Reviewed by Michael Pellecchia in UPSIDE April 1998
With his customary simplicity, veteran author and business
consultant Michael Phillips redefines commerce in his latest book,
Gods of Commerce. His 1974 book The Seven Laws of Money
(reprinted, Shambhala, 1997) explored the spiritual side of filthy
lucre. In his 1986 book Marketing Without Advertising
(reprinted, Nolo Press, 1997), he again used basics to redefine a
complex field--bringing ideas such as trust, helpfulness and
customer education into the marketing equation.
Phillips continues to be an elegant and thought-provoking writer.
Gods of Commerce covers three distinct categories: trade,
industry and "clientry." Trade focuses on getting the right markup
on each final sale, industry aims for price reduction through
economies of scale, and clientry strives for lifelong relations with
clients. Phillips maintains that trade originates in urban areas, and
industry, which focuses on always improving cost variables,
spawns close relations with government.This distinction makes it
easy to see why industry cannot change as quickly as trade can.
The distinction between trade and industry is also important for
international business. Trade needs no infrastructure, yet
government developers insist on infrastructure development even
when it is not required. If governments distinguished between
trade and industry, they might find that more businesses would be
categorized as "trade" and thus could be structured more simply.
The final section deals with clientry. To quote from the book,
"Good clientry provides technical, social, and other types of
information and services to industry, which allows for better
management, better decision making, and more insight." The
section's main subtopic relates to "snafus" (things that go wrong
even when everything is working as it should), the consequence of
an increasingly complex society.
Phillips has added to the literature of complexity with this idea.
Complexity disables people from seeing where a system is headed
over time and makes them content to grasp given moments.
Phillips knows that as complex as things are, we are more inclined
to add complexity than to take it away. Thus, our gods of
commerce are not always happy or benevolent. Also, at least two
of them--the gods of trade and industry--are outmoded. Because
it's a quick read and contains powerful insights, Gods of
Commerce is likely to have a long shelf life, in keeping with its
stellar predecessor, The Seven Laws of Money.
Reviewed by Michael Pellecchia in UPSIDE April 1998
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