The most expensive thing in business after life itself

I was ruminating over what is the most expensive investment a business or an individual makes? My thought process got as little philosophical and so I thought it was an apt candidate for “The Blue”.

I believe the answer is F l E x I b I L i T y!

From every angle I thought of it I seemed to convince myself that the answer is flexibility, it is the cost of uncertainty combined with the luxury of maintaining options. Be it launching a new product as a premium or a flanker, setting up a new consumer driven supply network, entering a new market, all these decisions have associated risks. The classical way most businesses and people mitigate risks in their personal lives is creating fall backs. Basically a full featured execution option or at least a partially developed option that may be executed in the event of a failure in achieving desired results from the choicest selection.

In conversations as to how flexibility costs us on a personal level I have realized… think of all the money people invest in buying branded merchandise. The brands comes with a promise of meeting expected needs. Implicitly committing to the fact that if the brand failed to meet the needs the manufacturer will replace it with one that does. It is the flexibility of being sure one way or the other expectations will be met!