By Anthony Ogorek
Buffalo, NY – As the year draws to a close, it may be instructive to reflect on a trend that seems to be wreaking havoc with a lot of business models as well as people's lives. I'm talking about competition. An assessment of competition may help to provide a context in which to view the massive changes that seem to serve as headlines for those who still read the newspapers and newsweeklies.
Simply put, competition will be more intense in the future. This trend is a double edged sword; on the one hand it should provide greater benefits to all of us. The downside is that there can be no assurances as to who will be delivering the goods and services that all of us enjoy. The future belongs to those who are driving competition, not to defenders of the status quo.
Perhaps the most sclerotic institution in America is its public school system. Charter schools are transforming the educational experiences of inner-city students by providing something that public school teacher unions abhor; competition. Unions, attempting to protect their monopoly position are fighting a futile battle. It is impossible to turn the clock back on competition. The only way that urban public school unions can hope to survive in the future is for them to be champions of change, rather than defenders of a system that fosters mediocrity.
The domestic auto industry is in the middle of a massive restructuring brought on by a combination of years of mismanagement, worker entitlements and foreign competition. In spite of recently publicized layoffs, foreign automakers are employing in excess of 60,000 American workers to satisfy American's appetite for foreign cars and trucks. Believe it or not, the competition is about to get more intense. Geely Motors, one of 100 Chinese auto manufacturers, is gearing up to introduce a $10,000 sedan in 2008. How, you may ask, can they do this; with a labor cost of less than $4.00 per hour.
If you think that the Chinese cannot succeed in the U.S., remember that the Germans sold the Volkswagen Beetle for $800 in 1949. The Japanese incursion began in 1958 with Toyota marketing its first compact for just $2,300. Believe it or not, according to Edmunds.com, the most affordable car sold in the U.S. today is the Chevrolet Aveo with a sticker of $9,455. The point is that it is possible for domestic manufacturers to compete with foreign rivals. Unfortunately, it seems to take the threat of extinction to motivate them to change.
Competition will challenge every assumption that we have grown up with. Perhaps nothing is more important to most people than their religious faith. It is fascinating to see that the congregations that merely defend the status quo are seeing drastically diminished memberships, while so called mega-churches thrive. The appeal of nouveau congregations seems not to be a matter of doctrine, as much as providing a product that is relevant to people lives - something to be enjoyed rather than tolerated. It is not a hopeful sign when church goers judge the quality of a service by its brevity; the shorter the better. Thanks to competition, people have choices today. Membership in religious congregations is no longer driven by geography but by programs as well as programming.
We will end this missive by segueing from the sacred to the profane. Howard Stern, self proclaimed King of All Media, has taken his act off of terrestrial radio to Sirius satellite radio; where you can catch him beginning in January for the price of $12.95 per month. Sirius radio bet the farm by agreeing to pay Stern $500 million over five years. Stern hypes his departure as a means of escaping the oversight of the FCC. In fact this is about launching a competitor; sort of an HBO for radio. Satellite radio allows you to hear what you want when you want it, free of commercials.
Competition will continue to shape our future. Competition is the face of our future.
"The Ogorek Letter" with Commentator Anthony Ogorek is a monthly feature of WBFO News.
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