Nine giants expected to be in death throes
Ten big brands likely to disappear in the next year
It seems that a number of American corporate and business giants probably are going to fall by the wayside, overcome by market pressures and their own leaderships’ bad decisions. Is this a bad thing or a good thing?
I am always taken by those who think that everything “corporate” is bad, and big corporations are even worse. Now, I will be the first to admit that, yes, corporations are often greedy (but then so it just about every other human-related thing on the planet, given the chance) and often do things that are seemingly cold-hearted and cruel (but make considerable business sense). However, at the same time, I suspect that a lot of those who see these evil corporations dying with the loss of tens of thousands of jobs will be hammering the executives for bailing out like rats deserting a sinking ship. What do you expect them to do? Commit hari kari? Sorry, but the Code of Bushido isn’t even observed any more in Japan.
I guess we could confiscate whatever parachutes (golden or otherwise) the leaderships of these failing entities give themselves as they jump out the doors, but I doubt that it would add much to what the floor workers would get in compensation on the final day. The problem there being is that the floor workers usually don’t own the company. There are investors who do and they are the ones who really are taking it financially on the chin. You see, they invested good money, and now, basically, they have none.
I can tell you a story of how that works. My Pappy, way back when, worked for and was part owner of a company out in California in the early 1960s. It was an executive search, market research and management consultant firm that had its offices on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (ritzy digs, if you get the drift). It was neat, for several years Pappy drove a leased car (a big old Ford Country Squire station wagon that was great for camping trips) and as I learned later was paid in stock options. Now, stock options are great, but they don’t put food on the table. I remember Pappy having to hide the keys to the car near the end of the company’s existence because the repo guys were looking for it because the company hadn’t paid the lease. Not a pretty sight, by a long shot, but that is what happens when the management gets tangled up in its image and not what it should be doing. Anyway, we survived, obviously, but the new cars in the driveway disappeared for quite a number of years.
Financially, my family took it on the chin big time, but we didn’t complain because, well, that happens in life. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try to start doing something else. Pappy wasn’t the greatest provider, I will admit, but at least he kept trying and he did provide us kids with lots of love.
Now, this time next year, (assuming we don’t all disappear with the Mayan calendar runs out in December), I suspect that there will be a host of people doing the same thing my family had to do. It is not easy, but then life is not easy. It is good to remember that, now and then.
But then again, that is how this country always has been. Somebody coined the phrase about our system as being “creatively destructive” in that it always is destroying businesses here and there and replacing them with new ones, devoted to new technologies and ways of doing things. It is a bit like climate change: Nothing ever stays the same and if you don’t like it, wait a while and something different will be along.
The unfortunate thing is that, all too often, we get too comfortable and expect everything to stay the same as it has or some reasonable facsimile. Hello, surprise, that is silly. I think it took me a long time to come to the realization that nothing ever stays the same, as much as we might want it to do so.
No, the challenge to each and every one of us is to figure out our own ways of coping with the changes (and chaos) that life sends our way. That really is the measure of who we are as people and individuals: How we bounce back from adversity. Are we bitter? Are we beaten? Or do we pick up, move out and try again?
Anyway, something to think about, I suppose.
No comments:
Post a Comment