I woke up early on Sunday morning and followed the usual morning routine of a bit of reading, catching up on the news and e-mails – to be confronted by a tsunami warning. A devastating earthquake in Chile was sending a wave across the Pacific towards Australia. I followed up on the story during the day and fortunately, no killer tidal wave made it to our shores.
What was shocking was the images on news.com.au of people in Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii swimming in the sea after the alarm had been raised but before the threat had been downgraded. Do humans suffer from long-term memory loss when it comes to tragedy?
The tsunami that hit Thailand around Christmas of 2004 killed over 200,000 people and left many more homeless. It was a crisis of epic proportion. And 5 years later, our response to a tsunami warning is either to sit on the beach to watch it come in or get in the sea because the waves should be awesome! I am not exempt from this idiocy, but a South African couple I know were on honeymoon in Thailand when the tsunami hit and were both nearly killed. The story they shared was a miracle. A mix of luck, perseverance and gut wrenching grief. As a result, the word tsunami brings up a very real image of destruction and disaster.
The same will occur in businesses. The lessons learnt from the corporate failures in early 2000 and the very recent global financial crisis will be forgotten – especially by those who escaped unscathed. Or they will simply not be learnt by those too young to be affected. This slow learning curve or the inability to remember tragedy is the reason why large scale financial catastrophes will always return.
Links
Pictures of people watching for the tsunami
Interesting Excel visual of the business cycle clock
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