On Sep 8, 2009, at 1:48 PM, John Donaldson wrote:

> Indeed. I think that the biggest problems arise from chasing short-
> term maximisation of profits. It seems to me that very few extremely
> large companies have sound long-term strategic planning or any real
> sense of what their best interests are in a timeframe longer than
> their quarterly statements to the "market"

<nostalgic rant>

Agree 100%.

An example that I remember quite clearly from a few years back...

One company that used to be a big employer here in San Diego was
McDonnel Douglas. Used to make commercial airliners, and other
aerospace stuff. Got bought up by Boeing. Anyway, 20 years ago or so,
before they closed up shop here, the CEO gave a press conference,
where he emphatically stated "My number one concern is shareholder
value!". (In other words, stock price)

Not "building safe, high-quality airplanes", or "creating a better
product than our competitors". Just "keeping the stock price up", even
if it meant laying off engineers and skilled craftspeople, which they
proceeded to do in droves. It was a revelation for me, and I felt at
the time a sign that American business was on the decline. Seriously.
It seemed like the whole "fiduciary duty to shareholder" thing had
gotten way out of whack.

I guess I wasn't cut out for business. :^(

</rant>


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Keith Parks
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Putting the "no" in "Innovation" since 1988.


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