In game and economic theory, they call it a zero-sum situation. It means that when the score is tallied at the very end, each participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by that of the others involved. If you start with each 4 players each having 25 chips, there will never be more, just a different distribution of that same 100. Poker is but one example, as is tennis and baseball: you play till somebody wins and somebody loses, regardless of how many sets or innings it takes.
That's the opposite of a win-win or lose-lose situation. In those cases everyone can benefit or everyone can get hurt. Global trade is generally considered to be a a win-win: people get goods they wouldn't normally get, and the other side gets paid. War, on the other hand, is a lose-lose scenario: even if you win, you are a loser just for having gone through it.
For most, our current situation probably enters the ledger in the last category. Even if you've managed to dodge the worst effects of the pandemic in health and economic terms, your world has been profoundly upended, and not in a good way. That said, there most assuredly have also been those that have benefited, or at least pivoted to be able to benefit even as they too have been affected. And that doesn't count those on Wall Street whose business is based on betting on market moves up or down, as they make money no matter which way things go, just as long as they go.
Some companies have benefited handsomely. With people stuck at home, Amazon couldn't ship enough and Netflix couldn't stream enough. Communications companies like Zoom exploded as everyone met online, and gaming companies like Tencent soared as everyone played online. Telemedicine firms, shipping companies and electronic payment platforms all had record volume as they became the vital lifelines that people switched to vs. being able to do anything in person.
On the other side of the ledger, the airlines got clobbered. Delta, American, United: didn't matter who had the best frequent flyer program, no one was flying frequently. Same for the hotel chains, like Marriott and Hilton. The horrific damage to the restaurant business is well documented, whether it was national chains or neighborhood favorites. No one was driving so oil and gas companies were down, no one was going on vacation so theme parks and cruises were crushed, no one was going to the movies so theaters were decimated. And the list goes on and on.
Certain conceptual changes also happened, often with upsides and downsides encapsulated in the same space. The ability to work from home was a goal many had. Now that it's here with a vengeance, we learn it's easier than ever to do, but it's almost impossible to ever take off an hour, let alone a day. Family togetherness has never been so enforced. That familiarity has made us both closer to our kin, reinforcing what we love about them, and also reinforcing what we hate about them. And not eating so much on the go as opposed to making more meals ourselves, as well as having easier access to a kitchen at all times of the day and night, has both increased our intake of more non-processed foods while also adding a quarantine fifteen.
That yin and yang is epitomized in individual companies as well, such as Unilever. The British-Dutch multinational has a portfolio of products that spans the universe of consumer goods. Its brands include Hellmann's mayonnaise and Axe body spray, Dove soap and Lipton tea, Q-tips cotton swabs and Sealtest milk. As you might expect, the personal care side of their business has slumped drastically: with no one going anywhere the demand for deodorant and shampoo is way down. On the other hand, we all need comfort food in this stressful time, and so their Ben & Jerry's and Breyer's ice cream brands have seen large upticks.
All that means that the definition of a better mousetrap has changed. If you're building the company of tomorrow, you need a small real estate footprint (if any), no need to move people around physically around and really big electronic pipes in and out. And if you can also figure a way to deliver Cookies and Cream through the cloud, the world will indeed beat a path to your door.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford has no plans to travel for work or pleasure. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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