Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
(Thanks to Caddy from A Feminist Otaku for her views on geekiness, cost, and lifestyle)
Whenever I attend an anime convention, I’m struck by the fact that a majority of the attendees have never in their lives wound the head on a VHS tape. They have never blown frantically into their VCR hoping to fix the snow that appeared in the middle of an otherwise peaceful Neon Genesis Evangelion viewing. (As peaceful as a viewing of that show can be.) Oh, youth!
So last column I mentioned that some businesses and companies were probably only surviving (perhaps even poorly) because they had simply become social institutions. We are used to these companies, and that keeps them from evolving–or dying off appropriately. So I asked myself, what companies and so forth were probably surviving due to a large part of sheer familiarity? The answer was pretty illustrative.
Here are a few I came up with. This is in no way the end all-be-all.
There are many things we can say a business is. A business is a tool to deliver goods, or do tasks. A businesses away to consolidate and in theory improve economic functions. A business is a way for people to effectively earn a living. There are many things indeed that we can say a business is.
(Yes, I could talk about corruption and so forth, but stick with me here.)
The business is also social institution and understanding that is important to analyze the future of businesses–when they actually have any.