International Competition, Air Conditioning and Proposals
This week I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Air Conditioning leveling the field of competition in many parts of the world.
I remember when I moved from the Midwest to Northern California. Summers in the agricultural areas reach 120 degrees farenheit each day for several hours during July. My fast-paced, quick moving habits had to be ditched in favor of a more relaxed and easy-going pace — or die.
My new habit of slowing down when the temperatures rose, stood me in good stead when I moved to Austin Texas (where it reaches 95 degrees farenheit, but the humidity is over 95 percent). You may think a Texas drawl is quaint, but I think it comes from slowing down to manage the heat.
Imagine what it must have been like to work in these places before central air conditioning.
Before air conditioning, locales such as India and parts of China had distinct disadvantages to keeping pace with workers in more hospitable climes. Today that disadvantage is erased by air conditioning.
As productivity rises in these previously inhospitable climes, how will you defend your firm in your proposals?
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