I address my message today to the Terrifying Triplets, the authors of present day doom and gloom – not only in their respective superpowers but worldwide. I am not referring to the pandemic. I give the Triplets the benefit of doubt on that one. I am talking about the games they play with people’s lives.

Hey, doom-doom-doomers, please put some ice in your hats and cool it. Let’s not get crazy – or rather, let’s not get any more crazy.

To summarise the mess that the doomers have made so far:

Trump, America’s Darth Vader, managed to slice his country in two with his laser beam of alternative facts and bullying. While he was at it, he sliced a big chunk off the base of Western democracy and made us question its survival; trust and human decency were suddenly in short supply. Now he is trying to claw his way back into the presidential game.

In the meantime, Xi Jinping has been busy doggedly enacting Orwell’s 1984. After perfecting his mind control- surveillance- social engineering strategy on his test site, the Uighurs, he has been slowly rolling out the concept to all of China and is now ready for worldwide expansion.

It is understandable that Putin has felt a little bit left out. No to mention the fact that others have been picking on him. The Ukraine mess is not of Putin’s making alone. This may partially explain why he has gone into full Peter the Great mode. Traditional war is so old and out, but you use what you have, when trolling and cyberattacks alone won’t do the trick.

Seriously doomers, why are you wasting your energy on bullying, trolling and outright war, whether physical or virtual.

Any strategy adviser worth her or his salt would tell you that you should tend to your existing portfolios and turn around present businesses, not spread your efforts to markets, where establishing yourself will cost you dearly, only to result in failure.

While you are at it, beware of halving your portfolio as Trump did.

The first thing a strategist learns is that you need to understand the market. Is it worth the effort? Then you look at the business. What is key to market success: the people, the IPR:s, the technology (be it software or hardware), or other immaterial or physical assets? Can you hold on to those assets? Can you add value to the business? Can you scale the business? What about the culture? What obstacles will you face upon integration? Is it all worth the price you will have to pay?

As I am not that familiar with the ins and outs of other countries, I will take Finland as an example. Finland is very much a people business. The country has survived mostly on brains and Finnish ‘sisu’. The latter translates into strength of will, determination, perseverance and acting rationally in the face of adversity.

The market is small and the business is not scalable.

A hostile takeover would not end well in this case example. Even niceoldladies would turn nasty overnight. The end result would compare to the acquisition of a thriving consultancy business at a high price, only to find that the consultants you paid so much for are now fully committed to undermining your business efforts any which way they can.

Not-so-dear doomers, you should be focusing on sustainable organic growth rather than costly growth by acquisition. You should be cleaning up your political closets, tending to the needs of your people and addressing the crucial question of climate change.

As you, my readers, have noted by now, this is not a blog about the video game Doom. Some of you may even have noticed that I am paraphrasing Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin in my headline.

Pre-Omicron, Ms. Marin and her husband were caught clubbing with friends and acquaintances. Contrary to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s partying that is presently making the headlines, Marin’s clubbing was – at the time – fully in line with the COVID restrictions placed on Finns in general, albeit not fully in line with the added restrictions placed on cabinet ministers. Hence Marin’s political opponents and the media had a field day criticising her and dubbing her ‘the party princess’.

Normally the clubbing incident would be history by now. However, Marin unwittingly made it unforgettable at one sweep, when she tried to put a stop to the discussion on Instagram. The text of her post read: “Hey, boom-boom-boomer, put ice in your hat and cool it.” Needless to say, the post was not well-received by Finnish boomers.

Despite being a boomer myself, I was fine with the not-too-wild-at-all clubbing, but the Instagram post made me question Marin’s political acumen. The incident, once again, proved that prime ministers should not personally tweet or post on Instagram.

Not that Mr. Johnson did any better, when he tried to brush off the matter of the Downing Street party that broke the COVID lockdown rules by stating: “Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules.” Seriously man, is that really the story you want to go with? Who do you think is in charge of setting those rules?

Both PM:s were clearly off their game during these incidents. But the thing that strikes me as worse is all the petty politicking and scandal-mongering that was – and still is -taking place around matters like this. Leaders have enough on their plate these days. Let’s keep our eye on the big issues.

You might think that this blog post is prompted by Russia’s present warmongering. You would be right and wrong. It is just part of the picture. The spreading of doom and gloom has been going on much longer. First we saw the tip of the iceberg, now the bulk of it is slowly coming into view.

The Terrifying Triplets are dinosaurs, who have lost themselves in dreams of past and future glory instead of addressing the everyday needs of their people.

Leaders with untenable strategies inevitably find themselves in a position they never sought: Sailing off alone towards the final sunset.

One can only hope that we don’t end up on the brink of extinction before these present day dinosaurs sail off and give the world a chance to do better.