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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Can RED save the Economy

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Stephen Wheeler

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It's common knowledge we are in a recession. Consumers are not spending because they are unsure of the future. The government is trending towards the same austerity measures that are happening in Europe (and we've seen how that's gone). Now its being reported that corporate America is sitting on a supposed "2.3 Trillion Dollars" instead of investing it in hiring people, because they don't feel there is enough consumer demand in the market.

Maybe corporate America should look at RED. RED creates demand by investing in R&D and producing a product so cutting edge and forward thinking it captures the imaginations of the consumer and pushes a whole industry to change. They don't settle for turning out the same old product, but are always innovating and improving. By always looking towards the future, not just what has worked in the past, RED has created a loyal and hungry customer base. They are constantly releasing new products and creating new jobs right here in the US.

Aside from their amazing cameras, this has really made me fall in love with RED as a company. If consumers wont spend and if the government wont spend, then it's up to the businesses of America to spend in order to turn this recession around. If they feel there isn't enough demand to justify this then they need to learn how to create demand and no one does it better then RED.
 
Stephen Wheeler said:
if consumers wont spend and if the government wont spend, then it's up to the businesses of America to spend in order to turn this recession around.
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That's a pretty inane argument.

If consumers won't spend you want businesses to spend....on what?

Businesses exist to make money.

If there is demand for a product, business will provide that product, (look at Apple).

But they have no incentive to do so when they aren't going to make any money. Nor should they.
 
Stephen Wheeler said:
It's common knowledge we are in a recession. Consumers are not spending because they are unsure of the future. The government is trending towards the same austerity measures that are happening in Europe (and we've seen how that's gone). Now its being reported that corporate America is sitting on a supposed "2.3 Trillion Dollars" instead of investing it in hiring people, because they don't feel there is enough consumer demand in the market.

Maybe corporate America should look at RED. RED creates demand by investing in R&D and producing a product so cutting edge and forward thinking it captures the imaginations of the consumer and pushes a whole industry to change. They don't settle for turning out the same old product, but are always innovating and improving. By always looking towards the future, not just what has worked in the past, RED has created a loyal and hungry customer base. They are constantly releasing new products and creating new jobs right here in the US.

Aside from their amazing cameras, this has really made me fall in love with RED as a company. If consumers wont spend and if the government wont spend, then it's up to the businesses of America to spend in order to turn this recession around. If they feel there isn't enough demand to justify this then they need to learn how to create demand and no one does it better then RED.
Click to expand...



Can medicine revive the dead?
 
I think people need to realize that a lot of jobs lost in 2007-2010 aren't comming back regardless of what else happens. Many firms downsized and eventually became more profitable as they got more productivity out of the same workforce.
 
I'm saying that if businesses invest in their work force and in innovating their products demand will follow. Take Apple as another example. No one wanted tablets, it was a failed product. Apple comes along and creates a demand for it, now everyone I know owns one. How did they do this they developed that product to be the best it could be and marketed the hell out of it. That is how a business creates demand.
 
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Sorry - demand drives production, not the other way around. And no one company - especially one as small as RED, can single handedly "drive" the economy. I'd suggest a course in Economics. Nice try, though. :-)
 
RED is an example of why we're all screwed.

Employees:
200?

Sales:
$15k scarlet * 10,000?
$50k epic * 5,000?

$400m+?

If each employee is responsible for $2m in revenue... and everybody was like RED then you would have to have extraordinary monetary velocity to keep the economy moving.
 
No, of course RED can't save the economy, no SINGLE company in the world can!



However, what RED is doing is commendable, and it is the exact same thing I moved back to Italy to do!


What SIngle companies like RED or mine, can do by doing what we are doing is that gives incentives to others to follow the example, and not be afraid of the economy, but instead bring back JOBS at HOME, and try of being less greedy, and help save our local economy and boost it, not punish it further.
 
RED is not a business model most business' can aspire to..... even huge business' with massive revenue cannot operate like RED did in the initial years. They are accountable to share holders, corporate boards etc.... RED is one man's vision ( a very, very wealthy man).

RED is a boutique, niche business with a billionaire owner. I imagine that Jim Jannard lost a huge amount of money in the initial years on R&D.... It was a gamble, one that he could afford to take and it paid off. But without that huge cash injection and the confidence inspired by having a well known billionaire at the helm, I don't imagine RED would have been successful.

RED also had the good fortune to have a patient and creative group of people who understood that a film camera like the R1 would not come shipped as a perfect, 100% working camera (and boy, the patience was rewarded with the Epic-X program). How many other industries would have that sort of consumer base? Could Ford release a car in beta mode :laugh:

What RED have done is phenomenal, but to think other business' can take such huge financial risks and probably make no profit for years is crazy.
 
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I was inclined to respond to the thread title initially as most of you have, but then I would have missed his larger point and it is one that is well made. The responses here are certainly valid but I think Andrew is right. To be a breakout success a company needs to be bold and innovative. That means investing in aggressive development and all of those R&D dollars are at risk. Sure business exists to make money, but if Jim's example teaches us anything it should be that business takes more than capital. It takes BALLS.

Business as usual does nothing more than fulfill the status quo. It meets basic needs. It maintains. It creates nothing new. It does not grow. As creative professionals we should recognize that to to thrive and grow we need to create something new and different. Hollywood needs to hear what Steven is saying. Safe is boring.

If you are averse to risk make bread.
 
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It is interesting to think that we continue to try and measure our worth by dollars and 'economy'.

'The economy' is a major factor in our current behaviour models.

The notion that endless and ever expanding consumption can continue is absurd. The planet isn't growing, people, just our population.

You cannot have infinite growth in a finite world. Anyone reading scientific data reports about the planetary systems these days?

We have grave problems as a result of 'the economy'. I would hope that this is finally being acknowledged, regardless of how long one's ostrich neck is.

So perhaps our ideas and conversations should start talking about genuine sustainability.

Shifting resources and infrastructure and human capacity to make life here on earth for all of us humans sustainable.
 
Scott Crawley said:
Business as usual does nothing more than fulfill the status quo. As creative professionals we should recognize that to to thrive and grow we need to create something new and different. Hollywood needs to hear what Steven is saying. Safe is boring.

If you are averse to risk make bread.
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Business as usual no longer meets basic needs at all. It's destroying our ability to meet basic needs. We've been in the realm of the frivilous for a long time.

My sense is it's our job as creative professionals to start making films to continue to raise public consciousness. That would be both new and different, and to my mind is the most difficult task of the creative process.
 
Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".
All levels of Government from Local Town Councils to the White House are fleecing the taxpayer. It is all over the news and is common knowledge. RED is powerless, a paradigm shift is necessary. We need a Benjamin Franklin. We need strong leaders who care more about America than they care about their Government Job. With almost Fifty Percent of the Population living off the taxation of the other half, America may well be doomed. "China owns the Moon!"
 
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George Butterfield said:
Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".
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Yes. Because 4% of people used to be lazy leaches and then another 6% magically decided around 2008 at the same time to stop wanting to work.

I leave a Benjamin Franklin quote for you on all of those useless people living off the backs of others:

For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.
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That means investing in aggressive development and all of those R&D dollars are at risk. Sure business exists to make money, but if Jim's example teaches us anything it should be that business takes more than capital. It takes BALLS.
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I agree to some degree. But customers usually don't reward companies for this. Apple has made a killing off of incremental refinements on other's extensive R&D. And for most industries the margins are so thin that you'll never pay off your R&D.
 
George Butterfield said:
Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".
All levels of Government from Local Town Councils to the White House are fleecing the taxpayer. It is all over the news and is common knowledge. RED is powerless, a paradigm shift is necessary. We need a Benjamin Franklin. We need strong leaders who care more about America than they care about their Government Job. With almost Fifty Percent of the Population living off the taxation of the other half, America may well be doomed. "China owns the Moon!"
Click to expand...

The narrowmindedness of this rhetoric only serves to continue the manufactured fight between middle and working class people. You should consider that you may be reading from the wrong script George.
Pay attention to what's happening around you, not what the media tells you. Your media is serving you that fight.
 
Saving the economy means everyone, from the little guy on REDuser, to the Federal Govmt spends less than what they make. Debt vs. profit. Can we expect the government to magically start spending less? Yeah cause their real good at that... No, it's a simple Micro Econ. template, that starts with each and every household spending less than what they make and saving a percentage of what they earn. And part 2 of that is that we have to vote people into government that want to, and have a record of spending less. RED is pulling their weight, in this task. This is the reason many people are attracted to RED, because they lead the way, they are out in the front, and doing it in style!
 
Jay Birch said:
I imagine that Jim Jannard lost a huge amount of money in the initial years on R&D....
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Jay, I don't think so. Even if only he can tell, there have been deposits in advance :-) He has just managed them in the smartest way in order to finance it.
 
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