Less is More

Less is more

by Günter Faltin (excerpt from "David versus Goliath" )

There is much to suggest that we will have to make do with less material consumption in the future. The trick will be to make the less attractive enough for people to embrace. Gladly accept. An absolutely new task for economists. Because to this day most people still have the idea of ​​more than a lucky charm.

Sustainable entrepreneurship relies on less. If we create timeless designs, let us be proud that we are not propagating a change of model. Don't say this is a utopian demand. The tea campaign has had the same design and products for 30 years. I firmly believe that this is part of our success. Satisfying a given set of needs as excellently as possible, rather than teasing out more and more new needs.

An economy that faces the challenges of the future will make it its task to meet the needs of the land of milk and honey as excellently as possible - but not to expand the definition of the land of milk and honey ever further. As a side effect, it would give us the economic leeway to rather help those who are in need, who have not yet reached our level of leaving material need behind.

"We will certainly get to the point where the question is rightly asked whether it is still right and useful to produce more goods, more material wealth, or whether it does not make sense to sacrifice more leisure time, to gain more reflection, more leisure and more relaxation.«

You think it's a quote from early Marx? Unfortunately wrong! The quote comes from Ludwig Erhard from 1957 in his book Prosperity for everyone.

Added value of a different kind

The task is: How can I, as an entrepreneur, react to needs that conventional economics - but also politics - dismiss as unrealistic? Could it be that the advertising people, because they usually come from an artistic-creative background, recognize the facts of the needs from the being mode, but the managers, who are stuck in conventional economic thinking, cannot think otherwise than in conventional have-products?

Hasn't there been an economy for a long time that has almost unnoticed left the having mode and gets by without the sale of products or other material-related things? Added value of a different kind.

There is a basic consensus among economists that an hour of therapy or massage is worth as much as an hour of industrial labor. Just as, in the past, only agricultural work was valued and it took time to get used to seeing factory work as adding value, today we find ourselves in a situation that makes it difficult for us to understand that technological progress is creating more space for activities of a completely different nature . More opportunities for people to get involved in emotional (social-emotional) jobs. Why shouldn't we be able to imagine prosperity in being mode? After all, even the liberal The Economist sees »a world of artists and therapists, love counselors and yoga instructors« emerging. [1]

For the future, such activities based on the mood and relationship level could become just as important as blacksmith work was at the beginning of industrialization, even if they initially attract little attention because - trapped in the old way of thinking - they are considered unproductive.

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At the Entrepreneurship Summit 2020 - from October 9th to 11th in digital form for the first time - we will try to rethink the future together with you. Take on new perspectives together with our experts and the other participants, expand your knowledge and network with interesting and innovative people.

[1] Cf. The Economist of 01/18/2014.