His bottom line is that to succeed through bubbles like these you have to create real value for people. A lot of companies and investments are too much like get-rich schemes. A long term focus yields a product that truly helps society, and the company will grow along with the society it is helping.
I also think that the point is well taken that it can not be on the backs of other countries. The more people in the world with disposable income, the more people there are to sell to. When so much of the world is in near poverty and has 0 disposable income, the entire consumer focus of so many of our companies seems a bit silly.
"A long term focus yields a product that truly helps society, and the company will grow along with the society it is helping."
There is a cooperation problem here, how do you prevent other companies from free-riding and reaping the value your company injects into society without adding any of its own?
Cooperation between human actors works because of an instinct for fairness. If we want the cooperation at a more macro scale, we're going to need a cultural sense of fairness to go along with it. I suppose we're seeing this now when walmart plays ads about how earth friendly it is, but we're certainly only a small fraction of the way there.
I also think that the point is well taken that it can not be on the backs of other countries. The more people in the world with disposable income, the more people there are to sell to. When so much of the world is in near poverty and has 0 disposable income, the entire consumer focus of so many of our companies seems a bit silly.