Brand Autopsy has posted an excerpt from Douglas Rushkoff‘s forthcoming book “GET BACK IN THE BOX: Innovation from the Inside Out” which is especially interesting to me given my recent revelation. I’m going to focus on the very first first line from the excerpt:

American companies are obsessed with window dressing because they’re reluctant, no, afraid, to look at whatever it is they really do and evaluate it from the inside out.

Exactly the point I was making recently in my earlier post when I said:

Followed logically, it raises the possibility that viral marketing – and my ideas related it – may be too close to core business and marketing issues (like corporate culture, brand identity, aso) for comfort.

In years past when I’d traveled overseas, especially in Asia, I was consistently amazed at the entrepreneurial efforts of local businesses; so much so I wondered why Americans didn’t exhibit the same level of capitalist behavior. I’d return fresh from a trip and wonder “What happened to us? Why isn’t every kid in America today itching to erect a lemonade stand during the summer?” It’s been decades since I’ve seen a lemonade stand (in real life, not one on television).

I’ve always suspected something but now more and more I believe it to be the case. Average people have for years followed their cues from big businesses. But increasingly big businesses have themselves forgotten what real capitalism is about. They’re so busy lobbying officials, forging high-level deals with other companies, and/or protecting their assets, that it seems they’ve largely forgotten what it is they do. In my opinion it’s not that the box needs redefining or expansion. It needs to stop shrinking.