Milton Friedman passes away
Milton Friedman, the libertarian Nobel Prize winning economist died this week. His views have shaped the beliefs of generations of economists and business thinkers, and, combined with those of many others have contributed to the shift in government mindsets across the world towards opening up their economies.
A good coverage of Milton's views and some past interviews are available on NPR. An exerpt from a 2000 interview:
Now the Internet, by enabling transactions to be made in cyberspace, not recorded, by enabling them to move so that somebody in Britain can order books from Amazon.com in the United States, somebody in the United States can do a deal in India, I think the cyberspace is going to make it very much more difficult for government to collect taxes, and that will have a very important effect on reducing the role that governments can play.
And in 1999:
[The fall of communism would have a long lasting impact] because it marked the philosophical supremacy of the idea of free markets and private enterprise over the idea of collective central planning. The collapse of communism in essence added tens and tens of millions of people to the world labor supply, and the people who were added had previously been getting very low income, but they were not unskilled. Many of them were fairly well educated.
Whether you agree with his views or not, he played an important role in shaping economic theory and practice through passionate debates and government influence.
The New York Times also has a detailed coverage of his views and impact.
Comments
Dear Richa & Friends:
Today "Think Flat" is a necessity if business has to grow, gain value and manage itself well in a competitive globalised society. In fact, the management trinity: Milton Friedman, Peter Drucker & Philip Kotler have in some way or the other reflected the think flat paradigm in their writings. Today Google is a world transformational force thanks to its linear set up and working.
In fact, as I see it, the continuum of business activity comprises of:
Innovation to manufacture to distributing to retailing to increasing demand (or consumption). And in this continuum there are fields of finance management, Human Resource Management, Quality Management, Marketing Management, Sales Management etc.
The next challenge is the new developing management paradigm THINK FLAT management in organisations. Furthermore, today with the rise of the 'collaborative customer'think flat management is an organisational necessity.
I am a M Pharma PGDMM and I host the blog http://pharmaceuticalshealthcare.blogspot.com, which also reflects a think flat philosophy. So for guaranteed inspiration & infotainment please do visit the blog and interact. Thanks.
Posted by: Sunil S Chiplunkar | November 20, 2006 04:17 AM
Milton Friedman's contribution to the business community had been immensely helpful in the early years, before globalization became what it is today but in the course of the years it has failed to address the numerous problems that have arisen with regulations outside an organizations home country especially where the law in a given country is not well-founded and therefore profit maximization may not be the best model in practice.
Posted by: Adarsh Prabhu | November 28, 2006 03:47 PM
Yes, and free markets and the Internet go really well together. The Internet helps organizations reach markets and compete in areas that were earlier (almost) impossible.
I think the potential of the Internet is just begining to be realized. In coming years it will probably enable collaboration and communication in ways that we cannot even imagine today.
--
Parag
Posted by: Parag Shah | November 30, 2006 02:13 PM