Before we dive into strategies and tactics, we must address the elephant in the room: Is it ethical to profit during crisis?
The answer depends entirely on how you do it.
Price gouging essential supplies during disasters is unethical and often illegal. Spreading false information to manipulate markets is wrong. Exploiting desperate people's lack of options is predatory.
But creating genuine value during disruption? That's not just ethical—it's essential for recovery. When supply chains break, someone must build new ones. When businesses fail, someone must create employment. When old solutions stop working, someone must develop new ones. The people who do this work deserve to be rewarded.
Consider Ana, a logistics coordinator who lost her job when international shipping froze. She noticed local farmers couldn't get produce to urban customers while city dwellers couldn't access fresh food. Ana created a simple connection system, organizing neighborhood buying groups and coordinating direct farmer deliveries. She charged a fair fee for her coordination services. Was she profiting from crisis? Technically, yes. Was she creating essential value that helped both farmers and consumers? Absolutely.
The key distinction is value creation versus value extraction. Extractors take advantage of temporary imbalances to capture wealth without adding benefit. Creators identify genuine needs and build solutions. This book focuses exclusively on value creation strategies.