Greening of the free market? No. That’s an oxymoron. Freeing of the green market.
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Green, Marketing |
When the RMLS rolled out a new ‘green’ search parameter over a year ago, and The Oregonian spent nearly its entire business section gushing about it, I wrote the likelihood of its becoming significant was remote. Even in Portland, where global warming hysteria is matched only by what you find under an endtimes revival tent, the disconnect between what people say and how they behave is on the order of inverse. In marketing, ‘green’ for its own sake is meaningless. If a product is something people want, and is at a price people are willing to pay, then ‘green’ can make a difference; otherwise, not.
[For the record: As of today, 3.6% of the active listings have any kind of ‘green’ designation. 3.5% of the sold properties in the last six months had the same designation. And I’ve still never had either a seller or buyer list ‘green’ as a priority.]
So when I found Peter Robinson of National Review Online had interviewed T. J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor and Chairman of SunPower, and was introduced with this blurb…
T.J. Rogers, ardent libertarian…preaching green? … I ask[ed] the capitalist’s capitalist if he has finally chosen to devote himself to the higher good. “The higher good?” T.J. replies. “That’s bunk“
The [real] higher good is serving our customers…That kind of service is a higher service than the way our government looks at it, which is, ‘You elect me, I take over, I go to the big house, I get the driver and the big airplane, and then I tell you what’s good and if you don’t like it then I force it on you.’
To everyone who worries that executives have all become bland bureaucrats, Watch-and set your mind at ease.
…I was fascinated.
The man is brilliant.
Click the picture - or here - for part one, part two here. Parts three, four and five to come on NRO.
UPDATE: For those wondering the connection to housing, it can be found in part three. SunPower is within a few percentage points of the peak theoretical efficiency of solar panels, but is working on cutting the cost of manufacture in half. “Within five years it will be more expensive to buy a home without solar panels than with, because the return on investment will be under a year and a half.”
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One Response to “Greening of the free market? No. That’s an oxymoron. Freeing of the green market.”
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I’d love to question old TJ about the government programs he’s taken advantage of, or the breaks he’s received courtesy the federal government he disparages. The difference between corporate and government talking down to us is that we get to UN-elect the government if we choose.
Just as with Bear Stearns or the RE industry, they’re all capitalists until the sh*t hits the fan. Then they become socialists whining to the government for bailouts.