Editing 1772: Startup Opportunity
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
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[[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|company]], first seen in [[1032: Networking]], [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1493: Meeting]], returns, and its purpose is as vague as ever. | [[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|company]], first seen in [[1032: Networking]], [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1493: Meeting]], returns, and its purpose is as vague as ever. | ||
− | Analysts, brought in to advise his company, determine that it doesn't actually serve any purpose | + | Analysts, brought in to advise his company, determine that it doesn't actually serve any purpose. Ironically, many analysts also don't actually serve any purpose. Beret Guy is dumbfounded, claiming that his company must do ''something'', and takes a line of reasoning that faintly resembles the sort of logic a child might use. A child that visits an office building might conclude that an office does a lot because there are a lot of employees working inside, unaware that what really makes a successful business is how efficiently it uses its employees to deliver goods and services to the consumer. Beret Guy reasons that having many administrators (chairmen) must mean the company does something. Administration is overhead in a business, but it often becomes a major focus, especially for those doing it. |
− | + | Alternatively, chair might be taken to mean seating. In which case, Beret Guy, demonstrating yet again that he has even less sense for business than your average child, uses the number of chairs in the workplace as a yardstick for success, with no mention of his actual, human workforce. It may even be a stretch to say that a child would make the same assumption based on the number of chairs. | |
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The analysts suggest that Beret Guy find an industry to disrupt. The mention of "industry" immediately reminds Beret Guy of {{w|SimCity}}, where Industrial (along with Residential and Commercial) is one of the three main zone types - it allows factories and farms to develop. {{w|Disruptive innovation|Disruption}} means coming up with a product that redefines what the market expects and leaving existing competitors in the dust (for instance, smartphones disrupted mobile, digital photography disrupted film, and air travel disrupted rail and sea travel (and is in turn being disrupted by high-speed rail)) - it's now an industry buzzword and virtually every company claims to be "disruptive". | The analysts suggest that Beret Guy find an industry to disrupt. The mention of "industry" immediately reminds Beret Guy of {{w|SimCity}}, where Industrial (along with Residential and Commercial) is one of the three main zone types - it allows factories and farms to develop. {{w|Disruptive innovation|Disruption}} means coming up with a product that redefines what the market expects and leaving existing competitors in the dust (for instance, smartphones disrupted mobile, digital photography disrupted film, and air travel disrupted rail and sea travel (and is in turn being disrupted by high-speed rail)) - it's now an industry buzzword and virtually every company claims to be "disruptive". | ||
− | When pointed in the right direction, Beret Guy realizes that the main industry he deals with is weird disappearing shops selling cursed goods | + | When pointed in the right direction, Beret Guy realizes that the main industry he deals with is weird disappearing shops selling cursed goods. This is [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday a common trope] in fantasy stories, and as soon as [[Hairy]] hears about it he wants out of the building, but as his colleagues point out it also bears more than a passing resemblance to many dodgy {{w|startup companies}}. These appear suddenly with a lot of promotion and a marketable idea, looking for {{w|venture capital}} (or, a lot of times in recent times, pre-orders on {{w|Kickstarter}}). However, many startups fail - either because they didn't take into account the difficulties involved in bringing a product to market, or because they were an active scam - and disappear without a trace, leaving customers either empty handed or with a buggy product that falls short of promises. As [[Cueball]] notes, these cursed shops are actually the perfect startup, at least from a moneymaking perspective. This humorously ignores the more obvious larger problem, that such a business would be impossible to create due to not actually having magical items to sell. Apparently, the business may become one, if he does spend most of his money there. |
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− | + | As with most Beret Guy comics, there are multiple layers of absurdity. For a start, the fact that he-and by extension, the rest of the cast-live in a world including supernatural shops is, while not inconsistent, still supernatural. The assertion that this is where he buys most of his materials and other products is also curious, given the shops' inherent temporary nature, as it implies either something about him causes these shops to appear, or that he is drawn to these shops instinctively. Most absurdly, he apparently purchases his <i>food</i> from these establishments (which may also serve as an explanation for his 'soup outlet' in [[1293: Job Interview]]), despite previously stating everything they sell is cursed, conjures troubling images in the mind of <i>how</i> exactly food would be cursed-and its effects. Perhaps this explains Beret Guy's [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. | |
− | + | The title text alludes to the fact that irrespective of whether or not there is formal regulation, it is unwise to anger a group of people who have access to cursed magical items. It is easy to imagine numerous ways they could make one's life substantially worse.<sup>[[[285|''citation needed'']]]</sup><noinclude> | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | [ | + | [Beret Guy is sitting in a board meeting] |
:White Hat: We've discovered that your company doesn't do anything. | :White Hat: We've discovered that your company doesn't do anything. | ||
:Beret Guy: How is that possible?! We have so many chairs! | :Beret Guy: How is that possible?! We have so many chairs! | ||
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:White Hat: You need to find an industry to disrupt. | :White Hat: You need to find an industry to disrupt. | ||
:Beret Guy: An...industry? | :Beret Guy: An...industry? | ||
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:White Hat: I don't know. What's something you spend a lot of money on? | :White Hat: I don't know. What's something you spend a lot of money on? | ||
− | [Beat panel | + | [Beat panel] |
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:Beret Guy: You know those mysterious shops that sell you magical items, and then it turns out they're cursed, but when you go back later there's no sign the shop was ever there? | :Beret Guy: You know those mysterious shops that sell you magical items, and then it turns out they're cursed, but when you go back later there's no sign the shop was ever there? | ||
:Beret Guy: I get most of my stuff from those. | :Beret Guy: I get most of my stuff from those. | ||
:Beret Guy: Like groceries. | :Beret Guy: Like groceries. | ||
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:Hairy: We should go. | :Hairy: We should go. | ||
:Hairbun: Wait. High-value sales, no regulation, and when customers try to complain, they can't find you... | :Hairbun: Wait. High-value sales, no regulation, and when customers try to complain, they can't find you... | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] | ||
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