Why I love the credit crunch and the implosion of Lehman Bros and Co.
This is not about belittling the personal tragedies of Lehman employees who have been laid off, but instead looking at the bigger picture.
- In the same way that the financing problems of the 1980s created the junk bond, so this crunch will create a similar kind of entrepreneurship
- Unravelling the financial assets of organisations like Lehman Bros will provide a source of immense profit for organisations with deep enough pockets and sufficient smarts to find the value
- Financial institutions have traditionally been the most enthusiastic purchasers of enterprise technology. Their efforts to cut costs will provide new opportunities for things like Software as a Service (SaaS), or service bureaus like what telecoms companies use for billing services and other operational support services
- Bankrupt bank servers, storage appliances and networking gear will come on the market at rock-bottom prices and provide infrastructure for the next wave of web start-ups
- You will have a number of independently wealthy people without things to fill their 100-hour work weeks. Some of them will seek to finance productive businesses rather than just sponsoring an idle WASP lifestyle
- You have a surplus of skills: IT professionals, quant / math freaks, economists and former rocket scientists – all of which could be useful in coming up with a killer technology application or web service. Think about it this way – former Morgan Stanley computer programmer Joshua Schachter came up with del.icio.us
UPDATE (16.09.08): Hello, those of you who have come over from Cowboy Caleb’s link, céad míle fáilte (you’re very welcome) and make yourself at home.