The 5 important roles in a society/economy - Maker, Seller, Wealth Keeper, Investor, Customer

There are five main roles that participate in the society/economy. All elements must co-exist in harmony (supporting each other) in order for productivity to be sustained. They are:

1. Maker / Manufacturer
2. Seller / Marketer
3. Wealth Keeper
4. Investor
5. Consumer

An individual person may play multiple roles of the above, but it would be extraordinary if one person can cover more than two-three roles at once.

Why This Post ?

In my opinion it is very important for a person to identify his current role in the society so that he can understand and plan better for his or her future. I believe that it is specifically beneficial for Makers and Sellers to learn more about each other's zone and skill set.

By writing this post, I hope to remind myself and readers to be flexible and nimble so that we can re-shape and contribute to society.

Maker / Manufacturer

The Maker has the know-how of combining things (ingredients) in a specific order (a recipe) to produce something substantial. A profession that represents the maker role would be chef or baker. This role usually requires in-depth study, research and spending of initial capital before the substantial output can be produced. 

Makers may have the tendency to be introverts and in that case make poor sellers. Those who are successful in making contacts with Investors become business owners or managers, while those who don't are employed instead. This role also includes researchers, scientists, engineers, accountants and production line operators. In case you haven't noticed, this role requires a combination of hard skills.

Seller / Marketer

The Marketer plays a big function in getting products made by the Makers down to the customers. The role involves advertising, growing business / social connections, inventory distribution and convincing conversations with potential customers in order to close deals and transactions. Sellers / Marketers tend to have very good set of soft skills. Without this function, Makers would be in trouble keeping themselves in business due to not generating much sales. By the way, closing enough sales is the panacea to all financial problems of a business.

Wealth Keeper

The Wealth Keeper plays multiple functions largely related to money. Firstly, they safe-keep and insure the wealth from natural risk such as flood, typhoon, fire, as well as human-made risk i.e. theft, and robbery. Secondly, Wealth Keepers increase liquidity in the economy by making sure that the wealth stored is kept flowing (hopefully in a safe manner).

For example, if you kept $ 1000 worth of money under a pillow, you would not expect the money to grow. However, putting it in a bank actually will invest the deposited amount to generate more wealth with part of that profit returned back to you. Note how the second function puts an Investor hat on the Wealth Keeper's head.

Since recently, banks and fund managers have had the tendency to create investment products and derivatives. By doing so, they have also become Makers and Sellers of financial products.

Investor

The Investor spends wealth after evaluating the risk involved and calculating the potential return of his investment. There are many colours of investors. The Investor may be one that prefers to spend into capital expenditure requiring large upfront volume of wealth, or the type that provides an operating cash line on periodical basis to business owners. Some prefer low risk, and some prefer high risk investment.

Consumer

At the end of the day, all the above roles hope and pray for the same thing: for Consumers to keep consuming and while doing so, expand the economy. Interestingly, all of us Makers, Sellers, Wealth Keepers and Investors are also Consumers. At a recent GST tax briefing, the participants were all very curious, giggling at each other as employees, business owners, tax accountants and retired individuals found themselves similarly affected.

When consumers stop spending, the economy contracts into a recession.

I hope that the classification made above may help readers to understand their current roles today, and plan better for their future. For example, a long-time employed researcher may now realize that he lacks the Seller skills to sell his idea or products, either to the internal management board or to his friends and neighbourhood.