Paul Kedrosky mixed it up yesterday with both panel and audience at Eric Norlin’s Defrag 2008 conference in Denver. He asked very tough questions.
Dr. Kedrosky is a CNBC financial expert, accomplished speaker and, it would seem, an in-your-face challenger of audiences. I’m going to horribly paraphrase one of his main questions:
“With all the information we have on the Internet, how the heck did we get into this daunting economic crisis – and how can we get out of it?”
The discussion was spirited without being contentious – and Eric managed the questions and comments from the audience more smoothly than Oprah.
But, the discussion entirely revolved around information – how it flows, how we parse it, how we consume it, how we are overwhelmed by it, how we might manage it better – and on and on. And that’s not surprising, because these folks are all Internet experts.
But the image that came to my mind was of a lifeboat. Everyone in the room was onboard that lifeboat and Paul was pointing out that the we’d sprung a bad leak. Those onboard, however, mostly addressed how the oars are engineered.
Now I could be way wrong – (after all, the intellectual power of the panel and audience was of the highest voltage) – but it struck me that there is a lot more in the world, Horatio, than information.
Might it be that there are things that can’t be digitized? The love of a mother for her child, the courage of a soldier willing to face death and yes, even the integrity of a banker who says “No!” to junk mortgages may offer more in the way of an answer than more data.
On our way to the conference that day we listened to a Colorado Public Radio story called “Colorado Banks Cope with Financial Crisis,” a
bout why local banks here are in a relatively good financial position.
Lakewood-based John Ikard of FirstBank was being interviewed and he was asked why his bank didn’t make subprime mortgage loans. Weren’t they tempted?:
“Oh very much so, there was great money to be made. We could have made a lot of money – you book ‘em, and you sell them to a secondary source, you don’t have to take responsibility for them and they’re off your books… but we couldn’t do them because we couldn’t get down to a level where our guidelines would permit it – the loans just didn’t make sense. . .”
I don’t think it was information that informed FirstBank’s decision making. I think it was character.
How do you digitize things like integrity, love, respect, fairness, character and courage? Don’t think you can. We might somehow capture all the information in the world and still not “know” enough.
Perhaps we all better stop talking about the oars and instead get down to the business of fixing the leak.
Thanks, Paul, for making us think. That took courage.
5 comments ↓
Remarkable, Michael – what great questions you raise. The Internet is not life, capturing megatons of digitized information is hardly the highest of callings, and the constant striving to be the first one on your block to acquire the latest technology tool is not something that can (or should) bring real satisfaction to anyone, really.
It’s easy to become detached from the things that really matter when you have to stare at a computer screen and manipulate data all day long. And I’m here to tell you that being continually sucked up into the techie ‘echo-chamber’ can really…well, suck.
Maybe we need a conference next called “Unplug”? Hey, I’d be all over that.
cheers,
Graeme
Michael,
Your question is a lot more serious than even you might appreciate. The daily set of beliefs about how one should do business these days in principle assumes that we can digitize all sorts of personal things.
Think about all the measure-reward-incent programs that have built around the idea of “loyalty.” Just 15 years ago, that word was synonymous with “semper fi” or “’til death do us part.” Now, it’s the name of a bunch of data-driven price-shopping behavioral programs.
Or “customer focus.” It’s also sliced, diced, digitized.
How about “human capital.” Yup, it’s getting measured. (And note which word is the adjective).
We behave way too much as if you can digitize important issues of the heart. As you so eloquently note, it ain’t necessarily so.
Thanks Graeme and Charles,
We’re always struck by how much technology is sold as the solution – not as another tool that helps us build upon our own best skills, experience, wisdom and better instincts. I think it’s because people are so easily convinced by the abra-cadabra of technology.
Thanks to both of you – very wise. We’re ready for a conference that covers what Professor Connolly over at the University of Denver calls “the unintended consequences of technology.”
Hey, Michael! Did you know that in banking we have the ‘6 C’s of Credit’? These help us decide who to lend to. And the first one is ‘Character’.
You rightly picked up on the strong character of the FirstBank lender. They are a client of mine and the culture of responsibility is company-wide.
Thanks for highlighting a banker who did, and is doing, things right. As is often the case, the ones doing the right thing don’t get mentioned nearly as often as those who made loans that were questionable.
I am happy to report that in community banks and credit unions across America, lenders with character are in the vast majority.
Thanks for your post.
Linda
Thanks Linda,
It’s great to get a comment from an expert on the banking industry. I had no idea that FirstBank was a client of yours – but that just makes it better. And, yes, the banks that are closer to their communities seem also to be closer to the core values of decency, integrity and responsibility.
I love the four C’s of Credit. We could all strive to live by that first one – character.
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