Alan Young
Everyone in Macau with common sense should feel the current harsh, rapidly changing and fluctuating economic environment.
The long economic boom of the last two decades has led to a lot of extra effort and changes in business practices besides increasing the capacity of various aspects with various attractive features such as hotel rooms, resort facilities, transportation, etc. Most businesses and locals could benefit without it. At the same time, locals have always complained about inflation, transportation, real estate prices and more.
Locals who have a rather dogmatic view of economic problems may not be able to help overcome the current situation.
The fact of the matter is that it may turn out that the current turning point is disguised and blessed as a good time to focus on the creative destruction process.
I will go further. Creative destruction is a concept that should be accepted by society as a whole. It’s a process that’s always happening in practice, but over the past few decades people have tended to prefer a stable, predictable, short-term future rather than long-term insights, facing tremendous barriers. rice field.
In addition, the rationale for the opportunity cost of moving from a booming business to another was very large.
Now, during a recession, businesses and locals should have the idea of changing or embracing the creative disruption process in their business, as well as the overall social and economic development of Macau.
Creative destruction is a theory over 80 years ago and is always in the position of a business cycle. This process of creative destruction continues everywhere, with differences in speed. Breaking existing business practices with gradual and / or dramatic changes may lead the economy to a viable new path in place of the previous stable, everyday business.
Breaking old thinking and advancing creative thinking about new business practices is more powerful than ever.
How can this be done?
By the mid-20th century, I was able to learn from Reno, Nevada, which was once the capital of American gambling.
The city experienced a recession, followed by a creative destruction process. The old casino has been demolished or is now in ruins.
The casino remains in Reno, but less important than it was in its heyday.
The city eventually attracted a new type of business, where it attracted companies that settled offices and headquarters, and became a tech center.
Diversify is the name of the game and is a term that describes the changes there.
This can inspire an approach to creative destruction here to bring about change.
In 2018, Macau was ranked number one in the world in terms of tourism GDP, at 75%.
However, the crown was not particularly proud because it did not show the path to sustainability of the regional economic model. This fairly high percentage should have instead warned the city about the looming risks. The city must have been moving towards diversification long ago.
The current recession puts SAR and its core businesses in poor condition to create or at least transform their business environment.
It should be acknowledged that there is no such thing as a one-off solution.
We are not talking here about what is created and destroyed here. Destruction has certainly begun, and creation should be on the way.
The creative destruction process must be controlled, operated and ultimately owned by governments and businesses.
