©Robert Harris 2016

Choosing a New CEO of AmericaWhat is this guy selling?

This guy is a business man trying to sell America the promise of services that you, the citizen buyer, cannot experience before you buy it with your vote.  This is the inherent risk/reward of our innovative democracy; America, afterall, at its heart is an entrepreneurial startup nation. Like any startup, the CEO only gets four years on the job before he/she can be booted out if America’s stock in the world goes down during his/her watch, or earlier if he is impeached for obstructing justice.

Unlike a startup, citizens are not allowed to sell their American “stock,” especially to other countries; this is a crime against the nation and citizens who do this are called traitors.  Those who commit treason do so under penalty of death.

In business, If you are not satisfied, you can usually get a refund or some other consideration because the corporation wants to keep you as a return customer.  Why? Because savvy business people know it will cost four times as  much in the currency of money for the CEO to replace you with new customer if you leave.

But America is not a business;  America is a polity–a democratic nation of its people, by its  people and for its people organized according to America’s foundational principles enshrined in its constitution.  Presidents are placed in charge by the currency of votes cast freely by its citizens. America’s power to run the country is delegated temporarily to its representatives by vote and distributed among America’s three constitutional-mandated divisions:

• The CEO’s Executive Branch;
• The People’s Congressional Branches (The House of Representatives at one citizen per district in each state, 435 total seats for two years by district votes, and The Senate at two citizens per state, 100 total seats for six years by state votes);
• The Presidentially-Appointed/Senate-Approved  Supreme Court, nine for life terms.

The “CEO” of America is literally a servant of the people, as well as the custodian-as-manager, working for all Americans serving at their pleasure, and elected according to a “crowd-sourced” constitutional election process.  There are no refunds for promises made by elected officials, only replacements of officials through voting.

If elected, Donald Trump will be the first billionaire to be elected as America’s president in its 240 year history. He will be managing a $18 trillion free-market national economy (with $20 trillion in government annual debt) in a $75 trillion world economy that is a mixture of democratic nations (56% of world population in 2016, and growing, with 7% autocratic and declining, and the remaining 37% in between) all racked with worldwide terrorist attacks as part of general unrest amidst dramatic worldwide explosive advances in technology.

In addition, the next president will be guiding America, and perhaps the world, in its transition through the latest global paradigm shift –the so-called 4th industrial revolution.  These times reflect both the promise and peril of the shift in world society from a slow, loosely-connected and mechanical analog society to a high-speed, tightly-interconnected and digital frictionless society.  Good luck, whoever gets the job!

Get the popcorn, because no matter who is elected we will all be watching the most unique and greatest public show of modern times:

America’s First CEO of the Emerging FrictionLessSociety™.

We will be witnessing, as well as participating in, the first large-scale social experiment in governance ever attempted in modern times, and maybe even in the history of civilization.  The central question is this:

How will a self-made billionaire, who has only worked as the sole proprietor of his privately held real estate/branding “Trump world ” empire for 50 years, translate his knowledge and experience into being an effective “CE0” of America as he guides our nation into the new world paradigm of a FrictionLessSociety™ ?

As one who has been a business owner and strategy advisor to CEOs of private and public companies large and small for many years, I intend to use my knowledge and experience to write a business case study of this quadrennial presidential competition as seen through a business strategy lens…and have little fun with it.