It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.
-Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Zizek
Height means the measurement of something from base to top. It also means the extreme or ultimate of something. For example, the height of heights is Hillary on Tenzing and Tenzing on Mount Everest.
Corporations are scaling new business heights with each passing day. The point is not how do they climb and reach those dizzying heights, but rather how can we reliably measure it. That’s a silly question. Isn’t it? No, it’s not. When we can measure a subjective thing like happiness quantitatively, why can’t we measure an abstract concept like the height of a business? So the right question is, how do we measure it?
How to measure the height of a business?
For measuring the height of a mountain, we use basic trigonometry. But measuring business heights is not that easy. Yes, there are ways, but sometimes we have to be creative.
For this, we have to first climb the ladder of business and observe the landscape from the various peaks scaled by the different business verticals. So here’s an attempt:
Height of Marketing: A Healthcare company launching a loyalty program.
Height of Vertical (Forward) integration: A soft drinks company diversifying into healthcare.
Height of Strategy: Facebook and Google trying to change their business model.
Height of Realism: Harvard Business School (HBS) launching an Executive Program on the Dilbert Principle.
Height of Convenience: Amazon’s drone para-dropping climbers atop Mount Everest.
Height of Trust: A bank customer signing blank investment forms trusting his Relationship Manager.
Height of Brotherhood: Singh Brothers
Height of Wealth Management: A portfolio manager advising his HNI client to shift to a high-rise apartment to increase his risk appetite.
Height of Silence: ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar’s decision to keep mum about the Videocon loan controversy.
Height of Blame: Nirav Modi blaming PNB (Punjab National Bank) for his bankruptcy.
Height of Business Education: A 10th-pass Marwari businessman teaching Indian ways of doing business to his Harvard pass-out son.
Height of Swadeshi: Khadi Condoms
Height of optimism: Fresh MBA pass-outs
Height of Fashion: Underwear worn as outerwear.
Height of Beauty: FMCG firms Emami and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) fighting over the words ‘Glow and Handsome’, with both claiming trademark rights.
Height of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Big Food downing the shutters as a self-regulatory measure.
Height of Competition: Patanjali going global and giving a tough fight to Unilever Plc. on its home turf.
Height of Sustainability: Chinese Government declaring November 11 (Singles Day) to be celebrated as ‘No Shopping Day’
Height of Catch-22: A Doctor working in a private hospital trying to balance the interest of his employer and the patient.
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