Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Can Businesspeople Be Great Economists?

Not necessarily argues Paul Krugman in a classic HBR article. Just like training in economics won't make you run your business better. He blames styles of thinking that are not transferable from one field to the other and the fact that economic systems are closed systems whereas business ones are open.

Anyone believing the opposite is true, Paul says, may be afflicted by what is known as the great man's disease: people don't understand that they must equip themselves with new tools and a new vocabulary before being able to make pronouncements in another field that will not be laughed at.

I couldn't agree more. For instance would you trust me doing some morning brain surgery on you?

Really? Let me grab a scalpel then.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dont know about ib business people can be great economist but people, especially in Aafrica, who have acress to donor funds from EU countries certainly can be great thieves, shocking!!!!!

see the link
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page295046?oid=493763&sn=2009%20Detail

Africa is plagued by these problems and now its come to our shores too.