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How Has The New Economy Changed You?
August 21st, 2009
by John R. Sedivy
This past Tuesday The New York Times released an article about how Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been struggling to maintain profits during the recession. It appears that the new economy – that which has been characterized by workforce reduction, decreases in spending, and collapsing businesses – has caused a decrease in the amount of printer ink that the company is selling. Fewer people working = fewer people printing. Also consider that those who are employed are being asked by their employers to limit their printing to cut costs and you can see why HP’s ink sales are slipping. Read H.P. Tries To Keep The Ink Flowing for the full story.
However this is not the main concern of HP at this time. Everyone understands that the economy is cyclical. What goes up must come down, and what is down must go back up. This is a temporary situation. People and businesses will have money to spend – it is only a matter of time. However, what is concerning to the company is that human behavior has changed, and the worry is that the change in behavior will be permanent.
Individuals are now used to printing less, not just in their business but personal lives as well. One example is that the article discusses that more people are spending their time on social media, and social media does not lend itself to printing. But what if people, now that they haven’t printed in awhile, begin to wonder why they had to print documents to begin with? Why not just read the text, or the reports on the screen instead of printing a hard-copy? Even worse – what if they do not even think of printing?
It no longer becomes a matter of cost, but more of habit and comfort. This article made me consider how the new economy has transformed the way I do business. I work more on the Internet. I use social media more. I also print less – the printing behavior was not really a cost saver, it just sort of happened. I have also noticed that many more people are self-employed – mainly due to necessity – a sort of forced entrepreneurship.
When the economy started going south, we also had to consider other areas to branch out. My work evolved from strictly engineering and business consulting to web design and marketing. Amy has branched out from strictly wedding cakes to other options, such as new product lines and markets, and of course works with me on the web design and marketing. Sometimes necessity drives creativity into full gear and as a result changes human behavior – which is generally very difficult to change. The economy has changed the way we do business and nothing will ever be the same again.
How has the new economy changed your business? Your behavior? When the dust settles will you return back to your past life or continue on your present course?
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
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[...] How Has The New Economy Changed You? | Cape Cod Branding capecodbranding.com/blog/2009/08/21/how-has-the-new-economy-changed-you – view page – cached The new economy has changed more than the way we do business. Find out here how one large company is concerned over the change in human behavior! — From the page [...]