Are Volvo, Daimler, and PACCAR Merging? Separating Rumors from Reality

But let’s clear this up right away:

There is no merger between these three OEMs.

What is actually happening is a joint venture — a strategic collaboration between Daimler Truck and Volvo Group called Coretura AB, a 50/50 partnership designed to accelerate the industry’s software transformation and enable a more connected, standardized digital future.

The Real Story: Coretura AB

While some online speculation suggests a sweeping consolidation, the truth is far more specific — and highly technical.

In 2025, Daimler Truck and Volvo Group launched Coretura AB, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Its mission is clear:

  • Focus: Develop a standardized and open software-defined vehicle (SDV) platform and a dedicated commercial vehicle operating system — the “non-differentiating core” for future digital applications.
  • Goal: Decouple software and hardware development cycles. This allows for over-the-air updates, improved connectivity, safety, and efficiency — and the creation of new digital services for customers.
  • Collaboration: While Coretura is a shared effort, Daimler Truck and Volvo Group remain direct competitors in their products, brands, and dealer networks. Coretura is also open to additional partners and suppliers across the industry.

Why These Joint Ventures Matter

Coretura AB is more than just a shared project — it represents a major shift toward the software-defined future of commercial transportation.

1. Shared Cost and Reduced Risk

Developing modern software architectures is capital-intensive. By sharing R&D investment, both companies can reduce duplication, accelerate development cycles, and direct resources toward innovation instead of redundancy.
2. Accelerated Innovation
With standardized software foundations, OEMs can focus their energy on differentiating features — such as advanced safety systems, powertrain optimization, or driver-assist technologies — rather than rebuilding the same base architecture from scratch.
3. Standardization Across the Industry

Standardization simplifies integration, training, and servicing across brands. It enables:
o More consistent diagnostic tools and telematics interfaces for mixed fleets.
o Easier data exchange between OEM systems, suppliers, and third-party applications.
o Reduced complexity for dealerships and technicians maintaining multi-brand operations.

This is a win for fleets, service managers, and technology suppliers alike. It lays the groundwork for interoperable, efficient ecosystems — similar to what has already happened in consumer tech and automotive infotainment platforms.

4. Modernized Service Networks

The move toward software-defined vehicles means future service departments will rely heavily on digital diagnostics, OTA updates, and data-driven maintenance. Joint ventures like Coretura ensure a more seamless infrastructure for these updates across brands, reducing downtime and improving uptime visibility for customers.
5. Preserved Competition

Crucially, these collaborations do not erase brand competition. Each OEM still controls its own vehicle design, customer experience, and go-to-market strategy. The goal is shared infrastructure — not shared customers.

What About PACCAR?

PACCAR Inc. — parent company of Peterbilt, Kenworth, and DAF — is not part of this joint venture. Any claims suggesting PACCAR is merging or joining Coretura are unsubstantiated.PACCAR remains an independent global leader, continuing its own R&D in connected vehicle systems, electrification, and autonomous driving technologies.

Why the Rumors Started

It’s easy to see how confusion spread. OEMs often collaborate on specific technologies — battery systems, hydrogen infrastructure, telematics, or digital ecosystems — but these partnerships do not signal mergers.

In this case, headlines like “Daimler and Volvo join forces” quickly morphed online into “OEMs merging,” creating noise and uncertainty in the dealer and fleet community.

But make no mistake — these companies remain fierce competitors. Their cooperation is limited to non-differentiating technology cores, not market share or sales operations.

Another Example of a Joint Venture: ARCHION

A good comparison is ARCHION, the newly announced holding company from Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino, scheduled to begin operations on April 1, 2026.

This follows a final business integration agreement concluded in June 2025 between Daimler Truck AG and Toyota Motor Corporation.

Under the vision of “delivering the future of commercial mobility,” ARCHION represents a unified push by Mitsubishi Fuso, Hino, Toyota, and Daimler Truck toward shared innovation in next-generation mobility — without merging their brands or sales operations. Once again, collaboration and competition coexist.

The Bottom Line

The Coretura AB joint venture is a technical partnership, not a corporate merger.

Its purpose is to modernize the foundation for connected, software-defined trucks and buses, setting the stage for fleets that are smarter, safer, and more efficient.

For dealerships, service leaders, and fleet operators, the takeaway is straightforward:

• Expect more connected diagnostics and software-centric service opportunities.
• Recognize that brand competition remains strong.
• Stay informed — these collaborations are quietly shaping the technology infrastructure behind every commercial vehicle of the future.

In short: the merger rumors are just that — rumors.

What’s really happening is a wave of strategic joint ventures paving the way for the next generation of intelligent, interconnected commercial vehicles.

A Final Thought

Now more than ever before, technology is moving at a rate that can feel uncomfortable — to say the least. However, there is a significant upside, especially in the commercial vehicle and equipment space.

With AI and other emerging technologies, having common data platforms dramatically improves communication across every link in the value chain — between OEMs and dealers, between dealers and customers, and between businesses themselves.

Vehicles with standardized data systems benefit every person or company along that path, enabling a more connected, transparent, and efficient industry for everyone.

Sometimes Less Can is More!

Just after the Great Recession, Caterpillar decided to exit the truck engine manufacturing business in 2010. CAT had struggled to make a good Tier 4 product. Many thought CAT would buy another manufacturer. Some CAT dealers bought truck dealerships, and others started working on all trucks. Dealers asked me why CAT would exit the truck market. My answer, CAT is looking long term at service technicians will always be in short supply. The construction business will expand over time and need more technicians. Some CAT dealers have large lift truck dealerships, crane divisions, ag divisions—all need technicians.

Now in 2025, I know of two CAT dealers that have left the truck service business. The dealers are now using the truck facilities and service technicians to repair construction machinery. CAT was right the industry got much bigger from 2010 to 2025. US small equipment wentfrom 55k units in 2010 to over 150k today. Larger equipment went from 22k in 2010—yes that looks low and bad, and it was not a good time in the industry….to 65k+ units today. Technicians continue to be in short supply.

I have been in the construction machinery consulting business for 31 years. Dealers have asked me to track various types of data over the years. January 2025, I stopped putting 9 types of data into my forecasting Power Points. October has been a remarkably busy month; all of clients have been updated at least twice in 2025. No one has noticed the missing data. I wanted my clients to focus more on housing, nonresidential construction, and road work activity in their territory. General US economy, I still think National Retail Sales, Unadjusted is the best indicator (consumer spending).

Dick, my late father, would ask—why are you not going fishing to these 4 lakes that are less than an hour from where we live. My answer, Dad I only have so much time to fish so 2 lakes worked out well for me. I know the lakes; they produce plenty of fish catching for me. Hobbies are fun and take time but can get frustrating it you try to do too many.

I know many of you are thinking—oh this is new generation thinking going from a two-hourmovie in a theater into a ten minute You Tube video. This is not my point—I want everyone to use their time more efficiently, so they have time to do both. Yes, this blog could have been much longer….but I wanted to be more efficient.

LWS NOTE: We have long talked about the difference between Efficiency and Effectiveness. Andy points out Efficiency which is doing things well. It is his fishing example. That is particularly important, we agree.

But look more carefully at this blog please. He is also being more effective in his reporting. That is doing the right thing.

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Why 83% of Construction Companies Drive Less Than 23% of Employment

Why AI-Driven Targeting of the Profitable 10% for 25%+ Revenue Growth

Why Market share Growth Can be in Your Pocket

Drawing from proven data-driven strategies in competitive industries, and BiltData.ai’s deep dive into over 100 million transactions across construction equipment rentals, fleet ownership, and product support—one truth stands out: success in sales is not about casting the widest net; it’s about focusing on the prospects most likely to become loyal, profitable partners. Too often, companies chase the wrong clients—those with low staying power and minimal potential for long-term value, wasting resources on segments that yield diminishing returns. Instead, the key lies in identifying and replicating your high-value customers through precise, math-based targeting. Market share gains can truly be accessible, in your pocket when equipped with the right technology, tools and team. BiltData is one such team pushing the limits of using AI to bring unparalleled value to the construction equipment industry.

Having spent years in the trenches, and supported by the best industry minds such as Ron Slee, I can tell you: it is not magic, just math. Granted, math at mega-scale. And in today’s market, where data chaos can bury your best opportunities, transforming raw data into actionable insights starts with a simple choice—be contrarian, avoid the crowd’s tactics, and zero in on what really moves the needle.

“A staggering 81% of all businesses employ 10 or fewer people, yet these small operations account for less than 10% of the total workforce.”

Consider the broader U.S. business landscape: A staggering 81% of all businesses employ 10 or fewer people, yet these small businesses account for less than 10% of the total workforce and even less of gross economic output. This disparity highlights a common trap:  pursuing volume over value. In the construction sector, the pattern is even more pronounced: 83% of construction businesses have fewer than 20 employees, collectively employing less than 23% of the industry’s workforce. These small companies, while numerous, often lack the scale for consistent, high-margin equipment rentals, purchases, or product support. Chasing them can lead to fleeting transactions with little repeat business, eroding profitability over time. Large enterprises might seem like the “big fish,” but they represent a tiny fraction—just 0.3% of businesses employ 500 or more, yet they dominate 50%+ of employment. Mid-tier players, however, offer the sweet spot: They have growth potential and decision-making agility, making them ideal for cloning strategies.

Picture this for major earthmoving OEMs like Deere, Cat, Komatsu, Case, VOLVO, or Bobcat. Imagine having a unified view of customer and prospect data across your dealer network, linked to real-time project intel that tells you what the best, and future best ‘buyers’ purchase, rent and consume in parts and service. This allows for accurate retail forecasting and production planning by spotting repeat buyers, the 10% driving 80% of revenue and an even greater share of profitability. Shared predictive buyer intelligence aligns incentives, hyper-focusing on specific names for joint strategies. The roadmap: start with AI-driven predictive tools to identify these buyers, then collaborate on campaigns to grow each, name by name. Benefits include cutting inventory by 20-30% (saving millions in holding costs), gaining 10-15% market share through targeted pushes, and bolstering dealer support—potentially unlocking $1+ billion in industry-wide efficiency by smoothing demand forecasts.

For dealers, visualize a day where reps skip 5+ manual steps in tabulating data, use natural language chat to effortlessly be served prospects with spend details, scoring, contacts, maps, routes, and specs in a few clicks—tied to active projects. The guidepost: integrate this into daily workflows via chat-based queries, turning data work into quick action. BiltData.ai will do this for you. This can boost participation rates by 5X+, shortening sales cycles by 30-50% and adding $1M to $5M of high margin revenue per territory manager through faster closes and higher win rates.

When OEMs and dealers team up, envision a shared ecosystem where data flows seamlessly for hyper-focus on targets. Dealers handle efficiency on the ground, while OEMs refine forecasting—all through aligned goals like joint campaigns. The path: use unified platforms to merge insights, then execute targeted outreach. Value lies in amplified ROI, with complete visibility reducing supply chain waste by 25-40%—translating to billions saved industry-wide in excess inventory and misallocated capital.

These approaches complement existing systems like CRM and marketing automation by filling data gaps for one-to-one sales and marketing. For example, flag aged competitor fleets (5-year Cat loaders for Deere upgrades) or tailor pitches on efficiency versus owned equipment. Suggest rentals for project gaps or drive parts/service by age (10-year assets). The roadmap: trigger personalized outreach from CRM, starting with high score leads. For OEMs, this unifies datasets to support dealers; for salespeople, it means 7x faster action, cutting research time and boosting close rates by 20-30%.

Drawing inspiration from “AI-Driven Value Management” by Craig LeGrande and Venkat Lakshminarayanan, AI links OEMs, dealers, rental companies, and customers to boost margins while cutting costs. By automating analysis, BiltData answers “what value can I get, will I get it, did I get it?”  In construction equipment, this means transforming raw data into actionable insights, making complex data simple so teams find and win buyers quicker.

Real-world results are embedded in deep market and customer insights such as:

  • The Philadelphia PA market, ranked #8 for 2030 spending at $47.7 billion, shows high-rises and infrastructure driving demand, with 200 MW data centers fueling tech growth.
  • Merlo America’s Geo-Forecast highlights California and Texas at $162.2 billion and $95.5 billion of 2030 construction .
  • One major earthmoving dealer solved dirty data, enabling reps to act 7x faster, boosting participation and adding millions in revenue.

In essence, it’s not about chasing every lead—it’s about selecting those with true potential. BiltData.ai transforms this complexity into clarity, delivering streamlined, multi-dimensional insights for rapid, confident decisions. We stand behind our outcomes: achieve the promised results or receive a full refund.

At BiltData.ai, we’ve empowered construction equipment OEMs, dealers, and rental companies to build this culture, enhancing decision-making through predictive buyer intelligence, actionable dashboards, and easy chat-driven tools that tie data to outcomes. Using a combination of data science and advanced technologies, BiltData reveals the most profitable sectors, the most promising prospects, and untapped territories. The era of prolonged data collection and analysis cycles is over. BiltData transforms complexity into clarity—delivering streamlined, multi-dimensional insights that empower rapid, confident decision-making. It’s not magic—just math.

The Great Inversion

How AI and Crypto Are Flipping the Economic Pyramid

The exploitative pyramid sitting on top of every transaction is collapsing.

Good riddance.

For centuries, the economic model has been simple: two people want to transact, and an army of intermediaries insert themselves on top, extracting value at every step.

 

Want to buy a house? Here’s a 6% real estate commission, mortgage broker fees, title insurance, escrow fees, inspection fees, and appraisal fees. A $500,000 house comes with $40,000+ in extraction costs—8% of the transaction going to people who neither built the house nor will live in it.

Want to hire someone? Recruiters take 25% of first-year salary. A $100,000 hire costs you $25,000 to an intermediary who made introductions and checked references.

Want to accept payments? Credit card companies take 3%, payment processors take another cut, and if you’re international, add currency conversion fees and wire transfer costs.

This is the exploitative pyramid on top of transactions.

Every exchange between buyer and seller supports a towering structure of intermediaries, each extracting their piece, each defending their position as “necessary,” each fighting innovation that threatens their rent-seeking position.

But something fundamental is changing.

Not evolution. Inversion.

The Old Model: Pyramid on Top (Extraction Economy)

Picture every transaction as a direct line between buyer and seller. Now picture a massive pyramid sitting on top of that line, pressing down with its weight, extracting value at every level:

Layer 5: Regulatory arbitrageurs and compliance consultants
Layer 4: Industry associations and certification bodies
Layer 3: Advisors, consultants, and “experts”
Layer 2: Platforms, brokers, and agents
Layer 1: Payment processors and financial intermediaries
BASE: The actual buyer-seller transaction (crushed under the weight)

The pyramid extracts in two ways:

  1. Direct fees: Commissions, percentages, transaction costs
  2. Indirect costs: Delays, complexity, opacity, dependency

The defining characteristic:

The pyramid sits ON TOP, pressing down, making transactions harder, slower, and more expensive.

And here’s the key: the pyramid benefits from complexity. The more confusing the process, the more “necessary” the intermediaries become. They don’t just extract value—they actively create friction to justify their existence.

 Real-World Examples of the Exploitative Pyramid:

 Real Estate Transaction ($500K home):

  • Buyer’s agent: $15,000 (3%)
  • Seller’s agent: $15,000 (3%)
  • Title insurance: $2,500
  • Escrow fees: $2,000
  • Mortgage broker: $3,000
  • Inspections/Appraisals: $1,500

Total extraction: $39,000 (7.8%)

Time to close: 30-45 days

International Payment ($50,000):

  • Wire transfer fee: $50
  • Correspondent bank fees: $150
  • Currency conversion spread: $500 (1%)

Total extraction: $700 (1.4%)

Time to settle: 3-5 business days

 Hiring an Employee ($100K salary):

 Recruiter commission: $25,000 (25%)

  • Background check services: $500
  • Skills assessment platforms: $300

Total extraction: $25,800 (25.8%)

Time to hire: 60-90 days

 Business Planning (Annual):

  • Financial consultant: $60,000
  • Workforce planning advisor: $40,000
  • Marketing ROI consultant: $35,000

Total extraction: $135,000

Time to implement: 3-6 months

Notice the pattern: High extraction + Long delays + Complex processes = Maximum dependency

The New Model: Pyramid Underneath (Support Economy)

Now imagine that same buyer-seller transaction.

But instead of a pyramid on top extracting value, there’s a pyramid underneath—providing support, infrastructure, and intelligence.

BASE TRANSACTION: Direct buyer-seller exchange (instant, transparent, low-cost)
Layer 1: AI providing intelligence, analysis, and decision support
Layer 2: Blockchain providing trust, verification, and settlement
Layer 3: Smart contracts automating execution and compliance
Layer 4: Decentralized infrastructure (storage, compute, networks)
Layer 5: Open protocols and standards (no gatekeepers)

The defining characteristic:

The pyramid sits UNDERNEATH, lifting up, making transactions easier, faster, and cheaper.

This inverted pyramid doesn’t extract—it supports. It doesn’t create friction—it removes it. It doesn’t benefit from complexity—it thrives on simplicity.

The Same Transactions in the New Model:

Real Estate Transaction ($500K home) – Web3 Version:

  • Smart contract execution: $50
  • Blockchain title recording: $100
  • AI home valuation: $20
  • Digital inspection report: $200
  • Total cost: $370 (0.07%)
  • Time to close: 24-48 hours
  • Savings: $38,630 (99% reduction in extraction)

International Payment ($50,000) – Crypto Version:

  • Stablecoin transfer: $2
  • Network fee: $5
  • Instant settlement: $0
  • Total cost: $7 (0.01%)
  • Time to settle: 3-15 seconds
  • Savings: $693 (99% reduction)

Hiring an Employee ($100K salary) – AI Version:

  • AI skills matching: $50
  • Automated reference verification: $20
  • Smart contract employment agreement: $10
  • Total cost: $80 (0.08%)
  • Time to hire: 3-7 days
  • Savings: $25,720 (99.7% reduction)

Business Planning (Annual) – Zintoro AI Version:

  • AI-powered planning platform: $4,200/year
  • Real-time scenario modeling: Included
  • Predictive analytics: Included
  • Total cost: $4,200

Time to implement: 3 minutes to connect, instant insights

Savings: $130,800 (97% reduction)

The inversion is complete: 99% less extraction, 99% faster execution, 100% more transparency.

The Three Forces Driving The Inversion

Cryptocurrency: The Trust Layer Without Trustees

Bitcoin’s breakthrough wasn’t digital money—it was trustless transactions.

For the first time in history, two parties can exchange value directly without trusting each other OR a third party. The blockchain is the trust layer, but it doesn’t extract rent for providing trust.

Old model: Bank sits on top, charges fees, delays settlement, controls access
New model: Protocol sits underneath, costs pennies, settles instantly, open to all

Crypto removes the most expensive intermediary of all: the financial intermediary.

Visa transaction: 2.5% + $0.10, 2-3 days settlement
Bitcoin Lightning: $0.003, instant settlement
Ethereum stablecoin: $2-5, 15 seconds settlement

The pyramid on top extracted billions. The infrastructure underneath costs nearly nothing.

  1. Artificial Intelligence: The Intelligence Layer Without Experts

AI’s breakthrough isn’t automation—it’s democratized expertise.

For the first time in history, anyone can access expert-level analysis, strategy, and decision-making without hiring experts. The AI is the intelligence layer, but it doesn’t charge consultant rates for providing intelligence.

Old model: Consultant sits on top, charges $200-500/hour, creates dependency
New model: AI sits underneath, costs $10-50/month, creates independence

AI removes the second most expensive intermediary: the knowledge intermediary.

Strategic consultant: $80,000 per engagement, 3-month timeline
AI strategy platform: $699/month, instant analysis

Financial advisor: $200/hour, recommends products with kickbacks
AI financial planner: $29/month, algorithm-driven optimization

Legal document review: $400/hour, 40 hours = $16,000
AI legal assistant: $50/month, instant analysis

The pyramid on top extracted your wealth. The infrastructure underneath multiplies it.

  1. Smart Contracts: The Execution Layer Without Executors

Smart contracts’ breakthrough isn’t automation—it’s trustless execution.

For the first time in history, agreements execute themselves based on predetermined conditions. No lawyers enforcing terms, no escrow agents holding funds, no judges settling disputes.

Old model: Intermediaries sit on top executing, enforcing, and extracting
New model: Code sits underneath executing automatically for gas fees

Smart contracts remove the third most expensive intermediary: the execution intermediary.

Real estate closing: $4,000 in escrow/title fees, 30 days
Smart contract escrow: $5-$50 in gas fees, instant

Music royalty collection: Label keeps 80%, pays quarterly
Smart contract royalties: Artist keeps 95%, pays per-stream

Freelance payment escrow: Upwork takes 20%, holds funds
Smart contract milestone: 1% fee, releases automatically

Why This Matters: The Economics of Inversion

When pyramids sit on top, they extract. When pyramids sit underneath, they multiply.

The Math of Extraction vs. Support

Traditional Transaction:

  • Value created by buyer and seller: $100
  • Value extracted by pyramid on top: $20-40
  • Value reaching participants: $60-80
  • Net value destruction: 20-40%

Inverted Transaction:

  • Value created by buyer and seller: $100
  • Cost of infrastructure underneath: $0.10-1
  • Value reaching participants: $99-99.90
  • Net value multiplication: Infrastructure enables $100 transaction that wouldn’t have happened (too expensive in old model)

The pyramid on top makes transactions worth less.
The pyramid underneath makes transactions worth more.

Real Example: The $10 Trillion Remittance Market

Old Model (Western Union on top):

  • Global remittances: $600 billion annually
  • Average extraction: 6.25%
  • Total value extracted: $37.5 billion
  • Speed: 3-5 days
  • Beneficiaries: Western Union shareholders

New Model (Crypto underneath):

  • Global crypto remittances: Growing rapidly
  • Average cost: <0.5%
  • Total cost: $3 billion (savings of $34.5 billion)
  • Speed: 3 seconds to 15 minutes
  • Beneficiaries: Senders and receivers (often unbanked populations)

That’s $34.5 billion per year moving from extraction to value delivery. That’s not disruption—that’s inversion.

The Support Pyramid in Action: How It Works

Let’s walk through a complete transaction in the new economy:

Scenario: Hiring a Developer Directly from Another Country

Old Pyramid (On Top – Extraction Model):

  1. Post job → LinkedIn charges $500/month for recruiter access
  2. Source candidates → Recruiter takes 25% of salary ($25K for $100K hire)
  3. Interview → Scheduling coordinators, multiple rounds
  4. Verify credentials → Background check services: $500
  5. Create contract → Lawyer: $2,000 to draft employment agreement
  6. Set up payment → International wire: $50 per transfer + 3% FX spread
  7. Manage compliance → HR consultant: $5,000 for international employment setup

Total extraction: $32,550 (32.5% of salary)
Time to productivity: 90-120 days
Result: Expensive, slow, opaque

New Pyramid (Underneath – Support Model):

  1. Post job → Decentralized talent network (free or $50 flat fee)
  2. AI matches candidates → Skills assessment + cultural fit algorithm ($0, platform feature)
  3. Smart interview scheduling → AI coordinates across time zones ($0, included)
  4. Verify credentials → Blockchain-verified credentials ($5 verification fee)
  5. Create contract → Smart contract template auto-generates ($10 deployment)
  6. Set up payment → Stablecoin salary payments ($2 per transaction)
  7. Manage compliance → AI ensures tax treaty optimization ($20/month)

Total cost: $315 (0.3% of salary)
Time to productivity: 7-14 days
Result: Cheap, fast, transparent

Savings: $32,235 + 75 days

What’s Different?

The extraction pyramid:

  • Benefits from complexity (more confusion = more fees)
  • Creates delays (time = more billable hours)
  • Maintains opacity (mystery = perceived value)
  • Fights innovation (disruption = lost revenue)

The support pyramid:

  • Benefits from simplicity (efficiency = more users)
  • Eliminates delays (speed = better product)
  • Ensures transparency (clarity = trust)
  • Embraces innovation (improvement = competitive advantage)

The Network Effects of Inversion

Here’s where it gets exponential.

When pyramids extract, they create negative network effects:

  • More users = more extraction = higher costs for everyone
  • Growth benefits the pyramid, not the participants

When pyramids support, they create positive network effects:

  • More users = better AI models = lower costs for everyone
  • Growth benefits everyone proportionally

Example: Payment Networks

Visa (Extraction Model):

  • 3.5 billion cardholders
  • Merchants pay 2-3% per transaction
  • More volume = more total extraction (higher absolute profits for Visa)

Merchants lose, Visa wins

Lightning Network (Support Model):

  • Growing adoption
  • Users pay $0.001-0.01 per transaction
  • More volume = better routing = cheaper/faster for everyone

Everyone wins proportionally

The old economy scaled extraction.

The new economy scales value.

The Objections (And Why They’re Wrong)

“But we need intermediaries for trust!”

No, we needed intermediaries before we had cryptographic trust.

Blockchain provides mathematical certainty. No trusted third party required. The code is the trust layer.

The real question: Do you trust math more than humans who profit from your transaction?

“But AI can’t replace human expertise!”

You’re right—it surpasses it.

AI doesn’t get tired, doesn’t have conflicts of interest, doesn’t charge by the hour, doesn’t hoard knowledge, and improves continuously.

Human experts will always exist for edge cases. But for 90% of decisions, AI delivers better, faster, cheaper analysis.

“But regulation requires intermediaries!”

No, regulation requires COMPLIANCE. Smart contracts can enforce compliance better than humans.

Regulators are catching up. Once they realize smart contracts can enforce rules more reliably than intermediaries, the regulatory moat disappears.

“But this will destroy jobs!”

It will destroy parasitic extraction. It will create productive value.

Yes, mortgage brokers will need new careers. So did telegraph operators, switchboard operators, and travel agents.

The question isn’t whether we should protect extractive jobs. It’s whether we should force everyone to pay extraction fees to preserve those jobs.

The Transition: From Extraction to Support

This inversion won’t happen overnight. But it’s inevitable.

Phase 1: Parallel Systems (We Are Here)

  • Old pyramid still dominant
  • New pyramid growing in niches
  • Early adopters getting 10x-100x savings
  • Incumbents dismissing as “fringe”

Phase 2: Competitive Pressure (Next 2-5 years)

  • New pyramid reaches critical mass
  • Cost differential becomes undeniable
  • Businesses switch to survive
  • Incumbents fighting regulatory battles

Phase 3: Rapid Inversion (5-10 years)

  • New pyramid becomes default
  • Old pyramid relegated to legacy systems
  • Massive wealth transfer from extraction to creation
  • Economic boom from capital freed up

Phase 4: Complete Inversion (10+ years)

  • Future generations ask: “Wait, people used to pay 6% to sell their house?”
  • Extraction economy viewed as barbaric
  • Support economy is just “the economy”

Real Companies Building the Support Pyramid

This isn’t theory. It’s happening now.

Financial Infrastructure:

  • Stripe (traditional): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
  • XRP,XLM  $0.003 per transaction (99.9% cheaper)

Smart Contracts:

  • Escrow.com (traditional): 3.25% of transaction value
  • Solano, Cardano, SUI, Ethereum escrow (DeFi): $1-$50 flat fee regardless of size

Business Planning:

  • McKinsey consultant (traditional): $500/hour, $200K+ engagements
  • Zintoro AI (support): $350month, instant insights

Hiring:

  • Robert Half recruiter (traditional): 25% of first-year salary
  • Braintrust (Web3): 10% fee, paid in tokens, no intermediary markup

Real Estate:

  • Traditional agents (extraction): 6% commission
  • Propy (blockchain): 1% or flat fee, smart contract settlement

Creator Economy:

  • Record label (extraction): Keeps 80% of revenue
  • Audius (Web3): Artist keeps 90%, smart contract royalties

The Zintoro Example: Business Planning Inverted

Let me bring this home with a concrete example.

The Old Pyramid on Top:

Business owner needs to plan for:

  • Cash flow and runway
  • Hiring and capacity
  • Customer growth and retention
  • Marketing ROI
  • Strategic decisions

The extraction pyramid:

  1. CFO consultant: $150-300/hour
  2. Workforce planning advisor: $200/hour
  3. Marketing ROI analyst: $175/hour
  4. Strategic planning facilitator: $400/hour
  5. Implementation consultants: $50-100K per project

Annual cost: $150,000-300,000

Dependency: Complete (you don’t own the models or insights)
Speed: 2–4-week turnaround for analysis
Result: Expensive advice you can’t afford to ignore OR act on

The New Pyramid Underneath:

Zintoro AI: Forecasting & Analytics Program

  • Connects to your business data (3 minutes)
  • Analyzes cash flow, workforce, inventory, facilities simultaneously
  • Runs unlimited scenarios in real-time
  • Provides predictive alerts and recommendations
  • Updates automatically as new data flows
  • Forecasts your next 12month Revenues, transactions, customers by branch and department with >97% accuracy

Annual cost: $4,200 (Professional plan)

Independence: Complete (you own your data and insights)
Speed: Instant analysis, unlimited questions
Result: Strategic intelligence for $11.50/day

Savings: $145,000-$292,000 annually (94-98% reduction)

The consultant pyramid sat on top, extracted six figures, and created dependency.

The AI pyramid sits underneath, costs $11.50/day, and creates independence.

This is the inversion. This is the future.

The Philosophical Shift: From Rent-Seeking to Value-Creation

At its core, this isn’t about technology. It’s about philosophy.

The Extraction Economy (Pyramid on Top):

  • Zero-sum: I win when you lose
  • Rent-seeking: Extract value from others’ creation
  • Complexity: Profit from confusion
  • Gatekeeping: Control access to maintain power
  • Scarcity mindset: Protect turf, resist change

The Support Economy (Pyramid Underneath):

  • Positive sum: We all win together
  • Value-creation: Enable others to create more
  • Simplicity: Profit from clarity
  • Open access: Growth comes from inclusion
  • Abundance mindset: Better tools = bigger pie

The old economy asked: “How can I extract value from this transaction?”

The new economy asks: “How can I enable more value creation?”

One leads to rent-seeking parasites on top of every transaction.

The other leads to intelligent infrastructure beneath every transaction.

The Call to Action: Choose Your Pyramid

If you’re a business owner, the choice is stark:

Keep feeding the extraction pyramid:

  • Pay 20-40% of every transaction to intermediaries
  • Wait days/weeks for what could be instant
  • Stay dependent on gatekeepers
  • Accept opacity and complexity

Or switch to the support pyramid:

  • Pay 0.1-1% for infrastructure
  • Get instant execution
  • Gain independence through direct access
  • Enjoy transparency and simplicity

If you’re building a company, the choice is existential:

Build on the extraction model:

  • Extract value from users
  • Create moats through complexity
  • Fight innovation that threatens your rent
  • Get disrupted within 5-10 years

Or build on the support model:

  • Create value for users
  • Build moats through network effects
  • Embrace innovation as competitive advantage
  • Lead the next economic era

Conclusion: The Inevitable Inversion

The pyramid sitting on top of every transaction is crumbling.

Not because of ideology or activism, but because of mathematics.

Math doesn’t care about your business model:

  • 0.1% beats 6%
  • Instant beats 30 days
  • Transparent beats opaque
  • Direct beats intermediated

The only question is: How fast will the inversion happen?

That depends on how quickly people realize they have a choice.

You can keep paying the extraction tax.

Or you can flip the pyramid, put infrastructure underneath where it belongs, and keep the value you create.

The technology is ready.

The platforms are live.

The math is undeniable.

The inversion has begun.

Which side of history will you be on?

Try the support pyramid yourself:

For Business Planning: Zintoro – $350/mo. instead of $150K/year consultants

For Payments: XRP, XLM – $0.003 instead of 3%

For Smart Contracts: Ethereum, Cardano, XLM, Solano – $5-50 instead of $5,000 lawyers

For Property: Propy – 1% instead of 6% agents

The new economy isn’t coming.

It’s here.

Stop feeding the pyramid on top.

Start using the pyramid underneath.

The author invites discussion, debate, and dissent. The future is being built in public. Join the conversation.

Protecting Your Dealership from Online Impersonation Threats

This isn’t a hypothetical warning. Recently, one equipment dealership was hit by an impersonation scam that involved two fraudulent websites, multiple fake email accounts, and counterfeit social media pages.

The attackers copied the dealership’s name and branding, set up phone numbers and emails, and then used the fake accounts to:

  • Collect personal data from potential customers.
  • Post multiple different types of financing options available for equipment that didn’t exist.
  • Divert communication away from the real business using spoofed contact information.

By the time it was uncovered, customers were confused, and the dealership’s reputation was at risk.

What This Means for Dealers

This incident is a clear reminder: if it happened once, it could happen again. Criminals know dealerships are trusted community brands and are now targeting them with professional-looking copycat websites and accounts.

What You Can Do Right Now

Here are five steps every dealer should take:

  1. Monitor your brand online
    Regularly search for new domains, social profiles, or ads using your business name. Look for small variations like “implement-sales.com” that impersonators often use.
  2. Promote your official channels
    Make your real website, email addresses, and social media pages clear and visible so customers know what’s authentic.
  3. Educate customers and vendors
    Encourage them to verify unusual requests, like new payment instructions—by calling a trusted number.
  4. Strengthen your systems
    Use multifactor authentication (MFA), keep systems patched, and train employees to recognize phishing attempts.
  5. Plan your response
    If impersonation strikes, immediately collect evidence (screenshots, URLs, fake emails) and report it to registrars, hosting providers, email platforms, and social media sites for takedown.

How rocketwise Helps

At rocketwise, we’ve already guided dealers through this exact situation. Our team helps monitor for impersonation threats, file takedown requests, and secure dealership systems against future attacks.

But the best defense is prevention. That’s why we recommend every dealership start with a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment, to spot vulnerabilities before criminals do.

Next Step

As a benefit to Learning Without Scars, rocketwise is offering an initial Cybersecurity Risk Assessment at no cost. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of your current security posture and practical next steps to protect your dealership, your customers, and your reputation.

Schedule your complimentary Risk Assessment today at: meet.rocketwise.com/kenny

 

 

Breaking Down Silos

Why Leadership, Vision, and a North Star Matter in Every Dealership

A Paper by John Dowling

Walk into almost any heavy equipment dealership and you’ll see it: the parts department is scrambling to fill backorders, the service department is behind on work orders, sales arechasing the next big deal, and rental is hustling to keep machines moving. Everyone is busy, but not everyone is aligned.

The invisible barriers between departments – silos – are costing dealerships more than they realize. They’re destroying customer experience, demoralizing employees, and leaving millions of dollars of profit on the table.

Research backs this up: Harvard Business Review calls cross-silo leadership “devilishly difficult,” yet essential to performance. Salesforce reports that 70% of executives say silos are the biggest obstacle to delivering great customer service. And PwC estimates that silos waste the equivalent of a full workday every week for most organizations.

But here’s the truth: silos are not a technology problem, or a scheduling problem, or even a staffing problem. Silos are a leadership problem.

Silos = Bad Customer Service

Great customer service is never the product of one department. It only happens when parts, service, sales, and rental work together as one dealership.

When communication breaks down, customers feel it:

• They’re asked to repeat the same information to multiple employees.
• Repairs stall because one department doesn’t know what the other is doing.
• Sales promises one thing, while service or rental delivers another.

At that point, the customer doesn’t care how busy your teams are or how hard they’re working—they see a dealership that’s fragmented and disorganized. And fragmented dealerships lose customers.

The Root Cause: A Leadership Blind Spot

Most silos are created not by employees, but by the culture leadership allows—or creates.

• Short-term obsession: When owners and executives care only about this month’s profit instead of the dealership’s 5- or 10-year trajectory, departments turn inward. Everyone protects their turf instead of investing in long-term customer relationships.
• No vision, no alignment: IBM found that 72% of employees don’t fully understand their company’s strategy. In dealerships, this is often because there isn’t one—or at least, it hasn’t been clearly communicated. When leadership fails to define success, each department makes up its own.
• Profit over people: When ownership signals that dollars matter more than customers or employees, managers will do whatever it takes to make their numbers—even if it undermines other departments.
• Compensation and KPIs that reward silos: If managers are paid on departmental success alone, they will naturally optimize for their own scorecard. That might mean service inflates recovery rates, parts hoards margins, or sales dumps machines without considering lifecycle profitability.

The result? Departments become competitors instead of collaborators. Turf wars erupt. Communication shuts down. And culture turns toxic.

The Business Cost of Silos

The impact of silos isn’t just “soft.” It hits the bottom line hard.

• Productivity Loss: Studies show employees waste 7–12 hours a week hunting down siloed information. That’s over 350 hours per year per person—a full day of productivity every week.
• Customer Churn: Salesforce research shows customers expect consistent, connected experiences across every department. When you can’t deliver, they leave.
• Missed Revenue: Siloed communication leads to missed upsell opportunities—service doesn’t know sales is quoting a machine, parts don’t know a customer is frustrated with turnaround times, rental doesn’t know service has a chronic repair issue.
• Employee Morale: A toxic, fragmented environment drives away your best talent. And in today’s labor market, replacing them costs more than ever.

What’s Really Holding Your Dealership Back

In my book What’s Really Holding Your Dealership Back? I argue that the true barrier to dealership growth isn’t the economy, the OEM, or even the labor shortage. The biggest obstacle is internal drag—the inefficiencies, poor processes, and cultural walls we allow inside our own four walls.

Silos are the most obvious symptom of that drag. They waste time, erode trust, and kill the very thing every dealership needs to thrive: a culture of collaboration, accountability, and customer focus.

Breaking Down Silos: A Leadership Playbook

So how do you fix it? It starts at the top. Leaders must:

1. Cast a Clear North Star

Every dealership needs a commander’s intent—a simple, plain-language vision of what winning looks like. Not just “make money for the owner,” but a compelling goal: deliver best-in-class service, grow absorption, and become the most trusted partner in your market.

Without a North Star, people make up their own. And when everyone is following their own compass, you end up with silos.

2. Align Goals, KPIs, and Compensation

If your comp plan rewards managers for protecting their department at the expense of the dealership, you are literally paying people to build silos.

Redesign the compensation so that 20–30% is tied to dealership-wide outcomes, including absorption, customer retention, first-time fix, and on-time invoice. Create shared KPIs across departments—when service wins, parts wins, and sales wins, too.

3. One Customer, One Record

Stop treating CRM as a sales-only tool. Every customer-facing employee—parts, service, rental, whole goods—needs access to the same information. Everyone should be able to see open work orders, equipment history, and account status.

When you share data, you eliminate blind spots. When you eliminate blind spots, you eliminate silos.

4. Build Cross-Department Communication

Create weekly “Production Councils” where sales, parts, service, and rental managers meet to share issues and priorities. Hold daily store-level huddles. Establish monthly account reviews for your top 25 customers.

Conflict will come up—and that’s a good thing. Healthy conflict is how you solve problems. But leaders must model how to surface and resolve conflict instead of letting it fester into walls.

5. Celebrate Inter-Department Wins

Culture is shaped by what leadership celebrates. If the CEO only praises big sales, don’t be surprised when sales ignore everyone else. Recognize when service, parts, and rental collaborate to deliver for a customer. Reward teamwork, not turf wars.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Dealerships can’t afford to operate like a collection of fiefdoms anymore. The labor market is tight, customer expectations are higher, and margins are thinner.

Your dealership is only as strong as its weakest department. If sales are flying high but service is broken, customers leave. If service is humming but parts are out of stock, customers leave. If rental is strong but sales is siloed, customers leave.

The only path forward is unity: one vision, one set of goals, one dealership.

My Call to Leaders

If your dealership has silos, that’s not your employees’ fault. That’s a leadership problem. And leadership is the only solution.

Breaking down silos isn’t easy. But I’ve seen it transform operations, improve absorption, strengthen cultures, and most importantly, deliver best-in-class customer service.

That’s why I wrote Service by the Boxes—to help leaders see service departments not as chaos, but as structured systems that can be managed, measured, and improved. And it’s why I wrote What’s Really Holding Your Dealership Back—to expose the internal drag that kills profitability.

If your dealership feels stuck in constant firefighting, if you’re tired of babysitting turf wars between departments, or if you’re simply not seeing the profitability and customer satisfaction you know is possible, I want you to know—you don’t have to stay in that chaos. I’m here to help.

My passion is helping dealerships increase revenue, build stronger teams, and create fulfilling careers for their employees. The first step is simple: set up a free consultation with me. Call me directly at 979-337-4339 or email me at jo**@***************es.com.

Let’s talk about what’s really holding your dealership back and build a plan for success. And as a bonus, for a limited time, you can also download my new book What’s Really Holding Your Dealership Back? for free here: https://servicebytheboxes.com/download-ebook/ .

If A New Technology Seems “Unnatural” or “Dystopian,” Consider What It’s Replacing

“Natural/unnatural” and “good/bad” are orthogonal axes

A Paper by Sam Matey Coste

From personal conversations to news articles to regulatory standards to cultural depictions of technology, this writer has found that the world would be much better served if more people took the time to subject their thinking to a simple test: if a new technology seems dystopian, consider what it’s replacing. Intertwined with this, I’d like to posit another rule of thumb: if a primary argument against something new is that it’s “unnatural,” that’s a good sign that it’s probably not actually bad.

Very often, media coverage and intuitive personal responses to new technologies boil down to “it’s unnatural/new/strange, therefore it’s bad.” From solar farms to self-driving cars to next-generation vaccines, we regularly hear “unnatural” (or similar forms like “industrial”) used as an attack against new ideas and tools, as if that accusation alone formed a meaningful argument. This causes a lot of problems and unnecessarily slows down a wide range of positive change.

First, let’s try to define our terms for the purpose of this article.

For “good” and “bad,” while endlessly debatable on the margins, I’m going with the effective global consensus definition as neatly expressed by Steven Pinker in Enlightenment Now.

“Most people agree that life is better than death.

✓ Health is better than sickness.
✓ Sustenance is better than hunger.
✓ Wealth is better than poverty.
✓ Peace is better than war.
✓ Safety is better than danger.
✓ Freedom is better than tyranny.
✓ Equal rights are better than bigotry and discrimination.
✓ Literacy is better than illiteracy.
✓ Knowledge is better than ignorance.
✓ Intelligence is better than dull wittedness.
✓ Happiness is better than misery.

Opportunities to enjoy family, friends, culture, and nature are better than drudgery and monotony.”— Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker

As for “natural,” that’s arguably a bit more complicated. There’s a school of thought that holds that since humans are animals that evolved on Earth, everything we create is “natural” because it’s an extended phenotype of a species, like a beaver dam or a termite mound. This is arguably true in a philosophical sense, but it’s a bit word-gamey; that’s just not what most people mean when they talk about something being “natural.”

So, let’s leave aside the “skyscraper = termite mound” argument and explore the commonly understood “human technology is unnatural” terminology. I’m pretty sure most people talking about “unnatural” technology don’t want to go back to dowsing for ants with sticks like a chimpanzee group. You do sometimes see people making spirited “degrowth”-style arguments about the superiority of Paleolithic-level hunter-gathering or medieval-level subsistence farming as a lifestyle1, but these tend to founder pretty hard when confronted with the absence of absolutely critical standard of living improvements like “indoor plumbing” or “smallpox vaccines” or “C-sections to prevent death by childbirth.”

So, let’s be maximally charitable to the “technology is unnatural” argument and say that some kind of technological civilization is okay, but newer or more recent technologies are particularly “unnatural.” Well, one of the first things that I notice is that the goalposts seem to keep shifting on exactly what time horizon saw the crossover from “natural human technology” to “unnatural human technology.” In communication technology, for example, the Internet was once widely considered unnatural2, and TV before that, and cheaply printed novels before that. This writer suspects that most people’s actual working intuitive standard of naturalness is basically that “human technology that changes things from the way they were when I was a child is unnatural.” This XKCD comic and these Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett quotes explore relevant examples.

One could add a panel in 320 BC detailing how Socrates detested writing for destroying the memory…

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new, exciting, and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

– Douglas Adams.

‘Not natural, in my view…Not in favor of unnatural things. Do you mean, you eat your meat raw and sleep in a tree?

– Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant.

In particular, this is a common “failure mode” this writer sees in responses to discussion of new technologies that can solve big problems, but in an “unnatural” way, from the comparatively well-accepted but still under-attack genetically modified crops, solar power, and mRNA vaccines to hotly-debated issues like cell-cultivated meat and self-driving cars to the “still pretty far out” stuff like geoengineering or even artificial wombs. All of these technologies can sound scary and dystopian to some people, but I believe that the evidence is overwhelming that all of these have at least the potential to be a substantial improvement than the status quo, and we should therefore support and accelerate the process of researching, developing, testing, refining, optimizing, and eventually deploying them.

Here’s what this kind of “anti-unnatural bias” can look like in practice. When this writer brings up any of the many awesome new meat replacement technologies—even something as innocuous as the plant-based Beyond Burger, let alone the new frontier of cell-cultivated meat(—)a lot of people have an immediate negative reaction, expressing fear, disgust, or apprehension at such an “unnatural” future. This is often from the very same people who care a lot about animals, who are vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, and/or have strong opinions about enforcing animal welfare in farms.

That is, to put it gently, an extremely incoherent position to hold. Cultivated meat isn’t a dystopian future, factory-farmed meat is a dystopian present!

The world is full of such examples of “ignoring the dystopian present.”

In the present, right now, over 8.9 billion chickens, 66 million cows and 71 million pigs are factory-farmed in  the United States alone.

1.35 million humans per year, or almost 3,700 per day, are killed in collisions and crashes on Earth’s roadways, currently dominated by human-driven cars.

As of 2019, about 900,000 human babies per year died due to being born preterm.

It seems to this writer that given these conditions as the status quo, we should default to being in favor of accelerating the development and deployment of cell-cultivated meat, self-driving cars, and artificial wombs! And the same holds for lots and lots of other cases, including practically all of the medical research and clean energy fields given vast death tolls from disease and air pollution.

Self-driving cars (which are proving to be safer) aren’t a dystopian future, mass deaths from car crashes are a (relatively) dystopian present.

Spreading solar farms sheltering biodiversity aren’t a dystopian future, deaths from air pollution and escalating global warming is a dystopian present.

Injecting weird-sounding mRNA vaccines isn’t a dystopian future, dying of preventable diseases is a dystopian present.

We have many, many opportunities to build a much better world, and speeding up that process makes a huge difference for vast numbers of lives! And yet many people in developed countries these days, if not most, seem to have an attitude ranging from ambivalence to negativity towards transformative new technologies. Even world-improving technologies like renewable energy and vaccines that have clearly proven their manifest value over and over again still face disturbingly widespread bands of die-hard opponents. The most “anti-technology” elements of the political “left” and “right” have formed an unholy alliance that now runs the United States government and is actively attacking science, research, and innovation across the board.

Over and over again, new technologies, conditions, and systems are held to a disproportionately high standard, while existing technologies, conditions, and systems, even when they kill thousands or torture millions every year, are accepted as “that’s just the way it is.” We find it much easier to fear hypothetical dystopian futures than to acknowledge real-life dystopian presents. There are probably a lot of understandable psychological reasons for this; we’d probably go insane if we tried to truly comprehend all the suffering in the world. You can’t live a life like that.

✓ Globally 4.3% of all children die before they are 15 years old. – The world is awful.
✓ Ine the past around 50% of all children died. Today 4.3% of all children do. – The world is much better.
✓ Globally 4.3% of all children die. In the European Union 0.45% of all children die. – The world can do much better.

​From Our World in Data.

But humanity has demonstrated an extraordinary potential to make the world a much, much better place, particularly since the dawn of our emerging Earth-born technological civilization. The “dystopian present” is often a substantial improvement on an even worse past and can become better still in the future. Quite often, major positive changes are caused by “unnatural” new systems and technologies, however you define that. That intersection of “good” and “unnatural” is one of the things I try to write about in my newsletter, from wildlife thriving in human-dominated urban landscapes to advanced clean energy bringing abundant power while benefiting biodiversity to incredible new medical developments improving the lives of millions.

Of course, new things sometimes cause brand-new problems, from leaded gasoline poisoning to thalidomide babies to rapid-onset human-caused climate change (burning fossil fuels was new once, too). It may seem like a “cheat” to praise “unnatural” new technologies like renewable energy and cell-cultivated meat for helping solve the problems of the fossil fuel industry and factory farming. Fossil fuels and factory farming were themselves once widely considered “unnatural” new technologies fighting to help solve the problems of dire energy poverty and food poverty being the base state of most of humanity. But those were really big problems, and the new technologies did, in fact, mostly solve them, at least compared to preindustrial norms. They then created new problems, which I think new technologies are on track to solve in their turn.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that “good/bad” and “natural/unnatural” are differentthings, and new, scary seeming “unnatural” things often turn out to be very good for humanity. That’s very different from saying that anything new or unnatural is by definition good. It’s just a call to judge things more on the “good/bad” axis and less on the “natural/unnatural” axis, because “natural/unnatural” is a pretty terrible proxy for “good/bad!”

 

A quick visual aid I whipped up to help illustrate what I’m talking about. Note that I’m only intending to use this as a four-quadrant qualitative categorization, not a quantitative differentiation within quadrants.

1. Cancer, malaria, smallpox, intestinal parasites, infanticide, and war3 are all totally natural, in the sense that they existed before Homo sapiens, but they’re bad!
2. Solar panels, flush toilets, mRNA vaccines, weather forecasting, and AI-designed medicines are all deeply unnatural, in the sense that they’re made by humans and don’t resemble pre-human items or processes, but they’re good!
3. Chemical weapons, air pollution, leaded gasoline, ozone-depleting CFCs, , malicious uses of AI-generated deepfakes, cryptocurrency bribes, and totalitarian governments are unnatural, and they’re bad.
4. Fresh fruit, clean air, clean water, photosynthesis, the ozone layer, and healthy ecosystems are natural4, and good.

“Natural/unnatural” and “good/bad” are entirely different axes of meaning, orthogonal to each other, and don’t seem to correlate that well. This writer is extremely confident in that statement, and although it’s inherently subjective, it appears to be backed up by reasonably applicable data.

If your (or someone else’s) argument against a new technology is “But it’s unnatural!” the logical response is “So what? So are flush toilets, light bulbs, and dentistry. Give me a reasonit’s bad.” A better question to ask would be, “Who, if anyone, does this new thing kill, or hurt, or impoverish? And, critically, does it do that more or less than what we have now? Is this an improvement over what we have now, or not?”

By strongly advocating the disentanglement of the “good/bad” and “natural/unnatural” axes, I’m not at all trying to dismiss out of hand the classic “Burkean conservative” or “Chesterton’s fence” genre of arguments. To wildly over-summarize, those arguments boil down to “don’t break down old things (institutions, policies, social norms, etc) just because you don’t understand their use and/or they seem bad, consider what value they might be bringing that you’re unaware of.” In fact, I’m trying to provide a complement to those argument, arguably an attempt to deploy “cautiousness” or the “small-c conservative” mindset from the perspective of the future: I’m trying to say “don’t break down new things just because you don’t understand their use and/or they seem bad, consider what value they might be bringing that you’re unaware of!”

We can solve lots of objectively bad environmental, social, and public health problems by using “unnatural” technologies and processes (solar panels! vaccines!) and it’s important to remember that. We can also solve lots of objectively bad problems using “natural” technologies and processes (planting trees for shade! marshes preventing erosion!), and it’s important to remember that as well.

So please, whenever applicable in your life, as a voter, consumer, patient, caregiver, worker, and citizen, try to judge new technologies, ideas, and processes by really thinking through whether their effects will be on net good or bad, whatever those values mean to you. Whether it’s “natural” or “unnatural,” may be interesting, but it’s not relevant.

1. Although funnily enough you almost never see these people trying it themselves.
2. That’s not to say that the Internet (or TV, radio, or the printing press, for that matter) are 100% good (although I do think that all four are a net benefit to the world, so far), just that it doesn’t make sense to condemn them as bad for being “unnatural” given that pretty much all of human existence is “unnatural,” including many great and good things.
3. Wait, war existed before modern humans? Yes; chimpanzee groups have been observed waging multi-year high-casualty conflicts which most researchers describe as “wars.”
4. One could of course nitpick all of these ad infinitum: most commonly eaten fruits are the result of generations of selective breeding, clean air and clean water can be produced by filtration systems and you could make a case that in the context of a technological civilization they’re a function of the legal and regulatory environment even in the wild, etc. But come on, you know what I’m trying to say here! I’m working with the quasi-consensus socially accepted definitions of “good,” “bad,” “natural,” and “unnatural,” these are not precisely defined terms.

,

Marketing Strategies that Every Dealer Needs

A Paper by Debbie Frakes and Steve Clegg.

Heavy equipment dealers have to generate business consistently and ensure that their current business keeps coming to them instead of going to the competition. That means that they need to be on the lookout for new customers constantly, make it easy for prospects to find them, and consistently provide the best service possible. In order to accomplish these goals, there are four key marketing strategies that every dealer should be implementing:

• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Monthly email marketing
• Email distribution list expansion
• Search engine optimization (SEO)

Our partner company, Winsby, offers these services and more. They act as your full marketing department and put a team of writers, designers, programmers, callers, and marketing managers at your disposal. Below are some of the results that they produce for their clients.

Customer satisfaction surveys

The quickest way to uncover issues that customers are having with your products, services, or processes is to call and ask them. The sooner you learn about problems, the faster you can solve them, before a customer leaves you for another dealer. By having a third party conduct the surveys, like our partner company Winsby, people will tend to be more candid than they would be with your own employees. Their surveys boost customer retention by 30% and provide their clients with an ROI up to 2,395X.

Monthly email marketing

75% of B2B companies say they prefer email over other types of marketing communications. Marketing emails are effective, because they remind customers and prospects about everything you do and establish you as a resource for them, so when it comes time to make a purchase, they think of you. The emails that Winsby sends out on behalf of their clients increase customer purchases two to three times and deliver an ROI of over 1,000X.

Email distribution list expansion

The effectiveness of your emails starts with your list. The problem is that more than 20% of an equipment dealer’s email distribution list goes bad every year. To keep it current, you have to continuously find new prospects who look like your customers, call them, and add them to your list. You should also call through your current list to ensure you still have the correct information for all your contacts. The key is to get the email address of the person at the company who can actually make the decision to purchase your products or services.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The best equipment dealer websites are the ones that bring new customers in through the door. But before your site can accomplish that, you need to show up in search rankings for the people looking for your products and services. Winsby will consistently add keyword rich blog posts and new page content, so your website ranks better, and more people find you!

If you want to start generating significantly more business for your equipment dealership, then contact Winsby today. They will be your full marketing department for the cost of just one full time employee and help you implement these strategies to make more sales and keep your current customers happy.