a book
Narconomics
Tom Wainwright · 2016 · 320 pages
Everything drug cartels do to survive and prosper they’ve learnt from big business – brand value and franchising from McDonald’s, supply chain management from Walmart, diversification from Coca-Cola. Whether it’s human resourcing, R&D, corporate social responsibility, off-shoring, problems with e-commerce or troublesome changes in legislation, the drug lords face the same strategic concerns companies like Ryanair or Apple. So when the drug cartels start to think like big business, the only way to understand them is using economics.
In Narconomics, Tom Wainwright meets everyone from coca farmers in secret Andean locations, deluded heads of state in presidential palaces, journalists with a price on their head, gang leaders who run their empires from dangerous prisons and teenage hitmen on city streets - all in search of the economic truth.
recommended by 2 people
sourced from public statements
Andrej Karpathy
“Once in a while you read a book that shatters your preconceptions and updates your world view. In the wonderful "Narcoeconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel", Tom Wainwright (an editor at The Economist), explores the narcotics industry through an economic lens. You'll see how drug cartels are much more like McDonalds or Walmart than you previously thought: optimizing their supply chains, competing, forming mergers, colluding, worrying about human resources, public relations and brand building, offshoring, franchising, investing in R&D, dealing with rise of disruptive online marketplaces, diversifying (kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking). You'll see flawed prison systems much more as recruiting grounds, jobs fairs or networking events. You'll see full-body tattoos as an employee retention strategy. By the end of it, you'll emerge with a more complete and coherent picture of the narcotics industry and its dynamics, understand why Nixon's war on drugs has been so ineffective, and maybe get a few hints of how we could do better. 5/5.”
Andreas Klinger
“FYI: what i read this year (following @vcstarterkit's rule) Bold the ones i would highly recommend. I switched to mainly listening to audiobooks and only "read" for entertainment. Hence mostly space scifi.”↗
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