RE: Module 8 Essay

I had a good time reading your essay, Avery. It was well written and easy to follow. I liked what you said about Chapter 5 the most. I have some opinions on your essay, I want to share with you.

Early on in this chapter, Bylund made the statement above, and I thought it was something really interesting to look into. I think that in entrepreneurship, we are taught to really get to know our target customer. I struggle to see why it would be harmful to understand why a customer wants something. I think that there could be a lot of value in that information, because it might reveal if the want is short term or long term, and it can give other insight as well.

I find this interesting, and I agree that there could be a lot of value in that information. Beyond just its long- or short-term value, I believe it can give us more. We can find out if they are repeat customers, looking for a one-time purchase, want to have the ability to self-repair, and/or value something else over what we sell. That is something that could only serve to help us as entrepreneurs.

To play devil’s advocate, one could say analyzing the analytics of the market could lead one to chase trends, focus solely on profits, and selfishly look for gain without even meeting a societal want. These are all pitfalls that may lead to money being acquired now, but they do not encourage the building of wealth or a fundamental relationship with the consumer based on respect that will bring brand loyalty better than chasing the bottom line. There is also the fact that numbers tend to never tell the whole truth; what analytics may tell you about what a consumer wants could be correct on a technical level but misguided or plain wrong on a practical application level. Too conservative of an approach, and the market may have already left you behind by the time you provide what consumers want.

For example, natural disasters will dramatically change peoples' valuation of different things.

“the purpose of regulation is to change completely or influence behavior in some specific way to thereby cause a different outcome of the production and activities that take place in the market.” (Bylund, 2016, pp.102)

I think that it is important to have this quote as a base of the following section.

I agree. I find that understanding how regulations can influence or completely change the behavior of productions and activities within the market is an important base of knowledge. It establishes the ripple effects on a broader economic scale. It makes us think to ourselves about what exactly a good or bad regulation is. This also works well with the closing statements on war at the end of Chapter 5. This fundamental knowledge then informs us of the reality that war does not bring about a positive economic vibration. Instead, it is simply a ripple effect of the lack of regulatory enforcement throughout the war.

So, this begs the question, so then is war good? The answer is no. War brings death, devastation, and destruction. This is not a good or positive thing.

I would say it is a negative thing for the economic growth that happens off the back of death, devastation, and destruction to be a negative thing. While society must move on and rebuild, there is something sinisterly callous about framing the economic increase in activity in post-war regions as a boom, growth, or something that circumvents what it was: war.

Thanks for taking you time to read these comments. It was fun to engage in a discussion with you.