Self-Inflicted Fatal Wounds

So, now I read that many carriers and service providers are struggling with capacity issues.  They cut back, mothballed, whatever, when the economy turned down.

But, we've been preaching the need to get ready for recovery for the better part of two years.  Those who didn't listen are now paying a price.  Those who did are clearly going to wind up ahead of those who chose not to develop rapid response capacity alternatives.

It's difficult to work up much sympathy for either extreme: those who spent like inebriated seamen in the teeth of recession, or those who refused to believe that down cycles are always followed by up cycles.  Either approach risks the success of the supply chains involved, and jeopardizes the market position of innocent partners in the end-to-end chain.

I should come as no great shock that the companies caught up in the failure to marshall capacity additions as volume picked up are likely not to be invited to next year's prom - plunging them back into the abyss of the depth of recession while the economy around them recovers.