Your view on American Corporations

[Tacohitts]

IMO ENRON deserved to go down every CEO of the company that deserves to be strung up.

World Com definitely needs to be dismantled as well,and all their CEO's beaten to a pulp as well.

I am not a fan of fortune 500 fucktard corporations that knowingly rip off their own employees and costumers as well.and destroy every bit of trust in the public.

IMO anyone who donates,contributes,or helps these corporations in any way is part of the problem not the solution.

and yes the Oil companies are definitely on my shit list as well!!

opinions??

[Simon Bar Sinister]

It would be nice if corporations were stripped of their legal personhood. Granting that personhood was the biggest mistake the US government ever made.

[candyman]

Well, anything is fine with me as long as it isn't corrupt...but then my view of corrupt may be different than someone elses view...there is corrupt and then there is just plain old business which really can be a bitch.

It doesn't take a huge corporation to rip off its employees and the general public...a rip off is a rip off no matter if it is $5 or $5 million.

Then one must go into the differences between the oil companies, contractors, sellers, buyers, and engineers when talking abour "oil companies. Yes they do make money, but there is alot more going on than just some greasy people making deals to get rich. Why do the oil companies that are in America get yelled at when the prince over in the middle east is reaping in cash by the billions while the country that he is a part of slowly dies? Does the prince need fleets or the same car, multiple yachts, and a mansion the size of the Mall of America? No, but he has all that.

Dude, I know that people love to point the finger at how America does things, especially if they live here, but it is time for people to look OUTSIDE of America at other countries and the faults that THEY have just like they are doing to us. The greener grass around us is just spray paint and the happy families and clean governments are hiding some walk-in sized skeleton closets.

Seriously man if you keep shitting bricks every time something is not going according to "what is right" here is America or anywhere for that matter you will probably be able to put your own Dyson sphere...which would be useless seeing as bricks don't collect solar energy very well.

[Slogo]

I think it really hit me the other day when I read a story about Walmart. Their new goal is to completely destroy any competition they have...literally. They want all their electronics, food, clothing, beauty, etc... competitors out of business. Their stated agenda is monopolization of everything.

I voted for the President and everyone says "He's reminiscent of JFK." or "He's reminiscent of FDR". While I admire both presidents, what we need now is someone reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt. Walmart wouldn't fuck with him

[candyman]

I think it really hit me the other day when I read a story about Walmart. Their new goal is to completely destroy any competition they have...literally. They want all their electronics, food, clothing, beauty, etc... competitors out of business. Their stated agenda is monopolization of everything.

But in order to drive your business forward isn't that the whole idea? It is impossible for them to completely take over and they probably know that, but their actions will drive things forward. Walmart still has tons of competition by other stores that are very similar to them or by stores that specialize and just offer better products.

Now GM and Chrysler...they need to burn but so do the people that work for them...the Unions are starting to show their true colors.

[n0Mad]

Goals or objectives (terms used interchangeably in this textbook) convert the mission into targeted levels of performance to be achieved, often by a specific time. These goals measure how well the mission is being accomplished. As shown in Figure 2-1, goals exist at the corporate, business unit, and functional levels. All lower-level goals must contribute to achieving goals at the next, higher level.

Business firms can pursue several different types of goals:

• Profit. Classic economic theory assumes a firm seeks to get as high a financial return on its investment—profit—as possible.
  
• Sales. If profits are acceptable, a firm may elect to maintain or increase its sales level even though profitability may not be maximized.
  
• Market share. A firm may choose to maintain or increase its market share, sometimes at the expense of greater profits if industry status or prestige is at stake. Market share is the ratio of sales revenue of the firm to the total sales revenue of all firms in the industry, including the firm itself.
  
• Quality. A firm may target the highest quality, as Medtronic does with its implantable medical devices.
  
• Customer satisfaction. Customers are the reason the organization exists, so their perceptions and actions are of vital importance. Their satisfaction can be measured directly with surveys or tracked with proxy measures like number of customer complaints or percentage of orders shipped within 24 hours of receipt.
  
• Employee welfare. A firm may recognize the critical importance of its employees by having an explicit goal stating its commitment to good employment opportunities and working conditions for them.
  
• Social responsibility. A firm may seek to balance conflicting goals of consumers, employees, and stockholders to promote overall welfare of all these groups, even at the expense of profits. U.S. firms manufacturing products abroad increasingly seek to be “good global citizens” by paying reasonable wages and reducing pollution from their manufacturing plants. For example, as described in the Ethics and Social Responsibility Alert on sustainable development, today 3M has an environmental goal of reducing its waste per pound of product by 25 percent.
  

Kerin, R, Hartley, S, Berkowitz, E, & Rudelius, W (2006). Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Having a goal of "profit" or "sales" is not evil per se. That is how companies prosper and we should hope that they're all profitable, no matter how big or small. When it gets bad is when ethical responsibility is eschewed in pursuit of profits. Other goals such as "customer satisfaction", "employee welfare", and "social responsibility" should not be forgotten even if they are not the main goals. None of these goals stand on their own but all interact on sliding scales. If all a company was concerned with was profits, they would go out of business as customer satisfaction and employee welfare waned. We have seen unions concentrate so much on employee welfare that companies go out of business because sales and quality slipped. Some of the best companies for "social responsibility" are unsurprisingly non-profit entities. Without government subsidies, many of these organizations would cease to exist.

Companies should pursue all of these goals to some extent; however, it makes sense to have one or two primaries, one or two secondaries, and the rest as tertiaries. No company, whether it be a mega-corporation or an independent ma and pa shop, is inherently good or evil, nor better or worse than any others. No primary goal is inherently good or evil, nor better or worse than any others. It is how these goals are pursued which defines the companies.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Spook

[Msterbeau]

But in order to drive your business forward isn't that the whole idea? It is impossible for them to completely take over and they probably know that, but their actions will drive things forward. Walmart still has tons of competition by other stores that are very similar to them or by stores that specialize and just offer better products.

Now GM and Chrysler...they need to burn but so do the people that work for them...the Unions are starting to show their true colors.

A business is an entity that provides a service or product in order to make money. Destroying the competition is not necessary and is pretty much illegal. (Hello monopoly) While cheap prices are nice, they come at a heavy cost over a period of time to the whole market, particularly in Walmart's case. The power they wield over suppliers means they start dictating product changes that result in lower quality, "less good" stuff being sold to us.(Think of all the stuff from China that turns out to be toxic) All in the name of making a buck. Their cost pressures means suppliers generally have to pay a lower wage in order to compete. They also put huge pressure on their suppliers for raw materials. It's a downward spiral for everyone except Walmart.

Corporations as a concept are not generally bad things. It's the people that run them that set the tone for how they operate. If they're greedy assholes, guess what? The corporate culture will follow suit. There are certainly some corporations out there that do the right thing and still make a buck.

[Rev.Reverence]

A business is an entity that provides a service or product in order to make money. Destroying the competition is not necessary and is pretty much illegal. (Hello monopoly) While cheap prices are nice, they come at a heavy cost over a period of time to the whole market, particularly in Walmart's case. The power they wield over suppliers means they start dictating product changes that result in lower quality, "less good" stuff being sold to us.(Think of all the stuff from China that turns out to be toxic) All in the name of making a buck. Their cost pressures means suppliers generally have to pay a lower wage in order to compete. They also put huge pressure on their suppliers for raw materials. It's a downward spiral for everyone except Walmart.

Corporations as a concept are not generally bad things. It's the people that run them that set the tone for how they operate. If they're greedy assholes, guess what? The corporate culture will follow suit. There are certainly some corporations out there that do the right thing and still make a buck.

Here, here!

[candyman]

A business is an entity that provides a service or product in order to make money. Destroying the competition is not necessary and is pretty much illegal. (Hello monopoly) While cheap prices are nice, they come at a heavy cost over a period of time to the whole market, particularly in Walmart's case. The power they wield over suppliers means they start dictating product changes that result in lower quality, "less good" stuff being sold to us.(Think of all the stuff from China that turns out to be toxic) All in the name of making a buck. Their cost pressures means suppliers generally have to pay a lower wage in order to compete. They also put huge pressure on their suppliers for raw materials. It's a downward spiral for everyone except Walmart.

Corporations as a concept are not generally bad things. It's the people that run them that set the tone for how they operate. If they're greedy assholes, guess what? The corporate culture will follow suit. There are certainly some corporations out there that do the right thing and still make a buck.

I don't really think that Walmart, even with all of its power, is anywhere near the point of destroying its competition. As far as food goes more and more people are buying local or growing their own which kills Walmart's food section. The cheap prices at Walmart really are not that cheap when you look around...other store have close prices for the same or better products. Other stores have better deals where for a few more bucks you get more than you would at Walmart. The stores that are fighting Walmart really have a large bag of tricks to choose from if all Walmart is doing is lowering their prices and the quality of their products. The fact is that the products that really matter will not change when Walmart tells them to...and the products that really matter are the ones that keep businesses going.

Funny and kinda off topic story but I overheard some people in the outdoor Starbucks bitching about Monopolies and how they are everywhere and we just don't see the ones that DO exist...

Rant on!

[Rev.Reverence]

I don't really think that Walmart, even with all of its power, is anywhere near the point of destroying its competition. As far as food goes more and more people are buying local or growing their own which kills Walmart's food section. The cheap prices at Walmart really are not that cheap when you look around...other store have close prices for the same or better products. Other stores have better deals where for a few more bucks you get more than you would at Walmart. The stores that are fighting Walmart really have a large bag of tricks to choose from if all Walmart is doing is lowering their prices and the quality of their products. The fact is that the products that really matter will not change when Walmart tells them to...and the products that really matter are the ones that keep businesses going.

Funny and kinda off topic story but I overheard some people in the outdoor Starbucks bitching about Monopolies and how they are everywhere and we just don't see the ones that DO exist...

Rant on!

...like the water, & power peoples...

[candyman]

...like the water, & power peoples...

Yes but I was thinking that with the way water and power systems are set up...it would be a clusterfuck with a bunch of different companies working on it. I could be wrong but it seems to me that just as many things could go wrong without a monopoly around...like they already do now.

Face it, unless you own the company you will probably get shafted...your only decision is if you want the gangbang to include just one large board of directors or a few reps from different companies...