Monday, October 19, 2020
How did they last so long?
Seems like we should be able to learn something from organizations that last a long time, like Trinity House. How do they withstand the pressures of Parkinson? How do they maintain their PURPOSE for hundreds of years?
Nearly all of the longest continuous businesses are in Japan. Many of them are essentially monasteries, so they don't quite count as businesses. But the non-religious ones have also managed to survive, some operated by the same family for 1000 years.
Was Japan's economic structure equally constant? A quick look at some older books on Japanese banking answers HELL NO. Banking was just as tempestuous and unstable as US banking from 1700 to 1930 when the books were written. Central banks were started and abandoned. Currency schemes were started and abandoned. Often a single businessman (like JP Morgan) was effectively the national treasury. Before 1900 most business was still feudal in structure, not commercial in the modern sense.
The most dramatic event happened in 1868 when the shogun abdicated, cleaned out his desk, and cleaned out the treasury.
The government then had to start from scratch, so it confiscated huge amounts from the biggest businesses.
Not stable.
Payment of interest wasn't a typical practice until 1890, so the Jap abandonment of interest in 2000 wasn't really a break with long tradition.
Japan is simply a different species. The people don't do anything to stay healthy. They live to 100. The businesses don't do anything to stay stable. They live to 1000. Different species.
Labels: Asked and unanswered, Parkinson, Trinity House
¶ 5:06 AM
