Good, ethical marketing is all about creating value for the customer. If you create a product that solves a problem or conveys a benefit and provide it at a price that the consumer sees as a value, you're on the road to both profit and customer satisfaction. I do not begrudge people who make fortunes creating value ... Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Henry Ford ... the list goes on.
I have a completely different opinion of people who make vast fortunes not by creating value but through artifice ... through sleight of hand ... through manipulating systems. These are the people that brought you the great recession of 2008 ... Enron ... the savings and loan crisis ... the list goes on. These very powerful and wealthy companies, in my estimation, are practicing voodoo, not value. In the end, the voodoo approach is inherently risky precisely because it is not built on true value.Â
I'm not the only one that sees the folly of their ways. Warren Buffett weighed in on the issue in his annual letter to shareholders. Some pithy quotes from the letter:
"Money-shufflers don't come cheap," he notes. Bankers, lawyers and consultants are "a lot of mouths with expensive tastes." And they are "always ready to suspend disbelief when dubious maneuvers are used to manufacture rising per-share earnings, particularly if these acrobatics produce mergers that generate huge fees for investment bankers."Â
I'm delighted that the "Wizard of Omaha" has spoken out. I hope someone is listening.