March Madness Mirrors Business Upheaval
Today is the first official day of March Madness, the annual three-week period when the NCAA crowns its men’s basketball national champion. It’s one of my favorite times of year, as office pools (if those were legal) come into vogue for the next few days and people talk about their brackets.
One of the things that gets the casual fan, not just the rabid college basketball follower, involved in March Madness is the expectation of “upsets” by the smaller, lesser-known schools and embracing the upheaval caused when these upsets occur.
For instance, already today, in the first four games of this year’s tournament, the underdog won two games, and the other two games went to overtime before the favored team won. You never know what to expect.
In some ways, “You never know what to expect” has been the prevailing attitude in the business world for the last 18-24 months. Since the recession started back in 2008, what used to be commonplace is no longer, and vice versa. Customers that have been counted on for years may now be closing their doors. “Madness” has not only been a figurative turn of phrase for some people during the last several months, unfortunately.
The good news is, the upheaval in March Madness is usually short-lived. Eventually, many of the teams that are expected to be around at the end will survive to make it there. Let’s hope the same holds true for those in the material handling industry in particular, and the business world in general. Let’s hope those who struggled to survive the early rounds of this recession are still around at the end.
Tags: economy, material handling, pop culture
