif

Confederated

Tribes of the

Umatilla Indian

Reservation,

Oregon

Only retain 2.4%

of the ceded

land in their

reservation

NOTE: These

takings of land

was repeated in

the Americas

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AIM NYE Pow WowCourtesy Tawamiciya Photography/Francesca Wiyaka Luta

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/galler y/photo/art -pow-wow-147837

FACT 1: Lands Native American were left to

live on were considered marginal

and unwanted by settlers

[reservation lands were historically

undesirable and deemed worthless]

– all the good lands were taken

River of Life 2013 HEP

DESPITE ALL OF THIS – the tribal

business model has persisted

Before the

arrival of

Europeans to

America, Native

Americans had

well developed

trading routes

and

sophisticated

economies

http://www.mapmanusa.com/cci-print-3.html

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http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/assets/2013/01/22/sn -chocolate.jpg

“They were humble farmers who grew corn, dwelt in subterranean pit houses. But 1200 years ago in a Utah village known as Site 13, near CanyonlandsNational Park, they traded for chocolate. Researchers report ..half a dozen bowls

excavated from the area contain traces of chocolate, the earliest known in North America. …by the end of the 8th century C.E., cacao beans, which

grow only in the tropics, were being imported to Utah from

orchards thousands of kilometers away.”

Earliest Evidence of Chocolate in North

America by Traci Watson, 22 January 2013

AIM NYE Pow WowCourtesy Tawamiciya Photography/Francesca Wiyaka Luta

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/galler y/photo/art -pow-wow-147837

FACT 2: Unbeknownst to Euro-American settlers, reservation

lands are rich in economic resources needed by a

growing economy. Today valuable resources exist on

reservations such as coal, gas, oil, timber, water and

valuable minerals

Examples of resources found on reservation lands:

30% of the strippable low-sulfur coals west of the Mississippi River 50-60% of the uranium resources in the US

5% of the US oil and gas reserves significant amount of timber in forests

River of Life 2013 HEP

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QUESS what is missing from the

Environmental Economic model

of the Western European world

that is an integral part of Native

American business plans??

FACTS why Native American business models have to be

different from the western world models (Marchand et al. 2013): :

All Native American business plans designed to consider life

and livelihood of 7th generations beyond individuals making

decisions

Since business activities occur within boundaries of tribal

lands, they will live with the decisions they make [both good

and bad] on a daily basis – ‘they have a skin in the game’

Conserving way of life and the environment for the future is

more important than having financial gain now.

River of Life 2013 HEP

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Colleen Cawston (former Chair of the Confederated

Tribes of the Colville) mentioned as important to tribes:

Maintaining and restoring tribal languages

WHY? languages are the manner in which tribal members link to

nature so any decision cannot impact the survival and

restoration of tribal languages.

Tribes to make their own business decisions, i.e., maintain

their sovereign rights.

WHY? Maintain sovereign rights logical considering

how tribes mistreated and lost their rights, lands and

resources

No land is lost as part of developing a business venture

WHY is this important?

Some resources not negotiable and will not be traded during a

business venture

According to Harvard Business School, successful tribal businesses

have several attributes [assessed over 100 tribal businesses

enterprises to identify key elements of successful tribal economic

enterprises]:

1 - “…tribal governments have to exercise …

sovereignty…control and make their own decisions about

what businesses to create .. operate on reservations, how

tribal natural resources…will be developed,…how

businesses will be structured ..their missions …

…..etc

2 - …cultural issues are very important…Few tribal cultures ..

reservation populations… support businesses not match

their core beliefs and institutions...”

Many examples of tribes not moving forward on a lucrative

business venture because posed risk to cultural resources.

Culture is not a negotiable item for any tribal business deal.

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Native American – cultural traditions passed

down through generations using stories and

ceremonies

River of Life 2013 HEP

NOTE: Native American repository of knowledge

Native American World View:

Historically, elders were the repository of

knowledge and experience.

OR - elders were the Google Search Engines of pre-

Columbian Knowledge . a la JD Tovey

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Tribes collaborating with state agencies, restoring and paying for

habitat restoration of salmon habitat on ceded lands

FACTS:

• Many timber tribes are very dependent

upon selling trees for economic return

• They are impacted by the global markets

since it determines if there are buyers of

timber – last couple of years have been

really bad for these tribes

Why are these facts

important for tribes??

But tribes are not i solated from global markets since they have resources des ired by these markets. Sometimes they have preferential market access because of being a government [china has interacted with several tribes in the PNW to make trade deals]

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Fast forward to today and

Native American tribes

and their impact on local

economies,

i.e., what do they invest

in??

It is not just CASINOS!!

30

CASE: Coquille Indian Tribe

Oldest and largest

family-owned enterprise

on

Oregon’s South Coast

NOTE: Native American tribes are having a major

impact in rural areas with their business activities

and in some communities are the largest employer

http://www.coquilletribe.org/; accessed March 2013

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31

Economic Impact – have to passcultural criteria

• Building community

• Building tourism

• Local economic impact

Wholesale &

Retail Trade

14Services

50

Other

15Resources/

Construction

2

Every 100 Tribal

jobs generates an

additional 81 jobs

in Coos County,

Oregon

http://www.coquilletribe.org/; accessed March 2013

32

Heritage Place

• A 96 room Long Term Care Facility

• Committed to having the community engage with the residents

• Price competitive

http://www.coquilletribe.org/; accessed March 2013

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33

ORCA Communications

• Broadband “B to B” services

– Operates a broadband fiber network

• Continued growth in area

http://www.coquilletribe.org/; accessed March 2013

34

The Mill Casino-Hotel & RV Park

• Premier gaming, entertainment facility

• New Tower has 92 rooms and conference facility

• RV Park use is growing

http://www.coquilletribe.org/; accessed March 2013

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You learn who is a good business person by

seeing how you deal with boom-bust cycles!!

http://www.stevenyamshon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BOOM-TO-BUST.png; http://blog.susquehanna.net/wp -content/uploads/2011/07/Economist -Post-roller-coaster-e1311171974947.jpg

Boom and Bust Cycles

– which business model

works better under these

cycles? Which model

aggravates boom and bust

cycles??

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Box 7: Atlantic Fisheries (from Trefts in Sustainability

Unpacked 2010)

…European explorers ...Atlantic coast of America, ..

transformation of river systems by building dams for power

triggered ..demise ..Atlantic fisheries. Impassable dams

…built ..early 1600s to power mills built along rivers.

After 1790, ..region began to industrialize …

Industrialization meant building dams …to supply power to

hundreds of cotton and weaving factories and to factories

producing firearms, furniture, clocks, machine tools, shoes,

and paper”.

In 1497, "the sea there is full of fish that can be taken not only

with nets but with fishing-baskets,“

~1600 cod shoals "so thick by the shore that we hardly have been

able to row a boat through them."

BOOM -

(from Trefts in Sustainability Unpacked 2010); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gadus_morhua-Cod-2-Atlanterhavsparken-Norway.JPG

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http://jb-hdnp.org/Sarver/Maps/ah04_necolonies1750m.jpg

BUST - Fishery stocks

crashed or became depleted

in the 1800s in the rivers

located on the Atlantic coast

of the Americas

REASON: England no longer wanted Atlantic cod from New England and put a tariff on fish

(from Trefts in Sustainability Unpacked 2010)

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New England fishermen continued to over fish and started

dumping into agricultural fields which eventually created

huge problems with too much of an oily fish being added

to the fields

(from Trefts in Sustainability Unpacked 2010)

Another BUST in early 1990s(from Trefts in Sustainability Unpacked 2010); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_northwest_cod_fishery#/media/File:Surexploitation_morue_surp%C3%AAcheEn.jpg

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Sugar Cane – Boom and Bust cycles controlled by climates

NATURE has boom-bust cycles at unpredictable times but

western world SOCIETIES try to Mute these in their business

plans

http://www.greenamerica.org/images/pubs/greenamerican/93/Dean550w.jpg

Apri l 9, 2013 6:15 pmBrazil expects

bumper sugar crop

By Emiko Terazono in London

Great for candy manufacturers, Big Sugar Is Set for a Sweet BailoutBy Alexandra Wexler | The Wall Street Journal –Tue, Mar 12, 2013 7:48 PM EDT

Push for Ethanol Sours in Brazil Amid Low

Sugar Prices, May 14, 2012, by Avi la Capital Markets, Inc.

Dual-fuel gas

s tation at Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alcohol (ethanol) and gasolinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil e:S ao_Paulo_ethanol_pump_04_2008_74_zoo

m.jpg

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TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Nature is cyclically volatile driven by

climate changes (especially drought)

RESULT: Nature and natural resources have boom and bust cycles that humans tend to ignore even though this is common

A severe drought in

the southern Great

Plains is fueling a

massive cattle drive

north that is pushing

beef prices higher

and threatening to

alter the country's

production of red

meat.

Where's the Beef? Less of It in Texas By MARK PETERS and MARSHALL ECKBLADFEBRUARY 11, 201; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204662204577201121978832112.html?mod=googlenews

_wsj

Take Home Message:

QUESTION? How do Western World Environmental

Economic models responds to social boom-and-bust

cycles?

ANSWER: By shifting who is a producer and who is a

consumer

NOTE: Substitution works well here

REMEMBER?

Tribes business activities by making decisions for the 7th generation so less

impacted by short term GDP changes and able to buffer them from cycles of environmental and social boom-

and bust cycles

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Global Forest Sector Market Trends and a Few, Words on the Economics of Forest Carbon Dynamics

Professor John Perez-Garcia

Western World Economic

model playing out:

Lets look at what drives

and determines who are

the consumers and

producers of timber!!

FACTS:

• Wood is a global product; continues

to be an important product even

today

• Local producers can’t control the

consumers & drivers for who buys

your product [so what does this mean

to have a viable business plan??]

CREDITS: next series of

slides are from

Professor John Perez-

Garcia

Drivers of Changing Trade Patterns

according to Professor Perez-Garcia

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The Asian Wood Basket: Pre 1990

Major softwood log flows indicated with black arrows

Who are the consumers

of timber?Who are the producers or

growers of timber?

Hardwood Lumber Consumption

0

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

1961

1963

1965

1967

1969

1971

1973

1975

1977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

cu

bic

mete

rs

ChinaJapan

Asia’s Changing Guard

Source: FAOSTAT

What happened to

Japan as a significant

consumers of timber?

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NOTE: When environmentalists in the PNW

US tried to protect old growth forests,

consumers of timber shifted to Scandinavia,

Chile, New Zealand

Sustainability is not frequently achieved because of global substitution for

limiting resources & consumers/buyers have no skin in the game

= major softwood log= New lumber= Diminished log

Flows of:

Asian Crisis: Post 98

Major softwood log flows = black arrowsLumber flows indicated = red arrowsDiminished log flows = grey arrows

consumers?

producers?

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U.S. Housing Slump: 2008

Major softwood log flows indicated with black arrows

Lumber flows indicated with red arrowsDiminished log flows indicated with grey arrows

?

?

?

?

?

?

consumers?

producers?

What does global supply & demand tell you about wood markets and

who will be a consumer and producer of forest products??

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Cu

bic

met

ers

in b

illio

ns

GDP in Trillions

1970

1975

1982

1990

2001

GDP drives the wood product markets – when lots of money, lots of wood products bought - supply/demand economics driving consumption

QUESTION:

What causes a

decrease in

consumption of

wood

products??

ANSWER:

Recessions, the

Collapse of the

Former Soviet

Union, and

Environmental

Constraints

Why went down??

Why going down??

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To move beyond social/environmental boom-and-

bust cycles:

We need to become more coyote like – have an angel and a

devil sitting on each shoulder advising you

It forces you to recognize and make trade-offs

http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/angel_and_devil.html

A digital illustration of what the temple to Hades might have looked like. Digital illustration courtesy Francesco D'Andria; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130414 -hell-underworld-archaeology-mount-olympus--greece/?source=email_inside&utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Em ai l&utm_content=inside _20130425&utm_campaign=Content

Archaeologists Find a Classic Entrance to Hell. The gate to hell is paved with

marble, not just good intentions (Nat Geogr 2013)…Greco-Roman site of..Hierapolis (modern-day Pamukkale) in Turkey ..ci ty's gate to the underworld.

Ancient Greek geographer Strabo …“..opening of sufficient size to admit a man, …a descent to a great depth ... filled with a cloudy and dark vapor, so dense that the bottom can scarcely be discerned ... Animals which enter ... die instantly. Even bulls, when brought within it, fall down and are taken out dead. We have ourselves thrown in sparrows, which immediately fell down lifeless."

Guess what they are

going into??

Would you believe a

VOLCANO??

NOTE: “Concept of hell …wasn't just a place bad people went when they died. Instead, it was a land where everybody, good and bad alike, ended up”

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http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/b/business_plan.asp

It’s not JUST GREED but inability

to deal with boom-bust cycles

where you can’t just substitute

resources and consumers

According to statistics published by the Small Business

Administration (SBA):

51 percent of ten new

employer

establishments

survive at least

five years

BUT that means

Half have disappeared!

Recognize many small businesses - using western

world model - fail!

Image source: BigStockPhoto.com

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/sbfaq.pdf

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Tip #4

Know Your Competition

Tip #5

Create and Follow a Business Plan

Tip #6

Keep Educated - Get out into the

world!

Tip #7

Ask Your Customers

Tip #8

Find Good Advisors!http://www.toonsandtips.com/GrowBiz_4_9.html

http://www.business-around-the-globe.com/

Tips from

traditional,

non-tribal,

business

professionals

to not fail

DOING ALL

THESE IS NOT

WORKING OR

we would not be

having this

conversation!!

This is not going to be easy!

Taleb addresses the several key rules

businesses need to follow if they are

going to be successful under volatile

social and environmental conditions.

Read WSJ article posted on class

website for more detail

Reading: WSJ, November 16, 2012,

//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324735104578120953311383448.html; Learning to Love Volatility; In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Mr. Taleb, a former derivatives trader, is distinguished

professor of risk engineering at New York University's

Polytechnic Institute., author of "Antifragile: Things That

Gain From Disorder" (Random House)

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Rule 1: Think of the economy as being

more like a cat than a washing machine..

more like a cat (organic & antifragile)

than .. washing machine (inorganic &

fragile).

Taleb’s Rules for successful

businesses under volatile

conditions (Taleb 2012)

A cat survives being

washed in a washing

machine – it may be

scared but survives

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ed/ae/c5/edaec58ad00a2ae0b77e680b71edabe8.jpg; http://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Images/Top-Loading-Washer.gif; http://www.lulzshare.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/terrified_wet_cat_big_eyes-e1402086942616-520x245.jpg

Washing machine = Are

fragile and break with use

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ani mals/big-cats/li tt le-k itties /entries/200702 /view; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil e:C at_fa ll_150x300_6fps.gif /

Cat Resiliency = ‘boom and bust’ cycles

[why else does a cat have 9 lives, and

always land on its feet]

Natural Forest Resilience to

Climate Change = Cat Resilience

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Rule 2: Favor businesses that benefit from their own

mistakes, not those whose mistakes percolate into the

system

Taleb’s Rules

Some businesses and political systems respond to

stress better than others. The airline industry is set up

in such a way as to make travel safer after every plane

crash. A tragedy leads to the thorough examination

and elimination of the cause of the problem.

His comment: Without the high failure rate in the

restaurant business, you would be eating Soviet-

style cafeteria food for your next meal out.

Reading: WSJ, November 16, 2012,

//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324735104578120953311383448.html; Learning to Love Volatility; In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Rule 3: Small is beautiful,

but it also efficient

Experts in business and government

are always talking about economies

of scale. They say that increasing the

size of projects and institutions brings

costs savings.

His COMMENT: consider the

difference between an elephant and

a mouse: The former breaks a leg at

the slightest fall, while the latter is

unharmed by a drop several multiples

of its height. This explains why we

have so many more mice than

elephants.

Reading: WSJ, November 16, 2012,

//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324735104578120953311383448.html; Learning to Love Volatility; In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

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Rule 4: Trial and error beats academic

knowledge

Thomas Edison

was a prolific

American

inventor.

Tinkering by trial

and error has

played a large

role in Western

innovation.

Reading: WSJ, November 16, 2012,

//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324735104578120953311383448.html; Learning to Love Volatility; In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Rule 5: Decision makers must have skin in the

game

His comment: No time in history of humankind have more positions of power been assigned to people who don't take personal risks.

His Comment: The

Romans forced

engineers

to sleep under a

bridge once it was

completed.

Reading: WSJ, November 16, 2012, //online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324735104578120953311383448.html; Learning to Love

Volatility; In a world that constantly throws big, unexpected events our way, we must learn to benefit from disorder, writes NassimNicholas Taleb.

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What do his rules say about the

western world environmental

business model and what he thinks

are its weaknesses??

Its all about

making trade-

offs

Costs /

Benefits have

to include

externalities

and real costs

in a boom-

bust cycles

Sustainability Unpacked Vogt et al. 2010

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FINAL CONCLUDING COMMENTS:

Manage natural resources recognizing that volatility in

resource supplies is the norm and economic decisions

need to be made in a ‘boom and bust’ cycle world

Traditional knowledge does not provide specific

solutions for a specific problem but an approach for

humans to follow that specifically includes nature and humanizes

the decision process

We need many economic models – not a global one! Do

not force people to become a melting pot where individually is lost

in a generic group identity. Let people live and behave in a

salad bowl where everyone’s native customs, values and

beliefs are included and accepted. Take advantage of the

strengths and abilities that diversity yields and do not replicate

people to behave in the same manner.

People who are specialists will have a harder time surviving

under the boom-and bust cycles