Trust Jack

I am not sure how many people in our industry are paying attention to the meltdown of the global financial services industry, but I want to point out the following interview with Jack Dangermond:

In it, Jack describes that growth of our industry as well as his expectations of ESRI:

ESRI has been growing annually at about 10-15% worldwide for many years, and in 2008 the company is growing at a rate of 17%, said Dangermond, adding that this “is counter intuitive to the whole stock market and economic downturn.”

In addition, he gives some thought to the differences between money capital and resource capital:

In terms of the global financial turmoil, Dangermond said “people today are very nervous about what is happening on Wall Street and what I am more concerned about is ecological sustainability and global warming issues on the planet, because they are not something that you can go to the bank and borrow more money from. The real sustainability issue and the real economic foundation is nature’s capital, it is not artificial money capital.”

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t see eye-to-eye with Jack on a lot of things. Money and intellectual capital are important for transitioning goods and services towards a more sustainable path. But for the most part, I think he is dead-on about the opportunities for our industry and the importance of our field.

Hang in there people, we’re in for a wild ride for the next 18-24 months. Keep your heads down, work hard, and keep pushing the envelope, and we will change the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dangermond