Collateral Damage

The nerds with bombs gang, aka ISIS, has apparently struck once again. The massacre in Nice a couple of days ago was either part of a more grand conspiracy, or inspired a guy who was gonna be dateless until he collected his 3 or 4-score virgins.

Personally, I don't really know what the West's next moves ought to be, but is does seem that we are, in the collective, reluctant to risk blowing the burqa off some radical's grandma in a military strike.

No one relishes the prospect of blowing up babies in order to kill or maim a terrorist, but, it is war. Some among us are a little trembly in the knees at the prospect of shooting back, or worse, pre-emptively, when we discover where the scraggly-bearded heroes of the caliphate are hiding. I'll repeat. It is war - and we neither started it nor should be required to take one in the shorts because we eschew mindless slaughter of innocents.

So, yes, when we do what ought to be done to enemy combatants, there will be collateral damage. A hospital next to an armory might explode. A school next door to a war planning coffee house might catch fire. Grow up! All combat delivers some level of collateral damage.

In competing supply chain enterprises, some bold decisions get taken. One food processor elected to focus on a limited set of profitable products. Capacity was limited, and they decided to get out of the pickle business. I witnessed grown men weep at the demise of the pickles. Collateral damage.

More recently, a diversified consumer products company decided that a very-well-selling peanut butter was not a good fit with its other highly profitable market leader products. They sold the brand to a foods corporation, where the hand-in-glove relationship with jams and jellies made much more sense. Collateral damage.

Still another business titan discovered that its respected white goods lines were not nearly as exciting for the future as its complex high technology market leaders. They prepared for the future by selling the present to a third party. Collateral damage.

Recognizing that business, especially supply chain management, is a form of war, maybe collateral damage, which calls out for some limitations in a civilized society, is a natural and normal risk for those engaging in conflict of any sort.

Maybe, just maybe, we need to understand that conflict resolution in the extreme will deliver some level of collateral damage, but that a greater good outweighs the risk of damage.