Somali pirates – are they in marketing, or what?

Let’s see. Two years ago the coastline of Somalia looked like what you’d expect – the coastline of a 3rd world country. Nowadays it looks like the Hamptons. For those of you on the West Coast, it’s like Bel Air.

Somali citizens have realized that holding passing ships hostage is working. The $80 million in ransoms they’ve collected over the past 2 years has raised their standard of living considerably, and I’ll guess they’re not stopping any time soon.

Heck, if I lived out there, I’d be doing the same thing. As they teach all first-year MBAs, write your business plan, and if it works, expand!

However, last week didn’t work out so well for them. For the first time in 2 years, the pirates experienced a market downturn. I’m curious to see how they adjust. I predict they’ll be out of business in 6 months, unless they change their business model.

Or, they might re-evaluate their revenue model, make some adjustments, and emerge stronger than before.

For those of you out there laughing, I think you understand the correlation I’m drawing to present economic conditions. For those of you not laughing, well, sigh.

I’m not advocating piracy. Just that many of us have realized that what has worked the last 2 years isn’t anymore. Now is the time to re-analyze our business model and revenue streams and see what’s working, and what isn’t.

After all, it doesn’t matter if you’re running a pirate operation in the Indian ocean, or a retail store on Broadway; sometimes you have to make change to stay afloat. Pun intended.